Today’s Link

• Episode 75: Library of Alexandria transcript
• The Library of Alexandria: Centre of Learning in the Ancient World, a collection of academic essays edited by Roy MacLeod
• Episode of the BBC radio show In Our Time from March 2009
• The Vanished Library by Luciano Canfora
• An episode of In Search of History about the Library of Alexandria

The post Episode 75: The Library of Alexandria first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 75: The Library of Alexandria appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Guest host Chris Curran joins us again to talk about one of the major publishing scams of the late 70s and early 80s.

Content Warnings

• Nazis, including neo-Nazis who carried on their worship after they lost the war
• Holocaust deniers and revisionist historians
• Rupert Murdoch
• Strong language (we’ve got words for Nazis and also for right-wing publications and their overlords who mislead the public)

The scene is Germany, April 21, 1945, in the last days of the Third Reich. Two planes leave Berlin at dawn, one of them carrying Hitler’s valet, Wilhelm Arndt, who is escorting Hitler’s private documents. By evening, Hitler’s chief pilot Hans Baur reported that one of the planes had crashed in a small village outside Dresden—the one that held Arndt and the documents.

Hitler shouted, “In that plane were all my private archives, what I had intended as a testimony for posterity! It is a catastrophe!”

The collection consisted of a previously unpublished sequel to Mein Kampf, an opera that the Fuehrer had written with one of his childhood friends, and a large collection of his private diaries. Year later, the documents—not destroyed after all!—were discovered. (Yada, yada, yada…) In 1983, the Stern news magazine in Western Germany, after selling serial rights to publications across the Western world, announced the discovery.

Within a few days, Stern was totally discredited, the diaries were exposed as forgeries, and two Hitler-loving dumbasses were arrested.

We’re going to talk about what kind of dumbasses and dumbassery led up to the diaries being taken for genuine articles and shown to the world as such, exploring what mistakes publishers and reporters made to let something like this happen. And, of course, we will unveil how the scam was brought to an end!

Links for this episode:

• Episode 66: The Hitler Diaries Forgery Scam — Transcript
• The Billionaire’s Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace
• Fraudsters Episode 12: The Hitler Fanfiction Everyone Believed
• ITV Miniseries: Selling Hitler
• The Hitler Diaries: The Fakes that Fooled the World by Charles Hamilton
• Hitler Diaries Reported Found — Washington Post article from 1983
• ‘Hitler Diaries’ Proved to Be Forged — article in The Guardian from 1983 (also)

The post Episode 66: The Hitler Diaries Forgery Scam first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 66: The Hitler Diaries Forgery Scam appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

For over 15 years, online smartasses content creators have been doing dramatic readings of a single, infamous fanfic—My Immortal. It features an OC (original character) named Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, Draco Malfoy, Good Charlotte, Harry Potter (who now goes by the name “Vampire”) and a whole lot of very bad spelling.

STOP FLAMMING DA STORY PREPZ OK!
—XXXbloodyrists666XXX

The ever-talented JT joins Emily to do something that, frankly, I am surprised we haven’t done yet: indulge in the age-old tradition of reading the fic, then speculating about whether or not it was just one very clever troll. Emily also tells a story of a moment in time that the mystery was thought to be solved, and how that story heavily involves traditional publishing taking on, then canceling, a pertinent memoir.

Content Warnings

This is mainly for the actual fic, which includes.

• A very embarrassing, arguably glorified incident of self-harm
• Homophobia and a flippant reference to a character having AIDS

(I feel a bit silly adding CWs to this really awful piece of work, but just in case.)

Mentioned in this Episode:

• The text to my Immortal itself
• A link to the transcript

A series of news stories that will take you from uncertainty, to cautious belief, to doubly confused uncertainty:

• The Bizarre Unsolved Mystery of My Immortal (Posted before the memoir incident)
• People Think They Have The Answer To The Decade-Long Mystery Of Who Wrote “My Immortal”
• The My Immortal memoir has been canceled, and the mystery of the notorious fanfic deepens

The post Episode 63: JT Reads the Most Notorious Fanfic of All Time first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 63: JT Reads the Most Notorious Fanfic of All Time appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Content warnings for this episode:

• Corpse violation
• Medical ethics violations
• Abuse of power
• Objectifying the human body
• Worms
• Murder and Mutilation
• Racism & Colonialism
• The French
• The British
• …and swears of course

In part two of our series on anthropodermic bibliopegy, aka, binding books in human skin, we discuss why anyone would ever think this is a good idea. From the guillotines of the French Revolution, to the postmortem dissections of murder victims in Edinburgh, to racist propaganda promoting Manifest Destiny, there’s always been mythmaking around books bound in human skin. We talk about the mystique around these books in Western culture and why such useful rumors had these objects at their center. Then, of course, it’s time to get into the big, sticky moral question—once one of these books is confirmed to be human, what should be done with it?

