sub-titles (!)

DiscussionsTattered but still lovely

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sub-titles (!)

12wonderY
Oct 30, 2014, 8:42 am

Wild Life in Oregon by Gustavas Hines, published in 1881

"Being a Stirring Recital of Actual Scenes of Daring and Peril among the Gigantic Forests and Terrific Rapids of the Columbia River (the Mississippi of the Pacific Slope). And giving live-like pictures of Terrific Encounters with Savages as Fierce and Relentless as its Mighty Tides. Including a full, fair and reliable History of the State of Oregon, its crops, minerals, timber lands, soil, fisheries; its present greatness, and future vast capabilities, and paramount position. By Gustavas Hines, the fearless explorer of the Northern Pacific coast."

22wonderY
Oct 30, 2014, 2:47 pm

The Dream City: A Portfolio of Photographic Views of the World's Columbian Exposition from 1893 has a long enough title, eh? The sub-(sub)title is

"Comprising Its Marvelous Architectural, Sculptural, Artistic, Mechanical, Agricultural, Industrial, Archaeological, Ethnological, Historical and Scenic Attractions. Also Presenting and Describing The Magnificant Vistas, Water-Ways, Natural Scenery and Landscape Effects All Conveying Authentic Realistic Impressions As Received By the Actual Visitor."

32wonderY
Oct 30, 2014, 3:21 pm

one for fuzzi

Wild Animals I Have Known, published in 1898.

"Being the personal histories of Lobo, Silverspot, Raggylug, Bingo, The Springfield Fox, The Pacing Mustang, Wully, and Redruff."

42wonderY
Oct 30, 2014, 3:23 pm

A New Letter-Writer for the Use of Ladies, no publication date.

"Embodying Letters on the Simplest Matters of Life, and on Various Subjects, with Applications for Situations, Etc. and a Copious Appendix of Forms of Address, Bills, Receipts. and Other Useful Matter. Compiled from the Best Previous Works on the Subject, with Considerable New Additions, Hints on Style, Etc., Etc."

(I just finished a long and onerous assignment, so I'm rewarding myself.)

5Cynfelyn
Oct 30, 2014, 6:42 pm

Walter Carruthers Sellar & Robert Julian Yeatman, 1066 and all that

: a memorable history of England, comprising all the parts you can remember including one hundred and three good things, five bad kings and two genuine dates

62wonderY
Modifié : Oct 31, 2014, 11:37 am


**like**

7fuzzi
Oct 31, 2014, 8:06 pm

>7 fuzzi: me too!

I was thinking, the long subtitles were like a blurb/review.

82wonderY
Nov 3, 2014, 10:02 am

I think you're right.

And mine are more prevelant in non-fiction before 1900. But I know at least one member here who's fiction sub-titles are awesome.
Liz?

92wonderY
Nov 3, 2014, 10:05 am

Pippins and Cheese

"Being the Relation of How a Number of Persons Ate a Number of Dinners at Various Times and Places" 1897

Oddly, I've never cracked this book open. I bought it because it has such a nice binding.

102wonderY
Nov 3, 2014, 10:20 am

The Zoo Book: Wild Animals and Birds of Jungle and Forest

"Containing full and graphic descriptions of the animals and birds of the globe: their habits, modes of life and peculiar traits. Monsters of the ancient world and curious creatures of land and sea. Forming a vast museum of all that is marvelous in natural history. Illustrated by delightful anecdotes and thrilling adventures --- profusely illustrated with copperplate etchings and line drawings"

112wonderY
Modifié : Nov 3, 2014, 11:17 am

Doing fill-in research for Henry Davenport Northrop, author of The Zoo Book, I stumbled upon The College of Life, or, Practical Self-Educator : a manual of self-improvement for the colored race, which I had to Wishlist. What a remarkable book.

sub-title is "Forming an Educational Emancipator and a Guide to Success, giving examples and achievements of successful men and women of the race as an incentive and inspiration to the rising generation, including Afro-American Progress Illustrated, the whole embracing business, social, domestic, historical and religious education, embellished with hundreds of superb engravings."

