I have three quirky titles that have been on the shelf for decades, simply because they arrived at times when I needed the practical wisdom contained within them. And, no, these are not revelatory works of morals, transcendence, or great philosophy. They are Jerry Silverman’s Folksinger’s Guitar Guide, E.J. Tangerman’s Whitting and Woodcarving, and Wheeler and Hayward’s Practical Woodcarving and Gilding. The originals of these wore out long ago because they were always at the bottom of my pack, or in the case of the Silverman book, in my guitar case.
The Silverman paperback I picked up at a music store in Greenwich Village when I was struggling to teach myself to play guitar. That was 1962, and I snapped it up days after it was published in January. About a year later I became a hanger on in the Village, and by 1964 I began performing. The Folksinger’s Guitar Guide was my entry into the works of guitar playing. The copy that was mine fell apart and has been replaced at least twice.
The Tangerman book was first I purchased during my Tiki carving days in Baltimore. I taught myself to carve from it. My friend and I were in business making and selling “primitive” art. It was all we could manage; our skill level was relatively low. My friend, by and large, was the conductor of the business – he went out soliciting jobs, directed my efforts, and collected the funds from the sometimes shifty people we dealt with. I struggled to scavenge materials, visit museums for ideas, and whack out very bad carvings. One day, we had a great revelation – the stars, moon, and an aurora appeared. We realized that just the scavenging end of the business made more money, and that’s what we did.
The Wheeler and Hayward book showed up about two years later when I seriously decided to take up carving, learn about tools, methods, and design.
I’ve a large library, but these three were the foundation for some of the most valuable skills I possess, and they are still in regular use.
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I am just amazed you took three books on the road with you!
Acty=ually therre were four, I had a textbook on Dendrology ( trees) that I also still have.
This is an interesting question. For me it would be Goethe’s Italian Journey, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (via my dad) and the third? I have to think about that.
I’d go along with the Rubaiyat, but take a pass on Goethe.
Have you read it? It’s his story about running away from unrequited love to find a bigger world. Plants figure prominently. 😀
Maybe it was just the instructor I had, but I’d prefer to spend an afternoon with Ulysses than Goethe.
That instructor must have been terrible. Wow. I think Goethe’s your guy. His Faust is a seeker, explorer and maker and God refuses to dam him to hell, explaining to the devil, “He’s a man. that is how I designed them.” It’s beautiful. Italian Journey is a prose autobiography. Goethe was (Warhol was right, Goethe was a superstar) trapped by his first major work, Sorrows of Young Werther. He wanted to be something else, do more, and shake off the fans who followed him everywhere dressed like Werther. He was in love with an older woman who played him along. He finally and literally ran away. Didn’t want to be a writer any more. Wasn’t sure he wanted to work for the Duke any more. Thought he was probably an artist. He was good, actually. The way he describes what he saw and learned in Italy? So wonderful. It’s truly just a guy talking. Any teacher who teaches Goethe in such a way that a student ends up disliking him should be taken out and forced to clean Saturday night streets with a brush and bucket. 😄
Here’s Goethe, “Hold your powers together for something good and let everything go that is for you without result and not suited to you.”
Teachers wreck a lot of literature for their students. I don’t want to read Dickens.
every time I read Dickens I try to remember that he was often writing for syndication and, I think, getting paid by the word.
That’s true and he could write a good story. My 9th grade teacher just made me hate him. She made me hate Hemingway, too, but I recovered from that. There are stories no 9th grader should understand, IMO. The Old Man and the Sea is one of them. Now I love it.
Oh God! The Old Man and the Sea in 9th grade!I hated it! Wbile I generally loved Papa otherwise…after all he was a regular at Cafe Rienzi – OK about ten years earlier – but we both had good taste!
You might like this essay, maybe in January or February (kidding). It’s a paper I gave at a conference. My hero is the Crossopetyrigii — the prehistoric lungfish that’s still hanging around. Anyway, since you and I are in our 70s and stuff…
https://marthakennedy.blog/2014/03/22/old-heroes-the-heroism-of-mere-survival/
Opa! Dance Martha, dance. Ah Zorba, old Heroes and Ulysses!
Crossopterigii!