Mark Twain and Libraries

     I wrote recently about useless knowledge and will here offer more of it. In the post about fellowships I indicated that I was pleased that some scholars were still able to make a living by studying subjects which seem likely to yield little that is not perceived by most to be without worth. Unlike the Wall Street “quants”, however, who invent useless financial tools which yield high returns for themselves at great costs to others, the “harmless drudges” are mostly just that. Here is another literary toiler who has worked hard for many years on the subject of Mark Twain's books. A consideration of his work and of Twain allows us to continue to avoid more pressing political and environmental concerns.

      As Twain said, “the secret of getting ahead is getting started”, so now that that first paragraph is out of the way I can quickly move on to him and the subject of libraries. I can’t say that I thought of Twain as being ‘bookish’, and associated him more with steamboating and adventures along the Mississippi and elsewhere, mainly outside. I was wrong since there is a new book about Twain’s books and, apart from having had a sizeable library, Twain's name is now associated with other libraries, one of which was relatively close by.

    Mark Twain’s Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading is the title of a new book by Dr. Alan Gribben. It comes after an earlier book on the subject (Mark Twain’s Library, 1980), which came after a 2,000+ page dissertation on the subject, and all of this will be followed by two more volumes about Twain’s library. Such an interest is not unusual; just think of Twain’s library as his hard drive. From it one can learn what he was reading and how certain books may have influenced his thinking. Since Twain was a great producer of marginalia one can learn about his reactions, particularly his dislikes, which he relegated to his “Library of Literary Hogwash”. And Gribben is not the only one scrutinizing what Twain studied. Two other scholars worked together (on a fellowship, I might add) to go through all the French marginalia in the works that Twain used to write Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.

Mark Twain's Personal Library

  Unfortunately the books in Twain’s library were sold at auctions many years ago. Apart from studying Twain’s books, Professor Gribben has spent over 40 years travelling across the continent just to locate and identify them. Once again, he is not alone; an antiquarian book dealer in Austin, Texas has amassed the largest private collection of Twain material and he is the one you should contact if you are looking for a first edition of Pudd’nhead Wilson. You can visit the room that would have held many of them in the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, CT.

Mark Twain Libraries

There are libraries that are named (or branded, as they now say) for Twain and one of them was founded by him. It is located in Redding, CT. Another was closer by in Detroit, but as you can see from the pictures below, it is no longer open.

Sources: To be quickly up to snuff on things Twainian just go to these two websites.
Start by visiting the site of Dr. Alan Gribben, Scholar and Editor. Go then to Elmira College which houses the Center for Mark Twain Studies. To buy a rare copy of a Twain book, consult Kevin Mac Donnell at Mac Donnell Rare Books in Austin, TX.
Post Script: Those of you who are surprised by this degree of scholastic devotion should know that there are often entire journals/periodicals/magazines/newsletters devoted to single individuals. In this case, see the Mark Twain Journal which has been around since 1936. Dr. Gribben is the current editor.

The Trans Canada Trail

Back in the last century at a large family Christmas party where I was somewhat of a genetic and social outlier, I nonetheless received a nice gift from the person who was unlucky enough to have drawn my name. For my present the person had donated enough money to help construct one metre of the Trans Canada Trail which is now 24,000 kilometres long. I received a trail certificate, a crest, a brochure, a newsletter and a promise that my name "would be permanently inscribed on a trail marker along the route of the longest trail in the world."

The gift was given in December 1997 when the Trans Canada Trail was only about five years old. In 2017, as the nation celebrated its 150th anniversary The Great Trail turned 25 (the name change occurred in 2016). It now stretches from coast to coast and is found in all 13 Provinces and Territories. You can learn all about it at the fine The Great Trail website.

The Great Trail Pavilion - St. Thomas Ontario

The promise of an inscription was fulfilled in the summer of 2001 when the trail passed by as close as it is going to get if you live in London, Ontario. The claim that "four out of five Canadians live within 30 minutes of the Trail" is true in my case and is more generally true since the trail does pass through all the major cities and along the corridors where most Canadian live. My name is on the pavilion in a small green space on Jonas Street in St. Thomas, but you will need to hike a few kilometres out of town to feel like you are on a Great Trail.

