My Great Grand Uncle's Dictionary

Last week, I read a couple of blogs that mentioned dictionaries; I think the second blog referred to the first one. That made me think of my mother's dictionary. She had an old dictionary which she amateurishly recovered sometime in the distant past. I wondered if I still had it. I turned around and looked at the stack on the top of the beamshelf that is on the wall behind me, and there it was.

I thought that I should photograph it in the stack, but Sue reminded me that I did this last year — around this time of year as a matter of fact. I remembered the photo, but I didn't remember all that was in it. I am not a detail guy after all.

The dictionary in that photo ↑ is the book with the white cover lying flat on the shelf with the rose on the top: Webster's New Illustrated Dictionary, 1912.

This ↓ is what my mother wrote inside.

I don't know the story of how my mother, Mary, had possession her Great Uncle's [sic] dictionary. I imagine that it was passed onto her mother who, I believe, was Bill Drew's niece. Now, more than one hundred years later, I have it. And now I know its basic provenance. 

Here it is, homemade cover and dog-eared pages.

With Sue's help, I took several photos with the dictionary opened. It was Sue who found the candle and the pen to add to the photo. She's good at this sort of staging. I probably would have just photographed the book itself. Do you have a preference amongst the three photos?

I think I prefer the first photo in which the shadow of the pen is less harsh.

What to call aunts and uncles still confuses me a bit, but I think it is because people refer to them incorrectly. Mom wrote Great Uncle in the dictionary, but I think he was more properly her Grand Uncle. I think he would be my Great Grand Uncle. I also see that a quick search indicates that I should write great-granduncle — hyphenated and not capitalized.