ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
HAREMLIK: Pages from the Life of Turkish Women
by Demetra Vaka, 1909
Vaka reveals her observations of polygamous happenings in Turkish households, revealing both the tragedies these women survived, and their struggle to gain the independence that only men were permitted access to. Unfortunately, these documents also illustrate how the author herself is bewildered by the fact that women should desire for a life outside of their constraints.
An excerpt:
"I was fourteen years old, she wanted to free me and give me as a wife to a man. Why should I be given to a man when I want to stay here? I pleaded and pleaded, and she said that I might stay two years more. 'Young Hanoum, have you ever watched the clouds on Allah's blue rug?' Those years granted to me, faded from my unhappy eyes and for days now she will not speak to me because I will not go.
The mist was slowly lifting-so slowly that one could imagine an invisible hand to be reluctantly drawing aside veils from the face of nature. As the air became clearer, the slender minarets were seen first above the other buildings; and then, little by little, Constantinople, Queen of Cities, revealed herself to our hungry eyes."
About the author: Demetra Vaka belonged to the cosmopolitan middle class of Istanbul and was one of the first Greek immigrant women who joined American mainstream culture and society. After her wedding to author Kenneth Brown, she worked for the American Press and was eventually considered an authority on the subjects of oriental women and also on the Eastern Question. She worked as a journalist and foreign correspondent in the U.S.A. and the Balkans, especially in Ottoman Turkey. Her 14 books were in print until the 1930’s and were translated into several European languages. Unfortunately, Vaka’s books are today out of print however her entire written corpus is held by the Princeton University Library.
Sixteen Homeopathic Medicines
Compiled by the Homeopathic chemists Jahr, Hull, Hempel, Bryant, and Hale
Published in 1889
We often dream of antiquarian finds like this one. Not exactly for sale, but part of our unique collection here at Hey Venus Radio. An endearing guide with copious accounts of specific diseases & symptoms cured by Homeopathic medicine. Previously owned by a one E.B. Hood, on September 12th of 1915.
"...avoid mixing one medicine with another; as regards a spoon, nothing but porcelain, earthenware, or glass should be allowed. The necessary repetition of the does must depend on the nature of the disease..."
For every 10 pages I’d read, I would then jump ahead to other chapters -when working with reference materials I often take this approach. It’s on page 103 where we explore all the principal treatments for Menstruation; Delay of, Suppression of, Profuse, Moral Emotions, Delirium, Nausea etc. Section I includes: Aconite nappellus, Arnica montana, Arsenicum album, Belladonna, Bryonia alba, Calcanea carbonica, Camomilla, China officials, Ipecacuanha, Mercurios solubilus, Nux vomica, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Rhus toxicodendron, Sulphur, Veratram album.
LGBTQ LITERATURE
Written in Invisible Ink
Selected Stories by Herve Guibert
Released in 2020 through Semiotext(e) & Native Agents.
Hervé Guibert published twenty-five books before dying of AIDS in 1991 at age 36. An originator of French "autofiction" of the 1990s, Guibert wrote with aggressive candor, detachment, and passion, mixing diary writing, memoir, and fiction. Best known for the series of books he wrote during the last years of his life, chronicling his coexistence with illness, he has been a powerful influence on many contemporary writers.
Written in Invisible Ink maps the writer's artistic development, from his earliest texts—fragmented stories of queer desire—to the unnervingly photorealistic descriptions in Vice and the autobiographical sojourns of Singular Adventures. Propaganda Death, his harsh, visceral debut, is included in its entirety. The volume concludes with a series of short, jewel-like stories composed at the end of his life. These anarchic and lyrical pieces are translated into English for the first time by Jeffrey Zuckerman.
From midnight encounters with strangers to tormented relationships with friends, from a blistering sequence written for Roland Barthes to a tender summoning of Michel Foucault upon his death, these texts lay bare Guibert's relentless obsessions in miniature.
PARTNERS
by Steven Housewright
Released in 1995
Jerry Hunt (1943–93) was among the most eccentric figures in the world of new music. A frenetic orator, occultist, and engineering consultant, his works from the 1970s through the early ’90s made use of readymade sculptures, medical technology, arcane talismans and all manner of homemade electronic implements to form confrontational recordings and enigmatic, powerful performances.
Tracing Hunt’s life across his home state’s major cities to a self-built house in rural Van Zandt County, this memoir-cum-biography by Stephen Housewright, Hunt’s partner of thirty-five years, offers illuminating depictions of Hunt’s important installations and performances across North America and Europe. Housewright narrates a lifetime spent together, beginning in high school as a closeted couple in East Texas and ending with Hunt’s battle with cancer and his eventual suicide, the subject of one of his most harrowing works of video art. This highly readable narrative contains many private correspondences with, and thrilling anecdotes about, Hunt’s friends, family and collaborators, including Joseph Celli, Arnold Dreyblatt, Michael Galbreth, Karen Finley, James and Mary Fulkerson, Guy Klucevsek, Pauline Oliveros, Paul Panhuysen, Annea Lockwood and the S.E.M. Ensemble. This publication accompanies reissues of seven albums from Hunt’s record label, Irida.