The Book of Birds

I love books about birds.  Recently a blogging friend took one of these kinds of books and created a wall of bird art from a Vintage book of birds.





These two volumes are The First Work Presenting in Full Color all the major species of the United States and Canada.  Each book measures 10 1/4 x 7 inches.  Volume I is 345 pages, plus an index.  Volume II is 363 pages, plus an index.




When I found these lovely editions, I was taken with the many color illustrations as well as the black and white photographs, maps and renderings of birds.




Volume One contains, diving birds, ocean birds, swimmers, wading birds, wild fowl, birds of prey game birds shore birds.




Volume Two contains, owls, woodpeckers, flycatchers, crown jays, orioles, creepers, thrushes, swallows, tanagers, wrens, warblers, hummingbirds, finches and sparrows.




National Geographic Society, Washington D. C., 1937. Hardcover. Grosvenor Gilbert editor. Wetmore Alexander, National Geographic Society.




Illustrated by Major Allan Brooks (illustrator). Green cloth hardbacks are tightly bound with no marks. End papers of both are Flyways of North America. 





Each contains its own Index and Book II contains a section of Interesting Recoveries of Banded Birds. 




950 color portraits by Major Allan Brooks as well as numerous black and white illustrations and photographs. 





I have a collection of bird books on my mantle alongside nests, and all things nesting, which I enjoy. 





These two books are a treasure, whether used for decorating your coffee table, for the bird watcher as reference, or using them to take the prints inside these volumes to frame and hang on the wall.






I just added these two volumes to my etsy shop For The Love of Old Books.




Hope you enjoyed listening to the sounds of lovely birds.

Favorite Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Standing at the very town of Concord, Massachusetts I read the poem by Longfellow of The MIdnight Ride of Paul Revere.  I had taken the book to photograph it in Concord and then onto Lexington Green.


I couldn't help but notice how the words jumped off the page. I love American History and living here just has to be shared.


I photographed the book late one afternoon at a bridge in Concord, and then caught the last of the afternoon light in Lexington Green. 

This is the very place that Longfellow wrote about in his moving poem.


This poem along with a host of others is inside this lovely old volume. My American History teacher would have loved this book. 

Favorite Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1947 by Doubleday. Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson First.

A Beautiful book with a lovely green hardcover. 395 Pages With Introduction by Henry Seidel Canby.

Illustrated with full page color and black and white plates by Edward A. Wilson The illustrations are lovely.

The introduction by Henry Seidel Cany to this version of Longfellow's poems described this collection " a collection of the finest work of one of America's outstanding poets, who work is known and loved by all who read.”

Among the poems included are: Courtship of Miles Standish, Paul Revere's Ride, The Hymn to the Night, The Reaper 

and The Flowers, My Lost Youth, The Song of Hiawatha, The Phantom Ship, Evangeline, The Village Blacksmith, The Wreck of the Hesperus, The Old Clock on the Stairs and many more.

A Fine Heirloom Copy of a Lovely Collection of Longfellow's Poems.

I just placed this book in my etsy shop For The Love of Old Books the other day, but just photographed the other pages yesterday.  


I hope you enjoyed listening to one of the poems in this wonderful treasure of The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

Every year in April on Patriot's Day,
there is a battle performed in the middle of Lexington Green.  This was a drive-by photo taken by me.  You can tell these gents were not too thrilled at my request for a smile.  

The Makers of Venice

I guess what caught my eye at first glance when I spotted this book was the beautiful binding, and that the gold leafing is on all corners of the pages.



A lovely scroll design in gold and an illustration are on the front of the book, and the binding. I love the way gold looks against the deep navy blue cover.

"Venice has long borne in the imagination of the world a distinctive position, something of the character of a great enchantress, a magician of the seas.  Her growth between the water and the sky; her great palaces, solid and splendid, built, so to speak, on nothing; the wonderful glory of light and reflection about her; the glimmer of incessant brightness and movement; the absence of all these harsh, artificial sounds which vex the air in other towns, but which in her are replace by harmonies of human voices, and by the liquid tinkle of the waves...all these unusual characteristics combine to make her a wonder and a prodigy."

This book was written by Mrs. Oliphant. Mrs. Oliphant first published The Makers of Venice in 1887. Margaret Oliphant (née Wilson) was born in Wallyford, near Edinburgh, on April 4, 1828.



I love to visualize where an author might have written a book. I found a wonderful site that shows where she lived and gives photographs of her homes.



Mrs. Oliphant was quite an interesting person, and has quite an impressive body of work.  A list of her non-fictional works and fictional novels, as well as her journalism can be found on her web site.



Published in New York  by A.L. Burt Publisher. Written by Mrs.Oliphant
and illustrated by R. R. Holmes 1900




Table of Contents

I. The Doges.
II. By sea and land.
III. The painters.
IV. Men of letters.



The book contains 382 pages, filled with gorgeous black and white illustration plates. Edition: Reprint
Book condition is very good.



A dark blue hard cover with gold gilt lettering and design.



There is a photograph of Leonardo Loredango at the front of the book.  Leonardo Loredan (or Loredano) (November 16, 1436 – June 21, 1521) was the doge of the Republic of Venice from 1501 until his death, in the course of the War of the League of Cambrai.



The book is in my etsy shop, For The Love of Old Books.