Dalenberg Complete Library of Antique Popular Literature
Grass, by Merian C. Cooper. G.P. Putnam’s Sons (1925)
Grass, released in 1925, stands as one of the earliest ethnographic documentary films, rivalled in the silent era only by Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North (1922). While Nanook is a fine film, it has come under criticism for not being totally journalistically...
“It’s a Good Life,” by Jerome Bixby (1953)
In a 2014 interview, an adult Billy Mumy expounded on his performance as 7-year old mutant Anthony Fremont in the Twilight Zone adaptation of "It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby. He confessed to riding home from shooting his scenes with his mom and pretending that he...
Treasures from The Dalenberg Library of Antique Popular Literature: The Making of Star Trek
Star Trek had a rocky life in its first iteration as what is now called "The Original Series" (which lasted for three seasons and 79 episodes between September, 1966, and June, 1969. Threatened with cancellation by NBC over low ratings, a massive fan-driven...
Treasures from The Dalenberg Library of Antique Popular Literature
Zane Grey (1872-1939) wrote 90 books and was one of the first million dollar authors. He is best known for his westerns, which were instrumental in cementing the 20th Century ideal of the 19th Century American frontier. This is a 1924 Grosset & Dunlap budget...
Slan, by A. E. van Vogt (1940)
In August, 2016, the World Science Fiction convention was held in Kansas City. Even though I’m a science fiction fan from way back, I was never a conventioneer. But I had read about the world conventions since my youth, eagerly devouring Isaac Asimov’s chatty...
Prog Rock ’72: Seven Mind-Blowing Albums from The Dalenberg Library
Prog Rock = Progressive Rock = a musical aberration from the 1970’s that is either loved or despised. What was it? Prog rock is simply a musical style that is what it is when you point at it and call it prog. It’s that sort of thing. You can’t define it, but you...
In Defense of Dylan’s Nobel
And the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature goes to. . . Bob Dylan! What?! Why not?! No question that this was a controversial award. There are many who have applauded it, but there are a vocal few who feel that giving this award to a white, American song-writer who has...
Treasures from The Dalenberg Library
If you love musical theater, sooner or later you have to come to a reckoning with Paul Simon’s unjustly maligned masterwork “The Capeman,” which had a brief, tumultuous run on Broadway in 1998. I count myself lucky to have attended one of those preciously rare 68...
Treasures from The Dalenberg Library
Here is our time-worn copy of the The Kinks’ album Arthur from 1969, released in the US on Reprise Records division of what was then called Warner Bros-Seven Arts Records. Cover rubbed from years of being repeatedly taken on and off the shelf for a...
Great Books from the Dalenberg Library
Great Books from The Dalenberg Library: In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space, by Douglas Curran (Abbeville Press, originally published 1985; updated and expanded 2001) Mr. Curran started out as a photographer with an interest in snapping...
The Flying Saucers are Real
The Original Flying Saucer Exposé: Donald Keyhoe’s “The Flying Saucers Are Real” By Dale D. Dalenberg MD The Gold Medal paperback originals are a cornerstone of the Dalenberg Library of Antique Popular Literature. We have a handful of them from 1950,...
The Dawn of “Science-Fiction”: A Hugo Gernsback magazine from 1929
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D.February 9, 2015It is hard to believe these days, considering its popularity in the movies and pervasiveness on bestseller lists, but science fiction has only been around for less than 100 years. Much has been written about the origins...
Old Books: The Complete Poetical Works of Austin Dobson (Oxford University Press, 1923)
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D.January 5, 2015It was Robert Frost who likened writing free verse to playing tennis with the net down. And in keeping with that opinion, it certainly is easy to get the impression that most modern poetry is just lazy writing. ...
Forgotten Tales in Orange Wrappers: Beadle’s Dime Novels
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D.December 29, 2014A cornerstone of the Dalenberg Library is a collection of about six-hundred 19th Century dime novels. These are the wellspring from which pop-lit (as we know it from the 20th Century) evolved. The dime novels,...
1931: The Earliest Seuss in Hardcovers
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D.October 13, 2014In 1931, well before Theodor Seuss Geisel published the childrens’ books for which he achieved his fame, he was drawing ads for Flit insect spray and publishing cartoons in magazines, most notably Life and the...
Victorian Artisan/Author/Activist: William Morris (1834-1896)
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D.The Dalenberg Library blog was created (in part) to highlight unique books, or forgotten books, or collectible editions in the Library. I have often digressed from that task to discuss music or art or films. But I have a lot of...
Bow-Tied and Brilliant: My Memories of Leonard Peltier, MD, PhD (1920-2003)
Portrait from Asclepiad 1987 (University of Arizona College of Medicine yearbook). By Dale D. Dalenberg MD June 17, 2014 There have been four great mentors in my professional life. They are: Leonard Peltier MD PhD, Marc Asher MD, Edward H. Simmons MD, and...
A 19th Century Fascination: Doomed Lovers from the 13th Century
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D. April 30, 2014 Francesca and Paolo on the hell-wind, frontispiece to The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, volume I, The Davos Press (New York), 1909. In The Dalenberg Library of Antique Popular...
A Sense for Nonsense: From Edward Lear to Lewis Carroll to Dr. Seuss.
By Dale D. Dalenberg, M.D.April 1, 2014Every now and then the Dalenberg Library of Antique Popular Literature gets ambitious and tries to live up to its name by buying something that is truly antique. This month we are proud to announce the acquisition of a...
Dalenberg’s Context Theory of Art Criticism
By Dale Dalenberg, M.D.March 2, 2014Ok, I know this is supposed to be the popular literature blog, which means science fiction, mystery, westerns, and the like. But, I’ve been doing this for over a year, and I think it is time to re-introduce Dalenberg’s Context...