Encyclopedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Even in these days of fast internet access to all sorts of arcane information, when you can “Google” just about anything, there is a print-and-paper reference work that retains its dusty luster and a fierce band of loyal adherents. This book is the so-called “Britannica 11”, or the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1910 and 1911. The Encyclopedia Britannica was first published in three volumes between 1768 and 1771, at about the same time as Diderot’s famous “Encyclopedie” in France. But while the 18th century saw the birth of the modern encyclopedia, the 19th century saw the descent of the form into an academic exercise in navel-gazing. New editions of the Britannica were very scholarly and learned but none were particularly readable or even useful to a general audience, as they featured tediously long and ponderously dense entries. To add to the problem of usefulness (or lack thereof), each new edition was published in serial format, volumes being released as they were completed, a process that usually took from 3 to 8 years. One might almost read about archaeopteryx as a living bird in the first volume of an edition and read about the new zeppelins in the last volume… With the publication of the 11th edition, that was all changed. The editors knew that they needed an entirely new book, not simply an updating of what had come before, and that it was essential that it all be current and up-to-date, and that it be readable. The type for the 11th edition was kept in proof, subject to revision, until all the volumes were ready. The first fourteen volumes were released in the fall of 1910, and the last fourteen, along with the Index volume, were released in the early spring of 1911. No 7-year wait to find out the latest news in Zoology. For the new edition the editors recruited a wide range of academics, writers, scientists and other experts in their fields. A real attempt was made to make sure that the entries were well written in addition to being informative, and many were kept short enough to be readable but still long enough to be completely accurate and comprehensive. Many of the entries are signed with the initials of the author, and a complete index of authors, and the entries they wrote, was included in the index in Volume 29. The coverage of the 11th edition was unique to its time and has never been repeated–it came out late enough to encompass the great changes that had taken place in the 19th century, but before the even greater changes that would take place with the start of the First World War just a few years later. In consequence, the editors were able to create an encyclopedia that reflected the “modern” world while retaining many references to the “old” one. As the publisher’s own publicity put it, the 11th edition contained: “The sum of human knowledge – all that mankind has thought, done or achieved, all of the past experience of humanity that has survived the trial of time and the ordeal of service and is preserved as the useful knowledge of today. Of the human race and its endowment, of persons, places, histories, languages, literature, arts, sciences, religions, philosophies, laws, industries, and of the things and ideas connected with these, all is included that is relevant and everything explained that is explainable. In brief, to borrow an illustration from the engineer, the contents of the Eleventh Edition of the EB constitute a cross section of the trunk of the tree of knowledge.” Even taking into account the possibility that the publishers may have overstated their case, the result was impressive. Entries on history, on scientists, theologians, politicians and other important figures from the Middle Ages through the 18th century abound, and it is these entries which make the 11th edition so valuable to booksellers. With later editions (specifically the 14th and on) many of these entries would be jettisoned to make space for 20th century subject matter. The 11th also managed to set a new tone for encyclopedias, one that would not last. In 1910 the world was on the verge of great change, yet that change was still seen as a wholly positive thing. Technology and progress were lauded, and knowledge was a tool for the betterment of Mankind. Many entries reflect a candor and willingness to be honest, or at least opinionated, which would vanish in later editions. The Edwardian world that spawned the 11th edition would be shaken by the sinking of the Titanic a year later, and completely obliterated by the First World War, Great Depression, Second World War and many other events of the 20th century. Some later editions would do just as good a job of reflecting the world in which they were published, but it would be a radically changed world. Before moving on to describe just how changed later editions would be, I must mention the 12th and 13th editions, for it is probably not fair to ignore those oft-forgotten sets. The 12th and 13th were basically updates of the 11th, with supplementary volumes. It was with the sale of the enterprise to an American publisher and the release of the 14th edition in 1929 that the Britannica was radically altered and the scholarly fur began to fly. Put as gently as possible, the 14th edition was designed not to offend anyone, or at least nobody in the English-speaking portion of the world. In the 11th edition many theologians had been asked to write entries regarding religion and religious figures, but the entries had not been prepared, or approved, by the hierarchy of the mainstream churches. For the 14th edition these were written with the direct purpose of making the churches involved happy, and not offending anyone. The result was that everyone involved felt better, but historical accuracy suffered dreadfully. Regrettable incidents in religious history, especially ancient and Medieval history, were glossed over or eliminated, and important figures were not always to be presented in a strictly accurate manner. The changes went beyond religion. Women, whose contributions to history, the arts and literature had been allowed to burst through into the pages of the 11th edition, were put back into their kitchens, and there were also political considerations brought to bear, as the Germans and other Central Power countries saw the tone or even substance of some of their related entries altered in the bitter aftermath of World War One. Encyclopedia Britannica Reaction to the change was not positive, to put it mildly. Scholars and academics were appalled, and sales tanked. The 11th edition had been a bestseller; the 14th edition (probably also hurt by the onset of the Depression) was a great disappointment. Britannica’s editors would drop the “please everyone” tone for the 15th edition, but by that time there was so much new 20th century material to include that much of the earlier, more esoteric material which is of so much interest to booksellers researching semi-obscure 16th century scientists or 17th century theologians, had to be discarded. Thus, the 11th edition, along with the related 12th and 13th editions, remains as an encyclopedia that is still useful almost a hundred years later. The text has passed out of copyright, and web-based and cd-rom editions are readily available. For those who simply have to have the paper edition, the larger, full-size set is recommended, although it will take up (your author pauses and gets out his ruler)… almost 3 feet of shelf space. And, with 30,000 pages holding 40,000 entries containing 4 millions words, it is a heavy set, so you had best make it a sturdy, well anchored shelf… By: Forrest Proper URL: http://www.joslinhall.com/ #collecting #reference

I read only reference books. Or so I say when asked if I still am a book reader when others discover that we have collected our way into a full-time book business. Perhaps I should say that these books, here, are not for sale, at present. It is the only section of shelves that I turn to regularly, the last remnant of an assortment of books that eventually collapsed under its own weight, was swept up, and offered for sale to other eager seekers of the Colossal Collection. Two of the reasons my collection of books (may its memory be eternal) spilled off of its shelves, trickled down stairs, stacked itself in the corners of our home and made itself repugnant to the other members of my family were its continual growth and its ugly appearance. These were not pretty books and there were too many of them. This was a theological book collection, an assembled assortment of American Christian religious views, separated into diverse stacks of opposite and conflicting opinions. You may have such an assemblage in your store. You may have given it some prominence and sought to find out how to turn it into money or you may have banished it to the basement like a crazy uncle at the family reunion. Whatever your present estimation is of “religious books” you will find that reference works are particularly useful in turning a profit with this material. It is also helpful to have an overview of the theological book-collecting field and to know exactly what you need reference materials to do for you. Religion in America is a very complex topic. Our focus is on Christian churches and sects in the U.S. before the year 1920. All Christian material in the U.S. is a result of immigrants bringing their church with them to America, later divisions of these churches, or sects that sprang up afterwards by their descendants. These later sects may be native to America or they may be imports from abroad. The original immigrants came at various times and include Anglicans, Armenians, Baptists, Catholics, Christadelphians, Dunkers, Eastern Orthodox Churches, Huguenots, Lutherans, Mennonites, Moravians, Old Catholics, Pilgrims, Plymouth Brethren, Presbyterians, Puritans, Quakers, Reformed, River Brethren, Schwenkfelders, Swedenborgians, Unitarians, etc. They came at many times and to different places. Some of these churches came to the New World as a single body while others came as competing versions of the same denomination. Many later merged or further split forming new bodies. Many churches are native to America and are wildly different in theology, practice, and organization. There are Adventists, the Apostolic Faith Movement, Assemblies of God, “Christians,” Christian and Missionary Alliance, Church of God or Winebrennerians, Church of the Nazarene, Disciples of Christ, Hicksites, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Metropolitan Church Association, Mormons or Latter Day Saints, Shaker, and various communal societies. Some of the earlier immigrant churches and these later native churches have been prone to further divisions. There are many different “Apostolic,” Baptist, Holiness, Mennonite, Methodist, and