Baltimore Book

In the bars and ballrooms of Baltimore. Mrs. Wallis Simpson's home town, amazed citizens of high & low degree gaped last fortnight at what appeared to be the title page of a book which any Baltimorean would pay high to read. Title: ALONG THE RIVIERA, A True and Thrilling Love Story, by Edward Cornwall. An archaic-looking woodcut showed a British sea captain relaxing under a palm tree with a Tahitian belle, while another seaman peered off a cliff through a spyglass. Heading: "George VI Looking Over His Vast Empire WITH MR. SIMPSON AT SEA And the Prime Minister Turning His Back and Howling." Publisher was billed as the Salt House Press, of No. 14 East Hamilton Street, Baltimore.

When eager Baltimoreans showed up at No. 14 East Hamilton Street for their copies of Along the Riviera, they found that no such publishing firm existed, soon learned that the book was no chronique scandaleuse of Baltimore's most famed ex-resident, but only a figment in the mind of an eccentric printer. With his small press it is Louis MacKenzie Turner's hobby to set up and print the title pages of imaginary books, which he then distributes as a genial hoax around Baltimore.

Some other Turner title pages which have promised exciting but non-existent volumes: BELLE BOYD, THE REBEL SPY, First Gun in the World War of Words; MICROTHILOLOGY, A Wee-weeana Dictionary; CONGRESSIONAL DICTIONARY. Words, Phrases and Veiled Illusions for Use in Effective Lobbying together with Methods of Approach and Purveyance for Spontaneous Legislation.

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