Dover's Cabinet of Curiosities

Did you know that Dover has published a whole range of posters?  In honor of #sharkweek, this out-of-print poster features a bevy of toothy beasts.

With superhumans all the rage and host of superhero movies including this summer’s Ant-Man on the verge of release, as well as Dover’s soon-to-be-released version of Philip Wylie’s Gladiator, it seemed a good time to revisit this title from Dover’s archive.  Olaf Stapledon, who earned a PhD, is the author of many sci-fi tales of which the protagonists are striving for a higher level of consciousness or being.   Odd John and Sirius are two of the finest future histories ever written, each concerning a central question: If and when a superior being is introduced into a culture, how will either survive? Odd John is the definitive fictionalization of the mutated superman who has to decide what to do with his gifts, while Sirius concerns a dog with superhuman mentality.

My Book House was originally published in 6 Volumes between 1920 and 1921 with each beautiful volume being nearly 500 pages each.  Developed by Olive Beaupré Miller, the series was meant to meet the developing needs and abilities of children at different ages as well as provide the best in Children’s Literature.  

The series of books was eventually re-tooled in 1937 into a slimmer volumes in a 12 books as opposed to 6 with all new art work.  This series was mainly sold door-to-door.  Dover recently did the first trade editions of the first two books in the My Book House series which can be purchased here: http://search.doverpublications.com/search?keywords=my%20bookhouse

Are cassettes in vogue again?  In the days before MP3s there were CDs, and before that there were cassettes.  We won’t talk about the dark ages of vinyl - but Dover did print an array of vinyl in the 60s, and that may make an appearance one day on the Cabinet of Curiosities. 

However, here are a batch of Listen & Read titles that Dover did a variety of in the past.  These included language as well as standard books on tape.  I love that the German set required 3 tapes!

Before Waldo there was Willie.

Where is Willie? by Wilfried Blecher was originally published as Where is Wendelin? (or really Wo Ist Wendelin?) in Germany in 1965 by Verlag Julius Beltz.  This edition was published by McGraw-Hill in 1967.