Footner Down Under

 

   This will be the third post in a row relating to the author, Hulbert Footner. I quietly introduced him when I told you about “Where I Went on My Spring Vacation." I went to Maryland and part of the reason for doing so was to visit Footner’s granddaughter and the Calvert County Historical Society where a room is dedicated to him. More recently, you learned that he became engaged to the daughter of the Canadian journalist, “Kit" Coleman, whose visage is now found on some Canadian coins.  And you just found out that jousting is the official state sport in Maryland and read Footner’s account of a tournament held in the 1940s in southern Maryland.

    This is likely Footner’s Last Post in this blog, so before leaving him I should explain why he has shown up in MM. Before that is done, you would probably like to be reminded of who he is and for that I will just direct you to the Wikipedia entry. That was the only source about him that I could find. After reading his non-fiction works, I couldn’t understand why more was not known about him. Additional catalysts were the facts that he was born close by in Hamilton and died in Maryland, the state in which I was born, and where they had declared March 14 as “Hulbert Footner Day.”

   Considerable research was done. I have often undertaken massive amounts of research related to a wide variety of subjects, as well as a number of people, and the paucity of finished output is truly astonishing. In this case, I thought the references gathered should not be wasted. The Footner family would find them useful, plus he is worthy of examination as a novelist and historian. They ended up in book form and to prove that this post is not a plug for that publication, I am only including the title here in the concluding sentence of this paragraph and will not note that it can be easily and cheaply purchased in print, or as an e-book from Amazon: Hulbert Footner: Author of Adventure Novels, Detective Novels and Historical Nonfiction: A Bibliographic Account of His Life and Work.

                              Additional Evidence From The Antipodes

   

   For that book, I searched throughout North America and the United Kingdom for references to Hulbert Footner  and for indications that he was, in fact, a popular author. There was little to be found about him, but there was considerable proof that he was relatively well-known. More data to support that were not needed and to plough through even more references would have been a chore for even the most dedicated Footner fan. But, there are now a few who are interested in Footner who are reading this blog and that is the reason he has shown up. They will be pleased to know that his stories, books and movies were popular with the Aussies and I now know that he was even liked by the Kiwis.

Even if you are not interested in Footner, but are in Australia, then you should visit TROVE, an immense digital treasure. You can search thousands of newspapers and sort the results in a variety of ways. (They have also figured out a way to placate ‘sensitive’ readers who might stumble across a one hundred year old word that is now offensive.) I found Footner information in it a few years ago, but did not include the Australian material in the book. The references to Footner  found in Trove have increased as new publications and years are added.  Apart from the ads for his books there are often reviews of them and apparently the Aussies frequently found them to be ‘rattling good.’ Here, for example, are some sentences from a review of The Fugitive Sleuth which appeared in The World’s News (Sydney) on Saturday, May 3, 1919:
“The Fugitive Sleuth is a rattling good detective story, breathless, pauseless, full of life and go. In Hulbert Footner the public has found the adventure story writer par excellence. The instant success of his brilliant romance, The Sealed Valley, will always ensure a wide welcome for a new book by the same masterly hand.”

You can now also do the same for publications in New Zealand in “Papers Past.” They are both free! Footner samples from both are provided below. 

When I searched for “Hulbert Footner” on TROVE a few years ago there were over 500 “hits.” Now there are 887. The results can be restricted in a variety of ways: you can look in particular papers or cities and separate the ads from the articles. Here are some of my notes from the earlier searches: [NB - note that these are from old 'notes'. They should be checked on TROVE and verified.]

"The Shanty Sled is described in similar fashion as “a rattling fine yarn of the frozen north.” Readers in Brisbane are told that Footner “is endowed with a sense of humour and the dramatic ease of a born story teller.” (The Queenslander, Saturday, Nov.14, 1925).

Advertisements and reviews for his films are also found. For example: Even in Tasmania - a review of “Ramshackle House,” The Mercury, (Hobart), Thursday, Dec. 20, 1925. As well in the West (Perth), The Mirror, Saturday, Jan. 9, 1926: “Similes fail in finding a fitting word for Betty Compson, star of The Ramshackle House, the picturisation of the Hulbert Footner novel of the same name now screening at the Palladium.” The earliest mention of Hulbert Footner found was in an ad for The Sealed Valley in 1915 (The Advertiser, (Adelaide), August 28, 1915. The latest is a mention of his name in a review in 1951.”

