Dream•sync

If you're just joining the story now, best to go back to my last post...so where was I? Oh yes - did well on my college reading project for public speaking. And more importantly I had the full poem in a book I could access anytime I wanted in the college library.

Then I graduated.

Hmm... no longer on campus, but ok because I got a job about 10 minutes away from the college. And it's not like I couldn't live without reading this poem. It was just nice to know that if I needed to reference it, it was there.

On occasion I would get the urge to go back and find the book and read the poem. And unless they've rearranged the library greatly since I was last there, it's downstairs in the poetry section, by a building support column. No, I don't have the call numbers memorized. I can see where it is on the shelf in my head :)

Probably about 7 years ago I thought I better make a photo copy of it for my own records. Never know when the book would disappear off the shelves, never to be found again. So I went, found the book and photo copied 'Mortality' and another poem called 'Not Lost, But Gone Before'. Folded up the papers, took them home and promptly filed them. Don't ask me where the copies are now -I have no idea LOL

Around the same time I made the photocopy I mentioned my search for this book to a coworker. They asked if I'd ever done a rare book search before which I hadn't. Hadn't really thought about it. Just figured when I walked into an old book store someday I would find a copy of this book that I've been wanting for so long.

Yeah. Not the smartest plan of acquisition, but hey. It was just a book of poetry and I still had access to my photocopy (at the time it wasn't lost in the filing) and the copy at the library.

But on the advice of this coworker I searched the web for a rare book search and found this wonderful resource: www.alibris.com specifically their Book Fetch feature.

First I searched for the book. Reprints galore, but none of them really fit what I was looking for - an early edition - you know, the 'old' smelling mid-1800s edition. So instead of throwing down $25 for a modern reprint, I used Book Fetch to notify me when an original became available. Kinda felt like cheating though. I wouldn't be doing the hard work of researching and trying to find this book.

Ah well. Filled out the Book Fetch form and submit it. That was what, 8 years ago? Didn't give Book Fetch a second thought...

...until yesterday.

Yesterday I was in Ohio at the office. Yesterday I was checking email in the morning when this subject line caught my eye:

"Your Alibris Book Fetch Results for 10/12/2009"

Could it be? No... Oh my word...it is... seriously?

Your search for:
Songs of Israel by William Knox
Published Before1875

Matched: The Lonely Hearth, the Songs of Israel, Harp of Zion and Other Poems (With Two Als Cards From Wright Howes and 1als Note By Howes) by Knox, William, 1789-1825 John Johnstone. London. (1847)

No way...

So I clicked on the link. And read the description.

16mo-over 5¾"-6¾" tall. 216p. An item of extraordinary rarity of which less than a half dozen are known to have survived. Abraham' Lincoln's copy, the copy Wright Howes discovered in Edinburgh (the Knox family copy), the copy given to Lincoln Memorial University, and give others. Lincoln referred often to the poem in his copy entitled "Mortality" first discovered by Lincoln more than a decade before ascending to the Presidency. Mr. M.L. Houser of Peoria, Illinois, the Lincoln Scholar, had Wright Howes, the preeminent expert on Americana to acquire a copy of the book for him in England. On July 28, 1934 Wright Howes wrote Mr. Howser [sic] that he was back from England where he had gotten one of the items which was the 1847 edition. though described as fine, we think a fair binding copy w.a.f. (though sitll in original cloth) is more appropriate. The card notes "apparently this is the only copy in all the British Isles, so treasure it. "--Wright Howes, another Card on his letterhead written in February 1935 notes "glad you are so pleased with Knox's Poems...I knew it was exceedingly rare as no one in england knew anything about it. Always glad to hear from you. " A letter to Wright Howes from Maurice Boyd (author of the work yet to be published in 1966 William Knox and Abraham Lincoln) he inquires about the detail of the 1934 purchase. The copy came from the Knox family and as is further evidenced by ownership signatures on half-title page was owned by his niece, Jane Cocrhane, and then by her niece, Harriet Lang. Professor Boyd goes on to ask what was bookseller and how did he obtain it. Wright Howe responds on bottom of same letter: "My recollection is that this Now volume was supplied me by Jas. Orr on George St. in Edniburgh. he has been dead about 15 years. I was in Edinburgh about 10 years ago and met his son, now iwth another firm, he promises to try to obtain another cop for me, but I 'hev me doots", Wright Howes. Also includes Wright Howes envelope with history of Belleville extract

And put it in my cart immediately.

