Mandolin Memories by Samuel Adelstein

[Jim Garber]

Has anyone ever seen a copy of this book? Adelstein is interesting to me as he was one of the Westerners who perromed or taught in Japan round the turn of the last century.

Jim

[Jim Garber]

And while I am waiting for the barrage of repolies, I just thought I would mention that I am writing a screenplay based on this book. Probably a musical with Tom Hanks as the elusive Adelstein. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Or maybe Johnny Depp as the irrascible Raffaele Calace...

Jim

[Alex Timmerman]

Hi Jim,

Mr. Ugo Orlandi has republished Adelstein´s Memoires:

ADELSTEIN, Samuel, 1999 [1901], (a cura di Ugo Orlandi), Memorie di un mandolinista, Cremona, Turris, Italy.


Best,

Alex

[Jim Garber]

2 questions, Alex: Is it in English and where is it available for sale?

Jim

[btrott]

Jim,

I did a quick search on this to see what libraries might own it, and there is only one in the US.

The Stanford Univ. Library in California has the only copy I could locate in the US of Adelstein's 1901 Mandolin Memories. It does not appear that any library in the Statesd has the Orlandi reprint.

Barry

[Neil Gladd]

Mandolin Memories was originally serialized in The Cadenza, and later published in book form. I have photocopies of both versions, and as it is PD, I could be enticed to scan it. I also have the Ugo Orlandi edition, which he was nice enough to give me a few years ago.

I guess I need to open my own library...

Jim - I have serious problems with your casting decisions. I see Depp as Adelstein and Tom Hanks as Calace.

[John Goodin]

Jim and Neil,

I had the luxury of a sabbatical two years ago and one of the things I worked on was developing some basic digital library skills. (Emphasis on "basic".) I too did a search for the Adelstein book thinking it might be a nice size for a full-blown ebook experiment. Not only scanning it but marking it up with TEI (text encoding initiative) tags etc. I've never read the book but I suspect it's got some interesting stuff in it.

Neil, if you scan your photocopies I'd love to see them. You definitely should "open" your own mando digital library. As you well know practically all of the music and writing about the mandolin from the "Golden Age" is out of copyright and already in the public domain. You've got a serious private collection and access to LC's stuff too. All you need is a spare life to work on this stuff.

I'll be beating this drum at CMSA next week when I get the chance but I too have a life full of other stuff I need to work on.

John Goodin

[Jim Garber]

Jim - I have serious problems with your casting decisions. I see Depp as Adelstein and Tom Hanks as Calace.
Hmmm... based on these photos I am not sure... maybe Leonardo Di Capria as Adelstein...

Jim

[BigRig]

Based on those photos, I'd say cast Colin Farrell for Calace.

[Eugene]

If I (and my semi-pointy goatee) am offered the role of Raffaele Calace, I will graciously accept...so long as I don't have to make any ham-fisted efforts at playing his rather difficult music on screen.

[Jim Garber]

I will be discussing the role of Calace with Carlo this weekend. He has the correct moustache. The Adelstein part is till open tho. We may hire some stunt mandolinists to the principals will not injure themselves.

Jim