   I recently did a bit of searching again and here are some examples. One learns that the University of Sydney Library has a copy of De dubbelganger, which is apparently a Dutch version of Two on the Trail. The earliest mention of Footner is now found in 1908 when it is reported that an article of his is appearing in Century Magazine. In 1943, The Northern Advertiser (Western Australia) excerpted a piece from his New York: City of Cities: “One of the World’s Great Avenues” [Park], Feb. 27.

This is the title of an article in The World News Sydney, Sep. 6, 1919 “Have You Read?” Thieves' Wit (Hulbert Footner). "Those who read and enjoyed, as each reader surely did, this author's "Fugitive Sleuth" will welcome this latest story from his pen. It is a new type of detective story, and quite a good one at that. It is fashioned on new and fascinating lines, and it is quite difficult to forecast the end until the author chooses to take the reader into his confidence.” “Backwoods Breezes” The Herald (Melbourne, Vic.) May 23, 1917 “Canadian novels never lack In vigor and freshness of scene. The Fur Bringers, by Hulbert Footner, is conspicuous in that respect. The breezes of the pine forests blow through it, and make up a peculiar attraction for readers who nave tired of the old haunts and devices of the story tellers….Mr Footner has made a study of his subject, he is full of the spirit of the region, knows its moods and intrigues, and has fashioned a romance at once rugged and beautiful.” "The Folded Paper Mystery" , Sunday Times, Perth, Sep.28, 1930 “A good story can always be expected from Hulbert Footner. And "The Folded Paper Mystery" is one of his best productions.” Even Footner's book about his house in Maryland gets reviewed: The Australasian, (Melbourne), July 13, 1940

"Charles Gift " “Many readers will like to think of "CHARLES' GIFT," by HULBERT FOOTNER (Faber and Faber), as a delightful writer's gift to a reading public. The world is so unsteady, the present so uncertain, and the future to many unthinkable. In these days it is often hard to feel relaxed even when reading, but '•Charles* Gift" is a joy to read. Its tempo is one of leisure and of peace; one is lulled by the soothing prose. “

From New Zealand

A search in 2023 for "Hulbert Footner" in the newspapers digitized on Papers Past yields 950 "hits." The first (oldest) is his story "Melodrama in Fulton Street," in the Lyttleton Times, April 4, 1908. Soon after, "The Simple Adventures of 2112," appears in the Dunstan Times, Sept. 6, 1909. Reviews of Footner's works are easily found. For example: There is a short review of "The Nation's Missing Guest" in the New Zealand Herald, May 27, 1939, under the title, "Sultan Disappears", where it is described as "a diverting story." In the same newspaper on Sept. 22, 1934, Dangerous Cargo is reviewed. See: "Two Mystery Novels." "Always to be relied upon for an exciting and entertaining story, Hulbert Footner has thrills a plenty in his latest mystery novel, "Dangerous Cargo," a Crime Club book. Advertisements can be searched separately and many are found for the film, "Ramshackle House (e.g. Evening Post (Wellington), Sept. 14, 1926. Twenty years later Footner's book, Unneutral Murder is advertised by Hyndman's bookstore in the Otago Daily Times, Nov. 21, 1946.

There are many more for Footner aficionados to use and study. Although the global popularity of his writings may not be a proxy for the quality of them, one can still surely argue that Hulbert Footner deserves more attention and I am glad to see that he is getting some from the Calvert County Historical Society.

Year Ends & Odds

    There has been enough ranting this year so I will usher it out by offering some short posts related to past ones. They are meant as rewards for my loyal readers, but those of you who are locked in and desperate for something to do are welcome to read along. 

Book Thieves Caught!

   First, some good news. A while back I posted about the big book heist at Heathrow, during which several rare and very valuable books were stolen in a 'Mission Impossible Raid' - see The Great British Book Burglary.  Using surveillance footage and the latest in DNA analysis it was finally determined that the culprits were not the usual suspects (cardigan wearing bibliophiles), but Romanian nationals. 300 officers in three countries searched 45 addresses and twelve men have been put away for almost 50 years. "Of around 240 books that were stolen, four were still missing, according to the Met police. One in three had suffered some kind of damage." See: "Tome Raiders: Solving the Great Book Heist," Mark Wilding, The Guardian, Dec. 13, 2020.

