The Purple Parasol
Title
The Purple Parasol
Creator
George Barr McCutcheon, book's author
Publisher
New York: Dodd, Mead and Company
Date
1905
Contributor
Katherine Owens researched and wrote the event description in 2018.
Description
For a description of the book, please click on the image of the event label/description or scroll to the bottom of the page for the section entitled "Text" for a transcription of the attached document.
Subject
Literature
Identifier
SPECIAL PS3525 .A187 Pu 1905
Language
English, book's contents
English, event description
English, event description
Relation
This book has another record in the "Beautiful Books" Lobby Display Collection.
This is a curator favorite in the "Beautiful Books" Highlights Collection.
This book is also featured in our Damaged Books digital exhibit. To see that record, please use this link: The Purple Parasol.
This book is included in a video in our Damaged Books digital exhibit: Want a little spaghetti with your Don Quixote?
This is a curator favorite in the "Beautiful Books" Highlights Collection.
This book is also featured in our Damaged Books digital exhibit. To see that record, please use this link: The Purple Parasol.
This book is included in a video in our Damaged Books digital exhibit: Want a little spaghetti with your Don Quixote?
Text
Transcription of event description:
THE PURPLE PARASOL | GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON | NEW YORK: DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY | 1905
Is it possible to fall in love with a book? If yes, than please fall in love with The Purple Parasol. The story is silly and trite, but the little putti scattered throughout in various stages of acting out of the emotion of the main male character (and sometimes his lady-bird) are too adorable for words. And if you came to our event simply because you liked our flyer, then behold, you have already fallen in love!
The cover design is typical for the time-period as an example of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts bookbinding. Notice how the trumpet flowers are idealized to imitate the appearance of a parasol when closed. Each page of the book has an illustration that looks like wood engravings. These illustrations are usually a floral motif, but the putti are in there too, as well as three full color plates that are probably lithographs, that show the true size, etc. of the characters the putti childishly imitate.
You will probably wonder about the extensive damage to the fore-edge of many of the pages. The first person to read this book used a letter opener - not very carefully - to open the pages of the book. When it was printed, the publishers either intentional or accidently forgot to cut the fore-edge so all the leaves would open normally. Consequently, the first owner was obliged to cut open the pages him/herself. Notice too that someone(s) ate while reading the book and have left food staining and black finger smudges throughout.
This book is one of 3,000 volumes donated by Mrs. Marifrances Engelhardt after Hurricane Matthew (2016) flooded her home. About 240 books are in Special Collections. During WWII she served in Spain in the diplomatic corps and married a well-known foreign correspondent, through whom she met Ernest Hemingway and Orson Wells. Sometime after her second marriage she settled in St. Augustine. When shown a book from her collection, despite her advanced years, she remembered who in her family owned it or gave it to her, and whether or not she enjoyed reading it. Mrs. Engelhardt died on April 18, 2017.
THE PURPLE PARASOL | GEORGE BARR MCCUTCHEON | NEW YORK: DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY | 1905
Is it possible to fall in love with a book? If yes, than please fall in love with The Purple Parasol. The story is silly and trite, but the little putti scattered throughout in various stages of acting out of the emotion of the main male character (and sometimes his lady-bird) are too adorable for words. And if you came to our event simply because you liked our flyer, then behold, you have already fallen in love!
The cover design is typical for the time-period as an example of Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts bookbinding. Notice how the trumpet flowers are idealized to imitate the appearance of a parasol when closed. Each page of the book has an illustration that looks like wood engravings. These illustrations are usually a floral motif, but the putti are in there too, as well as three full color plates that are probably lithographs, that show the true size, etc. of the characters the putti childishly imitate.
You will probably wonder about the extensive damage to the fore-edge of many of the pages. The first person to read this book used a letter opener - not very carefully - to open the pages of the book. When it was printed, the publishers either intentional or accidently forgot to cut the fore-edge so all the leaves would open normally. Consequently, the first owner was obliged to cut open the pages him/herself. Notice too that someone(s) ate while reading the book and have left food staining and black finger smudges throughout.
This book is one of 3,000 volumes donated by Mrs. Marifrances Engelhardt after Hurricane Matthew (2016) flooded her home. About 240 books are in Special Collections. During WWII she served in Spain in the diplomatic corps and married a well-known foreign correspondent, through whom she met Ernest Hemingway and Orson Wells. Sometime after her second marriage she settled in St. Augustine. When shown a book from her collection, despite her advanced years, she remembered who in her family owned it or gave it to her, and whether or not she enjoyed reading it. Mrs. Engelhardt died on April 18, 2017.
Original Format
Book / Unpublished Print Document
Collection
Citation
George Barr McCutcheon, book's author, “The Purple Parasol,” Beautiful Books in Flagler College's Special Collections, accessed May 5, 2024, https://beautifulbooks.omeka.net/items/show/57.