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Three is a Collection . . .

Bibliographies of J.L. Carr and Edmund Blampied, plus bookplates and engravings by Stephen Gooden and others.


This site is dedicated mostly to my collections and to the bibliographies and catalogues that they have led to. The name is taken from the privately printed autobiography of the collector and misanthrope James L'Arbalestier (1875-1938), who wrote:

Beware of aquiring things of the same nature: two is a coincidence; three is a collection.*



Here you can find:

►  A bibliography of the novels, small books, maps and other published works of J.L. Carr, with printed materials related to him, including articles about Carr. There are a few examples of his paintings, too.

►  NEW BOOK: Life as Fiction: A Biographical Companion to the Novels of J.L. Carr, 3C Press, April 2024. See here.

►  Pages on the art of Edmund Blampied including designs for sheet music, bookplates, stamps and money, and a comprehensive bibliography of books and magazines containing his illustrations.

►  I am also working on a new catalogue raisonné of Edmund Blampied's prints - etchings, drypoints, lithographs and silhouettes.

►  Pages on the artist and engraver Stephen Gooden incuding a basic table of his designs for bookplates, coats-of-arms, award labels and devices. There are also pages on my collections of his bookplates and engravings.

►  A page on other on bookplates with examples designed by Mervyn Peake, Henry Rushbury and William E.C. Morgan, plus a page devoted to bookplates initialled W.P.B.

►  An inconsequential page about things I have found in books.

Image of drawing

Other stuff that interests me:

  ►  An article about Kate Abadie's sons who all died in the service of their country.

  ►  An article on the History of the Quakers in Jersey written by Anthea Hall for the Société Jersiase Annual Bulletin for 2003.

  ►  A note about John Snow, an epidemiologist, although he didn't know that.

  ►  A page on Betty Trask, an author whose 55 novels have been forgotten, but a Prize carries on her name.

  ►  The sad story of Joan Pearl Wolfe (1923-1942), whom J.L. Carr incorporated into one of his novels.

  ►  Things you can listen to, download or watch, starting with a nightingale's song.

  ►  A page of links to personal web sites about books and things.


Why?

Nothing on this site is done for personal gain. It's just been fun to try to teach myself how to construct web pages; to have at hand basic, searchable bibliographies or catalogues of things that I collect (because I forget); and to be able to share with others my collections and obscure interests. A web site allows me to update the text and order of books or prints easily, whenever I get new information or find new things, and to show images of the items, which may be helpful to collectors. My printed bibliography of Edmund Blampied (2010) was out of date as soon as I found another dust jacket that he had designed. I have now found ten more and there may be others. I can easily add new items as I find them.

A web site also allows me to embed links to other entries on the same site or to supporting information on an external site, which is indicated with this symbol: Image. It should open on a new page. This provides a link to additional information in a way that a printed book cannot, and allows digression and distraction. Many of the links are to Wikipedia or to other sites that provide interesting information, such as how things look now. These other sites are not permanent, so if a link doesn't work, please let me know.


Search engines and this web site

I recommend using DuckDuckGo because Google took a long time to find and index all pages on this site. For example, I have a page about an obscure WWI magazine which Google took more than 3 years to index whereas DuckDuckGo indexed it soon after I uploaded it. Google did not show the site even if I asked it to search my web site specifically using Google Advanced Search. Google also took a long time to index my site specifically and even then, did not put it at the top of a search list whereas DuckDuckGo did. After nearly six years Google now puts this site at the top of a general search for Three is a Collection, without inverted commas. This is perhaps because the site has had 8,500 visitors by 22/8/2025. (If you have read this far, this is proof that you are one of these special people - thank you). These pages are also indexed by Bing and Yahoo, and there may be other good search engines.


Help with viewing this site

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* I made this up. Sorry.


. . . Three is a Collection