Project Gutenberg #7

• The Home Book of Verse, edited by Burton Egbert Stevenson
  • Volume 1
  • Volume 2
  • Volume 3
  • Volume 4

Also by Mr Stevenson: Poems of American History at Google.

Project Gutenberg #6

• Essays in English Literature: 1780-1860, George Saintsbury, 1890
• Through Russian Snows: A Story of Napoleon's Retreat From Moscow, G.A. Henty, 1902
• Astounding Stories magazine, April 1931

Nameplate fun

I've spend odd moments working on a blog redesign in drupal. Here's a possible nameplate centered on a funny bird I found in an old book at Project Gutenberg; the font is Windsor, which I discovered via the inimitable Andrew Cusack. The notion of putting a large thingamajig between the words came from Mr Cusack's own blog design and his note about the International Herald Tribune's evolving dingbat.

A taste for books

Bibliomania at Project Gutenberg: a resource page.

Project Gutenberg #5

• Canned Fruit, Preserves, and Jellies: Household Methods of Preparation - US Department of Agriculture, 1917
• Bulfinch's Mythology - an 1881 compilation of three earlier works by Thomas Bulfinch:
  • The Age of Fable
  • The Age of Chivalry
  • Legends of Charlemagne

Project Gutenberg #4

• Rhymes Old and New, 1900
• The Talisman (a Waverly novel) - Sir Walter Scott

Project Gutenberg #3

• How to form a library, 1886
• Riders of the purple sage, 1912, Zane Grey
• Traditional nursery songs of England, with illustrations, 1843

Project Gutenberg #2

• English as she is spoke, or, a jest in sober earnest, by Pedro Carolino and José da Fonseca,
• On the Execution of Music, and Principally of Ancient Music, by Camille Saint-Saëns, 1915
• A Short Essay Toward the Improvement of Psalmody Or, An Enquiry How the Psalms of David Ought to Be Translated into Christian Songs, and How Lawful and Necessary It Is to Compose Other Hymns According to the Clearer Revelations of the Gospel, for the Use of the Christian Church, by Isaac Watts
• The Federalist Papers

Project Gutenberg #1

I subscribe to Project Gutenberg's daily rss feed of new books, so I think I'll post a few interesting ones here each day.

• Benjamin Franklin: A Picture of the Struggles of Our Infant Nation One Hundred Years Ago - American Pioneers and Patriots Series
• The Fifth-Dimension Tube: A Complete Novelette - Murray Leinster, from the January 1933 issue of Astounding Stories
• Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters, 1912

Old-time catsup/ketchup recipes

Catsup (ketchup, if you prefer) has been on my mind since supper two nights ago. I'm starting a personal jihad against high-fructose corn syrup, which is what catsup is nowadays, so I wondered what catsup used to be and how I'd make it from scratch.

Well, it started out as a tangy tasty dipping sauce, and there are all kinds of catsup, including tomato catsup, green tomato catsup, walnut catsup, oyster catsup, mushroom catsup, gooseberry catsup, cucumber catsup, currant catsup, apple catsup, and a couple of tarted-up vinegars filed under catsup: celery vinegar and spiced vinegar. All those are from this 1887 book which serendipitously appeared at Project Gutenberg this morning: the The White House Cook Book: Cooking, Toilet and Household Recipes, Menus, Dinner-giving, Table Etiquette, Care of the Sick, Health Suggestions, Facts Worth Knowing, Etc., Etc., The Whole Comprising a Comprehensive Cyclopedia of Information for the Home, by Mrs. F.L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann, Steward of the White House.