Modern Books and Manuscripts

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

A surprising discovery when opening up the book Predicting the Future: An Illustrated History and Guide to the Techniques is who the author is.  Although not a particularly famous person, Albert, S. Lyons is a surgeon.  His extensive knowledge of the history of medicine, and how that intertwines with what is now thought of as occult practices inspired him to write this book.

This book includes sections on astrology, numerology, tarot, handreading, I ching, tea-leaf reading and dreams.  In fact, with the help of another surgeon, Han-yu Shen, he has contributed a new translation of the I ching. 

Each section not only includes a history, but also a guide to some of the practices such as tarot card readings and how to do numerology.

Lyons chose to focus on predicting the future because of the importance of the prognosis to a medical patient.  Even in modern medicine, although doctors no longer focus as much on prediction as they do on diagnosis, knowing what is going to happen is always on the front of a patient’s mind.  If you are interested in Lyons’ other works, you can find Medicine: an illustrated history at Widener Library.

Predicting the future : an illustrated history and guide to the techniques / Albert S. Lyons ; with a literal translation of the I ching by Han-yu Shen and Albert S. Lyons. ;  New York : H.N. Abrams, 1990. BF1751 .L96 1990 F can be found received at Widener Library.

Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo collection.

Eros, it should now be obvious, is intrinsic to the Santo Domingo Collection; it follows that Thanatos can’t be far behind. This lavish volume by Éditions Kra is entitled La Danse Macabre, and consists of twenty images by the Art Deco illustrator Yan Bernard Dyl, with accompanying text by French novelist Pierre MacOrlan. Together, they describe death as it insinuates itself into all aspects of human experience. The vignettes pictured here are on gambling games and cocaine; among the other topics are lies, nightmares, sexual pleasure, and God.

Pierre MacOrlan. La danse macabre. Paris: Édité par Simon Kra, 1927. FC9.M2382.927d.

Thanks to rare book cataloger Ryan Wheeler for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Julio Mario Santo Domingo Collection.

These oddities, from fancy drawn,

May surely raise the question,

Will DARWIN say- by Chance they’re formed,

Or ‘Natural Selection?’

Edward William Cooke originally published Grotesque Animals : invented, drawn, and described in 1872, this version is a reprint from 1975.  Cooke was an English landscape and marine painter who was raised among artists including his father and uncle who were both line engravers.

Cooke himself was a gifted engraver and published a series of books with plates related to shipping when he was only eighteen, you can see an example from one to your left. The Fine Arts Library has one of these volumes entitled Sixty five plates of shipping and craft, drawn and etched by E. W. Cooke.  Seeing his more typical subject consisting of ships only makes these drawings of strange creatures even more jarring and shows a more fantastical side of his personality.

I was struck in particular by the image below, it drew to mind the terrifying creature from Pan’s Labyrinth that had eyeballs in its hands and consumed children for food.  To see more “invented” animals look at this volume in the Fine Arts Library.  Grotesque animals : invented, drawn, and described / by E.W. Cooke. London : Longmans, Green, 1975.

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager for contributing this post.

As part of an ongoing effort to provide access to Houghton’s rich broadside collections, a three-month cataloging project was completed last fall. Funded by the Ruth Miller Memorial Philanthropic Fund, which has provided long-time support of Houghton’s effort to reduce its number of “hidden collections,” cataloger Hyo Lee processed an eclectic group of about 500 mostly nineteenth-century American broadsides. Many were the gift of George Lyman Kittredge (1860-1941), the distinguished folklorist and Harvard professor of English. The broadsides were printed mostly in the northeast, but include a number of California imprints. The group includes ballads, popular songs, and poetry on diverse topics, including crime and murder, shipwrecks, fires, patriotism, and politics. Many of the broadsides document local history through announcements or programs of public gatherings. Among these, a significant portion pertain to New England local church history, but concerts, readings, popular entertainments, and local festivals are also covered. Among the many advertisements are a number issued by New England resorts, some including menus. Other broadsides document the Civil War era, including the War itself and the national debate over slavery and abolition.

