Monday, December 29, 2008

Holiday Reading


I've been using some of my holiday "downtime" to locate, buy, and read additional books related to the project. Added to the collection: Norman Delayney's John McIntosh Kell of the Raider Alabama (Thanks to John Taylor for the recommendation!); Shark of the Confederacy by Charles Robinson III, and Spencer C. Tucker's Raphael Semmes and the Alabama. While each taught me something new, Robinson's volume was especially valuable because it includes information I had read elsewhere without attribution. especially in Boykin's Ghost Ship of The Confederacy , while Robinson's work is thoroughly notated. Boykin tells a good story, but he attributes nothing, perhaps exhibiting his background in advertising.
I've also purchased a new engraving:

It was originally published in The Soldier in Our Civil War, 1885. I'm aware of the controversy over the desecration of books by folks who take volumes apart and sell the individual pages, but this illustration had already been removed, the damage already done. And for what it is worth, the illustration will likely be more appreciated and loved in its new home than hidden away where it was. Or is that just me trying to justify my purchase?

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