Book sent to George Calderon in Russia by his mother, Christmas 1895.
Michel and Vera Fokine in “Scheherazade”, 1914 (The Music And Theatre Library of Sweden, creative commons)
George and Kittie Calderon 1905
Basic form of the Calderon coat of arms
George Calderon c.1901
Monarch Butterfly Madeira
Sir Richard Vincent Sutton c. 1913
Patrick Miles in his summer house, 11 December 2016
K.N. Das Gupta and Margaret Mitchell in an Indian Dramatic Society production of The Maharani of Arakan, 1913?
Captain of the 11
Figure from Gauguin’s 1899 painting ‘Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms’ (left); George Calderon’s pencil sketch ‘Manu’ (right)
Unpublished watercolour by George Calderon, Tahiti 1906
A happy memory of Trinity College: undergraduates breakfast together in Downy V. Green, p. 77.
Colonel Sir Walter Coote Hedley c. 1920
George Calderon, 1912
The entrance to Fort Brockhurst (picture from Britain’s Past)
Christmas 1901 Cartoon by George Calderon
Jean Ryckaert, May 1916.
Frontis piece by Frank CalderonRecent Comments
- John Pym on Two anniversaries We are all, followers and occasional contributors, beholden to you, Patrick, for reminding us for ten years that the past is worth remembering and for keeping alive the... (August 17, 2024 at 1:06 pm)
- Patrick Miles on A second Family Bible Very many thanks for fleshing that point out -- and so entertainingly! (I love your reference to creative writing courses, which are a phobia of mine.) Although several... (August 2, 2024 at 11:03 am)
- Laurence Brockliss on A second Family Bible When I say that the British Republic of Letters was dead by 1880, I don't mean to imply that thereafter there were no men and women outside universities, institutes and... (August 2, 2024 at 9:19 am)
- Patrick Miles on A second Family Bible Thank you for devoting valuable time to writing this fascinating Comment. If I may say so, it is awe-inspiring to see the author of a monumental work standing back from that... (July 31, 2024 at 5:32 pm)
- Laurence Brockliss on A second Family Bible Male Professionals in Nineteenth Century Britain was a new departure for me. For most of my adult life I have worked on seventeenth and eighteenth century France. It is also... (July 24, 2024 at 11:31 am)
Category Archives: Personal commentary
And Professor Rose was not German!
Probably the biggest remaining mystery of George’s biography is: what happened to all his papers associated with researching Slavonic folklore and primitive religions? The book Demon Feasts (or whatever it would have been entitled) was, after all, to be his … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Personal commentary
Tagged Basil Pares, Bernard Pares, biographies, biography, Cambridge, Canada, comments, Congress for the History of Religions, Demon Feasts, folklore, Fritz Epstein, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, history of religions, Kittie Calderon, Leipzig, Manitoba, Mass., Michael Pursglove, Minnedosa, mysteries, Oxford, Percy Lubbock, Poland, Professor Rose of Leipzig, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, serendipity, Silesia, SSEES, The Great War, William John Rose, World War I, Ypres, Zbigniew Folejewski
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The ‘mysterious’ Mrs Shapter no more
You have a hunch, it proves right, and your rejoicing and self-satisfaction know no bounds… Then you sit back and contemplate the chain of circumstances that led to it being ‘proven right’, and you realise the links were so fortuitous, … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged Alexander I, Amiens, biographies, biography, British Museum, Chantrey Bequest, Clara Calderon, comments, Dawlish, Exeter, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Harry Leeke Gibbs, Ivan Nestor Schnurmann, John Shapter, Mary Ann Angliss, Mary Ann Jane Shapter, Mary Gibbs Shapter, Michael Pursglove, Michael Welch, Miss Shapter, Mrs Shapter, Nicholas I, P.H. Calderon, Royal Academy, Rugby School, Russia, Russian language, St Elizabeth of Hungary's Great Act of Renunciation, St Petersburg, Thomas Shapter
2 Comments
Rochelle Townsend’s ‘Uncle Vanya’
In my introduction to these four posts about the ‘mystery’ Misses and Misters who feature in my biography of George Calderon and the world of Edwardian Anglo-Russian cultural relations, I said that after Michael Pursglove’s magnificent post about the ‘mysterious’ … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Aldwych Theatre, Anton Chekhov, authorship, Chekhov on the British Stage, collaborators, comments, Constance Garnett, English premieres, George Calderon, Herbert Grimwood, Incorporated Stage Society, L.P. Hartley, Michael Pursglove, Rochelle Townsend, stage managers, translation, Uncle Vanya, Victoria & Albert Museum
