Eternal Rome - Grant Showerman w/1932 annual letter signed by author

I just picked up a box of books from the local thrift store, (I love books) and one of the books is entitled:

Eternal Rome

Which was written by Grant Showerman and first published in 1924, the one I found was the third printing from 1925 which was the first to combine Vol I & II into one printing.

This is the description page:

ETERNAL ROME

The city and it's people from the earliest times to the present day

by Grant Showerman - Professor of the classics in the University of Wisconsin, Director of the summer session, The American Academy in Rome.

Well I got home and cracked the book open to check it out and saw that it had a name Miles G. Thompson, Villa S forza, Rome, Italy inside the front cover.

I breezed through the pages and when I got to the end, glued into the back cover was folded a typewritten letter which was the annual letter to students of the American Academy in Rome, Grant says that only 75 people would get this letter because he could not type up 380 to send to all the people.

He described his years travels which also described the rebuilding of Rome, giving credit to the Fascist regime (Mussolini?), and a visit with the chief fascist on Dec 15.

I do remember how Mussolini was HUGE into bringing back the grandeur of the Roman empire with many restoration projects.

The letter goes on to say that this would be the last summer session for Showerman as the director of the Academy and he enjoyed the ten years he served.

I did a search on Showerman and found that he passed in 1935, three years after typing this letter.

Some of the letter is in Latin or Italian, there were two phrases that were underlined (is this typical ?)

dolce far niente

optima cum coniuge quam Romae in Capitolic ante annos triginta et tres in matrimonium duxit.

He closes with :

AVETE ATQVE VALETE

Romae Kal. Apr. a.D. MCMXXXII signedGrant Showerman


I thought this was interesting and wanted to share with the members, and maybe someone can translate what those phrases mean. Also I would like your opinions on the book if you have had a chance to read this one.

I will try and get some pics of the stuff up later.



ed:sp

[edit on 11/30/2007 by JacKatMtn]

Here is three pics of the book title page, inside front cover, and the letter in the rear of the book: