Author: KENDRICK, John B.
Title: History of the Wallingford Disaster.
Description: Hartford, Case Lockwood & Brainard 1878. Slender octavo publisher's brown cloth titled in gilt on the front; 76 pages and eight fabulous wood engraved plates. ¶ Only edition of this most appealing and essential piece of disaster literature and of storm literature. Wallingford, Connecticut, was wiped out in minutes on August 9th, 1878 by a tornado - Kendrick calls it cyclone or tornado randomly - which killed at least 29 people. Warning: many of the descriptions are gruesome. The wood engravings, though, are wonderful; the best of the Police Gazette school. They are after photos and they have both an extraordinary vivacity and stillness. The now still detritus of terrific destruction matches the calm insouciance of the observers; the awkward forms are engraved with absolute surety. These are the exact qualities that later generations of artists consciously tried to capture, some did better than weak imitation but not much better. One of plates has the name Beckley as engraver.This might be Arthur Beckley, wood engraver of Southington. Whoever it is, Beckley is the star of this book.
Keywords: social history c19th America weather storms cyclones tornadoes science meteorology disaster souvenirs
Title: History of the Wallingford Disaster.
Description: Hartford, Case Lockwood & Brainard 1878. Slender octavo publisher's brown cloth titled in gilt on the front; 76 pages and eight fabulous wood engraved plates. ¶ Only edition of this most appealing and essential piece of disaster literature and of storm literature. Wallingford, Connecticut, was wiped out in minutes on August 9th, 1878 by a tornado - Kendrick calls it cyclone or tornado randomly - which killed at least 29 people. Warning: many of the descriptions are gruesome. The wood engravings, though, are wonderful; the best of the Police Gazette school. They are after photos and they have both an extraordinary vivacity and stillness. The now still detritus of terrific destruction matches the calm insouciance of the observers; the awkward forms are engraved with absolute surety. These are the exact qualities that later generations of artists consciously tried to capture, some did better than weak imitation but not much better. One of plates has the name Beckley as engraver.This might be Arthur Beckley, wood engraver of Southington. Whoever it is, Beckley is the star of this book.
Keywords: social history c19th America weather storms cyclones tornadoes science meteorology disaster souvenirs
Price: AUD 275.00 = appr. US$ 190.26 Seller: Richard Neylon, Bookseller
- Book number: 8649
- Book number: 8649