I walk over to ask the Director of IT his opinion of this kind of purchase. He says if it's a rare thing it's more like an investment. He read the description and said 'Cool'. I took that as a 'go for it'.

Then my boss shows up - and I am so excited that the book is even available I tell her exactly what I'm doing - might as well be up front about not working at work... She thought it was the coolest thing that I may actually have found this book. Seriously. I have an AWESOME boss...

Anyway, while I'm talking with her and debating this purchase I can't login to the site. It doesn't recognize the email address. Which I find strange as it emailed me at that address. Then I click on the link in my email again to see if that works, and the page with the book - the book I'm looking for - comes up with this:

That item is now out of stock, but you may find a similar item below:

Nooo! I'm thinking.... I waited too long and someone else bought this obscure book before I could make a decision. How cruel! To find something you've wanted for so long and then to have it snatched from you as you're having website issues.

I had to admit to the fact that this little 'quest' was a bit more important that I thought. Always there under the surface. Hoping against hope to find this book - which turns out to be even more rare than I ever thought it was...

I share my dismay with my boss and she says 'well, if you were meant to have it it will still be there when you login'.

I login and click the link again.

That item is now out of stock, but you may find a similar item below:

Argh... it's hopeless. I've lost my chance to pick up this book. And I'm trying to learn what I am supposed to be learning about this whole thing. What's the Lord trying to teach me? That's when I see my cart.

You have 1 item in your cart.

Seriously? Could it be that simple?

Apparently when I put this thing in my cart, it signified to everyone else that the book was no longer available. Including me when I tried to click on the link to the original item.

So against all hope I went through the purchase process and it now seems that I am the new owner of a very rare book. It may or may not be first edition. It may or may not be a copy that belonged to the Knox family (check out that description again... unbelievable). I'm hoping it is for the price I paid for it :) No worries - it was a bit more than I thought, but still in a reasonable range.

I have the confirmation email. I now have the shipping confirmation as well :)

In the meantime, I am feeling that euphoric high that happens when you find something you've been looking for for a long time. Kind of like the widow looking for a lost coin who finds it and rejoices with her friends - and I'm thanking God for that little glimpse of what He must feel when one of His prodigals come home.

That and I'm slowly coming to realize once again the Lord's perfect timing. If this book had come up for sale when I was in college I wouldn't have even had the chance to pick it up. If it had come up 8 years ago when I first tried the book fetch I would not have the finances to make a snap decision and would most likely had lost the opportunity to pick it up. But it didn't - it came up for sale precisely when I have the finances to make a quick purchasing decision.

And humbly I'm reminded that if the Lord can precisely time the sale of a rare book that's been the desire of my heart for so many years, how much more is He concerned about the timing of a spouse?

But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God."
My times are in Your hand;
rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!
Make your face shine on Your servant;
save me in Your steadfast love!

Listening to: "O Praise Him (All This For a King) - David Crowder Band" from The Best of Passion
Reading: 'In The Courts of the Sun' by Brian D'Amato. Very interesting story line. Think Maya, the Sacrifice Game, 4 Ahau aka December 12, 2012, and Time Travel of someone's consciousness back to the days of the Ancient Maya culture.Story is great, the language in the book leaves a bit to be desired...
Studying: 'Living Beyond Yourself' by Beth Moore. Week 4: The Joy of the Lord is Our Strength.
FB Friends: Read it in situ here: dreamsync.blogspot.com

So you may or may not know, but I have this thing for old stuff. Which includes ancient stuff that you see in museums - come to think of it, I passed a truck yesterday on the highway that was a corporate Archaeology company...hmm...should look them up. Anyway, I have this thing for old books. Really old. You know the kind - the ones you find in a back corner of your grandparent's house that smell kinda musty - they smell "old".

