Poem Number 4

Toleration & Inspiration

With an air of contemplation
For reverent evocation
Seeking spiritual supplication

Without the creed of damnation
Nor the taunt of temptation
We will speak the proclamation

Not asking for adulation
Only for consolation
And the need for consecration

Looking for an end to trepidation
For fulfillment of vocation
And hoping for vindication

We will need toleration
And a lot of resignation
With a view to moderation

It will begin our exploration
And provide veneration
That will give edification

It will end the degradation
To give us inspiration
And be free of isolation

© SDS, 2013. All Rights reserved

Three Poems

Three poems – the first Within the Camera Eye was written in 1981. The author never wrote another poem until recently. Then two more were penned saying he “…had a few ideas that needed to be released. The only way to do that was to put pen to paper.”

Here they are in order of composition:

© SDS, 2013. All Rights reserved.

Within The Camera Eye

It’s a queer way to live your life,
Beneath the sod yet not in hell,
No bounds to save you from extremes
To save your measly lousy hides.

The way through boredom is a knife,
If you can’t cut it give a yell,
Then regroup and seek the means
And pray you stay between the lines.

You live within the camera eye,
It’s not unlike the prison cell
Until you’re bursting at the seams,
And your life doesn’t meet your needs.

You need not take another life
Nor the need of a tolling bell.
But reform and seek the dreams,
To learn and take your life in strides.

© SDS, 2013. All Rights reserved
(Written originally in 1981)

——

Darkness & Light

In a world of darkness
Searching for redemption
Finding only heartbreak
Living with the sadness

Hoping for forgiveness
Haunted by the memories
It cannot be mended
Show no resistance

Once there was happiness
In a world of light
There was no fright
When love was endless

© SDS, 2013. All Rights reserved

—–

When Love Is

Thoughts begin to wander
To life’s blunders
Where is the thunder?

We are all drawn
In the morning dawn
To heart’s love gone

Lights flicker on glass
When all cars pass
Then lights flash

Car wheels squeal
Church bells peal
Waiting for our meal

Police sirens whine
While we dine
Was it yours or mine?

Oh yes, it was mine
When you were mine
I thought it was fine

I had hope
We could cope
On that slope

When love is fine
The sun does shine
When love is mine

But when love hurts
And my heart bursts
Love is cursed

© SDS, 2013. All Rights reserved

P.G. Wodehouse Collection

A collection of the first 80 Everyman Edition for sale as a lot. There are a number of other Wodehouse titles thrown in as well. The buyer can also have cabinet also. All books in Fine condition – as new. All for £300.00 – can be picked up in Bedford, UK or buyer arrange shipping.

If you are unfamiliar with the Everyman Wodehouse see the EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY P G WODEHOUSE website. They will publish all of Wodehouse in uniform hardcovers. Acid free paper, cloth covered boards & sewn binding. They also have nice art deco artwork on the dust jackets. See picture below.

Check out Silent Film DVD Collection for Sale for a list of DVDs & some Blu-ray’s for sale & see AMAZON SHOP for other books & DVDs: .

Click image to enlarge

Silent Film DVD Collection for Sale

The following is a list of nearly 400 items of Silent Films – in DVD & Blu-ray. Region 1/A & Region 2/B  & Region 0 formats. Only one item of each is available so if interested please contact me by email: bedfordbookconnections@gmail.com. There are documentaries as well as sound fils related to Silent Film and/or directors/actors.

All items are in Bedford. UK and pick up can be arranged. I will ship at cost.

I am will to discuss offers for several or all items.

The list can be browsed below (clinking “more” to see the rest) or you can click HERE FOR A PDF OF ALL ITEMS.

I also have a number of Classic & modern films on DVDs for sale. See picture below:

Click image above to enlarge – it is a bit blurred but you will see most of my collection – all items for sale. If there is a title you have been looking for then please email me. I am also selling a number of Film History books as well.

