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FeedbackDear IOBA, Serena and I have been pouring over my seminar notes and handouts and discussing ideas to shape and improve ourselves as booksellers. We are making plans to attend book fairs and create our first catalog. (Our first perhaps will be of a lesser-known female sci-fi/western author’s collection, including books, manuscripts, fanzines and ephemera, which we acquired over a year ago.) We are acquiring new reference materials, communicating with some of the seminarians I met, and working on ways to find better books and improve our catalog descriptions. The list goes on. Thank you again for your generous support. The IOBA scholarship award was a tremendous help to us. And not only financially, but also in terms of collegial support—introducing us to and welcoming us into a fabulous network of colleagues that we hope to get to know more and work with over many years to come. Thank you! Best Regards, Happy Hits submitted by Bronwyn SmithIsn’t the internet wonderful? Received a call from a customer who told me that he'd just visited a London bookshop. He was in search of a book, a biography of an English punter and racing identity. Imagine his surprise when the bookseller told him that the only available copy on the internet was our copy in Dromana, Australia! My client lives in Melbourne, a little over an hour away from Dromana. He was most anxious that we hold the book until his return from the other side of the world. We were happy to oblige. The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, usually just called the "Iditarod," is an annual sled dog race in Alaska, where mushers and teams of typically 16 dogs race through freezing wilderness for about 10 days. I sent a book on the Iditarod Race to a customer in far Northern Queensland, our tropical Gulf Country. It is a remote area with crocodile infested swamps and jungle. Any roads are four wheel drive-only tracks impassable during the wet season and isolated from any major towns or settlements. Apart from its tough terrain and living conditions, it has nothing much else in common with Alaska's arctic terrain. I can't help wondering why anyone living in that part of Australia would want to read about training dogs to race through the frozen wilderness. We all have our dreams I suppose. Bronwyn Smith operates Dromanabooks out of Dromana, Australia and can be contacted at http://www.dromanabooks.com.au. And shortly after this your editor sent the following cookbooklet to Anula in the Northern Territory of Australia. Small world. 
BlurbettesGod Exists: New Light on Science and Creation by Joseph Davydov (Rockville, MD: Schreiber Publishing, 2000). From the inside flaps: We hear a great deal these days about various theories regarding the origins of the universe, and we keep reading about the ongoing debate between those who accept the Bible’s account of creation and those who reject it. Here for the first time a prominent physicist takes us step by step through the world of today’s science, and shows us how recent advances in the physical and biological sciences shed new light on the first chapter of Genesis, which describes the creation of the universe, the formation of the planet Earth, and the birth and development of life on Earth. Such scientific subjects as matter and energy, particles and antiparticles, relativity, quantum physics, the Big Bang, black and white holes, the expanding universe, and genetic codes are explained in layperson’s terms, and are applied to the Biblical narrative of the six days of creation, which the author explains as six evolutionary stages in which a relative material universe is created by an Absolute Creator, culminating in life on Earth. Furthermore, the author brings us closer perhaps than any other scientist or philosopher in the past in providing compelling scientific arguments in favor of the existence of this Absolute God which completely transcends our relative world. The prominent former-Soviet scientist Genrikh Golin writes about this book: We, the scientists of the former Soviet Union were educated in the spirit of atheism…thank God a gradual recovery of this society is taking place at the present time…In this context the book God Exists by Joseph Davydov is of great scientific and practical importance to everyone. Any unprejudiced reader who wishes to be exposed to authentic research will acquire a great deal of new and uncommon information. It is quite possible that for many it will become the first step towards a new “scientific-religious” world view, based not on blind faith but on scientific facts. 
Dr. Joseph Davydov received his PhD at the Moscow Institute of Energy in 1967, and his engineer’s license from the State of New York in 1990. He is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, and president of the International Scientific Center in Brooklyn. He is the author of over forty scientific works, including the book Worlds, which for the first time offers a proof of the objective existence of an Absolute God and other nonphysical worlds. The present volume was first published in Russian under the title Creation and Evolution. From the rear panel: So, a careful reading of these blurbs would lead one to believe that God Exists offers “compelling scientific arguments [italics added] in favor of the existence of this Absolute God,” which seems to be a retreat from “a proof [italics added] of the objective existence of an Absolute God” in a previous book he wrote titled Worlds. The author says we don’t have to rely on blind faith any more, thanks to his explanations, but there are arguments on paper and proofs you see with your own eyes. Appendix A informs us that, “the messiah should come and establish a universal paradise on the earth…approximately in the year 2240.” Book BlogsUsed Books Blog Posted by A. J. Kohn 3/28/2008 A passion for books but not proofreading Yesterday I received an email from AbeBooks which stated that I could save 48% on Stephan King’s Duma Key. 
