Sunny September – in Denmark and Tiveden

Today is Sunday and the 2nd day of September and a nice and sunny one at that.

In a way perhaps far to nice to browse old books at the sale in the Heillig Geist Church-house here in central Copenhagen and to afterwards write for my blogs about the finds – here in a somewhat dark and slightly too noisy Baresso café.

Had I realized before going out just how nice a day it is I should probably have opted for a photographic excursion instead.

But be this as it may – here we are and here are some of the books I fetched today. The seller is Nordisk Antikvariat and the unit price today is 20 kr ($3).

1. LITERATURE AND WESTERN MAN. By J.B.Priestley. London 1962, Heinemann/Readers Union. 405p, org. whole cloth and dust jacket.

This nicely kept volume is obviously issued as some kind of a ‘economy model’, but very usable at that. Especially the typeface is adequately large and very legible although the space between lines is somethat tight. Likewise the page margins are rather closely cropped.

On the rear flap of the dust jacket you read:

‘Literature and Western Man is the result of forty years’ reading and re-reading of the best that has been written in half a dozen literatures in the last five hundred years.

‘Taking whole centuries and whole countries in his stride, the author sums up, in that pungent and generous style that is pecularly his own, the achievements of the writers of the Western World since the time of the Renaissance….’.

He starts his treatment of France in the 16. century thus (on page 14):

‘Certain places at certain times seem to men, perhaps in very different places and long afterwards, to possess a magical quality, capturing and holding the imagination.

‘This is true of the Italy of the early Renaissance; it is equally true of France during most of the sixteenth century.

‘We cannot have travelled south-west from Paris without returning in thought, almost as if we shared a dream with men long dead, to the French Renaisance.

‘Above the rich meadows and the mirrors of the water we see the entrancing châteaux built when Francis the First was King, or the castle at Blois where the Valois so often held court; we pass through Vendôme, which was Ronsard’s town, Chinon, where Rabelais was born, and when we have done with the Loire country we probably reach the Dordogne, where Montaigne retired to write his essays.’

2. PARIS OU LE LIVRE DES CENT-ET-UN. Tome Second. Paris, Ladvocat, 1831. 422p. Contemporaty half calf.

I also found vol’s 1, 7 and 14.

I’m not sure how to catalogue these volumes. But perhaps they are quarterly magazines – or something like that?

On the last page is a table of contents, where you find among other

– La Chambre des Députés, par M.A.Bazin.

– Le Salon de Lafayette, par M.Auguste Lucret

– Des Soirées Littéraires, ou Les Poètes Entre Eux, par M. Sainte-Beuve

– L’Abbé Chatel et son Église, par M. Jules Janin.

– Charlatans, Jongleurs, Phénomènes Vivants, etc, par M. Pommier

– Un Atelier de la Rue de L’Ouest, par M.Cosdelier-Delanoue.

– Le Cocher de Cabriolet, par M. Alex. Dumas

– Les Deux Saint-Simoniens, par M. le comte Alexis de Saint-Priets

– Un Bal Chez le Comte D’Appony, par madame la comtesse de Bradi.

– Les Gens de Lettres D’Autrefois, par M. Kèratry

There are six more entries.

Among above authors I only know Sainte-Beuve, the famous literary critic; M. Jules Janin, another literary critic and -historian ((who, incidentally – as I have now learned – took over M. Sainte-Beuve’s seat in the French Academy)); and of course Alex. Dumas (ainé), the prolific author.

I’m not sure whether the other 3 volumes are equally as promising. Also at this point I have no idea if the featured articles are written for this volume or just reprints.

3. LE XVIIe CIÈCLE. Pages Choisies des Récits et des Mémoires les plus Curieux de ce Temps. By André Ducasse. Paris, 1946, Bordas, éditeur. 385p, softcover.

This slightly shabbily manufactured, although passably preserved volume is nevertheless a somewhat lucky strike for myself, being as I am interested in French memoirs, not least from the 17. century.

In the table of contents in the back you find the headings for each of the 6 chapters:

I. LOUIS XIII ET RICHELIEU.

II. LA REGENCE ET LA FRONDE.

III. LE SIECLE DE LOUIS (XIV)

IV. LES AFFAIRES JUDICIAIRES ET RELIGIEUSES

V. LES GENS DE GUERRE.

IV. DECOUVERTE DES PAYS ETRANGERS.

In addition there is an appendix with several useful items, and also an index of names.