One can no longer make a donation to a local pavilion to have a name inscribed. The program was costly to maintain and was discontinued in 2012. For $1000 you can get your name put on a pavilion in Ottawa and the Trans Canada Trail Foundation would gladly accept a smaller amount.

Sources:
The Great Trail website is quite good and if you click on the map provided, you can find the closest the trail comes to your location. The Great Trail often joins lesser ones and for those of you in the London area see: for St. Thomas and here; for Elgin County.
"St. Thomas Picked For New Trans Canada Trail Pavilion," Laura Bradley, St. Thomas Times-Journal, July 13, 2017. "St. Thomas Welcomes Trans Canada Trail," Stephanie Cesca, London Fre Press, Aug. 5, 2001.
Post Script:
There are some very generous donors. BMO gave $750,000 to help complete the southwestern Ontario portion. Jack Cockwell donated $3 million to honour his mother, Daphne.
  One fellow just completed walking the entire trail. If you wish to do so there is a new book out that will help you if you start in the Maritimes. It is from Goose Lane Editions.

USELESS KNOWLEDGE

Fellowships

    I have been going through several issues of The Times Literary Supplement and have been pleased to see that there are still advertisements offering enticements to scholars, even if they are labouring in fields that are not relevant, popular or useful. If you are interested in the 18th century, for example, the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale will provide you with accommodation in an appropriate eighteenth-century house, a stipend, a per diem living allowance and you will be reimbursed “the cost of a rental car or local travel expenses.” If you are not an 18th century fellow, but would still like to go to Yale, contact the Beinecke Library there which offers “fellowships to support research in a wide range of fields, from literary and cultural studies to the history of science, music, theater, and art; the history of the book, of photography, graphic design, and architecture; as well as social, intellectual, and political history.” You might qualify for a living allowance of $4,000 per month, which isn’t bad since those are U.S. dollars. If you would rather labour abroad, try the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbuttel in Germany if you are interested in medieval or early modern history or go for a Katharine F. Pantzer Jr Award if you are doing bibliographic research and want to reside in London where there are still lots of books.

   I am pleased because it is refreshing to see that libraries full of books and manuscripts are luring people to use the collections and paying them to do so. The university libraries in which I worked are now largely emptied of books, which makes them more appealing to students seeking only safe spaces with electrical sockets. While it is surprising to learn that there is still some income to be derived from the arts and humanities and that there are a few survivors outside the STEM fields, it is also satisfying to see that some people are being paid to pursue interests and subjects which most people see as useless.

The Cultivation of Curiosity

   During a time when universities are expected to be more concerned with useful, practical, vocational matters it is worth reconsidering “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge.” That is the title of an essay that appeared in Harper’s magazine in 1939 and it is the subject again of an article in a recent New York Times: ”Useless Knowledge Begets New Horizons,” Bret Stephens, Jan. 3, 2019. Although Stephens used the example of space exploration and the need for funding for  “pure” science, perhaps the softer, even more useless, subjects should be considered as well. Two samples from the article:

“And yet, in being the kind of society that does this kind of thing — that is, the kind that sends probes to the edge of the solar system; underwrites the scientific establishment that knows how to design and deploy these probes; believes in the value of knowledge for its own sake; cultivates habits of truthfulness, openness, collaboration and risk-taking; enlists the public in the experience, and shares the findings with the rest of the world — we also discover the highest use for useless knowledge: Not that it may someday have some life-saving application on earth, though it might, but that it has a soul-saving application in the here and now, reminding us that the human race is not a slave to questions of utility alone.

There are plenty of reasons to worry about the state of the American mind today, as well as the state of the university. Speech is not as free; gadflies are not as welcome; inquiry is dictated as much by the availability of funding as it is by the instincts of curiosity, and funding itself is often short. But let’s start 2019 on a happier note.”

