Bobby Bauch Response 1

            The experience of handling and reading the copies of All the Year Round was quite unlike anything I’ve ever experienced while reading. Certainly these books are the oldest that I’ve ever held in my hand or read from. The quality of the pages alone made the readings interesting. The best way I can think to describe the pages and the book as a whole would be “dusty”. They just had quite an old feeling to them. The pages in this book – specifically I looked at Volume VIII from September, 1862 to February 1863 – seem sturdy for their age yet extremely sensitive to the touch. I don’t think I have ever handled the pages of a book so delicately or turned them so slowly. This way of reading and handling the book added to the antique feeling of the whole experience.

            The layout is something I’m entirely unused too here in the 21^st century. In some ways it reads like a newspaper in that things are broken into articles. But, the juxtaposition of genres is the unique thing about All the Year Round. As I was examining the volume that I had, I came across a piece of poetry directly after what would probably best be called a work of literary journalism. There were actually many poems incorporated into the text. It was very interesting to transition from narrative to opinion to journalism to poetry! Specifically, I read the poem “A ‘Mercenary’ Marriage”.  It is a poem about a man who marries his love. He has riches and money, but he says that she is the mercenary because he loves her so much and she is the one who was good enough to give him her love and her beauty. Interestingly enough, this comes just after a journalistic narrative on family life.

            I turned to a page in the volume and began to read a journalistic piece on cotton and titled “The State ad Prospects of Cotton” which seemed boring so I was about to find another story to read when I flipped to the next page. When I did there was a plant in the book! It looked like someone had put it in there to press the plant to preserve it. I obviously have no idea when it was put there or by whom, but it was still very interesting. It very much added to the history and intrigue of the book itself. A piece of a plant added into a piece on the state of a crop was very interesting.

            Incorporated into the periodicals are also advertisements. There are pages and pages of ads laid out in very strange manners. Some are right side up, some are sideways. It very much reminded me of ads before a YouTube video