Remember radio dedications? (I know many of you don’t – but play along with me here…)
Deejay: That one went out to Little Mary from her special someone…
Little Mary, listening to her plastic transistor receiver: Oh, brother – that’s the WRONG song! It’s OVER between us!
Those were the days, all-righty.
Before radio broadcasting, of course, there were different dedications. More paper oriented. Like – in books. Oh, the stories held between the covers of those books! Spies. Politics. Vampires. Forensics.
Romance.
And not confined to the chapters of the author’s plot.
Those dedications.
Like the book dedicated to the recently deceased Queen Victoria, who held the keys to the British palace (and Royal Watercloset) for nearly seventy years. When she died in 1901, publishers set about creating souvenir books they could sell. Talk all you want about remembering Her Highness – they really just wanted to make a buck. Er – pound, that is. Pounds and pence.
Even on this side of the Atlantic. You remember all the attention over Princess Diana and lately – the new Royal Baby. A ready-market for book printing.
Back in 1901, the World Bible House of Philadelphia published “The Life and Times of Queen Victoria.” The title actually encompasses four paragraphs of such things as Early Life, Charming Home Life, Wonderful Growth of the British Empire, Etc. (The Etc isn’t mine; it is actually included on the title page.)
A pretty nice book for its time, in truth. Embellished, it says, with more than 100 Superb Engravings.
More than 600 pages, it says.
But – in fact, it’s a pretty skinny little book. That’s because it’s a salesman’s copy. In those days, many books were sold by subscription. Sort of like buying Girl Scout Thin Mints before they’re actually baked and boxed. In front of the book’s back cover are about half a dozen blank pages, lined like a high-school spiral notebook. Subscriber’s pages. If you wanted to buy the actual book, you’d put your name and address down in the same way we do with our Girl Scout Cookie salespeople. In the case of this book – $1.75 for the fine cloth binding. $2.75 for the book in Genuine Full Morocco Leather with gilt (gold) titles and page edges. (Go for the leather!)
No subscriber names are included in this copy, but on the last free page after the back-page ad is an inscription that would have been lost to time except I checked thoroughly to see if anyone had signed up to buy one.
You can click on the image to read what “Miss Effie DeWitt Cooperstown” penciled in. (Or you can just read my transcription right here: “Always remember Sunday Sept the 21 – 1902 at Versailles. It was there that E. G. Tarrant & E. M. Dewitt met, and won one another.”
Since she calls herself Effie DeWitt, I assumed the two must have married after pitching woo. (That was the way they said it – before even MY time.) It isn’t clear what Cooperstown she is from or what they were doing in Versailles. Or even which state (or country) Versailles is located. Heck, it might have been the Versailles Restaurant in Miami, Florida: home of traditional Cuban dishes in a casual atmosphere. (And why would those Hispanic dishes be served in a place called Versailles, in Miami Florida? One of life’s mysteries!)
Wait! Perhaps HE is Mr. Tarrant, and she’ll become the Mrs. later! Ahhhh – Using only initials: more intrigue and deceit!
Regardless, I have good feeling about Miss Effie. (I told you there are stories to be found in these old books!)
Then, there is the other inscription in a second volume encountered today, which caused me a double take. I’m blaming it on the handwriting. It’s found on the first end page inside the front cover of a book of Tennyson’s poems, given over on Christmas day with these words:
To Jennie E. Dudley – by her faithful underrated husband. Dec. 25, 1879.
Oooh. There’s some sarcasm! Read in some strong irony there! A little nudge, nudge…
What?
Oh.
Make that – faithful and devoted husband.
A completely different story.