Stephan King? It seems that Abe’s ‘Passion for Books’ doesn’t extend to proofreading. Maybe I’m being overly critical but this is a company in the business of words, books and literature! You’d think that they’d go to greater lengths to ensure these types of errors didn’t occur. What would happen if TechCrunch had a headline that read ‘Steve Jubs predicts iPod success’? I’d give AbeBooks a mulligan but they used that up a few years ago when they sent a message to their booksellers and accidentally referred to them as boobsellers. A very different business for sure. Perhaps the AbeBooks tagline should be ‘Passion for ARCs’ which notoriously have these types of errors. Or is my criticism too harsh? Ye Olde BooksellersVentures in Book Collecting by William Harris Arnold (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923). The first passage is from the foreword by Thomas J. Wise. -Arnold commenced, as most book-lovers do, by gathering books at random. Anything rare, anything choice, was sought for and welcomed. But in common with the wisest of his kind Arnold soon felt the unwisdom of this manner of collecting, and perceived that the one sure way to reach anything like finality, and the one sure way to render any collection useful as well as attractive, was to limit his energy to the accumulation of books and manuscripts by two or three of the authors whose work he loved best. Accordingly in 1901 the bulk of his collection was sold by auction by Messrs. Bangs and Co., of New York, in two separate portions, the one consisting of American literature only, the other including books in general literature covering a wide field. Having thus cleared the way, Arnold turned his attention to Alfred Tennyson and Robert Louis Stevenson. Upon the former in particular he concentrated the power of both mind and purse, with the result that the Harris Arnold collection of Tennysoniana has become famous upon both sides of the Atlantic as the first Tennyson collection ever founded in America. In the following pages Arnold has himself described in his own delightful way many of his host of wonderful things. If every collector when nearing the end of the journey would but follow his example, the advantage to the little world of book-lovers would be great, and the labor of the bibliographer of the future would be lightened. 
-In 1895 there were few accessible records of the prices that had been paid for the first editions of American authors; therefore in buying I naturally exercised caution. None of the prices asked by dealers seemed unreasonably high, and the general run of them appeared absurdly low. There was no occasion to hesitate when a copy of Thoreau’s “Week” in the best possible state was offered for $13.50, but I felt brave indeed when in 1896 I brought myself to the point of paying $200 for “Fanshawe”; but it, too, was in pristine condition, and I made the plunge on learning that the author, rather ashamed of his youthful production (he was only twenty-four when the book was printed), had destroyed all the unsold copies, these comprising nearly the whole of the small edition, and that, so far as known, only ten or twelve copies were in existence. -It was in the auction-room that I had most of the thrills of those early days. What a delightful sensation it was when the auctioneer knocked down to me for $16 a copy of Lowell’s “On Democracy,” privately printed for the ambassador before the address had been delivered, together with another copy of the first published edition, a little pamphlet issued by Birmingham and Midland Institute. -This bookworm was one of several of Italian origin that came to this country in a copy of the “Divine Comedy” of Dante which was imported for the library of Cornell University. From the appearance of the volume it is surmised that these bookworms were born and bred in the “Inferno”; that during the sea voyage most of them were in “Purgatory,” and that on arrival at New York they all found themselves in “Paradise.” However that may be, they were well cared for, and several descendants of the immigrants have entered one or more of our leading universities. Indeed, they are credited with having given to Cornell a certain distinction which as a mere seat of learning it would not possess. I shall not say more of this aspiring publication, of which eighty-five copies comprised the first edition, and two hundred copies the second edition of a smaller size and only less luxurious form, except ostentatiously to quote in full a letter written by his own hand in his seventy-ninth year by the greatest of bibliopoles, Bernard Quaritch. London 15 Piccadilly, March 21, 1898. I have read it with great interest and I thank you for the friendly references to myself and my business. I admire your enthusiasm, though it is for a class of Literature I am rather
weak in. 18th and 19th century rarities I do not specially go after. My range is
