"It was a boojum."  From The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll and illustrated Henry Holiday, 1876.

In the unlikely event you needed proofs of the spirit world, here they are.  From Proofs of the Spirit World by Léon Chevreuil, 1920.

Of Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead by Peter Browne, 1713.  See also this collection of 112 cocktail recipes to be drunk in remembrance of the dead: Of Drinking in Remembrance of the Dead.

From At Fault by Hawley Smart, 1883.

"We never sleep."  The cover of The Somnambulist and the Detective, The Murderer and the Fortune Teller by Allan Pinkerton, 1874.

From Yermah the Dorado by Frona Eunice Wait, 1897.

You don't get to the fruit until Book II of Cherry Ripe! (1878).

There's an ironic subliminal message in this book cover — the middle of the word "exposed," "pos," is highlghted by the box behind it, suggesting "positive."  Spirit Rapping Exposed by John Henry Anderson, 1860.  See Seance Parlor Feng Shui.

So silly, but we invariably wonder what folks are reading in their old photos.  This woman in Eastern Kentucky's 1975 yearbook is reading what appears to be quite a scarce book today: the horse and girl novel Taffy's Foal by Elisa Bialk.  The novel was already decades old in 1975, and we suspect that it wasn't required reading for a class.  Perhaps it reflects something about this dorm student adjusting to her new life?  The book tells of one Nancy Irwin, who lives in Kentucky with her grandmother on a horse farm until her father in Chicago remarries.  Nancy is forced to leave behind her beloved mare Taffy, who is in foal.  Nancy must adapt to living in the city, make new friends, love her mare from a distance, and learn to love her stepmother.  Note that this student is using her stuffed animal as a pillow and is flanked by more literature.

The Fireside Magician by Thomas Picton, 1879.

Fairy Tales by Édouard René Lefebvre Laboulaye, 1887.

La Vellma's Vaudeville Budget for Magicians, Mind Readers, and Ventriloquists by David J. Lustig, 1921.

From Jack Frost, Or, God's Finger in the Winter by Ina Hervey, 1870.

My Lady Vaudeville and Her White Rats by George Fuller Golden, 1909.

By "A Mere Phantom."  The Magic Lantern, How to Buy and How to Use It, Also How to Raise a Ghost, 1866.

You've heard of May/December marriages, but unmarried life is measured in afternoons, not months or seasons.  (We like how someone named Penny gives her two cents on all this.)  The Afternoon of Unmarried Life by Anne Judith Penny, 1859.   See also The Collected Lost Meanings of Wedlock.