Tag Archive: 0WWI

I’ve written before about First World War material on this blog (such as here and here), but even though there is a lot on the market you still come across things you’ve never seen before. Published around 1914, these little Russian song-sheets were both edited/arranged by Aleksandr Chernyavsky (1871–1942), a pianist and composer, particularly of […]

‘We’re only charging machines.  And the machine triumphs into our flesh.  And the machine drinks the blood from our veins, guzzling it by the bucketload.’  These lines come from the extraordinary novella Das Menschenschlachthaus by Wilhelm Lamszus (1881–1965), which I read recently. I’ll admit I’d never heard of it until I saw it among the items […]

The German diplomat, Orientalist, and historian Max von Oppenheim (1860–1946) had published a memorandum as early as 1914 on ‘revolutionizing the Islamic territories of our enemies’ during the First World War, i.e. trying to persuade religious leaders in the Muslim world to call for a Holy War against colonial powers such as Britain and France.  […]

Next week sees the London International Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia.  It will be my first time as an exhibitor there.  One thing I shall have on my stand is this, the first edition of an attractive illustrated appreciation of British troops in France during the First World War, with illustrations by Guy Arnoux, published […]

This book came in recently, appealing to my interests in Russia, music, and (as you may have read before) the First World War.  Dating from 1914, it’s a charitable publication: ‘20% from each copy sold will go towards helping the All-Russian Zemstvo Union for Aid to Sick and Wounded Troops’ (founded July 1914), it reads. […]

Earlier in the year, I wrote about a couple of books relating to the First World War.  Here’s another with a WWI connection: a miniature Qur’an produced by the Glasgow publishers David Bryce & Sons between about 1900 and 1910.  (The coin, in case you’re wondering, is a nickel.) In general, I’m not that taken […]