nevertheless very wide. I take in You must admit a tolerably wide range. In fact I follow up the bibliographical wants of all my customers. However what you say,—and say justly about the collecting of first editions is true and very much to the point in all departments of Literature and Science. The postscript to your first Report on Bookworms is the first really scientific account on this dangerous insect family. We have to thank you and that accomplished Entomologist Mr. Comstock for it Yours, dear sir, As I became acquainted with first editions of British authors, my interest in collecting was intensified. Of course they were not so easy to acquire as the first editions of the nineteenth-century Americans, but the difficulty of pursuit induced greater zest. I had good luck, better luck than I was aware of at the time. While my selections were almost altogether from catalogues of British dealers and by bids at the London auctions, the disadvantage of distance was much reduced by kind offers of certain London dealers to send books on request for inspection and sometimes without even the formality of request. I recall my surprise when one day I received not only the three or four books I had asked for, but ten or twelve more, and all of them uncommonly good examples of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century rarities. Some of these were too costly for my purse, so, rather than return them, I gave New York’s most astute dealer opportunity to take what he would of those I could not compass. None went back to London, for he took all that remained with the remark, “I wonder where they could have got all these good ones.” In five years I gathered about two hundred English first and early editions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and a long shelf-full of seventeenth-century poetry. That shelf held a “Paradise Lost” in the original sheep binding, the first edition, with the title-page of early issue, for which I paid what now seems the astonishingly low price of $200. This distinguished volume had for neighbors Brome’s “Songs,” Cartwright’s “Comedies,” Doctor Corbet’s “Certain Elegant Poems,” Dryden’s “The Hind and the Panther,” Fletcher’s “The Purple Island,” and unusually fine copies, all first editions, of the poems of Carew, Donne, Drayton, Hall, Howard, Marvell, Katherine Philips, “The Matchless Orinda,” Shirley and Waller, and for none of these scarce books except the Waller did I pay more than $40. Those were the days of Browning clubs. While devotees of the poet were puzzling over obscurities of text, I was searching assiduously for first editions. One by one I found them all, though “Pauline” eluded me until 1900. Even more important than the rarest of first editions were proof copies of “Dramatis Personæ” and “The Ring and the Book,” both with numerous manuscript revisions and corrections made prior to publication, and each accompanied by a letter referring to the proofs. These were to be sold at auction at Sotheby’s. I sent bids for them to my good friends Ellis & Elvey, who exercised uncommon discretion in executing them. “Dramatis Personæ” was sold first, and was secured for me much below my limit. “The Ring and the Book” immediately followed; the bids went quickly beyond my limit. Then, with an elasticity of action rarely exercised by an agent, a bid was made for me far in advance of my limit, but which, added to the price of “Dramatis Personæ,” was no more than the sum of my two limits. Both treasures became mine at a cost, including commission, of $116. This was in 1897. When I look back on this episode it seems to me that I had undeserved luck. Those bids were nothing short of stingy. It was not difficult to get satisfactory copies of the first published editions of Tennyson; before my first year was past I had nearly all of them. There were, however, other Tennyson books to obtain which called on all of one’s collecting ability. It appears that the poet had had printed trial copies of several of his more important productions which from time to time he sent to friends whose criticism he particularly desired, and always with the request to destroy or return. No more that ten or twelve of each were usually made. Of course these trial books are extremely rare. Another sort of rarities are the copies of poems produced for copyright purposes, of which a very small number of each were printed. My first good luck with these Tennyson treasures was obtaining for thirty shillings a trial book called “The True and the False,” the title first chosen for the first four Idylls, but, at publication, changed to “Idylls of the King.” Only one other copy is known to exist. Through the kind offices of my new, but now dear old, friend, the distinguished collector and bibliographer, Thomas J. Wise, to whom, while we were strangers, I had written to tell of “The True and the False,” I obtained one Tennyson rarity after another, most of which at the time were unknown to American collectors. -Letters of Oliver Goldsmith are among the scarcest desiderata of the autograph collector. Doctor James Grainger, one of Doctor Percy’s frequent correspondents, was the first to introduce him to Goldsmith. Grainger wrote Percy in 1764: “When I taxed little Goldsmith for not writing as he promised me, his answer was that he never wrote a letter in his life, and faith I believe him, except to a bookseller for money.” After fifteen years of watchful waiting, I was one day called on the telephone by the old-time dealer in autographs Patrick Madigan, who told me he had just secured a most interesting Goldsmith letter that had been treasured