Personal Libraries

RaineeRose

We're moving on...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 5, 2005
Messages
873
Reaction score
118
Location
In verse
When I went to the bookstore during lunch today, the grammar book was still there, so I bought it for $25.00.

It's by Richard Green Parker A.M., 20th Edition, published 1855. Pretty good condition for a book over 150 years old.

All I have to say is....wow. Another book for my old book collection.


I came here tonight just to find out if you bought it. So glad you did! Sounds like an excellent find.
 

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
1,726
Reaction score
248
Location
Tampa, FL
Website
www.jesshaines.com
Ahh, sorry, I was busy with copy edits over the weekend and didn't have enough time to reply before the firewall went up at my office yesterday.

Very glad the book was still there! :) Sounds like a very interesting book. Have you had a chance to leaf through it at all yet? Any neat advice or anything in it stick out?
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
Jess,

I have leafed through it, and it's pretty interesting. Here's some of their definitions for different words having to do with composition:

Climax: an artful exaggeration of all the circumstances of some object or action, which we wish to place in a strong light. It operates by a gradual rise of one circumstance above another, till our idea is raised to the highest pitch.

Example: Boisterous in speech, in action prompt and bold,
He bays, he sells, he steals, her kills for gold.


Hyperbole: a writer, under the influence of strong excitement, sometimes uses extravagant expression, which he does not intend shall be taken literally.

Example:
A rescued land
Sent up a ghost of victory from the field,
That rocked her ancient mountains.

This is really a fun book!
 

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
1,726
Reaction score
248
Location
Tampa, FL
Website
www.jesshaines.com
It sounds like it! Man, I want to find a nifty book like this now. :D

I have a couple of interesting older books I'll have to dig up to share with you guys. Been waiting for my roommate to build the bookshelf he got for Christmas so I could move his stuff off of my bookshelf and rearrange my things, but I might be able to find some of the neat ones before I tear apart my room. Will check over the weekend and post what I find. :)
 

Deleted member 42

Jess,

I have leafed through it, and it's pretty interesting. Here's some of their definitions for different words having to do with composition:

Climax: an artful exaggeration of all the circumstances of some object or action, which we wish to place in a strong light. It operates by a gradual rise of one circumstance above another, till our idea is raised to the highest pitch.

Example: Boisterous in speech, in action prompt and bold,
He bays, he sells, he steals, her kills for gold.


Hyperbole: a writer, under the influence of strong excitement, sometimes uses extravagant expression, which he does not intend shall be taken literally.

Example:
A rescued land
Sent up a ghost of victory from the field,
That rocked her ancient mountains.

This is really a fun book!

These are rhetorical figures, which were customarily taught as perhaps the primary facet of composition.
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
Lisa,

Members here have talked about the value of the older grammar books, and I now have one over 150 years old. It's so exciting to read about how literature was taught and the different definitions of its parts with examples.

Another cool thing about this book is that an essay has been written in the blank pages after the index, but the pencil has faded so much that I cannot read what it says. In the front is a note of some kind dated December 5th 1855 by "Mollie Ollie Mollie."
 

Deleted member 42

Another cool thing about this book is that an essay has been written in the blank pages after the index, but the pencil has faded so much that I cannot read what it says. In the front is a note of some kind dated December 5th 1855 by "Mollie Ollie Mollie."

The idea of an "essay" (versus a more formally structured piece of writing derived from older Classical models) was the Hot New Thing just before the civil war launched; it was the "new progressive way to teach."

For fun, watch for Webster's Spelling Manual and Spelling Handbook, and the McGuffey Readers; you'll be amazed at what little kids were expected to do.
 

mccardey

Self-Ban
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 10, 2010
Messages
19,212
Reaction score
15,815
Location
Australia.
Lisa,

Members here have talked about the value of the older grammar books, and I now have one over 150 years old. It's so exciting to read about how literature was taught and the different definitions of its parts with examples.

Another cool thing about this book is that an essay has been written in the blank pages after the index, but the pencil has faded so much that I cannot read what it says. In the front is a note of some kind dated December 5th 1855 by "Mollie Ollie Mollie."

Oh, I'd so love to see that!
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
Lisa,

The inside page of the book specifies that this particular book is for students of ALL ages, up to those working toward degrees. I will keep my eyes open for the other books you mentioned.

MC, maybe I ought to take a few pictures for fun!
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
Jess,

Here you go. I can't figure out how to increase the size of the photo without them getting all blurry. Small, they are perfectly clear, but too small to really view.


BookFront.jpg
BookInside.jpg
 

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
1,726
Reaction score
248
Location
Tampa, FL
Website
www.jesshaines.com
Sorry I've been away, got super sick starting on Friday and am only just getting back on my feet. :( I'll dig up my own books over this weekend.

Susan, very sorry, looks like our firewall at the office is blocking the pics. I'll have to come back to the thread to view on my own computer at home tonight or this weekend.
 

CChampeau

The ever absent-minded
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 4, 2011
Messages
318
Reaction score
19
Location
U.S.
My mom has a bookshelf full of leather-bound classics. Which she never reads.
Sigh.
At least they look pretty...
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
CC:

I love old books, and I love to read them as well. None are leather covers, though, just the old-time hard covers. That is, except for my Longfellow edition with the green cloth cover.
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
Sorry I've been away, got super sick starting on Friday and am only just getting back on my feet. :( I'll dig up my own books over this weekend.

Susan, very sorry, looks like our firewall at the office is blocking the pics. I'll have to come back to the thread to view on my own computer at home tonight or this weekend.

I would love to see pictures of your books as well, or at least know which are in your collection. :)