independent churches in the U.S. The complexity of this genre will stymie the most patient of booksellers. But you should realize that each of the categories listed above, and many more besides, represent potential avid – some might say rabid – customers. Collections of religious books run along a couple of common threads. They often are either denominational or movement oriented, bibliographical, or Biblical. The denominational or movement collections are composed of material relating to a particular church or cross-church movement such as Temperance, Revival, Holiness, or Fundamentalism. Bibliographical collections are varied. Collections may be based on such things as 18th-century American imprints, imprints from a particular publishing house, hymnals from a specified time period, all of the writings of a favorite author, or any other whimsical infliction of the Hoarding Gene. What I call “Biblical” collections are those often found in ministers or students libraries: Bibles; Bible commentaries; Greek, Hebrew and Latin lexicons; descriptive travelogues of Palestine; records of archaeological discovery attesting to Biblical history. If you are interested in marketing your books to those building the collections above you will be greatly helped in cataloging by the use of a few basic references. There are so many churches and movements that many of their authors are now obscure. They may have only published a single book or pamphlet. In order to be successful in this field you must identify the author. You will also want to discover the context and importance of the book itself and share your discovery with an appropriate customer. A good reference library will help you to identify the author and place him or her within a church or denomination. It may also help you to discern the theological topic or position, the relationship the author may have had with more prominent individuals, and any impact this work may have had on the theological discussion of its day. Author Identification References (General) Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature There are three sets that we turn to constantly for author identification. The first is Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, prepared by the Rev. John M’Clintock D.D., and James Strong, S.T.D. This reference was originally published in parts from 1867 to 1887. Our set was published in New York by Harper & Brothers in 1896. Baker Books recently reprinted this work. You are looking for the complete 12-volume set. Older sets are sometimes found as ten volumes but a two-volume supplement was issued to complete the work. Try to get a set that includes this supplement. There are many authors contained in those two volumes. The entire set includes biographies of prominent authors along with theological articles. The biographies contained in M’Clintock & Strong are often more complete than elsewhere. This set is not a bibliographical record – you will find much more of that sort of information in the next two sets below. It is, however, the best comprehensive biographical reference for this time period in American and often contains quotations regarding the manner of life and character of the subject. Our set cost $220.00 a few years ago. The reprint sets run $250-300. We use Austin S. Allibone’s A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased as often as we use M’Clintock & Strong. There are more authors in this work but the biographies of the less prominent theological writers are often thin. The subtitle to the set is …from the earliest accounts to the latter half of the nineteenth century. Containing forty-six thousand articles (authors), with forty indexes of subjects. This is found as three volumes with a two-volume supplement. Again, you want the entire five volumes for your reference library. You will use this set for many more authors than only theological ones. Our edition was published in 1891 in Philadelphia by the J. B. Lippincott Company. We paid $185.00 for it about 4 years ago. Shop around for prices. We do use the two-volume supplement constantly and recommend you try to find all five volumes. The entries for the first three volumes end in 1858. The two supplemental volumes continue the literary record of authors begun in the former part and add a considerable selection of new authors to the mix. Allibone’s A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors Living and Deceased The last spade used on a regular basis to root out authors is Cyclopaedia Bibliographica: A Library Manual of Theological and General Literature, and guide to books for Authors, Preachers, Students, and Literary Men. Analytical Bibliographical, and Biographical. By James Darling, 2 vols. London: 1854 & 1859. It is a mismatched set in ¾ leather. The authors are primarily English. The biographies are unadorned. The bibliographical information is terrific and will help you identify early editions and such. The first volume of the set is a bibliography of theological writers. The second volume is a subject index the bulk of which pertains to commentaries on the Bible. Expect this to cost $500-700 for the pair. Several more books or sets deserve mention. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, etc. published by Funk & Wagnalls in twelve volumes (1908) is handy for authors appearing in the later 19th century. The author has to be rather prominent to appear in this set but it does fill in some gaps for us. I think this set runs $200-250 today. In the 1850’s and 60’s William B. Sprague authored the Annals of the American Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, from the early settlement of the country to the close of the year eighteen hundred and fifty-five. This set is in nine volumes and is very valuable for the detailed biographical information it contains. If your man is in Sprague you will have all of the information you could possibly need to write an informative biography of him. The Annals are difficult to find complete and you may need to assemble the nine volumes individually as you can find them. Expect to pay $75-100 per volume. Two volumes are Trinitarian Congregational ministers, two are Presbyterian, and there are one each of Episcopalian, Baptist, Unitarian, Methodist, and Associate (Presbyterian). Each volume has its own index that is not particularly helpful if you do not already know the denominational affiliation of the author. You will want to pick up Marie Lamourex’s Index to William Buell Sprague’s ‘Annals of the American Pulpit’ reprinted by the American Antiquarian Society in 1994 if you wish to make sense of this set. Colonial Clergy of the Colonial Churches of New England The Colonial Clergy of the Colonial Churches of New England by Frederick Lewis Weis, published in Lancaster, Massachusetts (1936) is helpful in identifying unknowns not found elsewhere. The information given for each minister is spartan but you will have set him in a valuable context nevertheless. It has recently been reprinted and many copies are available in the $25-35 range on the Net. Author Identification References (Denominational & Movement) Denominational or movement references are also very useful. Most authors can be located in the above references but some are only known as associated with particular churches or religious movements and these can often be located by looking in the right place. Or you may know the denominational association of an author but wish to discover if they are associated with other important historical events or genres. A few examples follow: The Encyclopedia of Missions. Descriptive, Historical, Biographical, Statistical. With a full assortment of maps, a complete bibliography, and lists of Bible versions, etc. Edited by Rev. Edwin Munsell Bliss. 2 volumes. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891. Missionaries and authors found here that are not found easily elsewhere. The histories of missionary stations are given. These allow you to see how early a particular work or mission author is relative to any country or people. This work is somewhat difficult to find at present. A Guide to the Study of the Holiness Movement. By Charles Edwin Jones. Published by The Scarecrow Press and The American Theological Library Association, 1974. This is a 918-page bibliography mainly covering the century 1850 to 1950. It contains brief biographies but an extensive bibliography of each author. The index is somewhat clunky but worth the aggravation. We found our copy priced at $55.00. A Baptist Bibliography: Being a register of printed material by and about Baptists; including works written against the Baptists. Edited by Edward C. Starr. 1947-1976. 25 volumes. A comprehensive bibliography and very helpful when specializing in this denomination. Starr gives all known editions at the time as well as locations. Single volumes run $30-50; complete sets may be available at a local university. Comprehensive Bibliography of Mormon Literature: including some review information & price history. Compiled by Bret A. Eborn. Published by Eborn Books in Peoria, Arizona, in 1997. Available for $95-150 on the Net. There is a strong collector interest in this genre and this single reference will give you all you need for a start in identifying and pricing these books. Early Catholic Americana. A List of Books and other Works by Catholic Authors in the United States 1729-1830. By Wilfrid Parsons, S. J. New York: MacMillan Company, 1939. 