1.Paolilli, Antonio.  L’America nun fa’ pe’ me! Providence: A. Paolilli’s Music Co., c1921.  American Broadsides 771.

2. Grand thanksgiving fete and festival, given by the officers of the garrison of Fort Pulaski, GA, November 27th, 1862. Programme. [Georgia?: s.n., 1862].  American Broadsies 888.

3. Baptist Meeting House (North Attleboro, Mass.).  Rules for renting pews in the Baptist Meeting House, North Attleborough. [North Attleboro, Mass. :s.n.,1855].  American Broadsides 867

4. Mount Holyoke. Worcester, Mass.: Edward R. Fiske & Son, printers, [ca. 1870?].  American Broadsides 1145.

5. Queen, Jas.(James),1824-approximately 1877.  Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon and Hospital, Philadelphia … [receipt for donation]. Philadelphia: T. Sinclair’s Lith.,[ca. 1860?]. American Broadsides 1150.

6. Rocky Point (Hotel : Providence, R.I.).  Rocky Point Hotel, J.C. Parks, proprietor, bill of fare, dinner. August 28th 1869… Providence, R.I.: Providence Press Co.,1869.  American Broadsides 1155.

7. Astonishing to all! And no charge if not satisfied! : Madame Morrow is, without exception, the most wonderful astrolgist [i.e. astrologist] in the world, or that has ever been known… New York: Isaac J. Oliver, steam printer, 32 Beekman-St., [1857?].  American Broadsides 1162.

8. Fourth week of the celebrated Bohemian Troupe! of glass blowers!  Boston :J.H. & F.F. Farwell, printers, U.S. Mammoth Job Office, 5 Lindall Street,[between 1855 and 1877].  American Broadsides 1171.

In addition to the broadsides shown here, a selection of Civil War-era broadsides cataloged as a part of this project will be on display in Houghton Library’s Chaucer Case (located on the ground floor) during the month of February.

Thanks to rare book cataloger Elaine Shiner for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the Julio Mario Santo Domingo collection.

Today’s feature is Etidorhpa, or The end of the earth, a fantastical novel by pharmacologist John Uri Lloyd, written in the hollow-earth mold of Jules Verne’s Journey to the center of the earth. The title is, as observant readers will have noticed, the reverse of ‘Aphrodite’, calling to mind also Samuel Butler’s satirical fantasy Erewhon, which also concerns a fictional realm. Our protagonist, calling himself only I-Am-The-Man, dictates his bizarre adventure to the narrator, Llewyllyn Drury: he is kidnapped by a secret society, whose agent alters his appearance and escorts him through a series of fantastic subterranean lands, accessed through a cave opening in Kentucky. As it transpires, the secret society is in contact with a race of eyeless, humanoid beings dedicated to preserving knowledge for the future enlightenment of mankind. Philosophical debate and declamations on the human condition punctuate the adventure as the troglodyte reveals to I-Am-The-Man spiritual and cosmic truths.

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Now on display in the Theodore Roosevelt Gallery, located in the lower level of Lamont Library in Harvard Yard, are selections from the photographic series Theodore Roosevelt – “How I Love Sagamore Hill” by New York artist Xiomáro. Xiomáro was commissioned by the National Park service to photograph the interiors of the president’s “Summer White House” at what is now Sagamore Hill National Historic Site.

Xiomáro’s photographs show the house in a historically rare condition:  the 23-room mansion, usually full of furnishings and mementos, was nearly vacant as part of a three-year, $7.2 million structural rehabilitation. Xiomáro’s photographs do not solely focus on TR, but also draw attention to his wife, children and servants to give a sense of what life was like in the household.  “Even though the rooms are nearly vacant, the photographs reveal the imposing character of America’s 26th president and the more intimate domestic nature of his family,” explained the artist.  “Some of these nuances are overwhelmed by a room’s furnishings or inaccessible to visitors behind velvet rope barriers.”