The History of Smell

   To help you through the pandemic I posted about The History of Everything, to which was attached "A History for Every Letter" (28pp).  For the letter "S" I included, Sleep, Salt, Seduction, Solitude and Snow, but nothing stinky. Studying the smells of the past is rather tricky, but now olfactory assistance is on the way since over $3 million has been awarded for a project, "on the collection and recreation of smells in 16th- to early 20th-century Europe that will marry historical and literary analysis with machine learning and chemistry." For all the details see: ODEUROPA.  Here are two books on the subject for those of you who can't wait:

Skin Books

 

Skin Books (not pornography)

   In my series "The University of the Unusual (4)", the subject of Anthropodermic Bibliopegy was covered. It will be of interest to those who want to know more about books that are bound with human skin. A new book on the subject is now available, but I think the binding is a normal one. See: Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin, by Megan Rosenbloom. ( I also mention in my post that heavily tattooed individuals can now leave behind their skin so their next of kin can continue to enjoy the art work.)

The Dreaded Name Problem

   During our delicate times there are many delicate people who are offended by the names of many of our ancestors, or towns, or buildings, etc. and I have offered many, related indelicate posts. I will not link to them, but instead point you to two solutions to the problem which come from unlikely places.

   The first is from the Baseball Hall of Fame which contains many now problematic names. Instead of removing them, patrons are reminded that the recipients of the awards were given them for their accomplishments in the game and that details about their dark side will be found elsewhere in the museum. The suggestion, by the way, is approved of by Jane Forbes Clark, the chairman of the HOF board of directors, who is likely a woman. For more details see: "The Hall of Fame Tries to Contextualize Baseball’s Racist Past Rather Than Remove the Plaques of its Most Problematic Inductees, the Baseball Hall of Fame is hoping to Explain Them,"Tyler Kepner, NYT, Dec. 21, 2020.

   The second solution is from Down Under. Down there they are way ahead of us in terms of digitizing the past. Millions of old newspapers, magazines, etc. are viewable for free on TROVE. Naturally most of those publications will contain material that is now not acceptable, particularly for the "First Australians" (Indigenous peoples) and some members of the professoriate. So, warnings are provided and "Cultural Advice" is given, to wit: 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that Trove contains images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, websites, film, audio recordings or printed material.

Some material contains terms that reflect authors’ views, or those of the period in which the item was written or recorded, but may not be considered appropriate today. These views are not necessarily the views of the National Library of Australia or Trove Partners. While the information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided in an historical context.

By selecting "Show cultural advice", please be advised that you will continue to receive subsequent cultural advice notices before viewing materials on Trove that may be considered culturally sensitive. You can opt out at any time.

Rather sensible, don't you think?

Downtown Dollars

   Near the beginning of the month I wrote about LETS - Local Currencies.  A few days later I noticed this letter in the London Free Press (Dec.11). It shows how they can be used:

I am a server at a downtown restaurant. Saturday night a customer paid his bill using downtown dollars. He told me that because of COVID his company was not having a Christmas party, instead giving all its employees downtown dollars to spend locally.

What a great idea.

New Initialisms You Should Know

   Continuing on the subject of nomenclature, here are some new abbreviations which will be handy in the new year:

BAME - Black Asian Minority Ethnic

AAPI - Asian-American and Pacific Islanders

IBPOC - Indigenous Black People of Color (colour may be too colonial)

   While people of color may be appropriate, women of color may not be. This is getting to be almost as complicated as gender. Here is a relevant article:

"We Are Black Women: Stop Calling Us Women of Color." Donna F. Edwards & Gwen McKinney, Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2020:

  Ironically, the WOC terminology was coined by Black women in the late 1970s as a rejection of the disparaging label “minority.” Similar to notions of “post-racial” and "colorblind," the term “WOC” negates racial identity in the service of racial unity. Over time, the contrast has become not one of multiethnicities but simply a White/non-White binary.

We are Black. The term is direct and invokes something visceral and difficult for those who are non-Black to embrace or understand. In our lifetime, the more comfortable identifiers have morphed from “Colored,” to “Negro,” to “Afro-American,” to “African American.” The explosion of multiculturalism created a “we are the world” rainbow. Through it all, we remained Black. Not a label or a color, Black is an experience; it is the glue of our unique legacy in this country.