But from the French dreamland (of Mr. Priestley) we now for a moment turn our attention towards the diametrically opposite part of Europe – namely that of Bulgaria:

4. ALEXANDER VON BATTENBERG – SEIN KAMPF MIT DEN ZAREN UND BISMARCK. Nach des Ersten Fürsten von Bulgarien Nachgelassenen Papieren und Sonstigen Ungedruckten Quellen. By E.C. Corti. Vien 1920, Seidel & Sohn, 321 p. Org. half cloth (broken).

This volume treats of the occurencies in eastern Balkan (on and) after the Wiener Congress in 1870. But off hand it’s difficult to get a handle on the red thread going through the story as told here. Except for a general feeling it may well be a highly competent and well written account of the problems at issue.

5. VÄGEN TILL ÖVRALID. and ÖVRALID – DRÖMMENS VERKLIGHET. By Kate Bang. Stockholm 1945 and 1946. Bonniers. 261 and 166 p. Bound in orig. half cloth, original dust jackets. The first volume dedicated to ‘Herr Bibliotekar Helge Topsöe-Jensen fra Kate Bang’. The other volume likewise, except from Frederik Bang.

The first volume is introduced like this:

‘Det var Verner von Heidenstams önskan, att mine barn, Karen och Jörgen, skulle få en sann bild av det varme vänskapsförhållande, som bestod mellan honom och mig.

‘Det var han själv som föreslog, att jag skulle föra dagbok, som kunde bli till stöd för vårt minne, när vi en gång i framtiden ville berätta för barnen om våra reseår.

‘Det var också han, som – då vi vid inflyttningen på Övralid beslöt bränna våra gamle brev – yrkade att vi dessförinnan skulle göra ett utdrag ur dem; han ritade röda streck i marginalen för det som skulle bevaras.

‘På hans ålderdom satt vi ofta vid brasan och talade om våra minnen, bläddrande i dagböckerna och brevutdragen. “Väl att du har detta”, sade han, “det skall hjälpa dina barn at förstå varför du har levat och handlat som du gjort.”

‘För åtta år sedan, augusti 1937, såg jag Heidenstam sista gången, för nära sex år sedan tog jag farväl av Karen i Ville d’Avray, och det är två år sedan Jörgen följde mig til färjan i Helsingör.

‘Mina barn har levat i det ockuperade Frankrike och det ockuperade Danmark, medan jag gästat det fria Sverige; den döde och de levande har jag under dessa år kunnat komma nära endast i ‘erindringens rige’.

‘Därför har jag uppfyllt Heidenstams önskan och skrivit om våra minnen långt tidigare än ursprungligen avsett. Flera av Verner von Heidenstams gamla vänner, främst Prins Eugen, har menat att den bild som här givits av Heidenstam kunde ha interesse även för andra än mina barn.’

On the dust cover of the second volume ÖVRALID you read:

‘Med Vägen till Övralid och dess fortsättning, Övralid, har Kate Bang skapat ett av den svenska memoarlitteraturens finaste og personligaste verk.

‘I Övralid ger hon en bild af Heidenstams liv från den höstklara septemberdag år 1925, då han flyttade in på bondgården på Lidberget med den stålande utsikten över Vättern, till hans död 1940.

‘Kate Bang berättar om långa vandringar kors och tvärs genom Tivedens skogar, där skalden på nytt upplever sina barndomsminnen, om ‘Bedstefars’ otvungna samvaro med de båda livliga danske barnen, Jörgen och Karen, om höglasning i biblioteket av Troels-Lund, Ibsen, Hans Larson, Höffding, dansk och svensk lyrik och av nyare författare Pär Lagerkvist och Harry Martinson och till sist om Heidenstams kamp för at hålla liv i sin tynande arbetslåga under de sista tragiska åren…’

I can’t say I’m a great fan, or just a fan, of von Heidenstam or his writings, but nevertheless I feel these memoirs/diaries might certainly be worth a look – and my 6 dollars. Several of the photographs in the books are from Denmark, by the way.

(2./7.Sept.2018)