as an heirloom by a Nova Scotia family for over a hundred years; he was offering it first to me. Mr. Madigan called it a great bargain, and so it was, but I shall ever maintain a close-mouthed reticence as to the price, for I have no wish to establish with my friends an undeserved reputation for lavish expenditure. -Like most people, I occasionally allow myself to play with little superstitions. On my last visit to London, I stayed at a small hotel in Curzon Street, Mayfair. Leading from the bottom of the street is a narrow way between brick walls, higher than a man’s head. This provides a short cut to the old-book houses of Quaritch and Maggs, the auction rooms of Sotheby, and other haunts of the book-collector. As I went through the passage one fine morning, a very black cat sprang from coping to coping directly in front of me. A little latter, just as I entered a book-shop, another cat, as black as black can be, leapt from behind to the top of a counter as though to bid me welcome. I said to myself, I shall surely have “black-cat luck” to-day. One of my errands that morning took me to the manuscript department of the British Museum. As I passed among the exhibited examples, I casually stopped to glance at the literary autographs. One that particularly interested me was an agreement to sell to Samuel Buckley, a printer, a half-share in the volumes of The Spectator, signed by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. I suppose the document held my attention not only for its importance but because, after collecting for over a quarter of a century, I still lacked representative autographs of these great figures in English literary history. But one must not envy the British Museum. We should rather thank a generous nation for making its unrivalled treasures freely available to the world. An hour later I called at Quaritch’s, where I saw and secured a trio of first editions of books illustrated by Kate Greenaway, all presentation copies, and a book from the library of Thomas Gray, with his delicately written autograph on the title-page. Then, with that tantalizing Spectator document still in mind, I said: “What do you happen to have of Addison and Steele?” And—can you believe it?—there was put before me the original agreement, duly signed by Addison and Steele, for the sale to Jacob Tonson, Jr., of the other half-share of the Spectator volumes. Both the British Museum document and the document that is now mine were drawn and signed at the Fountain’s Tavern in the Strand, on the same day, November 10, 1712. It was “black-cat luck,” if it did make a hole in my pocket. -Although Landor is the author of the maxim “neither to give nor take offense is surely the best thing in life,” innumerable episodes show him easily turned to wrath. Another characteristic was an extreme love of flowers. A traditional story, related by Colvin in his entertaining little biography, illustrates these diverse traits. In a burst of anger he once threw the cook out of a window which overlooked the garden, and immediately afterward thrust out his head with the exclamation: “Good God, I forgot the violets!” -A letter to Moxon, of considerable bibliographical importance in relation to this very book, is printed, apparently without abridgement, in “Alfred Lord Tennyson, a Memoir by his Son.” Actually only half the letter is given. Here it is in full, copied from the original in my collection: Dear Sir, The Vol. can end with the piece titled to “J.S.” Half of this last I have received in revise: there are 9 stanzas more which it will not be necessary to send me—if I remember right they only contained one material blunder viz “Bleeding” for “Bleedeth.” Should this last revise be already on its way it will be better for me to retain it, & if there be any other mistake, which is scarcely probable I will give you notice by letter. We who live in this corner of the world only get our letters twice or thrice a week: This has caused considerable delay: but on the receipt of this you may begin to dress the Volume for its introduction into the world as soon as you choose. Believe me, dear Sir In this volume first appeared many of the poems which have secured enduring popularity: “The Lady of Shalott,” “Mariana in the South,” “The Miller’s Daughter,” “The Palace of Art,” “The Lotos Eaters,” “The Dream of Fair Women,” and “The May Queen.” Although Tennyson decided not to publish “The Lover’s Tale,” he had six copies of the poem separately printed. Five of these were given to friends of the young poet. The single copy retained was cut to pieces by Tennyson thirty-six years later, in preparing copy for another trial edition, much revised and enlarged. The poet was not content with this second effort, for the first published edition, again revised, was not issued until 1879. When in 1907, Thomas J. Wise, after years of diligent research, printed his exhaustive “Bibliography of Tennyson,” he was able to record the existence of only two of the original six copies of “The Lover’s Tale”; one of these in his own possession, the other in the collection of John A. Spoor. So much effort had been made by collectors and dealers in the search for this important rarity, it seemed unlikely that any more would be discovered. But a few years later