282 pages with an index. Catholic writers are often not included in the larger 19th-century author references mentioned above which makes this an essential reference tool for this specialty. Expect to pay $75-100 for it. Revival Literature. An Annotated Bibliography with Biographical and Historical Notices. By Richard Owen Roberts. Published by the author, 1987. A large reference of 575 pages with 5939 entries and available from the publisher for about $70.00. Their phone number is (630) 752-4122. This contains very useful information with brief biographies of authors and will remain a standard reference in the field. The compiler considers “Revival” to be the First and Second Awakenings in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A History of Fundamentalism in America. By George W. Dollar. Bob Jones University Press, 1973. This has brief biased biographies of the leaders of Fundamentalism, 1900-1973. This was written by a fundamentalist and is helpful for identification with this movement. You should be able to find this for $20-30. Cyclopaedia of Temperance and Prohibition The Cyclopaedia of Temperance and Prohibition. A Reference Book of Facts, Statistics, and General Information on All Phases of the Drink Question, the Temperance Movement and the Prohibition Agenda. New York etc.: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891. Something to peruse over a pint of stout. This does include the key figures and authors and is useful. You can find these priced anywhere from $40-100. The above brief list is only a sample of the many denominational and movement histories and bibliographies available. We suggest that if you wish to pursue a religious topic or church in some depth that you begin with something specific and acquire those works necessary for that specialty. References suggested for Biblical studies. Commenting and Commentaries: Two Lectures addressed to the students of The Pastor’s College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, together with A Catalogue of Biblical Commentaries and Expositions. By C. H. Spurgeon, President. London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1893. Often reprinted. We use this constantly. Rev. Spurgeon lists 1437 commentaries with annotations and recommendations, all are in English and many antiquarian titles are included. Any commentary recommended by Spurgeon is a quick sale. Volume 2 of Darlings’ Cyclopaedia Bibliographica. See above. An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. By Thomas Hartwell Horne. Commonly found in two or four volume sets, usually published before 1850. The last book in this set contains a Bibliographical Appendix that is extremely useful for books published on Biblical research printed before 1840. This includes Bible versions, translations, commentaries, lexicons, grammars, harmonies, etc. This volume is relatively unknown as a reference and can probably still be found for under $50. The entire set can be had for under $200. The standard English Bible references – Darlow & Moule, Hills’ English Bible in America, Rumball-Petre’s Rare Bibles – are all in print or common enough that you should have them if you are interested in specific Bible imprints. The standard Evans’ American Bibliography or the Short-Title Evans will help you as well when identifying old Bibles. We have begun a list of reference materials on American Christian religion at our website if you would like to pursue this further. The link is http://www.spwurthbooks.com/ref0302.html You will find that collectors of “religious books” are generally intelligent, well-informed on their specialty, and loyal buyers. Help them find what they want and show them why they want it. This will result in you turning over your stock and extra grocery money for your budget. And don’t forget to pass down some potato salad to the basement – your uncle is hungry. By Stephen P. Wurth Copyright – S. P. Wurth Books. 2002. http://www.spwurthbooks.com #collecting

Mystery and detective fiction is probably more popular today than at any time in its history, including the so-called Golden Age in the 1920s and 30s. I’ve tried to aim this list at generalist dealers who might want more information about mystery fiction, but do not need the reference works of a specialist in the field. Because, as Christopher Morley said of Sherlockian writings, “Never has so much been written by so many for so few,” I have separated Holmes-related items from other mystery reference and included it in its own section at the end. The items marked with an asterisk are the most highly recommended and useful of the reference materials for a generalist dealer. Through them, one can locate most of the others. The rest of the works listed are some of my favorites, and other mystery dealers probably have their own preferences. Chacun a son gout. MYSTERY AND DETECTIVE FICTION, EXCLUDING SHERLOCKIANA 1. GENERAL CHECKLISTS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES : *Hubin, Allen J. Crime Fiction III. A Comprehensive Bibliography: 1749 -1995. Though not a descriptive bibliography, Hubin is the major bibliographical checklist for detective fiction and an indispensable work for anyone collecting or dealing in the genre. In addition to the major author and title index for books, it includes short stories indexed by title and author, movies listed by title and book author, a series index, and a settings index. However, users should be aware that there is no critical commentary about the works listed: the worst writers are treated as equally as the best. The first four editions of Hubin are available in book format, but this most recent update is available only on CD-ROM from Locus Press at https://amber.site-secure.net/locusmag/About/CDRomAd.html. The CD-ROM edition includes all entries from Hubin’s four previous editions: The Bibliography of Crime Fiction: 1749 – 1975, Crime Fiction: 1749-1980, Supplement to Crime Fiction: 1981-1985, and Crime Fiction II: 1749-1990. *Albert, Walter. Detective and Mystery Fiction: An International Bibliography of Secondary Sources. Second edition, revised and expanded. 2000. As Hubin is the major checklist for mystery and detective fiction, Albert is the major checklist for mystery reference materials, excluding Sherlockiana. Its sections include: Bibliographies, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Checklists; General Reference Works: Historical & Critical: Books and Articles; Dime Novels, Juvenile Series, and Pulps; and Authors. The section on authors is particularly useful since it lists bibliographies as well as books and articles about all major and most minor mystery writers. Although the first edition was published in book format, the second revised edition is available only on CD-ROM from Locus Press at https://amber.site-secure.net/locusmag/About/CDRomAd.html. The above two works are both indispensable and so are listed first. The books that follow are a sampling of some of the most useful checklists to supplement the above, and are listed in alphabetical order by author. Adey, Robert. Locked Room Murders and Other Impossible Crimes: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Minneapolis: Crossover Press, 1991. Revised and expanded edition. An indispensable work, very well done, for a popular, though limited, category of mystery fiction. Barzun, Jacques and Wendell Hertig Taylor. A Catalogue of Crime. NY: Harper & Row, [1971]. The most extensive annotated general survey of crime fiction, with 3,476 entries arranged by author. It includes plot summaries and critical comments and is not complete in any sense of the word, but is almost always entertaining since the authors “call ’em as they see ’em” with no reluctance whatsoever in expressing their often controversial opinions. A revised and enlarged edition was published in 1989. I don’t feel this title is really necessary for a generalist, but I include it because it is one of those often seen on the reference shelves of dealers, most of whom, I suspect, have probably seldom used it. Breen, Jon L. What About Murder? A Guide to Books about Mystery and Detective Fiction (Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1981) and its very extensive update, What About Murder? 1981- 1991. (Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, 1993). Breen does not attempt to cover the number of items in Albert, but his annotations show a lot of insight into the field, and make this work very useful. Both volumes are necessary since (as the title of the second volume makes clear) the items in the 1981 publication are not included in the 1993 update. Contento, William G. And Martin H. Greenberg. Index to Crime and Mystery Anthologies. Boston: G. K. Hall, [1991]. This work includes the appearances of all short stories in hardbound mystery anthologies from 1875 to about 1990. More than 1,000 anthologies are indexed by editor and title with the contents listed. Stories are also indexed by author and title. It’s useful for helping customers find out if and where a short story was previously published. This has since been issued on a CD-ROM as Mystery Short Fiction Miscellany: An Index by William G. Contento. It combines Index to Crime and Mystery Anthologies with Index to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Short Fiction: 1990-2000. I have not seen this CD, but according to Locus Press, it indexes 1,500 books and 1,100 magazine issues, for a total of 23,000 stories by 7,800 authors. It is available at:https://amber.site-secure.net/locusmag/About/CDRomAd.html. Cook, Michael L. And Stephen T. Miller. Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U.S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974. NY: Garland, 1988. Two volumes. A thorough and extraordinarily useful work (as most of Michael Cook’s reference works are), these two volumes list all fiction published in mystery pulp magazines, issue by issue. Volume one lists these works by magazine title in nearly 700 pages set in double-columns. Volume two provides the same material indexed by author. Cook, Michael L. Monthly Murders: A Checklist and Chronological Listing of Fiction in the Digest-Size Mystery Magazines in the United States and England. Westport: Greenwood Press, [1982]. By digest-size, Cook means the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine format, and Cook lists the title and author of every story in each issue of 110 of these magazines and also provides an index by author. *Cooper, John and B. A. Pike. Detective Fiction: The Collector’s Guide. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994. Second edition. Although this work focuses on British detective fiction (including British editions of American writers), it is invaluable for its commentary on bindings and dust jackets. The endpapers, featuring the signatures of around 100 mystery writers from Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham to Ellis Peters and P. D. James, and the beautiful color photographs are the icing on the cake of a very useful book. Menendez, Albert J. The Subject Is Murder: A Selective Subject Guide to Mystery Fiction (NY: Garland, 1986) and its companion volume The Subject is Murder Volume Two (NY: Garland, 1990). Most useful to dealers who have customers asking such questions as “Do you have any more mysteries dealing with advertising, art, architecture, gardening, schools and universities, religion, sports, television, Christmas, bookstores, writers, trains, medicine, law….” Well, you get the idea. *Pederson, Jay P. St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. Fourth edition. While nowhere near as complete as Hubin, many generalist dealers might find it more useful for the writers covered because it includes a capsule biography of each writer covered along with a short critical essay on the writer and, if the author was alive at the time of publication, a few comments by the author on his or her own work. Many of the critical essays are written by well-known critics and by other mystery writers. Because each edition dropped some writers and added others, the three previous editions are also useful. However, the three previous editions had a different name which St. James, for some reason changed with the fourth edition. The three earlier works were all known as Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers. The first two editions (St. Martin’s Press, 1980 and 1985) were edited by John Reilly and the third edition (Gale Publishing, 1991) was edited by Lesley Henderson. 