Xiomáro is a nationally exhibited artist whose work has been covered by The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Fine Art Connoisseur and other media outlets.  He is known for using photography to draw attention to historical sites where American figures lived and worked to pursue their vision.  Other projects with the National Park Service include Old Mastic House at Fire Island National Seashore (home of William Floyd, a signer of the Declaration of Independence) and the farmhouse and art studios at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut (home of both J. Alden Weir, a founder of American impressionist painting, and Mahonri Young, a sculptor of the Ashcan School).

The 26 photographs featured in the exhibition will remain on view from January 26 to December 31, 2014.  A limited edition photo eBook, based on the series, can be downloaded for free at www.xiomaro.com.  Lamont Library hours can be found here. For more information, contact the curator.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

The Day-Glo Designer’s Guide offers insights into the way that Day-Glo colors have been used in both art and advertising. Although Day-Glo is common today, the process wasn’t discovered until 1934 by Robert and Joseph Spitzer. While playing around in their fathers’ drug store, they discovered the interesting aspect of some medicines that glowed under black-light. From this initial finding they went on to create the Day-Glo corporation and to manufacture colors that glowed in regular light as well. The Day-Glo-Designer’s Guide gives a helpful background history on the discovery as well as the uses Day-Glo colors were soon put to, both artistically as well as practically.

This book gives stunning examples of both advertisements as well as artwork that utilized the paint. One notable example is Bert Stern’s Marilyn Monroe series, photographs of Monroe that have been silk-screen printed using Day-Glo inks.

Also included are examples of newspaper and magazine ads, music posters and record albums, as well as sales and packaging products.

For those readers who hope to use Day-Glo in their projects there is a section on design tips about getting the most out of fluorescent colors as well as several supplemental color charts in a pocket at the end.

The book The Day-Glo Designer’s Guide ;  Cleveland, Oh. : Dayglo Color Corp., c1969. Fine Arts FAL-LC XCAGE NK1548 .D39 1969 F can be found at the Fine Arts Library.

Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

This recently-cataloged volume from the Santo Domingo Collection appears to be an unexceptional 1932 printing of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland: the book’s illustrated covers have faded, and its acidic paper stock has gone from white to tan. Alice’s encounter with the hookah-smoking caterpillar would justify this title’s inclusion in Santo Domingo’s collection, but what makes it a collector’s item is on the illustrated front endpaper: the autograph of Alice Hargreaves (née Alice Pleasance Liddell), for whom the story of the fictional Alice was originally written.

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This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Trephination is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the membrane that surrounds the skull in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases.  Often referred to as a “burr” hole it relieves pressure beneath the surface.  Hieronymus Braunschweig was a German physician and surgeon in the mid 15th-century who authored several treatises on surgery and anatomy including Dis ist das Buch der Cirurgia which has an engraving depiciting trepanation that we see here.  Countway has an edition by Brunschwig in their Rare Books collection, Dis ist das Buch der Cirurgia : Hantwirckung der Wund Artzny / von Hiero[n]ymo Bru[n]schwig. Strassburg : Johann (Reinhard) Grüninger, 4 July 1497.

By the 20th-century self-trephination was championed by many as a way to increase “brain blood volume” including a Dutch librarian named Bart Huges.  Though Huges attended medical school at the University of Amsterdam he was reportedly refused a degree due to his advocacy of marijuana use.  In 1965 Huges drilled a hole in his own head with a Black and Decker power drill to increase his “cerebral metabolism.”  His theory was that when mankind began to walk upright, our brains drained of blood, and that trephining allows the blood to better flow in and out of the brain, causing a permanent “high.”  To date there is no scientific proof to back up his theory.  He wrote about trephination and other thoughts which have been translated in this edition of The book with the [hole] : autobiography.  There is indeed a hole punched throughout the entire volume.

The book with the [hole] : autobiography / by Bart Huges ; translation and elaboration by Joe Mellen and Amanda Feilding. Amsterdam : F.I.T, 1972. RD529 .H89 1972 can be found at the Countway Library at the Harvard Medical School in Longwood.

