Adventures in second-hand book-buying, Part I (Peter Pauper Press)

My household is in austerity mode thanks to the recent economic downturn. So I've curtailed my book-buying. A few weeks ago, though, I was visiting a friend in Sarasota and we stopped by the very lovely Selby Library, which has a Friends of the Library used book store.
For 50 cents each, I picked up one reference book published in 1969 on modern world history (in retrospect, a dubious selection) and one very interesting copy of the Psalms.
I have several Bibles already, so I didn't need a copy. But what caught my eye was its charming design. Titled "The Psalms of David" and published by Peter Pauper Press, the small hardcover came in its own cardboard slipcase. The slipcase was frayed, but but it did its job of protecting -- the book inside is in excellent condition. (Book on left; slipcase on right.)




It has charming woodcut art by Valenti Angelo, and the paper is rich and textured. There's no information to identify the year of publication, but I poked around on WorldCat and figured out it could be 1936 or 1943.



I'm also fascinated by the fact that the Psalms are laid out in paragraph form, i.e. big blocks of text.



In the Bibles I have, the Psalms are laid out with many breaks between sentences, so that it resembles poetry. This mimics the traditional thought on the origins of the Psalms, which are said to be music lyrics authored by King David (of David and Goliath fame). David would sing the Psalms while accompanying himself on his lyre, which is a harp-like musical instrument. I love the image of the handsome young warrior king, moodily strumming his lyre under a shade tree, but taking a break every now and then to open up a can of whup-ass on someone.

I also looked up the Peter Pauper Press, and as I expected it was a budget imprint of yesteryear, specializing in inexpensive editions of the classics. I almost fell off my chair, though, to read that its first edition was ... Petrarch sonnets translated by J.M. Synge. Synge is a major, major figure in Irish literature, the author of the once scandalous play "The Playboy of the Western World." Why do so many things come back to Ireland? More evidence of Ireland's important place in my own narrative history.
I'll have even more thoughts on this copy of the Psalms in my next post.