2. HISTORIES AND CRITICAL WORKS: Any good mystery reference shelf must include histories and critical works on the genre and Albert, cited above, is the best source for finding them. The historical and critical books listed below are a few of my personal favorites. I have listed them alphabetically by author. I prefer older mystery writers to newer ones, and this is reflected in my selections. Haycraft, Howard. Murder for Pleasure. NY: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. [reprinted, without revision, by Biblo and Tannen in 1974]. The first formal history of the genre, and still one of the best. It is obviously limited in that it stops in 1940. Popular Press is not a book, but a publisher well known for its output in the area of mystery reference and criticism, and many of its older works are still in print. For critical books dealing with sub-genres of mystery fiction (women writers, espionage, golden age fiction, private eyes, police procedurals, etc.), Popular Press is an excellent place to start. Formerly at Bowling Green State University, Popular Press was acquired by the University of Wisconsin in July 2002. Because, at this writing, things are still in transition, their offerings can be checked out either at http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/popularpress.html, or athttp://www.bgsu.edu/offices/press/bcat.html . Quayle, Eric. The Collector’s Book of Detective Fiction. [London]: Studio Vista, [1972]. Great illustrations, but most useful for pre-WWII authors. Queen, Ellery. The Detective Short Story: A Bibliography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942. Also reprinted by Biblo and Tannen. Though a bibliography, the Queens’ critical comments probably merit its being placed in the critical category. Queen, Ellery. Queen’s Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story as Revealed in the 106 Most Important Books Published in this Field since 1845. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. This was reprinted in 1969 with supplements bringing it up to 1967. *Steinbrunner, Chris and Otto Penzler with Marvin Lachtman and Charles Shibuk. Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection. NY: McGraw-Hill, [1976]. A very useful general reference, with a particular emphasis on films related to the authors and works discussed. Symons, Julian. Bloody Murder. From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History. London: Faber and Faber, [1972]. 3. AUTHOR BIBLIOGRAPHIES: Author bibliographies are the most important part of a dealer’s reference shelf. In the field of mystery and detective fiction, a number of fine ones have already been published, but many more still need to be done. Albert, cited above, can provide information about not only about bibliographies already published in book form, but about preliminary bibliographies, checklists, and critical articles for many authors which may appear within various fanzines and magazines. The descriptive bibliographies listed below (by subject, then author) are a few of the ones I feel are most useful and most well done: Raymond Chandler: A Descriptive Bibliography. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979. Dashiell Hammett: A Descriptive Bibliography. Richard Layman. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1979. Tony Hillerman: From “The Blessing Way” to Talking God.” A Bibliography. Louis A. Hieb. Tucson: Press of the Gigantic Hound, 1990. A Macdonald Potpourri–being a miscellany of post-perusal pleasures of the John D. MacDonald books for bibliophiles, bibliographers, and bibliomaniacs. Walter and Jean Shine. Gainesville: University of Florida Libraries, 1988. Though not strictly a descriptive bibliography and though a little difficult “to get the hang of”at first, this is an invaluable reference for sorting out the first edition paperback originals of JDM. It can be used in conjunction with, but contains much more information in terms of paperbacks than, the Shines’ earlier A Bibliography of the Published Works of John D. MacDonald (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1980). Ross Macdonald/Kenneth Millar: A Descriptive Bibliography. Matthew J. Bruccoli. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1983. Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective. Francis M. Nevins, Jr. Bowling Green: Popular Press, 1974. Not a descriptive bibliography, but the best reference source currently available for the two men who did so much to popularize detective fiction through their novels and critical and writings. A Bibliography of the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers. Colleen B. Gilbert. Hamden: Archon Books, 1978. Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography. Guy M. Townsend, editor. NY: Garland Publishing, 1980. This is not a descriptive bibliography and is not useful for determining first edition points, but it does attempt to list every item written by or about Stout up to its date of publication. It also includes media treatments of Stout’s works on radio, in the movies, and on television. Julian Symons: A Bibliography. With commentaries and a personal memoir by Julian Symons and a preface by H. R. F. Keating. John J. Walsdorf. New Castle: Oak Knoll Press, 1996. The pages of back issues of the journal The Armchair Detective are very useful for specific author bibliographies. Otto Penzler, the dean of detective fiction, wrote a column called “Collecting Detective Fiction” from around 1982 through 1995. His checklists include publication information and points for first editions for many of the most prominent mystery writers. Fortunately, many of these have been recently updated and published in pamphlet form and are available from The Mysterious Bookshop which can be emailed at: info@mysteriousbookshop.com . Firsts Magazine has a mystery issue once or twice a year and publishes mystery writer checklists. The November 2002 John D. MacDonald issue is particularly outstanding–see http://www.firsts.com/Nov02.html. Allen and Patricia Ahearn have included many mystery writers in their Author Price Guides Series. See http://www.qbbooks.com/ind_apg.htm. 4. DEALER AND AUCTION CATALOGUES: Although the Internet diminished the value of dealer and auction catalogues as price guides, they can still be very helpful in providing a lot of bibliographical information, and many are illustrated. The value of a catalogue, obviously, depends in great measure on how much additional information is provided–but even cloth colors, when listed, and numbers of pages can be helpful when researching a book. 5. PEER RESOURCES: Don’t neglect fellow dealers as a resource. Most are always willing to help. I strongly recommend the following: The Deadly Directory: 2002. Kate Derie, editor. Lists booksellers, organizations, events, periodicals, publishers, and information resources in the field of mystery and detective fiction. You can get more information at: http://www.deadlyserious.com. 6. INTERNET RESOURCES: Unfortunately, the most useful site on the internet for mystery and detective fiction, The Mysterious Homepage, has mysteriously disappeared. It contained a wealth of links to other internet sources. However Google or another search engine can be a valuable resource in locating sites related to mystery fiction in terms of specific authors, characters, sub-genres (bibliomysteries, historical mysteries, dime novels), publishers, and awards (both the Mystery Writers of America and the English Crime Writers Association have web sites). Most published writers today either have their own web sites or have unofficial web sites run by fans. Two internet sites are particularly good for examples of authors’ signatures and include many mystery writers in their lists: http://www.purplehousepress.com/sig.htm, andhttp://home.earthlink.net/~criswell/authors/agraphs.htm SHERLOCKIANA 1. CHECKLISTS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES: *De Waal, Ronald B. The Universal Sherlock Holmes. 1993. As Hubin is the essential reference work for detective fiction and as Irene Adler is the Woman, Ronald Burt De Waal has provided the most comprehensive bibliography of all things Sherlockian. The first edition of his work was The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson (Boston: New York Graphics Society, 1974), which contained over 6,200 entries. The International Sherlock Holmes (Hamden: Archon Books, 1980) followed with more than 6,000 additional entries. The Universal Sherlock Holmes includes all entries from the first two volumes plus 12,000 new entries, for a total of 24,703 items. Hubin lists not only all printings of the canon, individual stories and novels along with collections, but also pastiches, parodies, and writings about the writings. He includes newspaper articles, dramatic presentations, and all kinds of Sherlockian ephemera. It is a unique work–one of a kind. The Universal Sherlock Holmes is available from George Vanderburgh of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box at gav@bmts.com as a book in five volumes (four volumes and an index) bound either in paper with a plastic comb binding or in hardback. It is also available on CD-ROM. *Green, Richard Lancelyn and John Michael Gibson. A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle. Oxford: The Clarenden Press, 1983. A complete descriptive bibliography, this is the standard reference work on Doyle. It was reprinted in 1984 with corrections, and that corrected edition was reprinted in 2000 by Hudson House and is widely available. It is now also available in a Windows program on CD-ROM from George Vanderburgh of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box at gav@bmts.com. Whitt, J. F. The Strand Magazine: 1891-1950. A Selective Checklist. London: Whitt, 1979. Although there is no definitive index of The Strand, this short paperbound work lists all material related to Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as all stories by P. G. Wodehouse, and a selection of other contributions, mainly by writers of detective, mystery, or fantasy fiction. It is quite scarce but worth buying when it turns up. *Shaw, John Bennett. The Basic 100: The 100 Most Important Critical Studies and Association Items to the Sherlock Holmes Canon. Various places and dates. John Bennett Shaw, who owned the largest Sherlockian collection in private hands before it was donated to the University of Minnesota’s Special Collections, first developed this list in 1977 based on an exhibit of items from his collection 11 years earlier. He revised it a number of times before his death in 1994, and others have continued tinkering with it since then. A 1998 list done with the approval of Shaw’s widow and annotated by Carl Thiel is readily available as a paperback from George Vanderburgh of The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box at gav@bmts.com. Shaw’s own 1988 version, without commentary, is available on the web athttp://geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7846/shaw_yop.html. For generalist dealers, the Shaw reference can answer a number of customer questions about which books they might recommend about Sherlock Holmes. 