Sources: 

   There are many examples for fellowships, some of which entail more obligations than others. See: The John Carter Brown Library and The Folger Shakespeare Library and The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
   For more about “Useless Knowledge” and Flexner see the Institute for Advanced Studies where his essay and other related ones are found.
Post Script:
   Perhaps the best example of noblesse oblige without strings, obligations or expectations is the MacArthur Fellowship offered by the MacArthur Foundation. One is given $625,000 for a five year period for such things as: "Pushing the boundaries of literary fiction in works that combine the surreal and fantastical with the concerns and emotional realism of contemporary life" or "Expanding the potential of vocal and orchestral music to convey emotional, dramatic, and literary meaning."
See the very interesting MacArthur Foundation website.

The Plight of the Pangolins

Pity the Pangolin
I recently wrote about endangered species and have posted about the "insect apocalypse" and the passing of the passenger pigeons. Now I will move on to consider pangolins which I did not know existed and soon won't. After that I will offer a few words about totoabas.

Pangolins are anteater-like mammals that are (soon to be were) found in Asia and Africa and I don’t think I had ever seen the word until I read that 9 TONS of their scales have just been seized from one ship in Hong Kong. Apparently the 9 tons represents around 14,000 of the little critters.I guess I missed the article from 2013 about a ship carrying 22,000 pounds of pangolin which hit a reef in the Philippines.
   I should mention that, perhaps acting as ballast, there were also 1,000 elephant tusks in the same shipment.

Totoabas

   

Totoabas are fish that are found in increasingly decreasing numbers and only in the Gulf of California. Recently, “Chinese customs officials have confiscated 444 kilograms (980 pounds) of totoaba swim bladders, estimated to be worth about $26 million.” Note, that weight is just bladder weight; I am not sure how many totoabas were involved.
In both cases the main reasons for the slaughter are ‘medicinal’ ones and the Chinese are involved. Apparently the Chinese apothecary profession is not as advanced as the one producing the 5G communication networks. It is unfortunate indeed that, while we are losing so many species simply as collateral damage, others are being deliberately destroyed for medicinal reasons without merit.
Sources:
The Wikipedia entries for both species are very good.
I learned about the poaching of the pangolins from: "9 Tons of Pangolin Scales Are Seized in Hong Kong, Tiffany Mat, New York Times, Feb. 1, 2019. For earlier articles see: "A Struggle to Save the Scaly Pangolin," Erica Good, New York Times, Mar. 30, 2015 and "No Species is Safe From Burgeoning Wildlife Trade," Bettina Wassener, Mar. 12, 2013.

For the totoaba see the website of the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO) and the entry for "Totoaba". For a recent smuggling case see: "China Seizes Totoaba Swim Bladders Worth $26 Million, Arrests 16," Mongabay.com, Dec. 29, 2018.

WIKIPEDIA - Happy Birthday

  Wikipedia was born on Jan.15, 2001 and is now over 18. I think we can all agree, however, that it has been a mature adult for several years. I recently received an email from the Wikimedia Foundation that was full of beautiful pictures of the earth and the things on it. It was their way (as the host of Wikipedia) of saying "Thanks" to me for the few bucks I have contributed to their operation and organization. I am not generally an especially charitable person, but I gave money to them because I use them all the time and I am satisfied with the products they provide. You do too and you probably are also. If you go searching for information about aardvarks you will find Wikipedia and be happy with what they tell you about aardvarks. Send them a donation and birthday wishes.
 
   I was hesitant to offer this endorsement and promotion because my skepticism, about the benefits to be derived from such online connections and internet/web-related things, has increased as the costs for such connections have been made more apparent. The enthusiasm for social media, Facebook, google, algorithms and other digital doodads has diminished as we learn more about ransomware, clickbait fabrications and fake news. A new book asks the question, "Is social media destroying democracy?" and the Canadian government has set up a team to protect us from the mysterious manipulations that might occur in the upcoming election if we don't start building our own walls. Still, even if one is less than sanguine about the latest technological developments coming out of Silicon Valley, one can still say that Wikipedia seems to be a good thing that works well, even though it is the result of the collective work of very large non-profit committee.
 
