Category:Ephemera

That which is ephemeral is expected to last for a short time only -- a rosy sunrise, a blooming rose -- and in the world of books, any paper article which was printed but not bound, which was distributed in the form of loose sheets, or was printed on a poor grade of paper, was considered ephemeral, something that would not last. Because binding consisted on stitching printed sheets between hard boards, often covered with leather or cloth, it came to pass that saddle-stitched or side-stapled catalogues, almanacs, newspapers, periodicals, tickets, calendars, comic books, letters, diaries, proclamations, posters, and pamphlets, as well as loose postcards, trade cards, and business cards, were categorized as ephemera, because if they lacked a spine and could not be stood upright on a bookshelf, they were not, i[so facto, books.

Your Wate and Fate uses the ephemera of fortune telling to showcase popular methods of divination of the 19th and 20th centuries.

My Patreon stream, which supports this web site and others, got its name because many years ago -- decades ago, in fact -- a friend of mine walked into my home office, cast his eyes on the shelves, boxes, and floor-piles of paper, and burst out, incredulously: "It's all ephemera!" And indeed, it was.