2. OTHER SHERLOCKIAN REFERENCES FOR A GENERALIST BOOKDEALER : Redmond, Christopher. A Sherlock Holmes Handbook. Toronto: Simon & Pierre, [1993]. For a one-book introduction to Sherlock Holmes, Redmond’s book is my favorite. It contains the most basic information that a beginner would want. The introduction includes short summaries of the entire canon, 56 stories and 4 novels, and the following chapters provide specific information about Holmes and Watson, Doyle, and their world in very readable form. The very detailed index makes the book exceptionally useful and reader-friendly. Tracy, Jack. The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana. Garden City: Doubleday, 1977. Alphabetically arranged, this is a fine reference for locating names, places, and general subjects in the canon quickly and easily. Herbert, Paul D. The Sincerest Form of Flattery: An Historical Survey of Parodies, Pastiches and Other Imitative Writings of Sherlock Holmes 1891-1980. Bloomington: Gaslight, 1983. Long before Doyle’s death in 1930, other writers began to appropriate the character of Sherlock Holmes. In the beginning, they used parodies to make fun of Holmes who had, in a very short time, become one of the best-known fictional characters in England and the United States. After Doyle’s death made it clear there would be no more Holmes stories, others tried their hands at writing serious pastiches which they hoped might fill the void. Pastiche and parody have coexisted for a little more than a century now, and one Sherlockian recently wrote that he had identified more than 4,000 such items. Herbert does not attempt to list all the parodies and pastiches he knows, but instead he divides his book into subject-oriented chapters, organizing parodies and pastiches around historical figures, historical events, fictional characters, science fiction, trades and special interests, cases mentioned as being in Watson’s tin dispatch box, Christmas, Holmes’ relatives, and many more. His book also includes a bibliography of parodies and pastiches. For a generalist dealer, the Herbert book can help to guide customers looking for “more Sherlock Holmes.” There are, as one can see from the entry on De Waal, literally thousands of Sherlockian books and pamphlets, not to mention hundreds of journals and newsletters devoted to Holmes, but the ones above are probably all a generalist dealer would need. The rest of the writings should probably be left to Morley’s “so few,” mentioned at the opening of this essay, the readers, the collectors, and the enthusiasts who still believe, with Vincent Starrett, that “it is always 1895.” By: Michael S. Greenbaum URL: http://janusbooks.com #collecting #reference

So much for the classical origins of ephemera. What does the term mean for us here and now in the opening years of the new millennium? For some basic paper training, one could begin appropriately enough with a published source of information . . . also known as the dreaded price guide. I go to one crowded country auction where hanging on the wall near the slow checkout desk is a nice framed 1930s-era oil painting of an old-time auction. They were often held right in front of the failed farm house back then, and the auctioneer’s white shirtsleeves are rolled up as he knocks down the dispossessions of the defeated to thirty or so spectators and far fewer actual bidders. “Those were the days,” someone on line (rather than online) in the 1980s once commented. “Well I used to go to lots like that,” said a very old-timer near by, “and all they did was bitch about the good old days when you could find great stuff cheap and the crowds were smaller.” Although everything is relative, there is something to be said for the modern-day theory that our related businesses have been somewhat ruined by the “Antiques Roadshow,” published price guides, eBay, and the proliferation of reproductions and fakes. As for the first bump in the road, although there is a heightened awareness among yard salers and estate settlers, I usually find it pretty easy to sidestep speculation that the proffered item would elicit gasps in the final segment on the Roadshow. General price guides that come out annually (Schroeder’s, Kovel’s) are pretty hit-or-miss for a particular piece. The prices in specialized guides (which cover hundreds of categories by now) are sometimes thought to be manipulated upwards by the top dealers who write them based on their own self-interest. (My brother numbers himself among early collectors of ephemera related to fireworks, and they all dread the day when that price guide comes out and quotes go sky high.) A good rule of thumb in some areas is that half the book price is a good starting point in most negotiations. One guy I know whips out 1980s-era price guides when he is buying but manages to quote current editions when selling. Ebay, largely responsible for spawning those packs of hyenas so evident every Saturday morning at estate and garage sales throughout the land, will require an article unto itself. To summarize, though, there’s an upside and a downside and a whole lot of shaking out going on. So where do books and ephemera fit in the pantheon of antiques when it comes to description and value? Libraries catalog and loan books, but dispensing advice on pricing is generally beneath them. Scarce books, as we all know, have been rather difficult to find and price until fairly recently. Collectors would spend years tracking down an elusive tome that can now be had in multiple from kitchen table booksellers via the net. The beauty of books is that so darned many have been published that it’s impossible to list them all in one volume or set of volumes. (Another great advantage is that they are generally too difficult to counterfeit compared to their hard relatives in wood, clay, glass and metal.) “Prices realized at auction” in ponderous sets or fast but pricey CDs are generally skewed toward known valuables, and big city bidders often pay very inflated prices in the heat of battle. Only recently have online out-of-print book search services (and the meta-crawler comparison engines which keep them somewhat honest) standardized real-time pricing practices and separated the scarce from the truly rare. Ephemera though, ever elusive, still slips under most of the above-mentioned radar. Some gets picked up by specialized price guides (e.g., sheet music), and searching eBay under “Completed Auctions” can be revealing, but there are millions of oddball ephemerons whizzing around which resist the banality of bibliographic description, the corral of the catalog record, and the pull of the price tag. We weren’t meant to see these often fascinating and beautiful items created “for its one April day of life” decades or centuries later, many examples survive and are readily available, there is always something to learn, and you can fill in historical blanks while making a nice profit from these slips and pages of paper while others fight it out over familiar items of known value which only yield so much profit after expenses. Even among ephemera fanciers, cluelessness often prevails. Would-be paper lions fight over the single Kennedy Life magazine everyone and their mother saved in the attic while I carry out the box of 1920s Vogues worth $100.00 each. All this to me is the great appeal of the Wild West that is ephemera. There is one price guide that does a pretty good job of introducing us to the field in question. Warman’s Paper (Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead, 1994 first edition), which covers the various types of ephemera commonly sold and collected today, is probably the best single primer. It was reprinted by Chilton in 1997, and there are always ten or so copies available online in the $10.00 to $20.00 range. I remember reading this cover-to-cover on a long plane flight, and it still sits on the first shelf of my price guide collection. Though more mercantile than authoritative or scholarly, Warman’s is tops in both areas compared to any other general ephemera guide, and it’s always a pleasure to delve between these happy yellow covers. Warman’s was written by Norman E. Martinus, an unassuming and otherwise unpublished Outer Banks ephemera specialist; and it was conceived and edited by the famous and incredibly prolific Harry L. Rinker. I used to read Rinker a lot some years ago, and two tidbits always come to mind. He is a pretty serious speculative buyer of new collectibles, carefully storing away multiple mint condition examples for future profit. Personally, I prefer older artifacts with more character that have been handled by departed souls, and items which are not so aware of their own collectibility. And Rinker once shared the fact that he avidly collects any rectal thermometer he can get his hands on, antique or otherwise, which is one item I would pass on no matter how high up they may go. We can let all that slide though, because Rinker is usually ahead of the curve and one gets the feeling that the authors of Warman’s have no hidden agenda other than to share their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the field of ephemera. The book opens with a spirited discussion of “ephemera” versus “paper,” highhandedly concluding that the former term is “incredibly pretentious and snobby.” “A Salute to Our Predecessors” pays tribute to Robert D. Connolly’s Paper Collectibles: A Collector’s Identification and Value Guide, the second and last edition of which was published in 1982. Gene Utz’s Collecting Paper and the defunct House of Collectibles paper guides get the dissing they deserve. There are lists of ephemera-related reference books, periodicals, societies, shows, and repositories. The pricing philosophy and research methodology is explained. This is a buyer’s guide with retail prices, and sellers can only expect to make ten to fifteen cents on the dollar. “Not all paper is collectible. . . . Identifying and separating collectible paper from non-collectible paper in a large lot is time consuming.” Amen, brother! It takes years to develop expertise, to amass a large inventory, and to form relationships with the right sellers and buyers. The point is made that the paper market is a complex field that “differs substantially from