RARE NEW ZEALAND BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1932, Page 11

RARE NEW ZEALAND BOOKS

DEFECTIVE COPIES

MARK TWAIN SPEAKS

A TATTERED TREASURE

(By Johannes C. Andersen.)

In aii earlier article I said that no true collector will keep a tattered copy of a book, neither will any true librarian. The late Mr. Turnbull instructed all his agents—and they were numerous and scattered—never to scad him any but perfect copies. The result is that all the books, all the rarities of the Turnbull Library are perfect examples; which means they are things of beauty and joys for ever, and—a further consideration if a minor one—they are all worth top v prices. " If you have a defective copy, you experience a feeling of regret that the defect should be there; and tho better the book is, so much keener is the feeling. "Such was the feeling with which I saw the faults of the Angas in parts spoken "of earlier. HOOHSTETTER'S "NEW ZEALAND." I had started reading before I started earning money; as soon as I started earning money I started collecting—but only such books as I was interested in; English literature, and New Zealand books of all kinds, whether literature or not; and many are not. In these early days I had a chance of securing a copy' of Hochstetter's "New Zealand" of 1867. This is one of the good early books on the geology of New Zealand, written by Ferdinand yon Hoehstetter, assisted by Julius Haast (later Sir Julius yon Haast), geologist for the Canterbury Provincial Council. Hochstetter was the geologist on the Novara, an. Austrian exploration ship, and spent some time in New Zealand, arriving there at the end of 1858. One result of the expedition was the publication of a great set of 21 volumes, which Dr. Hocken says are somewhat difficult to collate I do not quarrel with this remark. Tho geology of New Zealand forms part- of one of them. It was, however, also published separately; an edition in German appearing in 1863, and an English translation in 1867—which was more than a translation. It was a remodelling and a rewriting of a great Jiart of tho book, including later information, for an English audience. It was this English edition I bought for 10s; but two of the seven full-page coloured illustrations were missing. However, a few months later I saw an extremely tattered copy of the same book in a second-hand dealer's, and on examination found that whilst much else was missing, the two plates I needed were there. I secured them for 6d each, so for 11s I got a book that is now worth forty shillings and upward. Most collectors keep the two separately published editions, the English and the German; some libraries also have the full Novara set —but that is too cumbrous for the private collector. There two places in New Zealand named after Hoehstetter—a small lake in "Westland away east Of Brunner and south-east of Ahaura, and. a beautiful peak at the head of the Tasman Glacier. This was named Hochstetter Dom.by Haast (not Dome). * Dom means "a cathedral," and that is a beautiful description, of the peak; dome is meaningless; the-peak has nothing of a dome about it. ■;■_■-. . - . ' . Hochstetter, however, is hardly the "sort 'of tattered.book I set out to speak of; let mo begin my. story. MAEK TWAIN IN ; KEW ZEALAND. In 1895 the great American humorist ■Mark Twain was in New Zealand. Mark Twain was, of course, only his penname, but very few know him by his ordinary name, Samuel L. Clemen's; to his admirers he will always be Mark Twain. There are people who do not appreciate his humour at all. I must confess I do not care for all of it; I never cared, for instance, for his "Yankee at the Court of King Arthur," and some of hi 3 Palestine 'humour savours of the irreverent. All tho same, Mark Twain is one .-who keeps the laughter of the world fresh and healthy. ' .. Jn 1895 he was at the.- height of his fame; but he had suffered financial tuiri through the failure of his publishers, he, like Sir Walter Scott, having entered into partnership. Like Scott, too, ho set to work, though" late in life, to clear off his indebtedness; but whereas Scott did it by writing only, Mark Twain did it by setting put pn a lecturing tour and writing. Ins experiences thereafter, so making a double market. ■ HUMOROUS .YARNS. Naturally, I knew his "Jumping IVog," his "Tom Sawyer," his "Huckleberry Finn," his "Innocents Abroad," and when he visited Christchurch, where'l then lived, I determined to see and hear him. This I did on 15th November, 1895. In appearance he was not at'all my i<Jea'of a humorist. From what.l remember he was rather on the short.side, stockily built, with a great, head of-white hair. He walked quietjy- oh to the. stage, and in a subdued, deliberate voice told his yarns with hardly the shadotv of a smile. - .'.■-. ■ . - A reputation for wit or humour is a great asset. I-'remember that from another personage,.the late Judge Alpers. Whenever he got up to speak you could feel your neighbours settling themselves to' anticipated enjoyment—especially in men's gatherings, for he was best then (the lajiies must forgive me). Why, there was laughter almost before he opened his mouth; his very appearance as he stood there was provocative; and slight things that from others without Us reputaton would hardly have won a smile, freqi him evoked uproarious merriment. He had it in his eye; his mobile moutli; his very attitude. So accustomed \r«e his friends to hearing smart things and humorous things from his lips that they often suspected a witticism where none was intended, and laughed heartily rather than let anyone think they did not see the joke. ■ And this sort of joke Alpers himself enjoyed, and with some sardonic remark set the~ bawl rolling again. '".'■ There was nothing of this about Mark Twain; he had the reputation for humour, but the appearance for homilies; he looked and spoke as if he were starting a really serious lecture,- and the humour was an after-thought) which made it all the more telling no doubt. ■I remember his, stoTy of the green melons (being young myself then) stolen by himself and some other boys. He concluded: "We ran off with the melons, and wo ate them; but afterward we began to feel, sorry that we had taken those melons; we we're sifrry we had stolen them. Because/they were green. And-we thought we had better go to the man from .whoso barrow \vo. took them, and we confessed, and said how sorry we were. That he kept such melons. And we made up our minds never to steal any more melons. That were girth." Or to that effect. It is thirty-six years ago sines I heard it. •He .also told a good yarn of a thunderstorm, and a, ghost story with tlio lights turned down. "Who's got my gooooldenarmi" I remember that story and have- often told it. myself since. THE 'FEARSOME ORNITHORHYNCHUS. He had come from Australia, and was impressed by the strange animals of that country, whose fauna included, as ho said, the kangaroo, the ornithorhynchus, the larrikin, and the boomerang. He felt inspired to write an ode to the bright continent. He hadn't written

