Harvard will remove the binding of a French novel after a protracted discussion. It is made from the skin of a deceased woman. The American university is now in deep trouble, local media write.
In 2014, it came to light that a book that had been in one of the university’s libraries for decades had a cover made of human skin. It’s about the book Des stinées de l’ame, a work by the French writer Arsène Houssaye. This book, about the soul and life after death, was written around 1880 and had been in the Harvard Library since the 1930s.
Houssaye donated the book to a doctor friend named Ludovic Bouland shortly after its launch. He had used the skin of a patient who had died in the hospital where he worked for the binding, without the approval of her relatives. The book contained a handwritten card, reports said The New York Timess: ‘A book about the human soul deserves a human cover’, it is written.
‘Ethically charged’
Harvard now states that ‘after careful research, stakeholder engagement and consideration’ the decision was made to remove the binding because it would be ‘ethically fraught’. This decision follows a compelling appeal from book expert Paul Needham, who urged a ‘proper burial’ of the human remains. Needham states that the book has ‘regularly been crudely used as an attention grabber, and has been sensationalized into an exhibition object’.
The university says it will give the human remains a respectful destination.
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Tags: Harvard removes cover skin book years human remains respectful destination