The digital book can be found HERE and the reading is fascinating.
I see that it's in Legacy Library maggielwalker.

edited to correct author spelling. Northrop seems to have had wide-ranging interests, and all of his books proclaim in superlatives. A shelf of his books might have been all the education you'd ever need.

12MrsLee
Nov 3, 2014, 11:30 am

So were subtitles the norm before bookcovers came into vogue? I know nothing about the timing of when publishers started using bookcovers, or when subtitles stopped being so extensive a description of what is inside. Or if they have stopped.

132wonderY
Modifié : Nov 3, 2014, 11:41 am

Well, Northrop's books seem to have both - very busy eye-catching covers and full page descriptors on the title page. I think they went hand in hand for certain categories of books, as marketing tools.

14fuzzi
Nov 3, 2014, 12:19 pm

>9 2wonderY: "I bought it because it has such a nice binding."

You judged a book by its cover???? HORRORS!!!

;)

152wonderY
Modifié : Nov 3, 2014, 4:46 pm

The Economical Cook Book, A Practical Guide for Housekeepers in the Preparation of Every Day Meals, 1905

"...containing more than one thousand domestic receipts, mostly tested by personal experience with suggestions for meals, lists of meats and vegetables in season, &c."

How 'bout that meats and vegetables in season!

>14 fuzzi: I'm ignoring your jibe.

16fuzzi
Nov 3, 2014, 7:50 pm

:p

172wonderY
Nov 4, 2014, 3:54 pm

Here's one from 1970, but possibly done in admiring imitation of the older books

Daughters of the Promised Land, Women in American History

"Being an examination of the strange history of the female sex from the beginning to the present with special attention to the women of America, illustrated by curious anecdotes and quotations by divers authors, ancient and modern."

The dedication is a page long too.

I don't remember owning this, but apparently so, LT helpfully indicating so after I entered the one I bought at the book sale yesterday, so will probably post it in the free to a good home thread too after I double-check.

18SilverKitty
Nov 23, 2014, 4:57 pm

>14 fuzzi: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

192wonderY
Jan 16, 2015, 12:40 pm

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALAMITY By Earthquake and Fire

A Complete and Accurate Account of the Fearful Disaster which Visited the Great City and the Pacific Coast, the Reign of Panic and Lawlessness, the Plight of 300,000 Homeless People and the World-wide Rush to the Rescue TOLD BY EYEWITNESSES
Including graphic and reliable accounts of all great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in the world’s history, and scientific explanations of their causes. With nearly 100 illustrations made especially for this work, showing the havoc caused by fire, earthquake and volcanic convulsions.

whew!

20fuzzi
Jan 16, 2015, 7:50 pm

Can you say that out loud without pausing to breathe? ;)

21SylviaC
Jan 16, 2015, 9:36 pm

Make sure you emphasize the capitals.

222wonderY
Jan 26, 2015, 3:58 pm

I remembered another member used to collect some of the loveliest extended titles, and she hasn't had time to join in here, so I went on a raiding party.

A True Relation Of A Horrid Murder Committed upon the Person of Thomas Kidderminster

of Tupsley in the County of Hereford, Gent. At the White-Horse Inn in Chelmsford in the county of Essex, in the Month of April, 1654. Together With A True Account of the Strange and Providential Discovery of the same Nine Years after: For which Moses Drayne, an Hostler in the said Inn, was Executed at Brentwood in the same County, in the Year 1667, being Thirteen Years after the Commission of the said Murder. Whose Arraignment, Conviction and Attainder appears by the Records of the Circuit of that Year

232wonderY
Jan 27, 2015, 11:35 am

Once a Week is Ample:

Being Quotations Compiled by Gerard Macdonald from the Most Respected Sources of Advice to the Male and Female, Written with Delicacy and Refinement

242wonderY
Jan 27, 2015, 12:33 pm

The London Jilt; or, The Politick Whore.

