Keogh'S Books

Having looked at the New Naturalists and seen how natural history was a vehicle for advances in book design and war time propaganda, it is interesting to move further back in the history of its publishing and review some of the shoulders upon which that series stands. Opportunity arose for me guise of Jardine's "The Naturalist's Library"... Natural History was among the collectables of the Victorian period, becoming quite the craze. [ 253 more words ]
https://keoghsbooks.wordpress.com/…/nat ural-history-going-…/

The first meetings in the development of the New Naturalist (NN) series took place in 1942, amidst the conflict of World War II. The books were described by Professor Sir (Laurence) Dudley Stamp as 'a form of escapism' and the series seen as optimistic in the assumption of the outcome of the war - that the British public would be free to read them, untroubled by any new Germanic regime. [ 719 more words ]
https://keoghsbooks.wordpress.com/…/a-f orm-of-escapism-an-…/

Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1664) is best known for his Complete Herbal first published in 1653. Before this he translated and wrote a number of other books, among them a translation of the Pharmacopoeia Londonesis, or the London Dispensatory, to which he added his own views on the cures versus those of the College of Physicians. This really annoyed the college, firstly for translating the book into English, so that they no longer had a closed shop, and probably as much for imputing that many of the college’s cures were not so good. [ 153 more words ]
https://keoghsbooks.wordpress.com/…/01/ nicholas-culpeper-ro…

This Lot caught our eye today; having been sold at auction and being checked through, the gorgeously illustrated end papers grabbed us. The Dolittle novels were illustrated by their author, Mr. Hugh Lofting. Lofting was an Anglo-Irish civil engineer born in January 1886, he served in the Irish Guard during the First World War when the anthropomorphized characters of his novels began to take shape; not wishing to write to his children of the horrors witnessed in Flanders nor the banality of the day-to-day trench life, he sent home imaginative illustrated letters. [ 242 more words ]
https://keoghsbooks.wordpress.com/…/a-l ot-of-doctor-dolittle

"The Miseries of Human Life; or the Groans of Samuel Sensitive, and Timothy Testy; with a Few Supplementary Sighs from Mrs Testy. In Twelve Dialogues as Overheard by James Beresford, A. M. Fellow of Merton College Oxford" - to give it its full title! A curious title; a precursor to "Private Eye"? This satirical little tome, is very William Hogarth in tone, as was another I came across the other day; "The Natural History of Stuck-up People". [ 26 more words ]
https://keoghsbooks.wordpress.com/…/the -miseries-of-human-l…

We love the title of this book, it has such strong visual connotations. Ours sees the work in its fifth edition, dated 1710. We surmise that the concept and title may have been inspired by Proverbs 16:31 "Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life" from the Christian Old Testament of today's Holy Bible. [ 299 more words ]
https://keoghsbooks.wordpress.com/…/a-c ap-of-gray-hairs-for…

The one that got away - again! https://keoghsbooks.wordpress.com/…/the -one-that-got-away-…/