The Princess of Manoa (1906) was the second book of Hawaiian folklore tales collected and retold by Emily Foster Day for Paul Elder. Her first book of Hawaiiana, The Menehunes, published by Elder in 1905, must have been reasonably successful.
The Manoa Valley is in Honolulu, a bit towards Diamondhead from the old town center and then mauka (towards the mountain) along Manoa Valley Road. At the head of the valley is the lovely Lyon Arboretum, and farther up the trail is Manoa Falls.
Two different versions of the cover are known: paper on boards with a full-page decoration of an ocean sunset, and cloth on boards with a small gold-stamped border around the title. There is also a leather edition of the latter design.
Illustrator D. Howard Hitchcock (1861-1943) was an American painter who specialized in depictions of Hawaii, where he lived his entire life. In the San Francisco area, his work was exhibited both at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 and the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939.
Alternate cover of “The Princess of Manoa”, buckramAlternate cover of “Princess of Manoa,” leatherDust jacket of alternate coverTitle page of “The Princess of Manoa”Frontispiece of “The Princess of Manoa”Page 1 of “The Princess of Manoa”Custom leatherbound edition of “Princess of Manoa”
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Fancy suede binding of “The Raven”
When I was a child, we had a small book of poetry bound in blue boards. My mother enjoyed reading these poems to me, and Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” was one of her favorites. I can still hear my mother beginning “Once upon a midnight dreary…”
“The Raven” was published on 29 January 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror. It was an instant hit and made Poe famous, although it did not earn him much money. Nearly 170 years later, “The Raven” remains one of the best-known poems in the English language. It has appeared in numerous editions and is a favorite with illustrators. The poem has also been parodied many times; my favorite is “Ravin’s of a Piute Poet Poe,” by Charles Leroy Edson, published in the Saturday Review of Literature in 1925.
Title page of “The Raven”
In 1846, the year after publishing “The Raven,” Poe wrote an essay entitled “The Philosophy of Composition,” in part to explain how he composed the poem (although it’s unclear whether Poe actually used the techniques himself). For example, Poe writes that “the death… of a beautiful woman … is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover.” Poe would feel this very anguish in 1847 when his wife Virginia died of tuberculosis. He himself died in 1849 under mysterious circumstances.
Elder’s edition of The Raven and the Philosophy of Composition is a beautiful one: a limited edition of 1000, in suede cover with title stamped in gold, matching dust jacket, two-color printing and imported handmade paper. On the other hand, the book was set in Washington Text, one of Elder’s favorite display types but a poor choice as a text type. Galen Perrett’s illustrations are Victorian in character, which conflict somewhat with the Arts & Crafts feel of the rest of the book. In addition, the illustrations are reproduced too small, so that the poem (included in the illustration) is difficult to read. Despite these flaws, it is a very handsome book.
First page of the poemFirst page of “The Philosophy of Composition”One of Galen Perrett’s illustrations
Imagine a children’s book designed to encourage a toddler to learn the thrill of accomplishment by, say, climbing up a flight of stairs. Today, that book would probably be full-color drawings. In 1902, Elder & Shepard published such a book, George Hansen’s Ascent of Man, consisting of a series of photographs of a real toddler, Hansen’s own son Roland.
Ascent of Man was just one of a series of five booklets, all featuring the young Roland:
Vespers
Ascent of Man
Lima Beans
In Company
His Calculations
George Hansen (1863-1908) was born in Hildesheim, Germany. His grandfather, J. G. K. Oberdieck, was a famous pomologist (the study of fruit) and was rewarded by the Prussian government with a reserved place in university for whichever of his grandchildren wanted to pursue horticulture. George was chosen, and he attended school in Potsdam. He moved to England in 1885 and worked for F. Sander & Company in their orchid house, drawing illustrations for their publication Reichenbachia. He came to San Francisco in 1887 and was named foreman of the University of California Foothill Experiment Station in Jackson, in the Amador County foothills. He spent seven years there, collecting in the surrounding Sierra Nevada. As a result, some thirty new species were named for him.
In 1889, George married Linda Frances Rinehart (1869-1948), a native of Amador County. But in 1896 Hansen suffered a debilitating spinal injury, forcing him to leave his position at Foothill Station and move to Berkeley. He spent the last dozen years of his life largely confined to his house and garden, and died there on 31 March 1908. The photographs for Baby Roland were taken by Hansen at the family home at 2705 Hearst Ave. in Berkeley. The house no longer exists. Roland’s life too was short: born in April 1900, he died 4 March 1920 at the age of nineteen.
Title page of “Ascent of Man”, with unusual tree bark endpapers
There is no typesetting in any of the booklets; all the text and decorations are drawn by hand, almost certainly by Morgan Shepard. The cover and title pages also feature photographs of Roland. To best display the photographs, the paper is coated stock, instead of the laid paper usually favored by Elder. The endpapers are impregnated with thin strips of tree bark, a style used by Elder in several other titles.
Morgan Shepard, who spent most of his adult life writing and publishing books for children, probably coordinated the whole project, as perhaps he also did with Hansen’s book What is a Kindergarten?, published the previous year.
The Baby Roland booklets are now quite scarce.
