Antonius Holtmann:

No Masterpiece or : How "Liwwät Böke" Was Adorned With Borrowed Plumes (2012)


VIII. Inter-American Plagiarisms (46, 47, 76, 146-47)

 I discovered the illustration presented on page 46 in two American books.(13)  Ridpath subtitled it "Adventures en route Overland to California", and in the Business Directory it appeared under the title "Getting There". By contrast Liwwät Böke subtitled the illustration: "1835. hew ik maolt ut min sinn in 1864" (I drew this from my mind in 1864.).


"Liwwät"Business Directory von Cincinnati (1891)


I noticed the illustration presented on p. 47 entitled "usse flatschiff de fussen hendhal" (our flatboat down the river) by “Liwwät Böke” in a book published in 1888. (14)

"Liwwät"

W. H. Venable (1888)

 I noticed the illustration presented on p. 76 in a book published in 1867.(15)  The original illustration included 8 additional persons which were removed by “Liwwät”; only "her husband" and the family dog remained in the picture ("ein jaohr later") [one year later].

"Liwwät"
Nathan H. Parker (1867)

 I also noticed the large picture presented on pages 146-47.(16)  In 'Liwwät Böke´s illustration three steam- and threshing-machines are lacking, and a church, a river plain and the outlines of farmland have been added – in order to hint at Minster´s relatively small patches of agriculturally used lands and its humid plains? The caption to 'Böke´s' illustration reads: "Dösken mit de niee Dampfer un Dösker, sex wagens, septein perde, eighteihn männer, frulür, water junge, holt bringer, 1879" [Threshing with the new steam engine and threshing machine , six wagon, seventeen horses, eighteen men, women, water boys , wood carriers 1879).

"Liwwät"

Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (1878)

 It is possible that the real Liwwät Böke copied some of these illustrations from the originals. Anyway: These drawings are plagiarisms.


Further: The Map


[13] John Clark Ridpath: History of the World. Volume IV. New York: Merrill and Baker (Copyright 1894/1896/1897: The Jones Brothers Publishing Company), 83; Cinti Illustrated 1892 Business Directory. Cincinnati 1891

[14] H. Venable: Footprints of the Pioneers in the Ohio Valley: A Centennial Sketch. Cincinnati, OH: Ohio Valley Press 1888

[15] Nathan H. Parker: Missouri as it is in 1867: an illustrated historical gazetter of Missouri, embracing the geography, history resources and prospects . . . The new constitution, the emancipation ordinance, and important facts concerning ”free Missouri”. Philadelphia: Lippincott 1867

[16] Sarah Burns: Pastoral Inventions: Rural Live in Nineteenth Century American Art and Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press 1989. First publication: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 19, 1878 (“Dakota Territory: The Great Wheat Fields in the Valley of the Red River of the North: Threshing by Steam on the Dalrymple Farm, Formerly a Barren Prairie”, Wood Engraving). See also Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann: Landleben im 19. Jahrhundert. München: Beck 1987 (“Das Dreschen mit der Dreschmaschine auf dem Erntefeld”).




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