a copy turned up in Southampton and was secured by a firm of London booksellers, who offered it to Ernest Dressel North, the veteran dealer in rare books, then on one of his frequent book-hunting visits to England. Mr. North had a long-standing request from Charles Templeton Crocker, of San Francisco, to report at once should he ever come upon this particular rarity. Thus Mr. Crocker had the exceptional satisfaction of adding the much-sought-for little book to his notable Tennyson collection. On a certain bleak night early in the year 1920, my wife and I were ensconced in our after-dinner chairs, one on each side of the open fire—a veritable Darby and Joan. Several book catalogues had come in the mail of the day. I began with an unpretentious one issued by Edward Howell, of Liverpool. The first page did not hold my attention; but the turn of the leaf made my eyes pop, for there, in big type, was described—unmistakably described—one of the missing copies of the original trial edition of “The Lover’s Tale.” The price was absurdly low—twenty pounds! I immediately telephoned the Western Union and gave a cable order. As I afterward learned, sixteen American collectors cabled to Mr. Howell. We were all too late; the little volume had already been bought by the most alert booksellers in all of England, who quickly sold it to an eager collector. Nevertheless, this identical copy of the book now fills the long-empty gap in my collection. How it came into my possession, more than a year later, is a secret—I can only say that I am a very lucky book-collector. -Some years ago I spent a very merry Christmas in Boston. In one of the few intervals of relaxation from hilarity I found myself at the little stone steps that almost drop one into the alluring basement bookshop of Goodspeed in Park Street. I had had happy business relations with Mr. Goodspeed for many years. Often he had written to tell me of a recently acquired book or letter of the sort I was interested in. This time I said to him: “When you have something important, especially if it be a Tennyson item, do not write to me about it but send the book or autograph itself. If I don’t want it I’ll send it back without delay.” About a fortnight after this visit I received a rather large thin parcel with the Goodspeed label. It contained the manuscript of “Early Spring” written on a folio sheet as sent to The Youth’s Companion in 1883. Following the poem, which is signed by the poet, is this message: March 12/33 Of course Hallam Tennyson was not aware of the fact that the poem was not wholly “new” but was a radical revision of the unpublished verses of half a century earlier. While I am still on the lookout for the little pamphlet, I can most truly say that I am not the least bit envious of those fortunate collectors who have acquired the very rare separate print of this charming poem. Made in IOBAPast IOBA President and past IOBA Standard Editor Michael Watson is the author, co-author, contributing author, and development or technical editor of over 120 books, some of which can be seen at http://www.20ants.com/pub. Michael Watson operates 20 Ants out of Indianapolis, IN and can be contacted at http://www.20ants.com. GnatSignedGNATSIGNED (nat-saend) adj. Term originally coined by either Natty Bumppo, Tom Thumb (with the help of P. T. Barnum), or The Incredible Shrinking Man to describe books author or owner-signed in lettering so tiny that you can barely read it. The diminutive signature is not signed onto a bookplate and stuck onto the book, nor is it inscribed to some particular person. This is the most desirable type of collectible book, far surpassing the value of cluttered association copies to and from famous authors, for example. The following is a fine example spotted in Enemies of Promise by Cyril Connolly (NY: Macmillan Company, 1948 revised edition). What at first appears to be a stray mark on the inside front cover is actually the signature of H. (?) Humphrey. Could this be the low profile signature of the famous Democrat Hubert Humphrey? Such confusion is just one of the value-added joys of GnatSigning. PS: Be careful to look for super small annotations, which closely resemble the actual text, and gnatty fore-edge paintings are particularly hard to detect as they often resemble smudges. 
Literary Pilgrimages: Patchin PlaceFrom the Wikipedia entry on Patchin Place: Although I was born in New York City, there were several times when I didn’t get there for two or three years in a row—which I would blame on distance if I lived far far away, not that there’s anything wrong with that, and not that non-coastal peoples would or should want to come to debauched New York to begin with—so now we make a point to bus or train down from upstate much more often. We tend to go uptown when it’s cold (where you can warm up in museums) and downtown when it’s warm. The last two times we gave whirlwind tours in those two directions to my two sweet wide-eyed nieces who live nearby but had never been down! I prefer NYC on working weekdays, but the Friends of the Library trips usually run on weekends. One nice old Jewish gent on the last one was making the journey for the avowed purpose of ordering a hot pastrami sandwich in a particular deli on the Lower East Side. 