Shewing, All the Artifices and Stratagems which the Ladies of Pleasure make use of for the Intreaguing and Decoying of Men; Interwoven with several Pleasant Stories of the Misses Ingenious Performances

my eyes are tingling.

25thorold
Jan 28, 2015, 7:48 am

>22 2wonderY:
...which shows very nicely that spoiler-angst was not seen as a problem in the 17th century!

262wonderY
Mar 28, 2021, 11:17 am

The pictorial history of the world embracing full and authentic accounts of every nation of ancient and modern times Showing the causes of their prosperity and decline And including a full and comprehensive history of the rise and fall of the Greek and Roman Empires, the growth of the nations of Modern Europe, the Middle Ages, the Crusades, the Feudal System, the Reformation, the Discovery and Settlement of the New World, Etc., Etc.... With sketches of the leading characters in the world's history - 1886 edition

27fuzzi
Mai 25, 2021, 7:30 am

28spiralsheep
Mai 25, 2021, 8:01 am

This thread is delightful!

Last month I read The Mysteries of Love & Eloquence, or, The arts of wooing and complementing as they are manag'd in the Spring Garden, Hide Park, the New Exchange, and other eminent places : a work in which is drawn to the life the deportments of the most accomplisht persons, the mode of their courtly entertainments, treatments of their ladies at balls, their accustom'd sports, drolls and fancies, the witchcrafts of their perswasive language in their approaches, or other more secret dispatches, by Edward Phillips, 1658.

292wonderY
Mai 25, 2021, 10:02 am

30spiralsheep
Mai 25, 2021, 11:05 am

The other wonderful subtitle I saw recently was yet another 17th century book, from 1622:

"A Plaine Explanation of the VVhole Revelation of Saint John. Very neceffary and comfortable in thefe dayes of trouble and affliction in the church. Penned by a faithfull Preacher, now with God, for more priuate vfe, and now publifhed for the further benefit of the people of G o d."

Although I can't say that I found the illustrated title page especially "comfortable", lol, but it is a theological spectacular:

https://dominicwinter.blob.core.windows.net/stock/676100-0.jpg?v=63751663264490

31spiralsheep
Modifié : Mai 31, 2021, 8:39 am

Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent, collected medical recipes that were published after her death in "A Choice Manual, or Rare Secrets in Physick and Chirurgery Collected and Practised by the Right Honourable the Countess of Kent, late deceased. Whereto are added several experiments of the vertue of Gascon powder, and lapis contra yarvam by a professor of physick. As also most exquisite ways of preserving, conserving, candying &c."

This book went through 22 editions from 1653 to 1726 and included recipes such as "The Countess of Kent’s Powder: good against all malignant and Pestilent diseases, French pox, Small Pox, Measles, Plague, Pestilence, malignant or Scarlet Fevers, good against Melancholy."

The Countess is in what appears to 21st century eyes as a rather scandalous portrait, although the style was fashionable at the time....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth_Grey,_Countess_of_Kent_-_Van_Somer_...

Alethea Howard, Countess of Arundel, sister of the above lady, also collected medical recipes that were published in 1655 as "Natura exenterata: or Nature unbowelled by the most exquisite anatomizers of her. Wherein are contained, her choicest secrets digested into receipts, fitted for the cure of all sorts of infirmities, whether internal or external, acute or chronical, that are incident to the body of man. Collected and preserved by several persons of quality and great experience in the art of medicine, whose names are prefixed to the book. Containing in the whole, one thousand seven hundred and twenty. Very necessary for such as regard their owne health, or that of their friends. VVhereunto are annexed, many rare, hitherto un-imparted inventions, for gentlemen, ladies and others, in the recreations of their different imployments. With an exact alphabetical table referring to the several diseases, and their proper cures."