Missing book alert (fwd)

["Jane P. Davidson" <jdhexen@UNR.EDU>]

------ Forwarded Message
Missing Book Alert!

 As some of you may know, Douglas Monroe, author of "21 Lessons of
Merlyn", reproduces a page of the document he calls the "Book of
Pherylt"near the back of "21". He also passes around xeroxes of that
page and a couple others as "proof" of the existence of this book,
which he claims is the secret compendium of British Druid lore.

 By an odd coincidence, these seem to be the very same pages that a
Pagan visiting the New York Public Library Rare Books & Manuscripts
Dept. a few months ago discovered had been _removed_ from the NYPL's
200 year old copy of Iolo Morganwg's classic Druid forgery, "The
Barddas."

 These missing pages were being discussed on Compuserve several weeks
ago, so in a moment of curiosity, I phoned the NYPL to see if they
knew that pages were missing from their text. Lo and behold, the
Barddas itself is now missing! While it may be somewhere in those
giant buildings, no record exists of it having been removed for
copying or any other reason.

    Please pass the word: if someone tries to sell a copy of Iolo's
book to you, or to any collector of Druid miscellany, check the item
carefully to see if (a) it says NYPL anywhere, and/or (b) if it looks
like pages have been removed. In either case, please notify Mr. John
Rathe' of the NYPL, and your local police, immediately.

    If anyone publishes a reprint or a paraphrase of Iolo's work,
we may all want to consider boycotting the publisher and the "author".

    And may bookworms gnaw the entrails of any who would mutilate or
steal a rare book!