The Invisible Library

There is a website called The Invisible Library -- http://www.invisiblelibrary.com -- which lists books which don't actually exist, but whose titles appear in other books. It lists the author and title of the real books they appear in, as well as the "author" and "title" of the imaginary book. It's a fascinating site, but there is not one entry for Gene Wolfe. Obviously, this can't go on. There's The Book of Gold, The Lusty Lawyer by Amanda Ros from Peace (and wasn't there another book by her as well?) and everything in Bibliomen (my copy of which is not accessible at the moment, unfortunately); and there must be others. Should we make it a group project? I'm willing to act as clearinghouse, if people don't want to clutter up the list. --Adam

Wonders of Urth and Sky (oh, that doesn't count, does it?) from BIBLIOMEN: Arthurs, Kirk Patterson (Ph.D.), MASK AND COIN: GRUB STREET IN THE 30S (1986) " , MAZE OF GREY: JOHN GLASKIN REVISITED (1987) " , SWEET SWORD, HIGH HEART: LOVE AND WAR IN THE FICTION OF JOHN GLASKIN (1990) " , FICTION IN FANCY DRESS: JOHN GLASKIN ET AL EXPOSED (1996) [p. 9] Brooks, Robert T., (Spinning Jenny transcription: title unknown), Doubleday (1982) [p. 19] French, Bernard A., GREAT LOST ART OF WESTERN EUROPE [p. 58; p. 23; p. 43] " , PERFECTION UNTO DEATH [p. 44] Glaskin, John, SIXPENCE FOR BUNS " , BRIDESHEAD " , YOU CAN'T GO HOME AT ALL [p. 42] Jons, John J. (jr.), A GUIDE TO THE PUBLIC TOILETS OF AMERICA (1990) [p. 51] " , MEDITATION ON THE UTILITARIAN THEORY OF LITERARY MERIT [p. 52] McRidy, Xavier, THE PAPER NAUTILUS [p. 53] S. Peety, MR. MILTON IN MEDOC [p. 53] de Solo y Varios, Juan Gabriel Sabastian, ALLEGIANCE TO LA VILLA REAL DE LA SANTA FE DE SAN FRANCISCO [p. 53] Poor, Adam, VOICES VOCABLE (1975) [p. 64] " , A SALTED MINE (1976) [p. 64] Rico, Paul, TRAINING THE MIND (1981) [p. 72] Mirk, Roy C., POULTRY AS SYMBOLISM IN NINETEENTH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE " , TEA-TIME TALK IN THE NOVELS OF LOUISE MAY ALCOTT " , WASHING AS A EUPHEMISM IN THE WORKS OF JACK LONDON " , A POST-MODERNIST CRITIC VIEWS THE ANTEBELLUM MIDDLE WEST [p. 93] =mantis= Sirius Fiction Has Moved To http://www.siriusfiction.com/

Presumably this is a branch of the Library of the Unseen University. Go armed with bananas. Matthew

Found three more, all in "From the Desk of Gilmer C. Merton" (in STOREYS FROM THE OLD HOTEL). STAR SHUTTLE by Gilray Gunn (Gilmer C. Merton) COME, DARK LUST! by Wolf Moon THE SHRIEKING IN THE NURSERY by Wolf Moon

From PEACE: (p.-160, Berkley) OH, RARE AMANDA (a biography, author unknown) By Amanda Ros: IRENE IDDESLEIGH DELINA DELANEY DONALD DUDLEY FUMES OF FORMATION (poetry) POEMS OF PUNCTURE (poetry) ------------------ MARVELLS OF SCIENCE by Morryster (197) CULTES DES GOULES by the Comte d'Erlette (198) THE BOOK THAT BINDS THE DEAD (or THE BOOK OF THE NAMES OF THE DEAD, or THE BOOK OF THE NAMES OF DEATH) by Louis A. Gold (or the NECRONOMICON as coined by HPL, if you like--this gets complicated) (215) -Roy

Ach, Roy--he got you! There really =is= an Amanda (McKitterick) Ros, eccentric Irish author (take note, PEACE ethnographers!), and she really did write IRENE IDDESLEIGH (Bookfinder.com lists a few available today, ranging from $8.50 to $20) and HELEN HUDDLESON (ranging from $75 to $106). And O RARE AMANDA really is a biography of her, written by Jack Loudan! Since LUSTY LAWYER by Amanda Ros is the forgery (?) in PEACE, this is the one for the invisible library: the others I assume are all real titles. =mantis= Sirius Fiction Has Moved To http://www.siriusfiction.com/

... Was there ever a actually a book entitled The Book of Gold in one of Wolfe's works? I though it was just a name for whatever book a reader found at an early age that became, for him or her, the "perfect" book.

Why not? Looking at the passage in SHADOW where it's first mentioned, it seems to be a perfectly legitimate book, and it undoubtedly doesn't exist. There's also (in the same passage) Blaithmaic's LIVES OF THE SEVENTEEN MEGATHERIANS. --Adam

In SHADOW OF THE TORTURER (chap. VI), Master Ultan speaks of The Book of Gold as the book which, when a child discovers it, leads to his becoming a librarian. It may be, though, that this in fact doesn't refer to a specific book, though Ultan doesn't say so explicitly. I could make an argument both ways. --Adam