I've finally sat and read a book I found recently in a second-hand bookstore, a book that immediately became the oldest book I own when we left the store.
It's a history textbook, published by Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co. in 1881 called The Eclectic History of the United States.
It's a bit old and beat up, not unlike its subject matter. And like its subject it's also rich and beautiful.
It set me back $10.
I have a history of being attracted to antique books, a compulsion I've never had the coin to really pursue. So when I find one from a pocket of yesteryear that I can afford, I grab it.
I'm especially attracted to history and geography textbooks, because I find it fascinating to see how the the narrative and teaching of where we came from has developed over the decades. I have a history textbook from 1947 that paints a very fresh and wounded portrait of WWII. I have an account of an arctic adventurer who explored the west coast of Greenland in the 19th Century and found himself trapped in the ice. I have very old books about Freemason rituals and an atlas of Asia with long-forgotten nations on the page. I can lose myself in these books for hours.
And I have.
This one has pencil notes in it here and there, and as I read the book I strained to read the writing. Near the back of the book, one of the pencil notes was dated Jan 03, 1884. Amazing.
When I bought the book, I was looking forward to several things; its treatment of the still-remembered Civil War, its description of the conflicts with Native Americans, and just how it tackled the disastrous and troubled 1876 Presidential Election (disappointing in its quick treatment, actually). But also, it begged the question -- just when in that year of 1881 had this book gone to press?
Had the nation already lost James Garfield, one of my favorite presidents, struck down soon after taking office by a disaffected office-seeker?
After the section on Hayes, his bland predecessor, was finished, the book mentioned Garfield's election, and then in the footnote that ended each chapter as a sort of study guide for the student, I saw this:
The book came out in that very brief handful of months between his election, and his assassination. For the first time in my life I was reading an historical account of Garfield that discussed both the man and his presidency in the present tense.
Fascinating stuff for a history nerd like myself.
I'd love to read it again, right now. But it's nearly midnight and I am expected to wake up and function as a news writer and broadcaster in the real world again tomorrow.
Still, for a brief time tonight...I had escaped into a different time.
$10 was a small price to pay for such a wonderful journey.