Books by Henry Clark
  • Home
  • Blog
  • What We Found in the Sofa
    • Reviews of Sofa
    • Excerpts From Sofa
    • Sofa Scrapbook
  • Time Travel Happens
  • Time Travel
  • Educator's Guides
    • What We Found in the Sofa
  • Bio
  • Links

Fantasy for February

2/24/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I once worked in the nineteenth century, as a docent in a museum dedicated to portraying life in the United States at the time of the Civil War. As part of my job, I occasionally performed magic lantern shows for the visiting public.

The magic lantern was the granddaddy of the twentieth-century slide projector (a device now almost as obsolete as the magic lantern) and 

used hand-painted glass slides to achieve its effects. Traditionally, two magic lanterns were used in such shows, so that the image from one slide could be superimposed over the image from another, thereby creating an illusion of motion  -  many years before the invention of true cinema.

A sample is included below, in the form of two antique glass slides combined in a looping GIF image. I’m doing this in the absence of any book news (the Time Travel book is about to go to the copy editor; the Sofa book is selling reasonably well, thank you) and also because it’s been a long February and I’m feeling nostalgic.

The Legend of Washington's Tomb

Picture
It is said that on midnight every February 11,
the anniversary of George Washington's birth
(if you're using the Julian calendar, as what
John Lennon fan doesn't?)
the ghost of George Washington emerges from his tomb, looks around, sees his shadow, runs back in the tomb,
and we have another six weeks of winter.

End of Legend

It's hard to believe, but some people found my magic lantern shows amusing. A somewhat lengthy excerpt from one can be found here. Some of the images you've seen elsewhere on this website are from antique magic lantern slides, of which I have a modest collection.

In case you were wondering.


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Henry Clark 

    Pictured here on the day he sold What We Found in the Sofa. His mood is cautiously optimistic.

    You should see him when he's happy.

    Picture

    Archives

    August 2020
    May 2020
    July 2019
    July 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All
    Amazon
    Antietam
    April 14th
    Audiobook
    Awards
    Boogers
    Book Number 3
    Botox
    Bunny Ears
    Cambridge Emptiness
    Cross-time Dressers
    Doritos
    Easter Eggs
    Emoticonman
    Endpapers
    Food Pyramid
    French Edition
    Galleys
    Gojira
    Goodreads
    Groucho Glasses
    Hammock Day
    Iago
    Inflatable Campfire
    Junior Library Guild
    Kirkus Review
    Lewis Carroll
    Library
    MacGuffin
    Magic Lantern
    Mark Twain Award
    Modern Times
    Mrs. O
    Mummified Squirrel
    Nunchucks
    Outhouses
    Podcast
    Pork Bellies
    Portmanteau Words
    Richard Iii
    Serial Comma
    Thalia Book Club
    The Missing Month
    Time Loops
    Toilet Balloon
    Trans-temporals
    Transtemps
    Two Headed
    Virtual Book Club
    Werewolves
    Yale Club

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.