There are many awards available to authors. However, authors of all genre, covert the real accolade of being included in the "Uncle Mort Book of the Week Award." Talent knows no limit and never more so than in literature. There are recognised genius and giants, like Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. But The UMBWA recognises the efforts of the literature dwarves.
Uncle Mort brings a new Wednesday book of the week, each week. This week for your edification its, "Scouts in Bondage" By Geoffrey Prout which is reused as the cover of his book by Michael Bell. The latest offering from our collection of entertaining book titles which combines a catchy heading with an outlandish subject matter.
An illustrated collection of book covers from Victorian times to the 1970s. The titles appeared innocuous when published but, with the passage of time, they have acquired amusing double meanings. Prepare to laugh as most of them certainly wouldn't be printed today. Place your tongue firmly in your cheek and enjoy!!
All the books illustrated in this irresistible little volume were collected by Michael Bell when he owned an antiquarian bookshop in Lewes. His criterion was simple: these were old books that raised a grin if not a guffaw from his customers as soon as they saw them. Some are simply mystifying like the enigmatic "Book of Blank Maps", bizarre like Frances E. Willard's perfectly straight-faced account, "How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle" or simply evoke a world which has long since vanished like Paulo Montegazza's manual on "The Art of Taking a Wife". Sometimes it is the combination of title and cover artwork that does the trick, but most frequent of all is the title that now conveys a meaning quite at odds with the author's original intentions, the boy's story "Invisible Dick", for example, or another children's novel, "How Nell Scored".
Regards.
Uncle Mort.
No comments:
Post a Comment