dennis scharnberg

[Peter Ashton Boole] led a rich and somewhat baffling life.  In his teens, he sailed the world as an able bodied seaman.  He ran a soap factory in India, founded and managed several small newspapers, climbed mountains in Tibet, published an influential pamphlet on color theory, fathered five children, had several of his paintings exhibited at the Royal Academy, and knew (and cavorted with) many of the luminaries of the turn of the century.  Perhaps if he had published more extensively he would be better remembered today.

Palmer Dove,  The Edwardian Moment.

And who are these followers of Theosophy?  They are, each of them, people who expressed a weariness with regard to the existing culture (science, technology, material well-being, traditional institutions).  And each in his own way found in “the esoteric” an exciting escape from that world.  There is something tedious here—something inherently ridiculous.  But in the case of Blavatsky (or even that of Crowley), the ridiculous operates in such a theatrical way and with such persistence that it can be fascinating.

Lionel Peale,  The Veil of Isis.

he Smothers Brothers

A Sandal in Bohemia

Andrew Tertullian,  Pandora’s Ponderous Puns.

Q: Who will save us from injustice?

A: Lawyers.

Quincy R. Booth,  Questions and Answers.

Life must be changed.

Terence Theodore,  Proverbs for a New Era.

Enlightenment is one way to clothe resentment.

Nathaniel Bumppo,  The Final Word.

“Is a tomato really that important?  Just wondering.”  A fair sample of Anthony’s enchanting table talk.

Charles Jeffrey Yett,  Writing in Miniature—Vol. Three.

reversion to the moan

burst into tiers

Andrew Tertullian,  Pandora’s Ponderous Puns.

—Well, that explains it then.

Explains what, George?

—Practically everything.

Philip Cavendish,  Tilly’s Treasury of Colloquial Bits.

One could write of the bold migration of artists—in the 1990s—across the mighty East River, and into the dark unknown of Brooklyn.  Derelict warehouses near the Williamsburg waterfront.  I would aim for about 900 pages.  And heroic couplets, I think.

Gunnar Grimes,  The Persistence of Vision.