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Guest post: Michael Pursglove on the ‘forgotten translators’
My interest in early translations from Russian, and especially in their translators, began when I was setting to work on my translation of Turgenev’s Virgin Soil in 2014. It became clear that this would be the first new translation of … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Edwardian marriage, Personal commentary, Uncategorized
Tagged Alexander Pushkin, Alfred Knox, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Anna Karenina, Anna Kern, Anton Chekhov, Beatrix Tollemache, Charles Townsend, East-West Review, Eugène Gothi, George Sand, Ivan Goncharov, Ivan Turgenev, James Heard, James Muckle, Jerome K. Jerome, Lev Tolstoi, Marguerite Bryant, Michael Pursglove, Michel Delines, Mikhail Ashkinazi, Nadine Jarintzoff, Oliver Goldsmith, Ramsay Macdonald, Rochelle Townsend, The Precipice, The Vicar of Wakefield, Three Men in a Boat, Uncle Vanya, Virgin Soil, Wilhelm Goldschmidt
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The ‘mystery’ Misses and Misters
The academics are off campus now until September/October, when Sam&Sam plan a new marketing storm in their direction, so we are concentrating on selling boxes of six copies to more bookshops. If you know any near you who might be … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged Amazon, Anton Chekhov, biographies, biography, comments, East-West Review, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, John Polkinghorne, marketing, Michael Pursglove, Mrs Shapter, P.H. Calderon, Professor Rose, Rochelle Townsend, Sam&Sam, Uncle Vanya, What Can We Hope For?
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‘Ages will pass…’
Where Russia is concerned, I often think of this text by Boris Pasternak, written by him in German. I have only ever seen it in Gerd Ruge’s illustrated biography of Pasternak (Hachette, 1959), where it is described as ‘une dédicace’. … Continue reading
From the diary of a writer-publisher: 3
14 May I gather, from a reliable source, that access to Calderonia has been blocked in Russia (I nearly said ‘the Soviet Union’). This would explain why no Russian viewers have featured in the stats for months. One can only … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Akala, Amazon, biographies, biography, British Council, Calderonia, Clays Ltd, comments, cyber warfare, Earlham, Edward Lear, eschatology, Gallipoli, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, haiku, James Tait Black Prize, Jenny Uglow, John Dewey, John Polkinghorne, Kittie Calderon, Leonid Brezhnev, Marie Colvin, paradise, Percy Lubbock, plastic, pollution, ravens, Russia, Sam&Sam, Sam2, self-publishing, Shetland, Simon Cooke, The Great War, Third Battle of Krithia, Vladimir Putin, wokefulness, World War I, Yell
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From the diary of a writer-publisher: 2
18 April The shortlist for this year’s James Tait Black Memorial Prize (biography) has been announced. Strong contenders are hip-hop artist Akala’s debut Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire and Susannah Walker’s The Life of Stuff: A … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged Agency for the Legal Deposit Libraries, Andrew Tatham, biographies, biography, Calderón, Calderonia, comments, copyright libraries, Dardanelles, doorstops, Gallipoli, George Calderon, James Tait Black Prize, legal deposits, marketing, owls, publishers, quangos, Sam&Sam, Sam2, Spanish Ambassador, The Great War, Tinker, Victor Meldrew, World War I
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From the diary of a writer-publisher: 1
27 March Took the train asap to Daunt Books in Hampstead. They had emailed that ‘unfortunately we haven’t sold a copy and if you don’t collect them they will be given to a charity shop’. That’s £180 worth of books! … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian literature, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary
Tagged biographies, biography, comments, Dardanelles, Daunt Books, Ed Maggs, Gallipoli, George Calderon, Germany, GPO, Hampstead Heath, independent publishing, Maggs Bros. Ltd, Post Office, Stig Abell, string, The Great War, Times Literary Supplement
1 Comment
Inestimable Russianist 3: Harvey Pitcher
