Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse: September 29, 2024

Issue 127

Hello, Muse Community!

An article by freelance writer Ashley Stimpson appeared last month in The Washington Post, and we think it is a fascinating read, especially for the bibliophiles (book lovers) among us. Stimpson’s article begins with a graduate student in Wyoming, named Sarah Mentock, buying a Victorian clothbound edition of Walter Scott’s narrative poem, The Lord of the Isles. Mentock loves antique books and was immediately captivated by the beautiful and vivid colors on the book’s cover, so she picked it up for a few dollars at a garage sale. The book has now been part of Mentock’s collection for almost thirty years, and recently, she ran across an organization on the internet which caused her to wonder how safe it was to handle and flip through the pages of The Lord of the Isles.

Mentock had discovered the University of Delaware’s Poison Book Project, which specializes in testing and identifying Victorian clothbound books whose striking colors are filled with lead, chromium, me…