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager and Joan Thomas, Rare Book Cataloger at Countway for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

The depredations of the drug trade are fertile ground for crime and mystery fiction: pulp, in a word. In the Santo Domingo Collection, these lurid works stand on the shelves alongside opium-inspired poetry and countercultural acid narratives. Pictured here is Snow vogue, written by one Darcy Glinto and published in London by Wells Gardner in 1941. Copies are held at only three other libraries. It’s the tale of Dario, a ruthless gangster who, as the title suggests, gets involved in peddling cocaine. Violence, victimization, and death inevitably ensue. The jacket copy promises Snow vogue to be “just as slick and twice as fast as any other gangster story. That is because Dario was that kind of man.”

The name “Darcy Glinto” is, of course, too good to be true. It’s a pseudonym for Harold Ernest Kelly (1899-1969), an author and freelance journalist who wrote in the crime, sci-fi, and Western genres, among others, under a host of assumed names.

Harold Ernest Kelly. Snow vogue. London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., [1941]. EC9.K2965.941s

Thanks to rare book cataloger Ryan Wheeler for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Les Très Riches Heures du Cannabis is a cannabis lovers must have. Full of colorful illustrations and advice, this book has everything you need to know and more. From descriptions and step by step instructions on how to roll different types of joints to how to make homemade vaporizers, this book has everything.  It is great for someone without any prior knowledge as well as those trying to supplement what they already know.

There are descriptions of growing practices and cultivation tips for the do-it-yourself types and for the more adventurous travel-savvy reader there is even a section on cafes in Amsterdam. Also included in the book are several recipes that include marijuana such as eggs, a spinach side and ice creams and sorbets. The cartoon illustrations are fanciful and over-the-top and reinforce the humorous aspects of this book.

Attributed to “PhiX”, who has co-authored another book with Jean-Pierre Galland on harvesting marijuana, this book surely makes an excellent addition to any drug related collection. Widener has more books by Jean-Pierre Galland on marijuana, such as Drogues: état des lieux : cannabis, alcool, héroïne, also in the Santo Domingo Collection.

Find this book at Widener Library. Les très riches heures du cannabis / Phix. Paris : Éditions du Lézard, 1996.

Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

The use of electricity in medical treatment is hardly a new concept, Guillaume Duchenne was a French neurologist and developer of electrotherapy.  Duchenne announced in 1855 that alternating current was more effective than a direct current for electrotherapeutic triggering of muscle contractions.  One of the problems of direct current was the blistering of the skin due to the high voltage needed to stimulate the muscle, as well as the need to stop and restart the current with each contraction.  What is fascinating about this particular 19th-century volume by John Ives are the conditions it claims electricity can cure.  Flatulence, bunions, and chilblains are all listed in the book as complaints that electricity can remediate.  Hiccups and persistent yawning are also included as pesky problems which according to the text can be solved by putting the negative [electrical node] “under the ear and the positive by the seventh rib for five minutes, using a current from four to six cells.”

Current use of electrotherapy is accepted in the field of rehabilitation and the American Physical Therapy Association acknowledges its use in tissue repair, pain management, joint mobility, treatment of neuromuscular dysfunction, as well as other areas.

Electricity as a medicine : and its mode of application / by John Ives. New York : Galvano-Faradic, 1887. RM870 .T91 1888 can be found at the Countway Library at the Harvard Medical School in Longwood.

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager and Joan Thomas, Rare Book Cataloger at Countway for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

When I first looked at this cover I thought it was some sort of science-fiction title, but upon further inspection it is actually a guide on what to do in the event of an atomic emergency.  The atomic age is often considered to be the period of history after the first atomic bomb was detonated and after the bombings of Japan during World War II.  During this time the whole world was rushing to possess this new nuclear technology and it raised a lot of very real fears about what could happen and what the fallout would be.  This French publication outlines what they believed to be appropriate actions, helpful tips, and detailed figures in the event of an atomic emergency during the 1950s.

