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Hello, my name is Azkiera (they/them)!! I’m in love with book-hunting, writing, archiving, + my personal library.

Please enjoy what I’ve found and shared of my personal collection of literature!

Main: @azkier-a

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By William Shakespeare from Verse of Our Day (1923)

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By Robert Burns from A Book of Famous Poems (1931)

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By Percy Makaye from Verse of our Day (1923)

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By Lord Byron from A Book of Famous Poems (1931)

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From Petits Contes de France (1916)

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By Robert Herrick from Illustrated Poetry and Song (1880)

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By Jones Very from The Oxford Book of American Verse (1950)

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By Louis Untermeyer from Verse of Our Day (1923)

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By Sir Walter Scott from A Book Of Famous Poems (1931)

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From Petits Contes de France (1916)

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By Shakespeare and John Fletcher from Illustrated Poetry and Song (1880)

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By Elinor Wylie from The Oxford Book of American Verse (1950)

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By Clement Wood from Verse of Our Day (1931)

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book 5 ;

A Book of Famous Poems (1931)

I found this book at a garage sale (a barn sale actually, their garage used to be an old old barn) in Wisconsin. It was with many other books shoved in boxes set on tables for people to browse through. I found this along with an old cookbook and a german language first year lesson book. I haven’t personally read much from this yet, so everything I share from this book will be new to both you and me!

There’s not a real introduction in this book, but it’s pretty apparent that it’s simply a collectiok of poems for older children, doubtless meant to cultivate love for poetry in younger people. It’s hardcover, but a paper based hardcover instead of cloth, and so the spine of the book is a bit ripped up. But really, what does that matter? We still have the poems inside. And they’re all pretty sweet. Miniature illustrations (more like scene silhouettes and outlines) are peppered throughout the verses and add to the memory of each poem. They’ll be very pretty in posts!

(Note: For copyright reasons, I won’t be sharing the entire books of course. But I won’t be short on content because I have many many books to share from!)

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book 4 ;

Petits Contes de France (1916)

I bought this cute little book (it’s only 6”x4”!![15.5cm x 10.5cm]) at a great record shop/old book shop in northern Illinois. They had a whole shelf full of antique foreign language books and you can imagine how hard it was for me not to spend hundreds of dollars. I don’t remember how much it was, probably $1 or something like that. Maybe someday it’ll be a treasure in a museum somewhere..

This is a first year reader for french language students from the very early 20th century. Its size was ideal for students on the go, I bet. It is intended to “instill an interest in and a love for France from the very beginning (of their studies)” by using a simple writing style that would be more easily understood. Throughout this book, there’s short story after short story, all in french. In the first few stories there’s a lot of english annotations made by students to remember new words.

Every story has a blurb in the “Table des Matières” or “Table of Contents” in english telling students what it was they were going to try to read. Also throughout the book are a few illustrations similar to the style of those in Illustrated Poetry and Song, though being from the 1910s instead of the 1880s, they’re a tad less luxurious. Even if you don’t understand a lick of french, you might appreciate the history and aesthetic in these pages. I will present a few stories gradually, paragraph by paragraph, so that those who do understand may follow along the story.

(Note: For copyright reasons, I won’t be sharing the entire books of course. But I won’t be short on content because I have many many books to share from!)

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book 3 ;

Illustrated Poetry and Song (1880)

I found insanely beautiful piece of history in a little antique store far, far away north in a small town in UP Michigan. Just last week! I got it for $4.25. I’ve never had my breath taken away by a poetry book quite like this one, not only is the content exactly what I like but the presentation is still, after nearly 200 years, superb. Yes, I said superb. And I meant it.

I guess this also counts as an anthology, but it isn’t specifically described as such, and there is no formal introduction at its beginning to tell us more about itself. When I search the title and year, Google doesn’t spit out much either. I could go more in depth and research the publishers and the editor, but since it came to me in mystery, I think it should stay with me in mystery too.

Just imagine how beautiful and shiny this must have looked fresh off the printing press.. I’ll be taking special care to appreciate the illustrations in this book, because they’re incredible, and probably haven’t been looked at by many people for ages. (My pfp is an illustration from this book!)

It’s apparent throughout that this particular copy was owned at some point by a true lover of poetry and nature. I found pressed leaves and ferns along with extra cut-out poems likely taken from newspapers (Why don’t they put poems in the newspapers anymore?? It’s all just ads) and just looking at them I feel the love and passion they must have felt while reading poetry. Maybe they took this book with them into the woods for a good read, and that’s how these lucky leaves became near-immortalized in pages. It’s the possibility of these things we can infer from these small clues that makes old books so magical.

(Note: For copyright reasons, I won’t be sharing the entire books of course. But I won’t be short on content because I have many many books to share from!)