Quote of the Post

"The poet is usually the best reporter, for he is an observer not merely accurate but imaginative, self trained to see subtle suggestions, relations and similarities."

Christopher Morley introduction to Niagara Falls essay by Rupert Brooke in Modern Essays

Quote of the Post

  "Curious indeed that in this life, brief and precariously enjoyed, men should so set their hearts on building a permanence in words: something to stand, in the lovely stability of ink and leaden type, as our speech out of silence to those who follow on. Indefensible absurdity, and yet the secret and impassioned dream of those who write!
   I was about to say that, for the writing of anything truly durable, the first requisite is plenty of silence. Then I recall Dr. Johnson's preface to his Dictionary- 'written not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academic bowers, but amid inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow.' "

Christopher Morley ,Meditations of a Bookseller, essay. Collected in Pipefuls

Quote of the Post

"A few lines glimpsed on a page may alter your whole trend of thought for the day, reverse the currents of the mind, change the profile of the city....The moment when one meets a book and knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that that book must be his- not necessarily now, but some time- is among the happiest excitements of the spirit....There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love, and like that colossal adventure it is an experience of great social import....We visit bookshops not so often to buy any one special book, but rather to rediscover, in the happier and more expressive words of others, our own encumbered soul."

Christopher Morley On Visiting Bookshops, essay, in Pipefuls

Have any of you felt that way, too? Until I read Morley, I thought I was alone in the universe. I've bought almost all my books used and there is nothing better than wandering the stacks and having something completely unexpected catch my eye. I felt all of the above when I laid eyes and hands on two amazing books in a museum gift shop: Complete Works of both DaVinci and Michelangelo. Huge format volumes, with a comparable price tag, by the great publishing house Taschen. As an artist, and reader, I have to have them- some time.

Quote of the Post

In the midst of moving, the writer is in a quandary over which books he can safely store, and which ones he must keep with him. For: "Suppose we want to look up a quote, in those late hours when all really worthwhile reading is done?"
"Those late hours when all really worthwhile reading is done." This guy was a kindred spirit. Is it any wonder that he coined a word for those who like to read in bed? (see earlier post for that word)
And who wrote it, you ask?
Yes, Morley.

Christopher Morley, Moving, essay in Pipefuls

Quote of the Post

" 'Lord!' he said, 'when you sell a man a book you don't sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue- you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humor and ships at sea by night- there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.' "

Christopher Morley, Parnassus on Wheels

Get used to Morley quotes. As I find more of his books and re-read Parnassus and Haunted Bookshop, I will be sharing.

Quote of the Post (and a definition)

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."

Christopher Morley, a final message to his friends.

Librocubicularist: One fond of reading in bed. Coined by Morley in The Haunted Bookshop.

I was pleased to find out that someone had gone to the trouble of coining a word for my third favorite thing to do in bed. I was also pleased to realize that I wasn't the only one who enjoyed it.

Quote of the Post

"Printer's ink has been running a race against gunpowder these many, many years. Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries."

Christopher Morley The Haunted Bookshop