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3 Silent Classics by Josef Von Sternberg (Underworld / Last Command / Docks of New York) [DVD] [Region 1] [Criterion Collection] -£40.00

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£10.00

The Adventures Of Prince Achmed [DVD] [Region 2] [BFI] -£35.00

Aelita: Queen of Mars [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£15.00

Affairs of Anatol [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£20.00

America [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] –Digipak -£12.00

Anders als die Andern  (Different From the Others) [DVD] [Region 0] [Edition Filmmuseum] -£12.00

Arsenal [DVD] [Region 2] [Mr Bongo Films] -£6.00

Arsenal [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£12.00

Asphalt [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£8.00

Buster Keaton: Art of Buster Keaton [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£98.00

Asta Nielsen Collection (Afgrunden/Balletdanserinden/ Den sorte drøm/ Mod lyset) (The Abyss/The Ballet Dancer/The Black Dream/Towards the Light) (DVD) (Danish Silent Classics) (Region Free) -£20.00

A Throw Of Dice [DVD] [Region 2] [BFI] -£8.00

Atlantis (DVD) (Danish Silent Classics) (Region Free) -£20.00

Avant Garde: Experimental Cinema of 1920′s & 30′s [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£85.00

Avant Garde: Experimental Cinema 2 – 1928 – 1954 [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£95.00

Bardelys the Magnificent [DVD] [Region 1] [Flicker Alley] -£25.00

The Bat [DVD] [Region 1] [Alpha Video] -£8.00

Battleship Potemkin [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£10.00

Battleship Potemkin [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka] -£5.00

Battle of Sexes [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] –Digipak -£12.00

Beau Brummel [DVD] [Region 1] [Televista] -£5.00

Bed & Sofa & Chess Fever [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£13.00

Before Hollywood There Was Fort Lee: Early Moviemaking in New Jersey [DVD] [] [Region 1] [Image] -£10.00

Before The Nickelodeon: The Early Cinema Of Edwin S Porter [DVD] [Region 1] [BFI] -£7.00

Beggars of Life [DVD-R [Region 1] [Grapvine Video] -£8.00

Bells [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£12.00

Beloved Rogue [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£22.00

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City & Opus 1 [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£20.00

Blade af Satans bog (Leaves From Satan’s Book) (DVD) (Danish Silent Classics) (Region 0) -£18.00

Blind Husbands & Great Gabbo  [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£10.00

Blind Husbands (Die Rache der Berge) [DVD] [Region 0] [Edition Filmmuseum] -£20.00

The Blot [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£16.00

Blue Bird [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£10.00

The Bridal Party in Hardanger (Brudeferden i Hardanger) (DVD) [Region 0] [Norsk Filminstitutt] -£23.00

Buster Keaton – A Hard Act To Follow [DVD] [Region 2] [Netwerk] -£7.00

The Buster Keaton Collection [DVDs] [Region 2] [Eureka] – £15.00

Buster Keaton Collection (TCM Archives) [DVD] [Region 1] [Warner Bros] -£20.00

Cabinet of Dr Caligari [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£7.00

Cabinet of Dr Caligari [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£8.00

Cabiria [DVD] [1914] [2014] [Region 1] [Kino-£14.00

Cameraman's Revenge & Other Fantastic Tales [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£8.00

Chang [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£55.00

Captain Fracasse [DVD] [2029] [Region 1] [Image] -£14.00

Cat & The Canary [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£7.00

Cecil B. De Mille’s Carmen [DVD] [Region 1] [VAI] -£10.00

Chaliapin – the Adventures of Don Quixote (DVD) [Region 2] [Vai] -£8.00

Chaplin’s Goliath [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] [Slight scuffing to playing surface but plays perfectly] -£8.00

Chaplin [DVD] [Region 2] [Universal] -£8.00

The Chaplin Collection Vol.1 – Modern Times/The Great Dictator/The Gold Rush/Limelight/Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin [DVD] [Region 2] [MK2] -£35.00

The Chaplin Collection Vol.2 – The Circus/City Lights/The Kid/Monsieur Verdoux/A King in New York/A Woman in Paris [DVD] [Region 2] [MK2] -£25.00