But to look in order to know, to show in order to teach, is not this a tacit form of violence, all the more abusive for its silence, upon a sick body that demands to be comforted, not displayed? — Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic

Mentioned on this episode:

• Again, our main source for the day: Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom
• The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly world of Victorian Medicine Lindsey Fitzharris
• Paul Needham’s recommendations for what should be done with Armand Houssaye’s Des destinées de l’âme, which was confirmed to be bound in human skin.
• This is not mentioned because it came out after recording, but it’s still pretty cool! Caitlin Doughty did an episode of her YouTube show “Ask a Mortician” on Anthropodermic Bibliopegy!

The post Episode 61: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Part 2 first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 61: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Part 2 appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The Necronomicon, tomes from the shelves of serial killers and war criminals—these are a few things that come to mind when we talk about books bound in human skin. Anthropodermic bibliopegy, as it is called, is actually quite a bit different than these sensationalist examples. In reality, the people whose libraries included these books were well-to-do doctors and other privileged members of society. In part one of this two part series, we explore the science of identifying these books, as well as how people came into possession of them.

Heed the content warnings and strap in! This one is more than a little gross.

Content Warnings for:

• Corpse violation
• Medical ethics violations
• Abuse of power
• Objectifying the human body
• Colonialism

There are so many points of failure in this progression.
—Chris, regarding Dr. John Stockton Hough’s use of Mary Lynch’s skin in his personal library

Mentioned in this Episode

• Our main source for the day: Dark Archives by Megan Rosenbloom
• Website for the Anthropodermic Book Project
• Atlas Obscura article: The True Practice of Binding Books in Human Skin by Rob Velella
• Anthropodermic Biocodicology episode of the podcast Ologies by Alie Ward
• Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians by Richard Sugg

Link to transcript: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Part 1

The post Episode 60: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Part 1 first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 60: Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Part 1 appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

“The swift propagation of the witch hysteria by the press was the first evidence that Gutenberg had not liberated man from original sin.” — Jeffrey Burton Russell

Sometimes readers forget that these cherished bound objects aren’t always beacons of goodness and enlightenment in a mad world. Sometimes, in fact, they can be a medium for a 15th century incel to rain down misery and death on thousands of people for hundreds of years!

Chris Curran from episode 16 returns to discuss the origins and the general repulsiveness of the Malleus Maleficarum—aka The Hammer of Witches, aka the Witch Hunter’s Manual—with Corinne and Emily.

Our sources today include…

• The Malleus Maleficarum as translated by Montague Summers
• Witchcraze: A New History of the European Witch Hunts by Anne Llewellyn Barstow
• The Malleus Maleficarum and the Construction of Witchcraft by Hans Peter Broedel
• Witches in Print: Or, how the patriarchy weaponized the Printing Press to Silence Independent Women by Jessica Caponigro
• Witchcraft in the Middle Ages by Jeffrey Burton Russell
• The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism by Karen Armstrong

The post Episode 52: The Malleus Maleficarum with Chris Curran first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 52: The Malleus Maleficarum with Chris Curran appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

As long as there has been written word, there have been written feuds. And as long as there have been American news sources, there has been determination to steal market share from one another.

Just ask Benjamin Franklin, an OG publishing troll.

This week, we celebrate our belated Hybrid Pub Scout anniversary by having an Emily and Corinne only podcast. We discuss the new Barnes & Noble CEO and dig up a historical flame war that led to an urban legend that has given New Jersey a LOT of material.

2:33—

We discuss Corinne’s acting skills and the biggest high school drama role she ever had that she totally forgot. Also, Corinne’s high school drama teacher said she wasn’t bitchy enough! She’s grown so much.

If you have an iPhone, please review us on Apple podcasts, even if you don’t listen through that app. Pleeeeeaaaaaseee.

We believe in you!

5:37—

It’s been over a year since we embarked on a co-hosting adventure for this podcasting. Corinne basically invited herself in the middle of her interview, and I was SO glad she did. You can listen to that very episode right here.

Also Corinne talks about her podcast beefs, proving to her high school drama teacher how she has TRULY developed as a human being.

9:49—

We talk about how much we miss just shooting the shit. You all can now look forward to the return of the Emily/Corinne goofball podcasts. We’re thinking of doing some history-of-publishing-stories similar to what we’ve done in this episode? What do you think? Let us know on our social media accounts linked below!