These tour buses usually stop right in front of the main branch of the New York Public Library, and it’s very convenient to go right to the third floor bathrooms. I usually enjoy books about bookselling on the bus, and the Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle Room 319 and Berg Collection of English and American Literature Room 320 I’d just read about in Rota are right there, along with a great group of vintage New York Yankee photos currently in the hallway. Boy that Yogi Berra seems timeless, although when you buy a fresh jar of Newman’s Own Bandito Salsa when Paul was alive and dip chips in it two days later after he passed, you know it ain’t so. Time is almost always the great leveler. This happened to be the second day of a new exhibit at the Library entitled “Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve.” I had seen signs that said “No flash photography” but apparently there was no photography at all for this exhibit, which led to my semi-forcible and near-confiscatory ejection and established a new personal record (approximately fifteen minutes after arrival) for getting into trouble in the City, not including my birth. 
From there we usually walk down to the Village and nearby neighborhoods. We stopped at one of the Sixth Avenue flea markets, and there to my surprise was a good amount of books in boxes on tables against a church wall. I say surprise because these actually looked fresh to market. I gathered about a dozen circa early 1960s children’s books by the same author—all first editions with dust jackets, four of them signed, and, as I found out later, none of them listed online in that state. More on those some other time. It took awhile to find the purveyor. “How much for these?” He went to the copyright page of three or so, realized it was all the same deal, and then quoted $70 for the lot, expecting me to say $50 before his counter of $60. I said I would think about it while my wife watched the pile on the yellow chair in the accompanying photo. He said we could just leave them there and they would be fine, but that’s the kind of thing you learn not to do in this business. He also said he would hold them for us until the end of the day, another non-starter. I dug out one more by the same author and agreed to his price if he would throw it in, which he gladly did. Turns out they came from a Pennsylvania house and contents that was sold for non-payment of taxes, and this was their first time to market. “I knew they were good, but I didn’t think they were that good!” said this stall fellow, once he had his nickel on the dollar in hand. I had to lug them around the entire day, but they were fun to look at while waiting outside of this or that store. 
After a great breakfast and more meandering, we found ourselves at the
Patchin Place I’d read about. I’ve been very close by before, but it’s really
tucked in and is sort of the last thing you would expect to see, even downtown
where the scale is smaller. The brick row buildings went up around 1849, an iron
gate was added in 1929, and the blind alleyway was threatened with
 Early Patchin Place resident John Cowper Powys wrote to his brother that the removal of the Jefferson Market Prison gave residents a nice view of such landmarks as the Singer Tower, the Woolworth Building, and a fabulous nearby clock tower. Wandering down to this castle-like building, which has been converted into a branch of the New York Public Library, and deciding against entering further with my bag of old books, I asked the security guard if it used to be a church, as I had never glimpsed the fantastic building as a whole. “A whore house,” came her reply. “Say what?,” somewhat shocked that even a New Yorker would give such an unadorned description with quite a number of patrons within earshot. “A whore house.” “Well,” I said, after a temporary loss for words, “they can be the same thing sometimes.” Only when we reached the adjacent jewel-like pocket garden and sat down to read the literature did we realize that she was saying “courthouse,” as in Jefferson Market Courthouse. They can be the same thing sometimes too. Google and Google Image Patchin Place (though somebody has co-opted the name big time for plastic-looking pocket books with big polka dots) some time, or better yet, read about them, or best, pilgrimage. 
Vintage Book Photo: Medical IncunabulaArmy Medical Museum Photo, undated.
Illustrated Boards: Caroline en EuropeCaroline en Europe by Pierre Probst. Paris: Librarie Hachette, 1960.
