Dublin, February 7, 2006
Walking into Greene's Bookshop on 16 Clare Street, Dublin, I immediately felt at home. The smell of old books surrounded me and I started nosing through the endless rows... where my eye suddenly fell on a red cover.
The hardback with a red cloth cover had the Nelson's Library logo stamped on it. The title, author and publishers name were 'gold'stamped on the spine. It was Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, by H.G. Wellss, published by Nelson's Library, year unknown. For my Book & Publishing Degree thesis I had done some research into Nelson's Library, so I decided to buy it, just for good old times sake. Besides, it was a Wells, so it could be a good read for just 1 Euro.
In the next row of books, another nicely stamped spine caught my eye, and when I took it out of the the line, the front cover was even more elaborately decorated with a stamped flowerscene.
I have this inclination to like books just for their format or design... and just for the feel of it, it was worth the 1 Euro that the bookseller asked for it. After spending some more time exploring the wonderful bookshop and just enjoying all the books from - and on - Irish writers, I paid and walked out of the book shop, onwards on Clare Street.
At the end of Clare Street I ended up on a bench in Merrion Square Park and decided to take a closer look at the second book, as I hadn't even looked at the author or the title when I made my decision to buy it. The book was Bella Donna, by Robert Hichens. While leafing through the book, suddenly a piece of paper fell out. It was an Air Letter, sent from Cairo to Dublin in March 1947! The words 'Air Letter' were written in English and in Arabic.
I was hesitant... I coulnd't read this letter, even though it was so old. It was a personal letter to someone in Dublin and I was in Dublin, so I decided not to read it, but to have a look at the address first. Maybe I could deliver the letter a second time to someone related to the receiver of it in 1947? Feeling excited, as this could be a small adventure, I got up from the bench and went to look for a map of Dublin. And yes, the address was a still existing address in Dublin!
Immediately I decided to go there at once, as I had no other plans for the afternoon, besides enjoying the city. I took a bus up to Donnybrook, Dublin and walked to '61 Marlborough Road', the address on the front of the Air Letter. My excitement grew, as I might be meeting a descendant of someone who received this letter in the 1940's. How would they react? When I arrived at the house and rang the bell, someone answered through the intercom. I told the story of the find in short, but the current inhabitant was not interested... He didn't even come to the front door to have a look at it. So much for my excitement...
Walking back to the bus stop I thought, "What else can I do besides an internet search"? and I decided to postpone other actions until I was back home. I continued exploring Dublin and its surroundings until I had to go home on the 8th.
After trying to deliver it to it's rightful owner, reading the letter did'nt seem a problem anymore. So I did. It was a letter to "dear Vera", written on St Patricks Day, 17 March 1947 (or maybe 1942?) by a certain Rosemary traveling through Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.
I showed it to some friends and I did an internet search, but I didn't find no hits for a "miss Vera Cowell" on the internet at that time. So I put the book on my bookshelves, with the letter in it. And I forgot about it.
Leiden, May 11, 2008
On the 29th of April this year, when I did another 'historical find' coming from a second hand book, I suddenly remembered this beautiful handwritten Air Mail letter that I'd found in a second hand book from Dublin. So I decided to blog about this letter too...
It still is an interesting letter. And it tells about a period in the Middle East just before 1948, before the state of Israel was introduced. I'm thinking about publishing the letter full text in my next blog, but I'm still a bit hesitant because I think about privacy issues. So what do you think? Can I publish the full text of letter written in 1947 on the internet?
By the way, in 1909, on Saturday 30 October the New York Times wrote the following about Hichens Bella Donna: "a Novel with a Poison Motif, Typical of Egypt and the Mysterious East". Interesting, as the letter that fell from this book came from Cairo. Could there be a connection?
Update February 2016
Unfortunately, while cleaning the house, the abovementionded letter fell into a bucket of water. The paper survived... but the beautifully written letter was written with ink, that now has completely dissolved... I'm sorry that I did not transcribe the letter ... it could have been very nice historical material....