Charlie Chaplin at Keystone [DVD] [Region 2] [BFI] -£12.00

Charlie Chaplin – The Essanay Films – Vol. 1 [DVD] [Region 2] [BFI]-£7.00

Charlie Chaplin – The Essanay Films – Vol. 2 [DVD] [Region 2] [BFI] -£7.00

Charlie Chaplin – The Mutual Films – Vol. 1 [DVD] [Region 2] [BFI] -£7.00

Charlie Chaplin – The Mutual Films – Vol. 2 [DVD] [Region 2] [BFI] -£7.00

The Chaplin Revue [DVD] [Region 2] [MK2] -£15.00

The Chess Player [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£20.00

Chicago [DVD] [1927] [Region 1] [Flicker Alley] –£20.00

Cigarette Girl of Mosselprom [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£10.00

Le Cinema Premier, Vol. 1 – 1897-1913 (Gaumont) [DVD] [Region 2] [Gaumont-France] -£35.00

City Girl [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£10.00

City Girl [Blu-ray] [Region B] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£12.00

Civil War Films of Silent Era [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£5.00

Clinging Vine & Age of Ballyhoo [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£10.00

Coeur Fidele [Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD] [Region 2 & Region B] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£10.00

Coffret Deluxe Louise Brooks 3 DVD – Loulou / Journal d’une fille perdue / Prix de beauté [Carlotta Films France] -£45.00

The Complete Buster Keaton Short Films [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£20.00

Cottage on Dartmoor [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£15.00

A Countess From Hong Kong [DVD] [Region 2][ Universal] -£3.00

Crime & Punishment [DVD] [Region 1] [Alpha Video] -£2.50

Cyrano De Bergerac [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£5.00

Das Cabinet Des Dr Caligari [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka-2000] -£6.00

Das Testament Des Dr Mabuse (Dual Format SteelBook Edition) [DVD & Blu-ray] [Region 2 & Region B] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£15.00

Daughter of the Night [DVD] [Region 1] [Alpha Video] –with Bela Lugosi -£4.00

Deerslayer & Chingachgook [DVD] [Region 1] [Alpha Video] –with Bela Lugosi -£4.00

Different From the Others (Anders als die Andern) [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£11.00

The Golem [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£7.50

The Golem [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka] -£7.00

Der letzte Mann (aka The Last Laugh) [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£8.00

Der Tiger von Eschnapur / Das indische Grabmal (Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic) [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£10.00

Destiny [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£10.00

Devil’s Needle & Other Tales of Vice & Redemption [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£12.00

Diary of Lost Girl [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£8.00

Diary of a Lost Girl [Region 2] [DVD] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£9.00

Die elf Teufel & König der Mittelstürmer (The Eleven Devils / King of the Centre Forwards – 2-DVD Set) [DVD] [Region 0] [Edition Filmmuseum] -£30.00

Die Nibelungen [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£10.00

Die Nibelungen [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£12.00

Die Nibelungen [Blu-ray] [Region B] [Eureka – Masters of Cinema] -£18.00

Discovering Cinema [DVD] [Region 1] [Flicker Alley] -£20.00

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1913 & 1920 Versions) [DVD]  [Region 1] [Alpha Video] -£3.00

Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£6.00

Dr Mabuse the Gambler [DVD] [Region 1] [Kino] -£7.00

Dr Mabuse the Gambler [DVD] [Region 2] [Eureka] -£8.00

Dr Mabuse Collection (Return of Dr Mabuse-1081/Invisible Dr Mabuse-1962/Death Ray Mirror of Dr Mabuse-1964) [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£7.00

Don’t Change Your Husband/The Golden Chance [DVD] [Region 1] [Image] -£10.00

Douglas Fairbanks Collection [DVD] [1925] [Region 1] [Kino] -£40.00

Douglas Fairbanks: Modern Musketeer [DVD] [Region 1] [Flicker Alley] -£55.00

Down to Sea in Ships & Parisian [DVD] [1923] [Kino] -£10.00

Dragon Painter [DVD] [Region 1] [Milestone] -£12.00

Dynamite Dan (with Boris Karloff)[DVD] [Region 1] [Alpha Video] -£3.50

The Early Hitchcock Collection [DVD] [Region 2] [Optimum Home Entertainment] -£22.00

A Room for Writing & A Place to Entertain

As the 19th Century gave way to the 20th and with the dawning of the Victorian Age Henry James was entering the final years of the fifth decade of his life. By this time he had traded his fourth floor flat in Kensington (see A Flat of One’s Own) for a stately home in East Sussex. This was Lamb House, located in the town of Rye: even more spacious than the London flat, having a walled garden and a special place in which to write.