other antiques and collectibles markets.” Subsequent sections include “Caring for Paper,” and “Spotting Restrikes, Reproductions, Copycats, Fantasies, and Fakes.” The lengthy front matter of this guide is highly informative, written in a lively manner, and well worth the price of admission all by itself before you even get to the thousands of items listed with their wonderful accompanying illustrations. Warman’s is then arranged by topic and by subject. This may sound a little redundant or confusing, but they explain the difference and you get the hang of format versus content after awhile. Good indexing saves the day too. Topics include advertising, billheads, catalogs, diecuts, erotica, family letters, games, illustrators, lobby cards, menus, newspapers, photographs, record jackets, scrapbooks, tobacco cards, valentines, gum wrappers, etc. Subjects include amusement parks, barber, Civil War, Disney, Elsie the Cow, fishing, Girl Scouts, horses, Indian, jewelry, kitchen, Lincoln, motorcycles, Nabisco, ocean liner, political, radios, science fiction, Three Stooges, unions, Volume One Number Ones, world’s fairs, etc. To illustrate, let’s start off with a healthy breakfast. Under the topical heading of “Cereal Boxes,” we sit down to a whirlwind historical tour. Wheat cereal and hot cooked oatmeal were dispensed by weight in a plain sack at the good old general store until the turn of the century. Packaged, ready-to-eat cereal came in the early 1900s, aimed at Mom. In the 1930s kids were targeted, either through “free” premiums or on-pack promotions featuring cut-outs, contests, and games. In the middle years, entire radio and TV shows were sponsored by various manufacturers. When this approach was jettisoned in favor of spot commercials, sugar-coated brand characters were created to ensure recognition (and tooth decay). Profits were Grrrrreat! The last few decades have seen a shift toward movie and sports tie-ins, which make the boxes even more transitory. One example of a “fantasy” cereal box (not just a reproduction but a fake which depicts an item which never existed to begin with) is a computer-generated Wheaties “Last Breakfast Cereal” box with Jesus Christ on the front. When I see old cereal boxes, it makes me wonder why on earth someone saved them to begin with, and how they came down to us safely. These boxes shared their contents for a brief happy moment in a sunny deco kitchen or in the blue glow of Howdy Doody over kitschy fifties formica, only to suffer decades of dark interment in some dry, milkless attic. “Box completeness” is key to these collectors. Rare unconstructed and file copies command the highest prices. I love early color print ads from pre-Depression periodicals, and I like some of the premiums, like a neat 1949 Post Toasties Popeye tin ring which recently sprang up spinach-like from a battered $5.00 auction box lot $45.00 stronger, but cereal boxes themselves don’t do much for me. As Count Chocula proved years ago, there’s no accounting for taste. Still, when Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (1950s Superman offer) and Nabisco Rice Honeys (1969 Beatles Yellow Submarine with stickers) boxes go for $300.00 a pop, one should crackle and snap. If this topic doesn’t leave you soggy, Warman’s Paper directs your attention to a couple of related periodicals—Free Inside, and Flake. For an example of a subject heading, let’s run away to the circus. Circus Report seems to be a leading periodical. Clubs include the Circus Historical Society (which publishes Bandwagon). Among the categories of circus ephemera listed are advertising trade cards, books, booklets, broadsides, letters, letterheads, magazines, photographs, posters, programs, and tickets. Prices range from a $10.00 route card (Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, 15th/16th week, 1926, 3x 5″) to an $85.00 broadside (Zircus Hippodrom Und Menagerie, German, contortionist wearing spotted tights and other acts, circa 1920, 9 x 19″) to a $200.00 poster (Downie Brothers Circus, close-up of clown’s face surrounded by other performing clowns, Erie Litho, circa 1920, 28 x 41″). Some circus posters sell for thousands, and when the cost of any antique is high, reproductions and suckers are born every minute, so watch out! Ephemera is rife with crossover appeal, as Warman’s illustrates. I recently sold a colorful Ringling Brothers Circus Magazine and Program with 4/26/1953 Sunday afternoon tickets stapled to the inside cover. This issue happens to contain a great original Hemingway circus article. Who could provide such a rare paper item to the serious Hemingway collector for a mere $35.00? Only an earnest ephemeralist. “I never met a piece of paper I didn’t like,” concludes Rinker. “The field is so vast that there is room for everyone. Jump in and enjoy yourself.” #collecting #ephemera

Scenic views in Western Massachusetts make driving to the MARIAB Fall Book Fair a treat On Saturday, October 19th, the Massachusetts & Rhode Island Antiquarian Booksellers held their annual fall book fair at the site of the Historic Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was the second year for the fair in this venue. For the last decade MARIAB’s fall show has been a veritable Flying Dutchman of a fair — moving from Wilmington to Andover and now to Springfield — and hopes have been running high that this is the location in which the fair will at last find a permanent home. There is much to like about the Springfield venue. The fair is held at the height of the “leaf peeping” season, when the fall foliage of Western Massachusetts is at its most gorgeous. A day-trip to the area on a fine October Saturday is an appealing prospect, indeed, to many from New England and beyond. The building offers plenty of visitor parking, as well as easy access for vendors to load and unload their merchandise. The exhibition hall is spacious, with more than enough room for the 50+ dealers to display a wide range of material — from ephemera to modern first editions to antiquarian rarities. This is a user-friendly fair known for its amiable, helpful dealers, with something on hand for just about everyone and just about every budget. “We gave out tickets at our shop before the fair to some customers who had never been to an event like this before, and saw them at the show carrying packages. It can open up a whole new world of book collecting for people.” reports Eugene Povirk of Southpaw Books in Conway, Massachusetts, whose booth offered an amazing cornucopia of books, pamphlets, and ephemera having to do with the history of political movements and social reform in America. Eugene is the co-manager of the Whately Antiquarian Book Center, a multi-dealer shop 20 miles north of Springfield, and it was at the Whately shop that he distributed tickets prior to the fair. Several of the exhibiting dealers reported a high degree of customer interest and good sales. The fair “attracted a steady crowd, the booth was busy all day, and I’ve had a couple of good follow-up sales afterward. Considering it’s only the second year at this location, the show showed potential.” says Russell DuPont of Whitman, Massachusetts, who filled his booth with an attractive selection from his extensive inventory of books on the fine and decorative arts. Although many dealers agree with this assessment that the fair has great potential, there is at the same time a general agreement that this potential is currently not being met. Also, it must be admitted that more than a few exhibitors voiced concerns over slow sales and lower-than-anticipated attendance. It appears that, for all its positive qualities, the fall MARIAB fair is still undergoing growing pains. Several dealers suggest that the location is not yet well established enough, that people have difficulty finding it, and that more effective publicity is needed, as is more visible signage at the fair itself. Ken Haverly manned the booth for our shop (Meetinghouse Books). In order for visitors to get the flavor of our South Deerfield shop, we put together an eclectic selection of scholarly and literary books, a feature display of several works by Harriet Spofford (a 19th Century New England writer known both for her works of gothic fiction and for her expertise in the decorative arts), and some vintage paperbacks just for fun. We had also been handing out tickets in the shop in the weeks preceding the event and, as Eugene reported, quite a few of these customers did attend the fair. Some of them visited the our booth to thank us for the tickets — and mentioned that had it not been for the tickets they had received at the shop, they would never have known about the fair at all. Meanwhile, on the day of the fair I was back home running the shop and was quite taken aback to discover that only one of the shop’s customers that day had been aware of the fair’s existence before I mentioned it. Those who did attend the fair were likely to come away with at least a few good finds. John F. Kuenzig, a dealer in and collector of science fact and science fiction, drove to the fair from Topsfield, Massachusetts. He was able to find “lots of interesting material to dig through” and adds that he saw “dealers I haven’t seen elsewhere, or at least merchandise that seemed fresh and new to me. I was able to buy some nice reference material in my area (science and technology), buy a few unusual items, and make some new contacts in the industry.” Still, John, like so many others, reports that although “once there, it was a good show . . . finding it was hard – it was poorly marked.” Although there is obviously a need for improvement in getting the word out about this fair, there is little doubt that it is “a good venue to spend quality time with people who enjoy our obsession” in the words of Margo Turpening of Andover, Massachusetts. Margo, who is known as the “Mad Hatter” and who specializes in automobilia, travel, and exploration, is one of those special booksellers whose infectious enthusiasm epitomize the charms of this fair and make it such a joy for exhibitors and customers alike. By: Judith Tingley Meetinghouse Books http://www.meetinghousebooks.com #MARIAB