Walking into Greene's Bookshop on 16 Clare Street, Dublin, I immediately felt at home. The smell of old books surrounded me and I started nosing through the endless rows... where my eye suddenly fell on a red cover.
The hardback with a red cloth cover had the Nelson's Library logo stamped on it. The title, author and publishers name were 'gold'stamped on the spine. It was Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, by H.G. Wellss, published by Nelson's Library, year unknown. For my Book & Publishing Degree thesis I had done some research into Nelson's Library, so I decided to buy it, just for good old times sake. Besides, it was a Wells, so it could be a good read for just 1 Euro.
In the next row of books, another nicely stamped spine caught my eye, and when I took it out of the the line, the front cover was even more elaborately decorated with a stamped flowerscene.I have this inclination to like books just for their format or design... and just for the feel of it, it was worth the 1 Euro that the bookseller asked for it. After spending some more time exploring the wonderful bookshop and just enjoying all the books from - and on - Irish writers, I paid and walked out of the book shop, onwards on Clare Street.
At the end of Clare Street I ended up on a bench in Merrion Square Park and decided to take a closer look at the second book, as I hadn't even looked at the author or the title when I made my decision to buy it. The book was Bella Donna, by Robert Hichens. While leafing through the book, suddenly a piece of paper fell out. It was an Air Letter, sent from Cairo to Dublin in March 1947! The words 'Air Letter' were written in English and in Arabic.
I was hesitant... I coulnd't read this letter, even though it was so old. It was a personal letter to someone in Dublin and I was in Dublin, so I decided not to read it, but to have a look at the address first. Maybe I could deliver the letter a second time to someone related to the receiver of it in 1947? Feeling excited, as this could be a small adventure, I got up from the bench and went to look for a map of Dublin. And yes, the address was a still existing address in Dublin!
Immediately I decided to go there at once, as I had no other plans for the afternoon, besides enjoying the city. I took a bus up to Donnybrook, Dublin and walked to '61 Marlborough Road', the address on the front of the Air Letter. My excitement grew, as I might be meeting a descendant of someone who received this letter in the 1940's. How would they react? When I arrived at the house and rang the bell, someone answered through the intercom. I told the story of the find in short, but the current inhabitant was not interested... He didn't even come to the front door to have a look at it. So much for my excitement...
Walking back to the bus stop I thought, "What else can I do besides an internet search"? and I decided to postpone other actions until I was back home. I continued exploring Dublin and its surroundings until I had to go home on the 8th.
After trying to deliver it to it's rightful owner, reading the letter did'nt seem a problem anymore. So I did. It was a letter to "dear Vera", written on St Patricks Day, 17 March 1947 (or maybe 1942?) by a certain Rosemary traveling through Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.
I showed it to some friends and I did an internet search, but I didn't find no hits for a "miss Vera Cowell" on the internet at that time. So I put the book on my bookshelves, with the letter in it. And I forgot about it.
Leiden, May 11, 2008
On the 29th of April this year, when I did another 'historical find' coming from a second hand book, I suddenly remembered this beautiful handwritten Air Mail letter that I'd found in a second hand book from Dublin. So I decided to blog about this letter too...
It still is an interesting letter. And it tells about a period in the Middle East just before 1948, before the state of Israel was introduced. I'm thinking about publishing the letter full text in my next blog, but I'm still a bit hesitant because I think about privacy issues. So what do you think? Can I publish the full text of letter written in 1947 on the internet?
By the way, in 1909, on Saturday 30 October the New York Times wrote the following about Hichens Bella Donna: "a Novel with a Poison Motif, Typical of Egypt and the Mysterious East". Interesting, as the letter that fell from this book came from Cairo. Could there be a connection?
Update February 2016
Unfortunately, while cleaning the house, the abovementionded letter fell into a bucket of water. The paper survived... but the beautifully written letter was written with ink, that now has completely dissolved... I'm sorry that I did not transcribe the letter ... it could have been very nice historical material....
