Mailbox Labor Day Monday: Transcendental Concord

My friend Kirsten Rian wrote the concluding essay in a new, hauntingly beautiful book of art photography documenting the Transcendentalists of Concord, Massachusetts. She surprised me the other day with a copy of this lovely new book.



Transcendental Concord, photography by Lisa McCarty, texts by Kirsten Rian and Rebecca Norris Webb, published by Radius Books.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION: Transcendental Concord documents the spirit of Transcendentalism, the literary and philosophical movement that arose in the mid-19th century. While the circle of Transcendentalists in New England was wide, at its center was a core group that lived in Concord, Massachusetts. Bronson Alcott and daughter Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau lived within a few miles of each other for nearly 20 years, regularly meeting in each other’s homes and on the paths of Walden Woods to discuss their writings and beliefs. In the course of a year and in every season North-Carolina based photographer Lisa McCarty photographed the sites where these Transcendentalists lived and wrote in Concord. McCarty’s parallel reverence for the natural world is evident in her photographs which point to large and small variations in environment, season and light. McCarty uses long exposures and camera movement in order to capture these variations. Transcendental Concord pays homage to Transcendentalism not only in capturing a shared landscape, but in McCarty’s technique: her keen observation of natural phenomena and openness to experimentation and chance.

What books came into your house last week?

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Happy Labor Day!

I wish my Labor Day looked like this! Instead, I'm on a cross country airplane, on my way to a week long conference in Orlando, Florida. There are plenty of nice things about Florida, but its convenience to my home in Portland, Oregon is not one of them.

Book Beginning: The Girl Inside Me: Poems by Javelin Hardy

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Being raised in a small Southern town has its positive and negative sides. On the positive side, most Southern people I know are the best cooks and lovers I've met. 

-- From the author's introduction, "Minden," to The Girl Inside Me: Poems by Javelin Hardy. In this beautiful collection of poems, Hardy draws on her training and background as a counselor to tell her own story of recovery from abuse.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

FACEBOOK: Rose City Reader has a Facebook page where I post about new and favorite books, book events, and other bookish tidbits, as well as link to blog posts. I'd love a "Like" on the page! You can go to the page here to Like it. I am happy to Like you back if you have a blog or professional Facebook page, so please leave a comment with a link and I will find you.

TWITTER, ETC: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, Google+, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book  Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up.

TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

Book Notes: Plum Sauce by P.G. Wodehouse - Aunt Dahlia

It’s dahlia time! As soon as the roses fade away, the dahlias step up and take their place. I love the exuberance of these garden show offs.

P.G. Wodehouse named the nicer of Bertie Wooster’s two aunts, Aunt Dahlia. He described her as “a large, genial soul” built along the lines of Mae West, and praised for “her humanity, sporting qualities, and general good-eggishness,” and ability to put on a “grande dame act” if the situation calls for it. Sounds like her floral counterpart!

Aunt Dahlia is the one who lives at Brinkley Court outside Market Snodsbury and owns a weekly newspaper for women called Milady’s Boudoir. Aside from Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, Aunt Dahlia appears in more Jeeves novels and short stories (14 total) than any other character.

I'm reading Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion by Richard Usborne, Wodehouse's biographer and acknowledged authority. It compiles sketches of Wodehouse characters, themes, book summaries, and all things Plummy.

Miscellany: Virtual Letterpress from Paperless Post

Here's a break from books for a brief detour to my other hobby, stationery. I love nice stationery -- boxed notes, letterpress cards, French and Italian paper, all of it. I have boxes and boxes and I still use stationery to send personal notes for any excuse I can think of.

And I love to send invitations to parties, small or large: family birthday dinners, brunch with friends, holiday cocktails, backyard bashes, pre-wedding festivities, anything. I used to make them myself, using the fancy stationery I have stashed away. But in the last few years since I started my own law firm, I just don't have time for many DIY projects. I've fallen out of the habit of sending invitations for most things.

So I was more than willing to take Paperless Post up on its offer to make a test run, including their new lines from kate spade new york, Oscar de la Renta, Jonathan Adler, and my favorite Rifle Paper Co., in exchange for a review here on Rose City Reader.

My law firm hosts an annual "clothes swap" event every fall, so I used my coins to make the most elaborate invitation I could come up with.

So what did my invitation look like?

I wanted something feminine, with sort of fall colors, that also looked fun, because this is a casual event. I love the invitation card itself, because the persimmon color is fresh and autumnal and the image is perfect for a clothes swap. The original design said "Put on Your Dancing Shoes," but it was easy to customize the words. You can also change the font itself, the size, or the spacing. And for no additional coins, you can add "letterpress" effect, which I did because I think it makes it look more like paper:

I chose a Rifle Paper Co. background to add flowers and more color:

There were a lot of envelope liners to chose from so I found one in the same persimmon shade with a mottled effect I like:

And, finally, I chose an autumnal stamp:

The design I picked cost "2 coins" and each add on -- fancy Rifle Paper Co. background, adding an envelope, coordinating envelope liner, fancy stamp -- cost an additional coin, for a total of "6 coins" per invitation. We sent the invitation to roughly 120 people, for just about 720 coins. Coins vary in cost, costing less per coin the more you buy. So a batch of 400 coins costs $50, 1,000 coins costs $90. I could send my fancy invitation to all of my guests for $90 and still have close to 300 coins left over to send thank you cards after the event. And, of course, I didn't pay $60 for postage stamps to mail 120 invitations.

I'm not ready to toss my stationery collection in the recycling bin. But I'll definitely be using Paperless Post for more invitations, especially for professional events or when the alternative is that I send no invitation at all.

And now, back to the books.