For example Do. Not. Panic.  Or as this caption states there could be a stampede and subsequent trampling.    Other illustrations display the common equipment one might see during this type of emergency.   Another figure outlines protective measures one should take if they are surprised by an explosion.  They are counseled to jump behind a resistant wall while hiding their faces and hands to avoid burns.  Or if possible crouch in a corner of the room to minimize any exposure from the blast.

To learn more check out Atomique secours / Charles André Gibrin. Paris, Charles-Lavauzelle [1953] which can be found at the Widener Library.

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

For the Scientific Treatment and Cure of the Alcohol, Morphine, Opium, Chloral, and Cocaine Habits!

Designed especially for the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse this pamphlet advertises the virtues of Dr. Rose’s Sanitarium.  Located in bucolic Connecticut something that sets this institution apart is that it actually had a contract with a patient that guaranteed a cure.  The pamphlet gives a general introduction to the location and amenities, including steam heat, gas lighting, a billiards room, and a gymnasium.  The cost for morphine treatment- $25 a week with room and board extra.  What if you are a lady patient?  You will be guaranteed a lady attendant and the excellent care of a “beloved” doctor with an excellent track record of success. 

Still not a believer?  There are a number of testimonials included to convince you. 

Dr. Rose’s Sanitarium, South Windham, Conn., for the scientific treatment and cure of the alcoholic, morphine, opium, chloral and cocaine habits.  Utica, N.Y. : L.C. Childs & Son’s, Print., [1896?].  HV5281.W76 D7 can be found at the Countway Library at the Harvard Medical School in Longwood.

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager and Joan Thomas, Rare Book Cataloger at Countway for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Newly represented among the authors in the Santo Domingo Collection is the showman and author P.T. Barnum. Shown here is an 1866 copy of Barnum’s survey/memoir The humbugs of the world, translated into French as Les blagues de l’univers. A humbug, of course, is anything intended to mislead or anyone in the business of misrepresentation. The book, then, is a survey of societal and historical humbugs ranging from spiritualists and ghost stories to adulterers of food and conniving businessmen, accompanied by Barnum’s personal reminiscences as a humbug himself.

The volume bears the bookplate of collector Charles de Mandre and the autograph of collector Jules Bobin; more exciting, however, is a two-page letter written by Barnum and bound into the front. The letter is dated 16 July 1858, and its recipient is the French entertainer and philanthropist Alexandre Vattemare. Vattemare was himself a fascinating figure: trained as a surgeon, he made his fortune as a ventriloquist (performing as Monsieur Alexandre) after his habit of ventriloquizing corpses during surgical studies cost him his medical diploma. Once his fortune was made, Vattemare spent the latter portion of his life collecting rare books and objects, and advocating for public libraries and for cultural and literary interchange. He had a hand in the founding of the Boston Public Library, and his cultural-exchange system, by which books, coins, mineral samples, and other cultural and natural artifacts were exchanged between library systems internationally, led to today’s interlibrary loan.

It is on the subject of mineral specimens that Barnum writes to Vattemare in the letter: from its content, it originally enclosed two photographs of a particularly large rock crystal harvested from a Mexican silver mine and on display at an American museum. There is something of the persuasive carnival barker in Barnum’s tone when, insisting upon the specimen’s authenticity, he assures Vattemare that ‘photography cannot lie’.

P.T. Barnum. Les blagues de l’univers. Paris: Achille Faure, 1866. AZ999.B313 1866.

Thanks to rare book cataloger Ryan Wheeler for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Among the occupations on Victor Segalen’s multifarious résumé are French naval doctor, anthropologist, ethnographer, literary critic, linguist, and poet. The latter most concerns us here: pictured is Segalen’s Stèles, a collection of prose poems presented as translations of imaginary Chinese stone monuments. To write it, Segalen drew from his residency in China from 1909 to 1914, a period during which he served as personal doctor to the son of the first president of the Republic of China. Each of the “stèles” is headed with a literary phrase in Chinese; these are either taken from classical literature or the monuments that inspired the poems, or composed by Segalen. The poems deal with a range of emotional and spiritual subjects, while hewing to a formal style imitative of Chinese inscriptions.