Book Fallouts
A small Christmas greeting original watercolor with a personal note on the inside, dated 1988. Stanley Maltzman is a local listed artist. His Artist Statement on Gallery Direct reads as follows. “Through the years students have asked what inspired me to paint a certain picture, or what kind of pencil I use for drawing. My answer is, “it is a thousand hour pencil”. In other words, the secret is not the pencil…it is the work, the devotion and the love of drawing. Art starts with the business of seeing. Nature inspires you with her beauty, but you, as an artist, must take the elements nature presents to you and interpret them in the light of your own feelings to create your drawing or painting. I firmly believe that there is a certain sense of communion with nature that is captured by working in the fields or woods that cannot be achieved by working indoors. In natural surroundings one can touch, smell and observe the beauty that surrounds them.” Yard Sale Tales submitted by Sharon HeimannI had been selling books for just about a year, and was on a scouting trip. After a long unsuccessful, very hot morning of yard sales my last stop was one with a lot of cardboard boxes filled with books. Her price, 25 cents for the hardbacks, 10 cents for the paperbacks. So I settled in. I picked and chose quite a few and then browsed the paperbacks, composed largely of science fiction. Some were quite old and all were in fine condition, and I picked up a few. I didn’t know much about SF and thought the only good book was a hardback (oops) and went home. Going through the paperbacks I opened a copy of Star Wars and checked the title page and almost feel over—yes, signed "May the Force be with you" by George Lucas, in fine unread condition. Not bad for a 10 cent investment, and the hardbacks were clean, most near fine to fine, and well, I wish I bought the whole lot. Sharon Heimann operates E Ridge Fine Books out of Lake Elsinore, CA and can be contacted at http://www.eridgebooks.com. Book Store Lore submitted by Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson and Jeffrey D. SandroneThere are probably a lot of things that gather a non-book-buying crowd, but the Baja Classic surf and bikini contest drew thousands to Playas right in front of our place last weekend. I sold them precisely zero books. On the other hand I made 1200 pesos (US$120) renting out our 2 boogies and 1 long board for a couple of hours last Saturday & Sunday and another 400 pesos yesterday for 1 boogie and the board. Perhaps it is time for a change of trades. Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson operates out of Tijuana, Mexico and can be contacted at http://bibliophilegroup.com/lynnsbookstore. One day last week I had only one sale—for fifty cents—it was an empty Muskego beer can. Later that same day a group of young men walked in and asked if I sold arrows. I said: Arrows? They said: Arrows. I said I think you want the sporting goods store. They said: Yeah, but they're closed. You sell arrows or not? I closed up and went home. Jeffrey D. Sandrone operates Have Books - Will Sell in Wind Lake, WI and can be contacted at http://www.tomfolio.com/mall/havebooks-willsell. Images of MacIntosh Books and PaperMacIntosh Books and Paper We made a wonderful jaunt to Sanibel Island in June and stumbled upon this cheery establishment where Susan and Jennifer sell swell books by the seashore. I doubt if I will ever see a wild manatee and old books in the same hour again. My front desk shot was blurry but the website has some good ones. From the back of a little bookmark they give out we have the following. An Island Tradition William “Mac” MacIntosh founded MacIntosh Bookshop in 1960. The original store was located on the east end of Sanibel and later moved, first to a building near the causeway intersection, then to its current location in the quaint yellow building beneath the “It’s time to read” clock. In 2005, Susan Holly and Jennifer Lessinger acquired MacIntosh and merged with The Write Stuff, the island’s only stationer, forming MacIntosh Books and Paper. Mac died in 1982, but the tradition of his island bookshop lives on. 
SolicitationsThe Standard can always use interesting, well-written articles on subjects of interest to the bookselling trade. Please query first, however, to editor@ioba.org. You will be supplied with submission guidelines, but to summarize, the material should be original, it is subject to editing, you retain copyright, and of course there is no payment other than most everyone’s satisfaction. You do not need to be a member of IOBA, except for the IOBA Bookseller Profiles section, though we would surely like you to join. We are very interested in the book trade outside the U.S. as well. Currently we are seeking short pieces for the following self-explanatory columns. House Calls; Yard/Estate/Library Sale Tales; Auction Action; Book Show Impressions; Book Store Lore; and Library File. BookuIn a mildly dampstained volume of Theobald's 1752 Shakespeare, "Barque Bashaw" appears across from an ancient bookplate under the Brewster, Mafs. owner's name in his own hand but with lighter ink recorded at a different time. Did he donate this to the immigrant ship's library, did he ply the mid-1800s Atlantic himself, or what? Comic Books
Dated 2/19/1952, probably International News Photo. IOBA Standard, Summer Edition 2008, Volume 9, No. 3. All material is copyright of the authors. The views expressed by writers for the Standard do not necessarily reflect the views of IOBA. |
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