Patterning Of Time (J. T. Fraser's book)

First Edition (SD). This book was previously owned by Dr. Time, J. T. Fraser. Actually I don't think anybody ever called him Dr. Time, but I thought I'd try it out. His bookplate is on the front inside cover. This will be the last of the books of his that I'm listing, books I purchased in Westport, Connecticut, where he lived. The first paragraph from his Wikipedia profile: 'J. T. Fraser (1923-2010) made important scholarly contributions to the interdisciplinary Study of Time and was a founding member of the International Society for the Study of Time. His work has strongly influenced thinking about the nature of time across the disciplines from physics to sociology, biology to comparative religion, and he was a seminal figure in the general interdisciplinary study of temporality.' If you keep reading this profile you'd better have a scholarly background in concepts of time, it's pretty heady stuff. For admirers of Dr. Fraser you may be interested in where he applied his red pen, there's a fair amount of underlining, more so than typical. He also seemed in a lighter mood switching inks several times, red to green, back to red, and even quite radically some green and red on the same page. Moreover, he did something I've never seen him do, drawing a couple of smiley faces next to paragraphs that he presumably was pleased with and even one with a frown next to a sentence that displeased him. He also wrote the word 'copycat' next to one passage and 'hope springs eternally' next to another. So this is a J. T. Fraser I haven't seen before. Very disorienting, especially those different ink colors. On condition: it could be better. I've rated the book only Good. There's a closed tear off the top edge of the spine (2nd photo). There's a tiny loss and scuff on the front side of the spine just off the top edge, also a bit of a tear also at the front side of the spine just off the bottom edge. The gilt lettering on the spine doesn't jump out at you but it's not worn. The corners are in pretty solid shape, bit of rubbing at the bottom ones, nothing much. There are a few little spots of rubbing with color loss on the bottom edges. The book is pretty square and pretty solidly bound from cover to cover. I didn't see any cracks or spaces between any of the facing pages, nor between the inside covers and any of the pages. The front cover makes a bit of a crinkling sound when you open it wide. There's light dust staining or foxing/spotting on the page edges. This foxing/spotting can be seen on the end papers and on the half-title and title page. After that but there are occasional pages throughout that have one or several of those amber colored spots, possibly related to the dust staining on the page edges. It's not terribly conspicuous in most of the instances where it occurs. Other than that, the pages appear to be quite clean. I'm not seeing any creasing. There are no markings or stampings. The bookplate is the only attachment. It does have some tan discolorations/soiling on it. The first paragraph of a review of the book by the American Scientist: 'This is a most remarkable book (and an excellent one) about how man confronts time. It defies simple categorization, because there is nothing quite like it, regardless of topic. It combines thoroughness of documentation (some 900 references cited) with two interlaced expository patterns, one a formal scheme of taxonomy, principles, and hypotheses (appropriately numbered, cross-referenced, and summarized), the other a pattern of sprightly, reflective, whimsical, and literate essay writing of a kind seldom found in serious expository writing by psychologists. Which do I prefer? The essay--yet if I had occasion to look up anything written on an aspect of time as a human problem I would now use this book as my authoritative compendium. It can most simply be characterized as an encyclopedic essay or series of essays on man in time.'. …