(This series is timed to coincide with the 2019 Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies at Robinson College, Cambridge.) Hale and hearty in his eighty-third year, Harvey Pitcher is not only one of this … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Academe, Anton Chekhov, BASEES, biographies, biography, comments, communication, Emma Dashwood, emotional networks, Ferdinand Mount, George Calderon, Glasgow University, governesses, Harvey Pitcher, John Dewey, Joint Services School of Linguists, lack of communication, Lady with the Little Dog, Leningrad, Michael Pursglove, Mikhail Bakhtin, Oxford University, Russia, Russianists, St Andrews University, The Smiths of Moscow, USSR
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Inestimable Russianist 2: John Dewey
(This series is timed to coincide with the 2019 Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies at Robinson College, Cambridge.) It is no exaggeration to say that John Dewey befriended Calderonia out of the blue — … Continue reading
Posted in Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged Academe, Alexander Pushkin, Alexandrine, biographies, biography, Boris Yampolsky, Brimstone Press, choriamb, comments, Fedor Tiutchev, Fyodor Tyutchev, George Calderon, Glas, Harvey Pitcher, Irina Muravyova, John Dewey, John Dryden Prize, Ksenia Zhukova, Michael Pursglove, Mirror of the Soul: A Life of the Poet Tyutchev, prosody, publishers, Ruslan and Ludmila, Russian Studies, Stanley Mitchell, T.J. Binyon, The Bronze Horseman, Yevgeny Zamyatin
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Inestimable Russianist 1: Michael Pursglove
(This series is timed to coincide with the 2019 Annual Conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies held 12-14 April at Robinson College, Cambridge, where Sam&Sam will be promoting George Calderon: Edwardian Genius.) When Michael Pursglove … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged A.B. Murphy, Alexander Pushkin, Alma Books, Andrei Voznesenskii, Andrew Assumption, Anna Karenina, Aylmer Maude, BASEES, comments, Constance Garnett, deaf community, Dmitrii Grigorovich, Fedor Dostoevskii, Fedor Tyutchev, George Calderon, Great Britain-Russia Society, Ivan Turgenev, Larissa Miller, Lev Tolstoy, Louise Maude, Michael Pursglove, Mikhail Lermontov, Moscow and Muscovites, Mrs Shapter, Petr Viazemskii, Professor Rose, publishers, Reading University, Robert Conquest, Robinson College, Russianists, translators, Vladimir Giliarovskii
2 Comments
Inestimable Russianists: A Coming Series of Posts
Frankly, one of the worst experiences from publishing my biography of George Calderon has been the appalling response to the 71 complimentary and review copies that I sent out. I was encouraged, for instance, by specific journalists at The Times, TLS, … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian literature, Personal commentary
Tagged ABEbooks, Aylmer Maude, biographies, comments, complimentary copies, Constance Garnett, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, Harvey Pitcher, John Dewey, journalists, Michael Pursglove, reviewers, rudeness, Russianists, Sam&Sam, translators
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Yes, it’s divorce!
It is with the deepest euphoria that I announce my permanent separation from commercial publishers. They have wasted too much of my time. They forget that serfdom was abolished in Britain in 1574. To celebrate my release, I have asked … Continue reading
Posted in Personal commentary
Tagged advances, biographies, comments, commercial publishers, contracts, divorce, etiquette, George Calderon, George Calderon: Edwardian Genius, goodbyes, independent publishing, indie publishing, PLR, pricing, Public Lending Right, publishers, Sam&Sam, serfdom, vanity publishers, vanity publishing
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George’s thought for the day
Some time ago a reader asked me whether I thought George Calderon subscribed to Thomas Carlyle’s theory of the ‘great man’ in history. This theory was certainly popular with the Victorians and, as the reader pointed out, George’s extreme individualism … Continue reading
Posted in Edwardian character, Edwardian English, Edwardian literature, Modern parallels, Personal commentary
Tagged baptism, biography, bookmark, comments, cypher, George Calderon, great man, humanity, Jesus Christ, John Polkinghorne, John the Baptist, Kittie Calderon, library, manuscripts, original sin, religion, shorthand, sin, theology, Thomas Carlyle
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A tale of two front covers
By the time you read this, Sam&Sam’s new book should be available through Amazon. I say ‘should’ because publishing a book through Amazon has been yet another fresh learning curve for us and sometimes we just had to wait to … Continue reading →