James would purchase the house outright in 1899 and found it a congenial spot to entertain such eminent guests as H.G.Wells, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling and others. While at Lamb House he would write a number of novels including The Wings of the Dove (1902); The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904). Lamb House would even make an appearance in one of his novels, sitting in as the home of Mr Longdon in The Awkward Age (1899). His writing location of choice was the The Garden Room of The Garden House, a small self-contained building overlooking the street and the front of Lamb House itself. It was a room of his own, retreating only in cold weather to the Green Room on the first floor of the main house.

Henry James would spend the majority of his time at Lamb House but rented rooms at the Reform Club in Pall Mall while in London. The Reform Club served as his London base until 1913 when he relocated to 21 Carlyle Mansions on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. The flat was “L” shaped and overlooked the Thames. Compton Mackenzie, friend and fellow writer described his study: “On the right of the window was a desk at which he could write, standing; along the wall on the left was a day bed with a swivel-desk attached on which he could write, lying; in front of the window was a large knee-hole desk at which he could write, sitting” . It was here, at Carlyle Mansions, that James would suffer a stroke in December of 1915 and in the following year, on 28 February Henry James would pass away, unable to return to his beloved Lamb House as was his wish.

Here are a few pictures of Lamb House shortly following the death of Henry James.

This view shows Lamb House on the right and The Garden House in the distance:

The front of Lamb House & The Garden House. Photo by Nathaniel Lloyd on 18 July, 1916.

This view is of the walled garden of Lamb House with the back of the main house in the background and The Garden House to the right:

The back of Lamb House and walled garden. Photo by Nathaniel Lloyd on 07 July, 1916.

Henry James in the Garden with Lamb House behind.

The oak parlour of Lamb House. Photo by Nathaniel Lloyd on 07 July, 1916.

One corner of the dinning room at Lamb House. Photo by Nathaniel Lloyd on 07 July, 1916.

Hall & stairs at Lamb House. Photo by Nathaniel Lloyd on 07 July, 1916.

Henry James’ study at Lamb House

Here is a close up of The Garden House followed by an interior shot. The building was originally built as a banqueting room in 1743 and destroyed during a bombing raid in 1940:

The Garden House seen from the street at Lamb House. Photo by Nathaniel Lloyd on 13 April, 1916.

The Garden Room where Henry James wrote at Lamb House. Photo by Nathaniel Lloyd on 07 July, 1916.

Lamb House, a Georgian style building dates from 1723 and built by James Lamb whose name the house would acquire. Lamb was Mayor of Rye and had the grandest home in the town. During a sever storm in 1726 King George I would seek refuge at the Lamb’s residence, the only residence nearby thought suitable for a king. The Lambs gave shelter to the King for several days during which time Mrs Lamb gave birth to a son that would be christened George with the King becoming godfather. James Lamb gave up his bed for the King with the room later taking on the name “the King’s Room.”

A corner of the King’s Room at Lamb House as seen today.

While visiting Rye in the 1890s James came upon the house by chance and was enchanted by it. In 1897 Lamb House came on the rental market and he took out a lease. Then two years later, in 1899, would purchase the property for £2000.00. During the first decade of the 20th century Lamb House buzzed with the Literary icons of the age. James’ guest lists read as a who’s who of late Victorian and early Edwardian Literary elite. Guests included G. K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, Ford Maddox Ford, Edmund Gosse, Hugh Walpole, Edith Wharton, H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad,  et cetera, et cetera. Rye was clearly a literary hot spot at the dawn of the 20th century with Lamb House at its centre.

A few modern pictures of Lamb House as it looks today.

To the left of the entrance in the first picture can be seen part of the garden wall – the location that The Garden House stood:

The front of Lamb House as it appears today.

The back of Lamb House with the garden as seen today.

In 1918, two years after the death of Henry James Lamb House would become home to A.C. and E.F. Benson, both familiar with the house and friends of the late James. E.F. Benson would write his Mapp and Lucia novels after getting inspiration while looking from The Garden Room window.

In 1950 Lamb House was presented to the National Trust by James’ heir, the widow of his nephew. Today Lamb House is open to the public with the garden as it was in the time of Henry James and a number furnishings still in the house. Information on times, prices and directions can be found at the National Trust page for Lamb House.