The Midwest Bookhunters held their annual fall book fair October 13th, at the DePaul Student Center on the Campus of DePaul University in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Dealers and customers were both excited and pleased with the new venue of the DePaul Student Center, which is a brand new facility and is used as the University’s Student Union. Previously the Midwest Bookhunters had held other book fairs at DePaul; however, it has been several years before a suitable facility became available at DePaul, mainly due to extensive campus construction and re-furbishing. Many booksellers and bookfair attendees were pleased with the new setting–several attendees cited the “handy” and “easy to get to” location as a positive factor. There were several parking garages nearby and plenty of onstreet parking in surrounding streets. The Midwest Bookhunters Fall Bookfair boasted 45 dealers from nine states, including Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Some of the over 550 book fair attendees and customers came from as far away as Toronto, Ontario. Many customers spent the day leisurely browsing the unique and interesting tomes and treasures presented by the select group of booksellers. One gentleman spent over 5 ½ hours poring over old theater programs in one booth. Dealers were pleased to see that book buying was back in vogue–many shoppers were carrying several bags of books each–an encouragement to sellers and fair organizers alike. Usually each book fair is bound to have its problems, and while many booksellers were uncertain of how things would go with both an entirely new venue and new book fair manager (Darlene Spohrer of Autumn Leaves Books), this was one different in that things went very smoothly overall, and none of the expected potential snafus had any effect on the either the book fair attendees or the booksellers participating. One of the concerns that didn’t happen was the possibility of people getting stuck in traffic from the Chicago Marathon that was scheduled to be held at the same time as the book fair. Also, loading in and out of the Student Center went very smoothly, as all entryways to the inside of the Student Center were on the street level for easy hand-truck access. After set-up on Saturday evening, several booksellers enjoyed a catered dinner from the Student Center kitchen. Dealers had a good time un-winding and telling stories of books that got away and other book sale tales. We were delighted to be joined by veteran Chicago bookseller Paul Rohe, who formerly had a bookshop with his son Chris in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Security is always an issue at book fairs, especially for the sellers and organizers. One of the practices the Midwest Bookhunters has adopted is sealing all purchases in clear plastic bags with unbreakable seals and the receipts and bookseller identification facing out. This enables the security at the door to efficiently check customer purchases before they exit the book fair. As always, it is a good idea to have more than one person at each booth, and it is wise to lock more valuable books in display cases for added protection. Several of the dealers offered unique and exciting wares, many of which deserve to be mentioned here. Here are some of the highlights: Phyllis and Dick Tholin, of Phyllis Tholin Books (Evanston, IL) offered a large folio volume of Western Japanese handmade paper and block prints. Each village in the region provided a sample of the paper and beautiful classic block prints on the paper representing them with detailed descriptions, including information on the papermakers. Japanese Papermaking in Western Japan, 1931. $1450.00 (There is a companion volume to this for Eastern Japan; however, that volume was not present.) Wesley Williams (Wesley C. Williams Bookseller, Formerly Publix Books, Cleveland Heights, OH) offered Boswell’s Life of Johnson, First Edition, First State of 1791 for $8500.00, and for the completist, a Second State (also 1791) of the same for $4750.00. Williams, who specializes in nature and medical books, also had a copy of William Beaumont on the Gastric Juices, published in Plattsburg, NY, in 1883–hard to find in it’s original binding–offered for $2500.00. Not everything at the fair was for the big spenders. Carlos Martinez of Bibliodisa (Chicago, IL) offered an inscribed autobiography of famed war hero Eddie Rickenbacker, that read “With My Very Best Wishes, To S. S.- Sincerely, Eddie Rickenbacker, 1967. ” for $100.00 George and Mary Ritzlin (George Ritlzin Maps & Prints, Hightland Park, IL) brought their usual wonderful myriad selection of hand colored maps. One in particular was a hand colored copperplate engraving by Morse, of Rhode Island and Connecticut. It was published in Boston in 1802, showing township and county boundaries and features details such as swamps, caves, and forts. Also, a “Shaking Quaker” (Shaker) settlement appears at the uppermost reaches of the Connecticut River. $150.00 Dennis Melhouse of First Folio (Paris, TN) who does NOT carry books that look like “dog chew toys” as some previous articles have erroneously claimed, but rather a wonderful selection of fine bindings, all beautifully decorated by skilled decorative book binders, offered a great Chicago-related item: a two volume set of the Dove’s Press Edition of Paradise Lost and Regained in Cuneo Exhibition Bindings Specially bound for Mr. And Mrs. Marshall Field, 1902 (Paradise Lost) and 1905, (Paradise Regained) . The Chicago Rare Book Center, a multi-dealer shop in downtown Chicago, offered a copy of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, illustrated by Ernest Nister, famed for his Santa Claus Illustrations. Chicago Rare, as it is referred to, offered a fine selection of each its participating dealer’s wares. When asked about book or bookfair highlights, Maggie Page of Page Books (Hillsboro, OH) had just sold a copy of Maurice Sendak’s children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are, saying that it was Sendak’s best work, for which he had won the Caldecott Medal of Honor. Page also had a full complement of the Madeleine series books – all first editions in dustjackets–that would sell for approximately $1400.00 all together. Customers and Booksellers left the show with satisfied smiles all around. The Midwest Bookhunters Spring Book Fair is scheduled as a two-day affair on May 3rd and 4th, 2003, at Loyola University in Chicago. Please call 708-418-5620 or email info@midwestbookhunters.org for more information. Bookseller information: Page Books Maggie Page 117 Danville Pike, Hillsboro, OH. 45133 937-840-0991 pagebooks@cinci.rr.com First Folio Dennis R. Melhouse 1206 Brentwood, Paris, TN. 38242 731/-644-9940 firstfolio@bellsouth.net Wesley C. Williams, Bookseller (formerly Publix Books) P.O. Box 181075 Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 publixbooks@stratos.net Bibliodisa Carlos Martinez 4400 S. Spaulding Street Chicago, IL. 60632 cmartbooks@aol.com George Ritzlin Maps and Prints 473 Roger Williams Avenue Highland Park, IL. 60035 847-433-2627 Phyllis Tholin, Books 824 Ridge Terrace Evanston, IL 847-475-1174 Tholbooks@aol.com By: Aimee England URL: http://www.volume1books.com #MidwestBookhunters

This year marked the 15th Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair (SABF). This annual autumnal event is said by many exhibitors to be one of the best book fairs not staged by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), but this year’s occasion was noteworthy not only for the exhibitors, attendees and millions in collectible material sold, but also as a snapshot of the current used book industry. As Seattle has been enjoying unseasonably dry weather, a picturesque fall weekend was no competition for the attentions of approximately 1800 devout book buyers who visited the fair Saturday, October 12th, and Sunday, October 13th. Attendees viewed and purchased from the stock of 94 dealers representing Canada, Germany, and the United States, from New England to the Eastern seaboard and across the Mid West to the Northwest and down the West Coast. Over two-thirds of the dealers were returning exhibitors. Two book databases also exhibited –MyOwnBookshop.com and BiblioDirect.com. According to fair producer David Gregor, highlights of sales included, in the opening minutes of the fair, a local collector bought a complete run of jacketed Nancy Drews from a Seattle seller. Another Seattle bookseller sold a first U.S. of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for $17,000. A cookbook collector purchased three boxes of material from the first exhibitor they visited. One Midwest dealer spent over $40,000 on books, while a New York firm added approximately $75,000 worth of new material to their inventory. As the fair was ending, a $50,000 set of illustrated books was awaiting the final collation of the buyer. The vast majority of sellers reported that sales exceeded expectations. And there were an equally large number of dealers whose primary objective was to buy well and they reported that they were pleased with the material available. What this year’s event highlighted is that book fairs still have a vital role to play in professional bookselling. In recent years, book fairs saw a decline in on-site buying as the curse of the internet was at its peak. “Why buy from you at that price if I can go online and get it cheaper?” was the thinking of bargain-hunting customers. The truth is EVERYONE needs to see books and booksellers in person. The average buyer has now gotten stung at least once purchasing sight unseen, with condition not accurately described, and wants to invest money in quality books from a dealer they have met and whose stock has been perused. For dealers, the proliferation of shop closures has made it extremely difficult to scout when visiting an area or even locally. The savvy book fair exhibitor is also keeping an eye out for books that may be requested by a buyer at some later date—knowing “where the bodies are buried” is a value added service. The Seattle event is unique among book fairs. It is produced by two long-time Seattle dealers, Louis Collins of Louis Collins Rare Books and David Gregor of Gregor Books and Book Seminars International. The pair draw on their own experiences of exhibiting at numerous book fairs world wide. They are in the singular position of completely understanding the needs of participants and the current climate of the used book industry. Thus, they strive to present a consistently polished showcase for a wide variety of material from the hyper-modern to the true antiquity, from posters and photographs, to the printed word in all its formats. In recent years, they have adjusted the schedule to allow for a full day of set-up and exhibitor-to-exhibitor sales. Collins and Gregor have also modified the fair’s days and times to best meet the average book lovers’ weekend constraints. And while the producers and 35 of the exhibitors are members of the ABAA, this fair is open to all professional dealers. In fact, 15 of this years’ dealers were first time exhibitors in Seattle. These sellers came seeking exposure for storefronts, cooperative bookstores and full and part-time internet-based operations. Of the six members of the IOBA exhibiting, all have been traveling to Seattle for many years. Additional pictures and a complete listing of exhibitors are available at the Fair’s website: http://www.SeattleBookFair.com. Returning participants are given first right of refusal, with any remaining spaces open to non-returning booksellers in March of 2003. If you would like specific information about exhibiting in 2003—October 11th and 12th—contact Louis Collins at 206.323.3999 or bookfair@SeattleBookFair.com. By: David Gregor & Theresa Calter URL: http://www.gregorbooks.com #SABF