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This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Feeling a bit peckish?  Why not try a delicious dish featuring Boletus edulis, which are fleshy mushroom-like fungi which have tubes in place of gills.  They are often characterized as being “spongy underneath.”

To make one version of French Crepes a la Bordelaise simply cut the caps of Boletus edulis into 1/2 inch thick slices and remove the tubes if they are soft.  Season with salt and pepper and put them into boiling olive oil in a deep frying pan.  Cook until golden brown, drain, and then serve with a little butter, chopped parsley, and garlic (presumably within a crepe).

Another popular edible fungi is Lactarius deliciousus or more commonly known as the Saffron Milk Cap.  The cap is a brick-orange color and when it is broken the “milk” is saffron colored.

The first known illustration of a fungus is generally considered to be L. deliciousus which was preserved in a fresco in Pompeii.  It is still popular in cuisine today throught Western Europe, particularly in Spain and Italy.

Edible fungi, by John Ramsbottom … With colour plates by Rose Ellenby. London, New York, [Penguin books limited] 1943. QK617 .R3.

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

A particularly sumptuous volume from the collection of Gérard Nordmann is today’s Santo Domingo Collection feature. This 1938 publication of Poèmes inédits (Unpublished poems) by Pierre Louÿs was limited to 109 numbered copies; this is copy 5. Louÿs wrote frequently on sensuality in general, and on lesbians in particular; in keeping with these themes, the volume is illustrated with a series of erotic engravings by Edouard Chimot. This copy features an additional suite of test prints in various states, as well as ten of Chimot’s original drawings. Rarer still are a full twenty pages of Louÿs’s manuscript poems, mounted to leaves at the beginning of the volume.

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This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Once you have made the fateful choice to eat a Death cap it starts out slowly, there is no discomfort for the first twelve hours then you have abdominal pain with vomiting, diarrhea, and an extreme thirst.  After two days there is a period of quiet where you show no symptoms, however they will come back even more intensely until, “…the nervous system is gradually paralysed, the liver degenerates, there is delirium, collapse and death.”  According to Poisonous fungi by John Ramsbottom, Death caps, or Amanita phalloides, are responsible for over 90% of recorded death by fungus poisoning (at least in 1945).  If you have only eaten a small amount it is possible that you can survive, but you will have a slow and long recovery.

Amanita muscaria is commonly found in the woods and often appears as a “typical” depiction of a mushroom in illustrations, films, and even as toys.  The poison is mainly located in the cap, but what is interesting is that it almost never causes death in healthy people.  If one has ingested it they may experience a bit of delirium and hallucinations, as well as intestinal disturbance.  This may be followed by an intense stupor and upon awakening one may remember nothing.  Scandinavian tradition credits this mushroom with causing the Vikings to go berserk.  It has also been eaten in Siberia on occasions where a high emotional state is desired. 

Now that we have taken a look at what not to eat out in the forest, check the blog next week when we take a look at Ramsbottom’s volume of Edible fungi.

Poisonous fungi / by John Ramsbottom. With colour plates, by Rose Ellenby. London ; New York : Penguin Books Limited, 1945. QK617. R36 1945.

Thanks to Alison Harris, Santo Domingo Project Manager for contributing this post.

This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.

Today from the Santo Domingo Collection, we have a handsomely designed volume: this edition of La main enchantée (The enchanted hand), a fantasy story by the French author and poet Gérard Labrunie, who wrote under the pen name Gérard de Nerval. (Students of French literary biography may best remember Nerval for taking his pet lobster, Thibault, for walks in the Palais Royal gardens.) Nerval originally published this story in the newspaper Le cabinet de lecture in 1832, under the title “La main de gloire”. In it, a timorous clothier named Eustache Bouteroue seeks to triumph in an impending duel by putting an enchantment on one of his hands, then attempts to renege on payment for said enchantment, with predictably dire results.

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