Today I'm going to take a leap into the torrents of literary scholasticism that are... bookmarks. Now, you don't get that in the Times Literary Supplement. A few years ago, I decided to start using art-postcards for bookmarks, rather than scraps or paper or (Heaven forefend) folding down the page in question - so much nicer to see something from a gallery, rather than the 'phone number you jotted down next to a doodle of the Eiffel Tower. If I were feeling sophisticated, I might refer to bookmarks as independent, non-contingent paratextual elements. But I shan't.
So I now put a bit of thought into the type of bookmark used. A new book can't have a very old postcard/bookmark - nor vice versa. Afterwords : Letters on the Death of Virginia Woolf, a collection of the letters sent to Leonard Woolf, which I'm currently reading, has a Virginia Woolf postcard. I thought I'd share the one I use for older, tattier books:
This is the sort of thing I find fascinating - come back tomorrow if you are of less sentimental temperament. I found this postcard of Thomas Hardy's cottage in a London postcard shop, and loved it. The Clan went to Hardy's cottage a few years ago, and it is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen - far, far more flowers and foliage than in the postcard's photo, perhaps unsurprisingly, but so emblematic of all I love about the English countryside.The postcard/bookmark itself is from around 1937, as the stamp of George VI and Wikipedia inform me, and reads:
"I am having a lovely time with Jim, Joan & Caroline who has grown since last year, & is now running about all over the place, she is so sweet. Weather not too good, but is improving. Expect to be home Aug 6th. Love Elsie P"
Postcards don't change, do they?
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