   Everyone thought such an electronic encyclopedia was an idiotic idea. The name, "Jimmy Wales," which is the name of the co-creator, is a name that seems like it should be in the credits for an Austin City Limits episode, rather the on the page of a reference work. How reliable could an entry be since it could be created by an idealogue or an imbecile? Who was the authority? How could it be produced without the motivation provided by profit and who would work for free?
 
   Initially they seemed like good questions since many imbecilic entries were created and there were hoaxes and pranks and deliberate attempts to sabotage and manipulate the information that was posted. Professors indicated that citations to Wikipedia were not to be used in the creation of essays and reference librarians everywhere relaxed.
 
   Fairly quickly things changed. Jimmy Wales responded that he hoped professors would not countenance the use of Wikipedia, just as he hoped they would disapprove of the use of a regular encyclopedia to produce a research essay. Soon, some professors were asking students to create Wikipedia entries and by the 10th anniversary Wikipedia was asking members of the academic community to create content on public policy issues. The librarians at the New York Public Library held an 'editathon" over six hours, during which they allowed the content creators to come to the library and use the rich research collection to improve the articles relating to  the musical-theatre categories. A major science journal compared the information for some topics in Wikipedia to those in the Encyclopedia Britannica and found out it was not doing too badly. Those thousands of people who were continuously scrutinizing and instantly massaging and improving the contents were apparently doing a very good job.



   Who are these people? That is a good question. One of them was a Canadian named Simon Pulsifer who, while working on the mayoral campaign for an Ottawa candidate, provided 78,000 edits and created between 2,000 and 3,000 articles. Perhaps he was odd and surely he was obsessive, but was he any odder than some of the very odd and obsessive creators of the very authoritative Oxford English Dictionary? They were also mostly volunteers and a few were certifiable. One was a hermit who rarely came out of his cottage and another was an American army surgeon and murderer who cut off his own penis. Most of his useful citations were sent from the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane. He is pictured above. In terms of obsessiveness, one of the OED volunteers contributed over 165,000 'slips' which were written by hand and sent by post.



Being a book-loving reader of this blog and now convinced of the usefulness of Wikipedia, perhaps you would like to have a printed set of this reference work in your own library and are wondering how many shelves it would occupy. I am not sure, but if you google "Wikipedia" you will find an entry for it and learn that contains around 6,000,000 articles on almost 50,000,000 pages.

Before you hit the print button, you should know that back in 2015 there was an art project in a New York gallery where an attempt was made to download the then "11 gigabytes of very compressed data" and it took about two weeks. The end result was 76,000 volumes which included a table of contents consisting of 91 volumes. The price: $500,000. It was not printed.

Sources:
See: "Celebrating 10 Years of Wikipedia," Verne G. Kopytoff, The New York Times, Jan. 17, 2011.
For an example of when Wikipedia began to be received more positively by the academic community see: "Editing Wikipedia Entries for Medical School Credit," Noam Cohen, The New York Times, Sept. 30, 2013
  Information about the Canadian contributor is here and, who knows, he may still be contributing: "Prolific Canadian is King of Wikipedia," Alexandra Shimo, The Globe and Mail, Aug.4, 2006.
  The NYPL "editathon" is written about here: "Wikipedia's Deep Dive Into a Library Collection," Amanda Petrusich, The New York Times, Oct. 21, 2011.
  For the article about the attempt to print Wikipedia see "Wikipedia Moves to the Bookshelves," Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times, June 17, 2015.
  The information about the odd OED contributors can be found in these books which you should certainly have a look at anyway: The Professor and the Madman and/or The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. 
  Among the many new books in which social media and the accompanying shiny things are being assessed more critically see: Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics. Apparently the Age of Surveillance Capital reminds us of the cost of free things and that "if you are not paying for it, you're the product." Although Wikipedia is  free, it is not gathering and tracking our "every move, emotion, utterance and desire" to sell to advertisers or using the "data exhaust" we are leaving behind to determine the direction in which we are heading.