givings away
Hawthorne was a hearty devourer of books, and in certain moods of mind it made very little difference what the volume before him happened to be. An old play or an old newspaper sometimes gave him wondrous great content, and he would ponder the sleepy, uninteresting sentences as if they contained immortal mental aliment. He once told me he found 1
givings away in some 2
gestures and beckonings, and
givings away of small bunches of early violets 3
licenses, and bridesmaids,
and carriages, and givings-away, and 4
(or “givings away”), a term derived from the Chinook jargon word potlatch, “to give” 5
he told me of Lamb’s “givings away” 6
the thefts, the robberies, the givings away. There was no one who would not rather have had all those things in flames 7
these givings away, as well as 8
givings away of [ ] heartsease and rue 9
here are their givings away [ ] all 10
standing there a minute And holding the thrifty man’s book of “givings-away” 11
“givings-away” in one hand, and say: 12
There are these two givings-away.
What are the two? 13
across the found time between his givings away to street, or ask favors of 14
the world, with society, with the entourage consisting for him, in its most pressing form of, say, [ ] this challenge, as I have called it, in some way that will sort of meet it without givings-away.
These three 15
would Two Givings-Away. 16
You know, we all make deals, I suppose, in terms of how we think about the process of our aging. It’s a series of givings away, a making 17
- ex James T. Fields, Yesterdays with Authors (1871; 1872) :
62
(same source, different edition, for entry 6 below) - ex Jabez D(elano). Hammond. Life and Times of Silas Wright, Late Governor of the State of New York (Syracuse, 1848) : 552
- ex The Daisydingle Sunday-school (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1849) : 22
a “Sunday School Reward Book” - ex chapter 12, “A Compact with the Evil One” in “Stoke Dotterell; or, the Liverpool Apprentice,” in The New Monthly Magazine 105 (London, 1855) : 323
- ex Robert Brown (1842-1895 *), The Races of Mankind : Being a Popular Description of the characteristics, manners and customs of the principal varieties of the human family. Vol. 1 (of 2; 1873) : 75
- ex James T(homas). Fields (1817-81 *), “‘Barry Cornwall’ and some of his friends,” in Yesterdays with Authors (1871; 1879) : 359
- ex Cicero’s oration for Sex. Roscius Amerinus, the text closely rendered and illustrated with short notes by an Oxford graduate. (Oxford, 1880) : 9
- inscrutable OCR misread (snippet view only), Geological Survey of Canada, Report of Progress for the Year (1880?) : 119
- OCR cross-column misread, involving reviews of two books, Sir John Lubbock, The Pleasures of Life (London, 1887) and James R(ussell). Lowell, Heartsease and Rue (London, 1888), in The Oxford Magazine (May 23, 1888) : 379
on heartsease (or wild pansy (Viola tricolor), also known as Johnny Jump up, &c, &c.)
on rue (Ruta graveolens, commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace...) - ex statement of C. W. Bennett, in Hearings before the Committee on Territories of the United States Senate in relation to the Bill (S. 1306) for the local government of Utah Territory, and to provide for the election of certain officers in said territory. (Washington, D.C.; February 11, 1892) 155
- ex snippet view (only), Commercial West 18 (1910) : 28
- ex “Thrift,” by Rev. Robert J. Burdette, Pastor Emeritus Temple Baptist Church, Los Angeles, California,in “Savings Bank Section,” Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Convention of the American Bankers’ Association... (Held at Los Angeles, California, October 3 to 7, 1910) : 535-538
- ex “Chapter on Gifts, the thirteenth,” The Anguttara Nikāya of the Sutta Pitaka, Eka Duka and Tika Tika Nipāta; published by The London Pali Text Society in 1885; translated by Edmund Rowland Jayetilleke Gooneratne. (Galle, Ceylon, 1913) : 114
same volume, these errata —
for passions read fascination
for place read state
read any other state
for at least read not
after cut read off
for into read after
for does read does not
omit, by
after blind read man
after sandal read wood
for error read ignorance
after Him insert a full stop - ex “In North Carolina’s Calcium Light” (series), Robert Lilly Gray (1877-1945?), “‘Jule’ Carr, the Man—A Pen Picture,” in Sky-land
1:7 (April 1914) : 401-406
a literary magazine promoting a racist vision of “white” culture and civilization; Julian Shakespeare Carr (1845-1924), was a North Carolina industrialist, philathropist, and Ku Klux Klan supporter; aided (the Methodist and Quaker affiliated) Trinity College, that would become Duke University on Carr’s land in Durham.
(much) more at wikipedia
aside —
it may be that usage of the expression “Sky-land” to denote that region of western North Carolina originated in a travel sketch entitled Land of the Sky (1876) by Christian Reid (1846-1920 *); her characterization was subsequently used to advertise a railroad extension to the area. - Henry James, The Ivory Tower (unfinished novel; 1917) : 330
- OCR cross-column misread/jump, at “Crowns Coronets Courtiers” in The Sketch : A Journal of Art and Actuality 104 (October 9, 1918) :40
weekly magazine, devoted to “high society and the aristocracy” during the years 1893-1959 (wikipedia)
list of issues available via hathitrust - ex Mark Singer, “David Milch’s Third Act — Despite what dementia has stolen from the cerebral creator of “Deadwood,” it has given his work a new sense of urgency.”
The New Yorker (May 27, 2019 issue) : here
full passage —
“You know, we all make deals, I suppose, in terms of how we think about the process of our aging. It’s a series of givings away, a making peace with givings away. I had thought, as many or most people do, that I was in an earlier stage of givings away than it turns out I am. It’s kind of a relentless series of adjustments to what you can do, in particular the way you can’t think any longer. Your inability to sustain a continuity of focus. And those are accumulated deletions of ability. And you adjust—you’d better adjust, or you adjust whether you want to or not.”
13 January 2021