WAP - This is an acronym you do not need to know since it does not apply to a person, only to a part of a person.

Another Major Hacking

   Back in the spring of 2018 I noted that even the Island of Prince Edward was not isolated enough to avoid a ransomware attack - see Cybercrime & Cyberwarfare.  Although most of the news about the recent major episode has come from the United States, Canada did not escape the latest internet attack since SolarWinds, the company whose code was hacked, has 18,000 customers, including the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Commerce. It gets worse: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to buy a stake in SolarWinds Corp. for U.S. $315 million just days before the company disclosed it was the target of a major global hacking campaign that has compromised multiple U.S. computer systems. "To say the timing is unfortunate is an understatement," CPPIB spokesman Michael Leduc said Friday." "CPPIB Agrees to Buy Stake in SolarWinds Days Before Firm Discloses Major Hack," David Milstead, G&M, Dec. 19, 2020.

BIG WATER

   I recently wrote about "Long Tail" (Lake Erie) and provided in that post links to the others I have done on the Great Lakes. The question now is "Can We Make These Lakes Great Again?"  particularly since we can't drive long distances to swim and fish in others. That question was addressed in the latest National Geographic and the cover story is "Saving the Great Lakes: The Irreplaceable Fragile Ecosystem Holds Six Quadrillion gallons of Freshwater That Our Planet Needs to Survive," -see, "So Great, So Fragile," by Tim Folger in the December issue. It is full of interesting statistics and photos. 

   Less Poop in the Pacific

 

      Thanks partially to POOP - People Opposed to Outflow Pollution - there is some good news from the West Coast. People living in the Victoria area have been crapping in the Strait of Juan de Fuca since the 19th century. Finally, a Wastewater Treatment Project has been completed and the sewage treated. See: "I Was Wondering Why the Water Looked So Clean [said the Governor of Washington State]: CRD's Sewage Treatment Plant Up and Running," Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist, Dec. 5, 2020.

Mr. Floatie, the man-sized turd, who used to show up to draw attention to the problem is pictured above.

   About the Gulf of Mexico - I'm Not So Sure

     The Deepwater Horizon Disaster was ten years ago, but I wouldn't rush to buy property in Louisiana when the border reopens. Back in 2004 Hurricane Ivan destroyed Taylor Energy's oil platform, but not much was said about it. More recently, two scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with and a Florida State University professor, found that up to 108 barrels of oil, or more than 4,500 gallons, is being released from the site off of the Louisiana coast every day. That is not something Taylor Energy really wanted to let the world know. The oil spill went undiscovered until about a decade ago when environmental watchdog groups found oil slicks while monitoring the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. "The Energy 202: The Truth Comes Out About the Longest Lasting Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico, Washington Post, June 25, 2019.

Bruce McCall

   I began the year with a post about Bruce McCall and also included him in an earlier one about Canadian Cartoonists.  I will end it by calling attention to his second memoir which is now available and which will give you something else to read in the new year. 

HOW DID I GET HERE? A Memoir, by Bruce McCall. (Blue Rider, $27.) The writer and illustrator looks back on a career that took him from advertising to comedy writing for National Lampoon and ''Saturday Night Live'' to his current work for The New Yorker and other magazines.

For a recent interview with him see: "New Yorker Writer and Artist Bruce McCall: 'I'm Proud to be Canadian, but I Don't Want to Live in Canada," Emily Donaldson, Globe & Mail, Dec. 17, 2020. For a brief review see: "How Did I Get Here: A Review, Marissa Moss, The New York Journal of Books. 

Post Script: 

   An excerpt from the book appears in The New Yorker and it has to do with McCall's fascination with automobiles and the drawing of them: "My Life in Cars: I Tucked Into the Romance of Driving at its Fervent Peak," (Dec. 12, 2020). Here is the first sentence:

Cars had gripped my imagination almost since I had one, as a boy growing up in Ontario. I loved to draw them as they appeared on the pages of magazines. First, in the immediate postwar era, the foggy reprints from British racing journals of prewar Grand Prix.