any poetry for thirty years, and supposed it might be thirty years before he wrote any more. He managed to get three lines of his ode to Australia, when inspiration failed him. He could get no further than— Land of the oniithorhyiichus, Laud of the kangaroo, Bonds of heredity link us Something or other to you. When he was at Warrhnoo, in Christchurch, he expressed a regret that he did not got an ornithorhynchus to take away home with him. Ho had described it as an animal that was trowel-shaped, not at the one end, but at the other; and he was surprised and gratified when the wizard of Warrimoo went to his cupboard, inexhaustible as a wizard's hat or rather a cornucopia, and produced a skin of the animal in question, asking him to accept it as a souvenir. It was like Bhoderick Dhu's "Have then thy wish." He makes a note of this in "More Tranips Abroad":— 16th. November.—After four pleasant days in Christchurch, we are leaving at midnight to-night. Mr. Kinsey gave me an ornithorhynchus, and I am taming it. Who does not remember his speaking of the terrors of the German language with its ' tangled genders and its terrible compound words,, some of which are so long that they have a perspective? And who can forget his remark, on a premature report of his death having^ been circulated, to the effect that the report was grossly exaggerated ? TOM SAWYER IN RAGS. I have not forgotten about the tattered books; I am coming to that. When he was at Warrimoo, Mark Twain learned that his works were not unknown there —-which ones? The daughter of Warrimoo was asked to bring her "Tom Sawyer"; but she was diffident. Why? It was so tattered, through much reading. However, it was brought, and Mark Twain looked at one of his own books, read and re-read until it hardly hung together. This was true flattery to an author; or, rather, it was sincere compliment; and he inserted the following inscription in the book:— To Miss May Kinsey,— Age is disreputable, and a thing to be contemned —humanly speaking; but when an author observes the signs of it in a book of his own in another person's possession ho recognises that in that case age is a most pleasant and respectable thing,— Truly yours, -S. L. CLEMENS. (Mark Twain)J loth November, '95. This is a tattered, book that is^worth. keeping and treasuring; the inscription explains the tatters, the tatters inspired the- inscription. This is the kind of association book that collectors prize. The presenco of such a book in New Zealand would draw the eyes of even Dr. Bosenbach in this direction. On the same day Mark Twain inscribed another of his books at Warrimoo in characteristic fashion. The book was "Tramps Abroad": — TTnto my friend Kinsey I wisli to recommend a sentiment from "Pudd'nhead "Wilson": Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. — Sincerely yours, S. L. CLEMENS. (Mark Twain). 15th November, '95. Warrimoo has yet other inscribed Mark Twains, and many other association books beside; and it may bo justifiable to include Hare Books in New Zealand in the title to these articles — Rare .New Zealand Books.'