A Flat of One’s Own

In 1886 Henry James moved into a 4th floor flat at 34 De Vere Gardens, Kensington. A spacious space with a sitting room, study, library, a large master bedroom, guest room and servants quarters. Its nearness to Kessington Gardens delighted James: “that paradise which is a wondrous thing to find in the heart of a great city.” He took out a lease for 21 years writing  ”…I shall be as cosseted and bourgeois as my means will permit, and have large fat sofas…” even hiring a married couple to keep house for him and take care of Tosca his dog for £10.00 a month. In 1898 he moved to Lamb House, Rye, East Sussex spending only the winters in Kessington until the turn of the century. While at De Vere Gardens James would publish a number of novels and short stories including: The Reverberator (1888); The Tragic Muse (1890); The Spoils of Poynton (1897) and would work on The Turn of the Screw (1898). In 1895 James’ play Guy Domville was staged and following its premiere performance its author was booed of the stage, thus effectively ending his writing for the theatre.

34 De Vere Gardens as it appears today with plaque commemorating Henry James’ time there:

Henry James occupied Flat 13 on the 4th floor at 34 De Vere Gardens

Quiet and Genteel Retirement

Brief Summary of Washington Square*:

When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father’s love and approval and her passion for the first man who has ever declared his love for her, Catherine faces an agonising dilemma, and becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. James’s masterly novel deftly interweaves the public and private faces of nineteenth-century New York society; it is also a deeply moving study of innocence destroyed.

—-

Washington Square Park was named after George Washington (1732-1799) but before being a park it was marsh land near a Native American village called Sapokanikan or “Tobacco Field”. In 1797 it was taken over by the Common Council as the New York City Council was called at that time. The land was used as a common burial ground or “potters field” with estimates as high as 100,000 being interred.  Mostly the poor of New York City or victims of disease such as the yellow fever epidemic that swept through New York City in 1798. At the same time the land did double duty as a location for public execution. Then by 1826 it served briefly as a Military Parade ground but in 1827 it was designated as a public space and park.

Washington Square as a military parade ground prior to 1827.

By 1827 many wealthy families began relocating to the northern end of the park building mansions as James describes in his novel. With the James’  settling nearby as well in Washington Place where Henry James, Jr would be born in 1843 (see Being Born Was Only the Beginning).  Henry James described the area and houses in his 1880 novel Washington Square as,

“The ideal of quiet and genteel retirement, in 1835, was found in Washington Square, where the doctor built himself a handsome, modern, wide-fronted house, with a big balcony before the drawing-room windows, and a flight of white marble steps ascending to a portal which was also faced with white marble.”

1835 would also be the year that would see the park used as the location of the first public demonstration of the telegraph by Samuel F.B. Morse, a professor at the nearby New York University. For more on the telegraph see Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of Their Queen).

The park went through a number of changes in the late 1800s including the erection of the Washington Arch in 1888 as a wooden structure to be replaced by its marble counterpart a few years later (1890-1892). The park remains to this day a haven within New York City and has been described as the heart of Greenwich Village.

The marble Washington Arch finished in 1892.

Growing up a few streets away from the park Henry James knew it, and the neighbourhood well. Therefore, setting a book where Greek Revival mansions lined the streets and using the Washington Square environs is not a surprise. Washington Square first appeared as a serial in Cornhill Magazine and Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1880 and on 01 December of the same year Harper & Brothers of New York City would publish it in book form. Somewhat like his first novel, Watch and Ward (see A Disowned Novel), Henry James did not think very highly of Washington Square in later years. So much so that he did not included it in the  New York Edition of his fiction (1907–1909).

Houses along Washington Square North flanking the park.

Dispite Henry James’ dislike of the novel it has been popular with his readers. Popular enough to have Ruth and Augustus Goetz write a play, based on the novel, called The Heiress. The play was first performed on Broadway in 1947 featuring Wendy Hiller and Basil Rathbone, and later adapted for the screen staring Olivia de Havilland and Ralph Richardson in 1949 with the great William Wyler in the director’s seat. There would also be an opera based on the book in 1976 and a further film version in 1997.

—–

*From the Penguin Classics edition of the novel.