11:11—

Buckle up, folks, Corinne’s got an article about Barnes & Noble’s recent changes through Elliot Advisors’ purchase. Someone is finally (probably!) replacing Len Riggio for good. Also I couldn’t find an applause sound effect because I didn’t look for an applause sound effect.

13:35—

When we say kitsch, we mean nostalgia. We admit to our embarrassing 90s Nostalgia Pinterest boards. Also, here is the Tumblr account of photocopied Delia’s pages. You’re welcome.

16:06—

Here’s a non-obituary postmortem on Len Riggio’s storied career from Shelf Awareness.

18:37—

Emily introduces the book she’s been reading and how it ties in to today’s theme. And almost completely informs it as well—The Secret History of the Jersey Devil by Brian Regal and Frank Esposito!

20:45—

We lay down the legendary story of Mother Leeds’s 13th child and its hooves, bleathery blat wings, and tail. It flew out the chimney and has haunted the New Jersey Pine Barrens ever since. Sounds like someone drew devil horns on her baby’s vision board.) Also we can’t be bothered to look up Atlantic City on a map, but here’s the book Emily read about it.

23:47—

Why are we talking about this? Turns out publishing and politics helped create this legend, specifically pamphlet feuds. These were the protracted versions of the modern flame war (sure it’s an antiquated term. Shut up.).

26:31—

Through pamphlet feuds, we learn about the trash print media of 1700s Pennsylvania. Corinne talks about her experiences having to look up the new slang that the kids are saying these days.

28:45—

The Leeds family was an actual family who lived at the mouth of the Delaware River in the late 1600s and early 1700s, and we’re introduced to a Quaker named Daniel Leeds. Quakers are a pretty progressive group when it comes to a lot of things, but not Leeds’s favorite subject: astrology. He created a pamphlet that had some occult explorations and the very people he was trying to impress were…nonplussed.

Daniel Leeds’s desired legacy as an intellectual didn’t quite pan out how he wanted it to.

33:11—

The pamphlet war between Daniel Leeds and the Quakers begins. The word “strumpet” comes into play. Could this possibly get any better? Spoiler alert: It does.

36:46—

“Satan’s Harbinger” passes along responsibility for the Leeds Almanac to his son Titan Leeds. And from there, we move on to the inexplicably lady-killing founding father Benjamin Franklin.

Btw, please enjoy this, this, this, this, and this cartoon from Kate Beaton featuring our naughty founding father.

40:00—

Hear ye the extremely Capricorn early history of Ben Franklin’s publishing career. This includes his too-cool-for-school attitude and the first nom de plume he ever used to get one over on someone, in this case his brother James. No, Corinne, it was not Frenjamin Branklin.

44:43—

Young Franklin strikes out on his own, illegally leaving his internship early and heading to Philadelphia, then London, then back. We’re also pretty sure he started going bald from stress.

46:56—

The boys are back in town! Franklin returns to Philadelphia to see what kind of trouble he can stir up. This includes a library, some questionable political pamphlets, printing the Bible (when it was against the law for anyone but the King’s Press to do so). Also, for further reading, here is what the Benjamin Franklin Historical Society has to say about Ben Franklin’s changing views on slavery.

49:47—

Poor Richard’s almanac debuts in 1733, and with it a brand new pseudonym. We circle back to Titan Leeds, who is currently running the most popular almanac in Pennsylvania. But not for long, if Ben Franklin has anything to do with it.

52:58—

Poor Titan Leeds takes Franklin’s trolling way too seriously, stirring up the feud even further. He takes the fight to his grave. And beyond, if Richard Saunders is to be believed.

They’ll do anything to sell those almanacs.

56:18—

Once Leeds actually dies, Benjamin Franklin comes clean and behaves in a respectful manner regarding the death of his rival. Lol jk!

59:48—

Somehow this all got wrapped up in the lore of the Jersey Devil. And now. Here we are.

1:01:14—

Corinne stans New Jersey. Theoretically.

This week’s sources:

• The Secret History of the Jersey Devil by Brian Regal and Frank Esposito
• Last Podcast on the Left “The Jersey Devil” episode

What are we reading??

Corinne

Normal People by Sally Rooney of which Erin Pehlivan is a huge fan. We talked about it in Episode 21.

Emily

The Secret History of the Jersey Devil by Brian Regal and Frank Esposito

The post Episode 28: Ben Franklin and the Leeds Devil first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 28: Ben Franklin and the Leeds Devil appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.