Tag: Karl Jaspers’ The Perennial Scope of Philosophy

     The bottom edge of David Markson’s copy of The Perennial Scope of Philosophy by Karl Jaspers:

     On which Markson wrote his initials across the pages:
     “DMM”

—-

     David Merrill Markson was found dead on June 4th, 2010.

     A month later, in the first week of July, his private library started to appear in the stacks of the Strand.

     Soon after that Annecy Liddell found Markson’s copy of Don DeLillo’s White Noise.
     Which was marked up with a number of negative comments towards DeLillo and his writing.

     And then the Markson Treasure Hunt began after Alex Abramovich wrote his London Review of Books article (published August 26th, 2010).

     I began my collection the day after that article was published.

     That first day I came home with great finds like:
     – David Markson’s Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
     – David Markson’s Robert Graves’ Collected Poems 1955
     – David Markson’s Conrad Aiken’s Ushant: An Essay
     – David Markson’s Conrad Aiken’s The Short Stories of…
     – David Markson’s Conrad Aiken’s The Collected Novels of…
     – David Markson’s Maxim Gorky’s Reminiscences
     – David Markson’s Bruce Arnold’s The Scandal of Ulysses
     – David Markson’s Richard Ellmann’s Ulysses on the Liffey
     – David Markson’s Richard Ellmann’s The Consciousness of Joyce
     – David Markson’s Joseph Blotner’s Faulkner: A Biography
     – David Markson’s William York Tindall’s Forces in Modern British Literature
     And a handful more…

     A day after that, in other sections of the same bookstore, certain other Markson books were removed from the shelves (by yours truly and others), and this time a book entitled The Perennial Scope of Philosophy by Karl Jaspers was discovered on the scene, inscribed with the initials DMM.

     “A week after that, in another small town in the same area, certain ranch deeds and water titles were removed from a land office, and this time a kerchief was discovered on the scene, embroidered with the initials DBM.”
     From pg. 65 of Markson’s The Ballad of Dingus Magee.
     In which the characters initials D.M. are Markson’s initials.
     Though the middle initial is different.

     D.M.M.
     David Merrill Markson
     D.B.M.
     Dingus Billy Magee