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Ad Boy Book Giveaway - Last Chance to Enter

On June 9, courtesy of the Ten Speed Press, I announced the giveaway of a copy of Warren Dotz's Ad Boy.

All of the detail on how to enter can be found in the original post. The winner of the book will receive it shipped directly from the publisher.

If you don't win or hate contests, you can purchase Ad Boy directly from the publisher or on Amazon.

Good Luck!

Old Book Smell in a Can

Does your Kindle leave you feeling like there's something missing from your reading experience? That's what the folks at smellofbooks.com wondered. The tongue-and-cheek product they've introduced, the Smell of Books™, is designed to make e-books smell just right. They ask, "Have you been avoiding e-books because they just don't smell right?"

The ad goes on to say:

If you've been hesitant to jump on the e-book bandwagon, you're not alone. Book lovers everywhere have resisted digital books because they still don't compare to the experience of reading a good old fashioned paper book.

But all of that is changing thanks to Smell of Books™, a revolutionary new aerosol e-book enhancer.

Now you can finally enjoy reading e-books without giving up the smell you love so much. With Smell of Books™ you can have the best of both worlds, the convenience of an e-book and the smell of your favorite paper book.

Smell of Books™ is compatible with a wide range of e-reading devices and e-book formats and is 100% DRM-compatible. Whether you read your e-books on a Kindle or an iphone using Stanza, Smell of Books™ will bring back that real book smell you miss so much.

Don't be fooled by imitators.

Can the smell of old socks in a can be far behind?

Book Giveaway - Ad Boy by Warren Dotz

Adby_MED Courtesy of the Ten Speed Press, I have a copy Warren Dotz's new book, Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising with Character, to give away to a lucky reader! If you or know someone who would love this book, here are the rules to enter:

  1. Enter by leaving a comment here.
  2. The contest will run until Monday, June 29, 2009, at NOON EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by email, listed in an upcoming post.
  3. Please leave a valid email address, so I can contact you if you win! If the winner hasn't responded within three days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.

If you'd like extra entries, you can:

  • Subscribe to my RSS feed–leave me a separate comment to let me know.
  • Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
  • Either Twitter, Stumble, Digg, or Facebook this post–leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site(s) you chose (one extra entry per method).

So, that's a total of seven comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options.

For those who missed it, I interviewed Warren about one of his previous books, Firecrackers. Warren is a pop culture historian, collector, designer, and the author of eight other books on advertising art.

About Ad Boy (from the publisher): "The postwar economic boom launched a generation of charming, cheeky, and relentlessly cheerful critters and characters that found their way into our homes--and our hearts--in print, on television, and on packaging. Some took detours that reflected the times (Elsie the Cow was sent into outer space in 1958). Some were fashion victims who survived (remember hippy Hush Puppies, circa 1969?). And some are no longer with us (the Frito Bandito was finally brought to justice in 1971). These endearingly offbeat characters are as fresh and entertaining today as they were creatively inspired in decades past."

You can purchase Ad Boy directly from the publisher at Ten Speed Press. It is also available on Amazon.

The winner of the book will receive it shipped directly from the publisher—so, you'll know it's a fresh, crisp, new book and not my dog-eared copy.

Good luck! 

Vintage Montreal Travel Brochure

Montreal This Montreal Souvenir Guide from 1927 reminded me of the weekend I spent in Montreal in the late 1980s. I went to an Astros game. That was the highlight.

I was in Canada to attend the wedding of a boyhood chum. I never heard from him after the wedding. I hear his wife is a real pill, though. He was an odd fellow. Chartered Accountancy. But I digress. Back to Montreal for another moment or two. This Roaring Twenties tome includes a map of Harbour Bridge and a double page center map of the city, information, and statistics as well as beautiful colored postcard photos of various points of interest. The Astros were still decades off. And so was the 1976 Olympics.

On my weekend there, after a quick and dull tour of the city, we headed north to Quebec. Now, that's a delightful and elegant city. Anytime someone says they're going to visit Montreal, I suggest they skip it and head directly to Quebec. If only it had been hockey season when I was there; it would have been lovely to take in a Nordics game.