   And here are a few about his exit from Canada:

Canada jiggled in the rearview mirror, receded, and disappeared as I drove into the tunnel conveying me from Windsor to Detroit on a gray afternoon in December, 1962. By this time, the suspicion that I wasn’t cut out for a contented Canadian life had become a conviction. I was temperamentally too antsy for that conspiracy of calm, phlegmatism, and compulsive self-effacement. It increasingly irked me that Canada shunned all extremes, breeding what I saw as a wallflower mentality and a bland tolerance for mediocrity. With J.F.K. cheering up the White House, it felt like a propitious moment to immigrate to America. I exited the tunnel in the unglamorous Volvo I was driving then and found no welcoming committee, no Emma Lazarus scenario. A customs officer waved me through, and the most significant act of my life passed with all the drama of paying last month’s water bill.

All the best in 2021.

Pulling The Trigger

 The Australian Solution

   You will all know what it means to be "triggered". Far fewer of you will know that generally I have not been sympathetic and supportive of such a notion.  The removal of authors from curricula, the expurgation of practically anything from our past which is now found to be objectionable and the elimination of names and statues from the land are actions that need to be  more thoroughly debated. That is unlikely to happen. The Australians, however, have come up with a method for accommodation which appears to have been accepted, at least for items from the printed past.

TROVE

  The Australians are far ahead of us when it comes to the digitization of their past. If you go to TROVE you can "explore all things Australian" and you can do so for free. Among the categories of items accessible, one will find, newspapers, magazines, books and diaries. It is more than likely the case that one will encounter, among the publications produced by the convict colonizers, something that will offend. And, it is even more than likely that the original inhabitants of that continent were not referred to early on as the "indigenous people" and that the newspapers of the day were full of terms, ideas, etc. about them that are no longer acceptable.

   The solution provided allows for a disclaimer to be attached to items which are culturally offensive. That is, a warning is provided to those who might be "triggered".  Here it is:

CULTURAL ADVICE

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that Trove contains images, voices or names of deceased persons in photographs, websites, film, audio recordings or printed material.

Some material contains terms that reflect authors’ views, or those of the period in which the item was written or recorded, but may not be considered appropriate today. These views are not necessarily the views of the National Library of Australia or Trove Partners. While the information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided in an historical context.

By selecting "Show cultural advice", please be advised that you will continue to receive subsequent cultural advice notices before viewing materials on Trove that may be considered culturally sensitive. You can opt out at any time.

  I would think the Torres Strait Islander people are tough and probably do not need this "Cultural Safety Alert". But, if such a disclaimer is all that is needed to allow the rest of us to access the unexpurgated past, it is fine with me.

Sources:

   The basic point of entry for TROVE. You will find it to be fascinating. There are, for example, full text newspapers ranging from Perth to Sydney and including places in between - The Kalgoorlie Miner, The Geelong Advertiser, etc.

   For all the information about the disclaimer see: Cultural Safety For First Australians. 

   Here is some recent information from: "National Library Updates Its Treasure TROVE," Maeve Bannister, Canberra Times, June 27, 2020.

Canberrans will now have access to a new and improved treasure trove of information as the National Library launched its new program on Friday.

More than 3000 Australians contributed to a new and improved Trove system, which was unveiled after four years of work.

The federal government announced a further $8 million for the project to support its ongoing development over the next two years, in addition to the $16 million already provided.

Trove may be just 10 years old, but it houses billions of historical resources, dating back hundreds of years.

The National Library's collaboration with partner institutions allowed Trove to provide its collections of digitised newspapers, books, magazines, oral history, maps and images.

All of this is free to search on Trove from anywhere in the world, and one third of Trove visitors are from outside Australia.

Director-General Dr Marie-Louise Ayres said she was particularly proud of how the team collaborated with a diverse range of communities throughout the project.

"The project has taken thousands of people who've told us how they feel about Trove and how they use it, and it's taken incredibly generous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities who engaged with us about how Trove can help them to connect to their families, to their culture, to their land and to their language," she said.

Dr Ayres said it was important for the library to engage with the people who used and loved the old Trove for the past 10 years, and the project team held workshops and webinars with users all over Australia to ensure the final product would meet their needs.

The Bonus:

   You can even find information about London, Ontario. It is reported in The World's News (Sydney, NSW) that a motorist hit two bears just outside the town limits - Saturday Oct. 9, 1926, p.31.