There's a shop in the adirondacks that has some - The Maxton House. I remember back when it was some guy's antique shop that was just PACKED with old junk. A few cool tidbits, and lots of old books, but mostly junk :) Then another family bought the house and all the stuff and cleaned it out and started this wonderful little shop with crafts. To my delight, they kept a room in the back for all the old books for sale. Every year I go back to that store and look at the books. The place was recently sold to another family and I'm hoping they don't change the old book corner...we shall see... This year I got a really old hymnal, a book with photos of Israel from the early 1900's and a book on the National Parks with old photos from the 1930s. Nice, old books.

But none of them equal to the one I've been searching for since..oh...1996. Yeah - that long. Which in comparison to other peoples searches isn't that long, but I digress...

It started in my High School AP English class. Actually it started much earlier than that but it wasn't until High School AP English that I made the connection... I was required to read several books before the start of the school year - my senior year. Which means that I really wasn't that into it as the beginnings of senioritis had already set in. Nevertheless, I read the books and wrote reports, then found I had to read a Biography. Ugh. I have a hard time with anything other than fiction - I love adventure stories, and somehow reading about another person's life just wasn't that interesting to me.

I looked a several biographies from the library and started a few but just couldn't get into them. Then I discovered this old book on my mom's bookshelf - Norman Hapgood's "Abraham Lincoln, the Man of the People. It was an old book - but it was about Abraham Lincoln - and it was written not too long after his death. 'not too long' is relative in terms of a biography. Let's just say it was written only 30 years after his death and not a hundred or so. In other words, this guy had access to Lincoln's contemporaries, which was important to me. Even as a 17-year-old.

So I pulled it off the shelf and started reading. I think I finished the book in several days - it was actually a good book. I learned a lot - including a few stanzas from what Hapgood said was Lincoln's favorite poem. It's called 'Mortality' or 'O Why Should The Spirit of Mortal Be Proud?'. And it was written by William Knox back in the mid 1800s. The Bio didn't give a book for that poem, and it only gave a few stanzas. But I recognized one of them:

'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud,--
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

So where had I read that before? Ah yes....so it really started with a Michael W. Smith song on his i2eye album called 'Live and Learn'. I remember hearing this song in the basement in my parent's house and trying to decipher the words in that stanza, never realizing it would connect me to a book in the living room and send me on this quest.

That song came out in late 1988. So if you figure I got the album for Christmas that year or the next, I was 10 or 11 when I first heard the song. Crazy - that means I've known vaguely about this poem for 20 years or so... ok now I feel old LOL

Back to the 'quest'. So I read the biography on Abraham Lincoln and wrote a report on it. And I still cherish that old book that reintroduced me to that president and to the William Knox poem.

Flash forward about a year to my freshman year of college. Public Speaking was a course that everyone had to take. Mine was in Alfred I think? In one of the back rooms maybe - I could be totally off. I remember what the room looks like but not where it was... anyway, for one of the assignments we had to pick a poem to read. My first thought went to 'Mortality', but that meant I had to find the complete poem. I had to read something for a minute and a half and 3 stanzas were not going to do it.

Over to the library, searching for poems to read, hoping to find Mortality. Not seeing it showing up anywhere and getting discouraged. Scrounging the shelves for Poem anthologies that might have that poem in it. Finding something :)

Namely the 'World's Book of Best Loved Poems' from the early 1900s. Couldn't believe it when I looked in the index and found the complete text of 'Mortality'. The complete text which is something like 15 stanzas. I had the author, I had the full poem, and I had more than that - I had a book title and a date. Specifically, 'Mortality' by William Knox, from 'Songs of Israel' 1847.

I paired that poem with John Donne's 'Death'. and Did well on my project. And now I had a book I could refer to for that poem at any time.

And seeing as this is a 'quest' story... I'm going to finish it in another post. Have to keep you in suspense for a bit longer :)

Listening to: "Enough" from The Best of Passion
Reading: 'In The Courts of the Sun' by Brian D'Amato. Very interesting story line.
Studying: 'Living Beyond Yourself' by Beth Moore. Week 4: The Joy of the Lord is Our Strength.
FB Friends: Read it in situ here: dreamsync.blogspot.com