American Labor Movement Posters

In Agitate! Educate! Organize!: American Labor Posters, Lincoln Cushing and Timothy W. Drescher share their vast knowledge about the rich graphic tradition of labor posters. Lavish full-color reproductions of more than 250 of the best posters that have emerged from the American labor movement ensure that readers will want to return to this visually fascinating treasury of little-known images from the American past.

Some of the posters were issued by government programs and campaigns; some were devised by unions as recruiting tools or strike announcements; others were generated by grassroots organizations focused on a particular issue or group of workers-all reveal much about the diverse experiences of working people in the United States.

American labor posters are widely scattered, difficult to locate, and rarely archived. Cushing and Drescher examined several thousand such images in the course their research, guaranteeing a truly representative selection. The presentation of the posters is thematic, with a brief history of activist graphic media followed by chapters on Dignity and Exploitation; Health and Safety; Women; Race and Civil Rights; War, Peace and Internationalism; Solidarity and Organizing; Strikes and Boycotts; Democracy, Voting, and Patriotism; History, Heroes, and Martyrs; and Culture.

Along with the stunning color images, the text contributes to a much deeper understanding of the politics, history, artistry, and impact of this genre of activist art and the importance of the labor movement in the transformation of American society over the course of the twentieth century.

Holy Cards as Objects Trouves

Holy card People leave ephemera in library books. The things they leave in books in Ireland are sometimes beautiful (e.g., handmade paper lace cards, art nouveau, art deco, Italian and German chromolithographs), some have local associations (e.g., ordinations, funerals, anniversaries), some are rather odd, many are touching. All have a wonderful immediacy, embodying popular piety in the very best sense of the word, according to a post on the library's blog.

The Ireland Library of the St. Paul Seminary, now merged with the University of St., has put some of their collection of flyaway items online. They call the collection "Holy Cards as Objets Trouves."

"For many decades staff here at Ireland Library have set aside hundreds of holy cards (tossed into a box of course)," writes Jan Malcheski.

Oh, to have access to all the forgotten and hidden boxes in all the world with miscellaneous "stuff" tossed in them.

Read my Ephemera Card Guide.

Best of the Booklets Category

My blog is arranged by category. Exploring the thousand plus posts can be daunting, so I've decided to run a series of posts featuring some of the best posts from each category. Today, I'm focusing on the booklets and publications category. So, for your reading pleasure, I've selected the following posts:

Newspapers: Holding History

Vintage Cookbook Aesthetics

Doing the Hustle at Nelson Elementary

Abe Lincoln & Jesse Fell

PC vs. Mac

Original Puck Sketch by Joseph Keppler

Puck A few posts ago, I'd asked readers if they had any ephemera that they'd save over all others in the event of a fire or flood. In response, loyal reader, Bill Stone, sent in this July, 1888, sketch by Joseph Keppler of PUCK magazine fame.

About the piece, Bill wrote: "His son Joseph Keppler Jr., who eventually took over the magazine was a childhood friend of my grandfather, Charles F. Stone Jr. He sent this to my grandfather in 1949, and it eventually passed down to me. While this isn't a particularly valuable item it has given me hours of pleasure in research. I am currently trying to find if Joseph Keppler ever used this sketch in any of his cartoons. I believe that sometimes the items that spur on additional thought and research are the most fun."

Thanks for sharing, Bill. It's a wonderful keepsake and exactly the type of item I'd hoped someone would submit.

5 Ways to Celebrate The Ides of March

Ides Five ways to celebrate The Ides of March:

  1. The Ides of March: A Novel by Thornton Wilder
  2. The Ides of March "Vehicle"
  3. Ides of March by Andrew Wyeth
  4. Julius Caesar
  5. V for Vendetta

Not to be confused with the Ideas of Mach

Photography by Cayusa.

Mum Magic Unity Might Magazine

Mum Mum's the word, as many no doubt know, means "to keep quiet." It's often uses in literature pieces and in slogans. So, I must assume the name of this magic magazine is a play on the word. This issue of M-U-M (Magic Unity Might) was published by Society of American Magicians in July ,1952.

According to Wikipedia and other sources, Mum's the word is was originally used by Shakespeare in Henry VI, part II, in which he had written: "Seal up your lips and give no words but mum."

The phrase is also attributed to the sound of humming when your lips are closed. Alternative accounts suggest the phrase may mean to be as quiet as a mummy, much like the world famous mummers actors of York.

Another fun romp at the intersection of etymology and ephemera.