Page 3 of “Ascent of Man”Page 7 of “Ascent of Man”Page 19 of “Ascent of Man”Page 23 of “Ascent of Man”Cover of “Lima Beans,” Baby Roland booklet #3Cover of “In Company,” Baby Roland booklet #4Cover of “His Calculations,” Baby Roland booklet #5
If one had to choose a prototypical Paul Elder gift title, elegant yet undemanding of the reader, Lillyan Shaffner’s Love & Friendship (1910) would be a perfect choice. Indeed, I have many Elders inscribed, for example, “to Miss Hopkins, from Charles Johnson.” How better to court the lady of your dreams but with a lovely little booklet that can be read in a single evening?
Perhaps that is the biggest reason that Paul Elder printed so many volumes of aphorisms and quotations. As has been noted in previous posts, Elder had quite a fondness for them, and compiled and edited many collections himself.
Frontispiece and title page of “Love & Friendship”
The wraparound decorations are by Harold Sichel, one of Elder’s favorite artists; his HS monogram appears at the bottom of the page. The typography and two-color design are by the exacting printer John Henry Nash. Love & Friendship is one of many booklets that came in matching envelopes, such as the one pictured below.
Pages 4-5 of “Love & Friendship”
I have been unable to locate any information on the author, Lillyan Shaffner.
In 1886, the wealthy New Orleans society couple James and Cora Brown-Potter visited England, where they had the privilege of spending a weekend with the Prince of Wales (the future King George V). But privately, sparks were flying: Cora had announced to James that she was going on stage, with or without his consent. There were also rumors of a love affair with the Prince of Wales himself. James soon returned to America with their eight-year-old daughter Anne, but without Cora. Though they wouldn’t be formally divorced until 1900, their marriage was over.
Cora remained in England, one of the first American socialites to become a stage actress. She made her debut in 1887 at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. Oscar Wilde, writing anonymously for The Court and Society Review, said “With regard to Mrs. Brown–Potter, as acting is no longer considered absolutely essential for success on the English stage, there is really no reason why the pretty bright-eyed lady who charmed us all last June by her merry laugh and her nonchalant ways, should not—to borrow an expression from her native language—make a big boom and paint the town red. We sincerely hope she will; for, on the whole, the American invasion has done English society a great deal of good. American women are bright, clever, and wonderfully cosmopolitan.”
Frontispiece and title page of “Secrets of Beauty”
Born Mary Cora Urquhart (1857-1936), Cora hept her husband’s surname for the rest of her stage career. For the next decade, Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter and Harold Kyrle Bellew had a successful partnership and toured extensively. Cora went so far as to assume management of Savoy Theatre in London, made famous in the 1880s by Gilbert & Sullivan and D’Oyly Carte, but she was not able to reverse the theatre’s declining attendance.
In 1908, when she was 51 and nearing the end of her acting career, Potter wrote The Secrets of Beauty & Mysteries of Health. Given her life story, it’s unclear why she chose the modest California firm of Paul Elder & Company to publish her book. However, this was the three-year period following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake when Elder was trying to make a go of it in New York City; perhaps Elder and Potter contacted each other there.
Cora Brown-Potter in 1887, after she had begun her stage career in England. Photo by Hayman Seleg Mendelssohn (1847-1908)
From her introduction, Potter hints that she will bring what today we might call a “feminist sensibility” to the work:
We women are no longer puppets on the stage of life, placed here or there for show or effect by mere men; we are living, we are free, at last we are true citizenesses of the world, bound, not by the feudal ties of serfdom or fealty, but by the larger and ennobling bonds of citizenship and patriotism. Through centuries of darkness and oppression, through ages of doubt and despair, have we struggled and toiled till at length we have reached the glorious prize of liberty, which now is ours, ours, OURS!
However, she shies away from radical departure of social norms. In the last chapter, euphemistically entitled “The Torso,” she argues in favor of corsets (provided they are properly fitted), noting that she performed her entire stage career whilst corseted.
Dust jacket of “Secrets of Beauty”
Most notably–and dangerously–from a 21st-century viewpoint are the large number of recipes for tonics and makeup. The ingredients often read like the inventory of a compounding pharmacy, such as this recipe (Potter calls them “receipts”) for a skin lotion on page 154: “tincture of benzoin 5 drops, zinc oxide ½ dram, glycerin 1-½ dram, lime water to 1 ounce.” Displaying the medical ignorance of the era, Potter talks in near-glowing terms of such highly toxic metals as arsenic, antimony and mercury, such as an ointment made from yellow mercuric oxide for unsticking one’s eyelids in the morning. (Needless to say, please DO NOT try any of these recipes yourself.)
The reviewer for the San Francisco Call on 24 May 1908 was sanguine: “While there is little original material in the book, there is much that is interesting and some of it is no doubt valuable. The style of writing is poor, but no pretense is made for style. The book is beautifully printed and bound, and contains a number of reproduction of pictures of Mrs. Potter in her various characters of the stage.”
Cora Brown-Potter’s last British stage appearance was in 1912. She died on 12 February 1936, at the age of 78, at her villa in Beaulieu-sur-Mer not far from Monaco along the French Riviera. Shortly before her death, Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter became a French citizen.
Pages 22-23 of “Secrets of Beauty”Pages 154-5 of “Secrets of Beauty”Pages 234-5 of “Secrets of Beauty”