On September 28, a typically sunny and beautiful early autumn day, the 9th Annual Book Fair sponsored by the Central Valley Antiquarian Booksellers Association (CVABA) was held in Sacramento, California. Among the 54 booksellers participating were 3 IOBA members: Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books in Alamada, CA; Michael Greenbaum of Janus Books in Tucson, AZ and Chris Volk & Shep Iiams of Bookfever.com in Ione, CA. Once again, Bill Ewald of Argus Books, Sacramento, the Fair Director who has been running these shows for the past 9 years, did a great job of putting on a well-organized – and more importantly – a well-attended show. Set up was on Friday afternoon preceding the show, and included in the cost of the booth rental is a varied and very good buffet dinner, with hungry booksellers lining up for supper as soon as the food appeared. In addition to the free meal (which also provides a chance to chat with other sellers), among the features which make this show especially worthwhile for a bookseller are the generous booth sizes, the relatively reasonable cost for renting a booth, and the ability to send out an unlimited number of free passes without having to buy the passes up front. Unlike many shows which limit the number of free passes or charge the booksellers for them, the passes you receive for this show are coded by bookseller and you are only charged (at 50% of the cost of admission) if more than 10 of the passes you send out are actually used – the first 10 are free! This makes the book show a great opportunity to get in touch with all of your customers in the area. As usual when the doors opened on Saturday morning, there was a crowd waiting to get in. Sales were brisk during the first few hours of the show, but even the final closing announcement found some buyers still busy with last minute purchases. Chris Volk & Shep Iiams URL: http://www.BOOKFEVER.com #CVABA

New this year will be seminars held in Archer City, TX on August 23 and 24. Archer City is Larry McMurtry’s book town twenty minuets south of Wichita Falls. The equivalent of five large bookstores in one small Texas town, Archer City offers over a million books for sale. Tuition for this event will be slightly higher to cover the costs of including lunches for the courses and hosting a BBQ social for all weekend attendees on Saturday night. Book Collecting for Fun & Profit is designed to teach collectors, sellers, scouts and librarians the principles of collecting books, as well as first edition identification, accurate condition description, correct flaw terminology, valuations, research tools and book nomenclature. The Strategic Bookselling Workshop is about making your book business more PROFITABLE. The program explores how to market and brand your operation, building a customer base, the 12 steps of pricing, stock acquisition and responding to constant shifts in the billion dollar used book industry. This course is for those interested in starting a book business and those who have been selling for a while. This valuable information, presented nowhere else in the used book world, is applicable to full and part-time dealers using the internet or store fronts. For more information please visit http://www.BookSeminarsInternational.com or call 206.937.6223. By: David Gregor & Theresa Calter #seminars

I rented the movie, “We were Soldiers Once…and Young” and found it very well done. I highly recommend it. I then began a search through my boxes of books and found a copy of the book. I need some help on determining whether it is a true first, and hope you might be able to provide some information in this regard. The book is in f/f condition with no price clipped on the d/w. Random House. Copyright 1992. 8765432. First Edition isbn 0-679-41158-5. Methinks this is a first edition, second printing. Thanks in advance for your help and kind responses, John Scott Porterfield You would seem to have a first edition. The Random House rule is that they don’t use the number “1” in their line, but remove the words “first edition” at the time of second printing. May I suggest you invest in McBrides book on First Editions, and of course any other reference books you can get. Reference books should be a requirement in the biz and McBrides, although not the only one that covers these questions, is the least expensive. Richard Mori of Mori Books And….. It is a FIRST EDITION. In 1992, Random House began its number line with a “2” and the words, “FIRST EDITION.” For the second printing they simply dropped the verbiage and for the third printing they dropped the “2,” etc. Hope this helps. Sam in AZ I know this has been answered before, but I suppose I wasn’t paying attention because I can’t remember the answer – what percentage is normally charged for consignment sales? Jennifer Sadler There is no “normal” or standard percentage, at least in the used book trade. The most common consignment fees are in the 10% to 20% range (largely a function of the kind of material being sold). 10%, 15% and 20% are all used and seem fair and reasonable to me although in the case of a more established dealer as the consignee for less saleable material, especially in quantity, fees as high as 40 to 50% are not unheard of. Of course, these numbers are all negotiable. Sam Gottlieb. And….. New book stores can be thought of as consignment sales for books since they can return them for credit. Typical discounts for them run between 35 and 50 percent. As I’m sure you know, this is a very general statement and there are non-returnable books. In general, it is my experience that the non returnables enjoy deeper discounts than returnables. And from the editor: I have accepted books on a 50/50 percentage basis, and 30% or 40% as well. A local antique shop gives 60/40 in favor of the consignor – a very generous arrangement. I think a lot depends on the value of the books consigned, and if the two parties can arrange an amicable agreement. As you can see, the percentages are all over the place. I would suggest you set up your guidelines based on what you have learned, and be flexible. DeWayne White, of White Unicorn When listing a book that is a later printing, I have been listing the date that the printing occurred rather than the copyright date. Is this the proper procedure? Cynthia Putt Parnassus On Wheels The standard format of cataloging the date of a book has been to indicate the last date shown wherever it appears and, most important, when that date appears on the title page the date is shown by itself—without parenthesis–, but when the only or last date shown is on the copyright page it is shown in parenthesis. Most dealers who have been cataloging books for years understand and use this standard format, as do most if not all ABAA dealers. This standard format tells any reader if the date appears on the title page or not, and consequently helps everyone understand when that particular copy was printed. As you probably know, most often when there is a date on the title page of a book, and that date agrees with the copyright date on the verso of the title page, the book is a First Edition; not always, but usually. When a cataloger fails to indicate if the date appears on the title page or its verso by the use of this standard format, the customer cannot be certain the book is a true First Edition or a later printing or reprint. This standard format also helps to clearly explain exceptions. For example, if we catalog a book showing the date in parenthesis and state it is a “First Edition” or “First Printing”, we are telling our customer and others the book is a true First Edition or First Printing even though the date does not appear on the title page. For many early twentieth century books, and before, this is especially important. I hope this helps, and encourages others to adopt this standard format. Michael Mart The Good Times Bookshop Our thanks to all of the above contributors. Jean S. McKenna – Books Chairman Education Committee And finally, this helpful bit of information from Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books: Per requests I’ve received, this a follow-up on my previous posting regarding the correct use of the word ‘edition’ as applied to books from the hand press period. The definition below comes from Fredson Bowers’ PRINCIPLES OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION [New Castle DE: Oak Knoll Books, 1998], pg 108: PRINCIPLES OF BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION “An edition of hand-printed books is ordinarily the whole number of copies printed at any time or times from substantially the same setting of type. An early printer usually distributed his type soon after the form for which it had been set was printed. If, after the book had been placed on sale, more copies were required than had originally been printed, the book was perforce completely reset and a new edition created. The laws of the Stationers’ Company limiting the commercial edition of an early book to twelve to fifteen hundred copies had a marked effect on multiplying the editions of popular works.” For those that don’t know Bowers, quoting from G. Thomas Tanselle’s introduction to the copy I have in front of me will sum up Bowers’ standing in the bibliographic world: [Bowers’ work is] “the standard guide on the subject*.” * The subject, of course, being primarily the physical description of a book from the hand-press period, though there are chapters in his work on bibliographical descriptions of 19th & 20th C. books, and their inherent problems/challenges. Regards, Vic Zoschak Tavistock Books #reference

One of the Internet’s great sites is Steve Trussel’s: http://www.trussel.com/ This can keep you involved all day, so you might want to go directly to the book section at first, at: http://www.trussel.com/f_books.htm There is something for everyone here, and just reading through from start to finish provides a course in Knowing Books 101. If you have a question about anything that has to do with books, you’ll likely find an answer here, or a link to the place where you’ll find it. One of the most useful sections is SetMaker where odd volumes can be listed for sale or wanted, in an effort to reunite sets of books. There is an explanation of ISBNs and how they work, a currency converter, metric and Roman numeral converters. There are links and subscription information for the major book lists and search engines, to major library catalogues, to shows and seminars. There is information on book terms, dust jackets, bindings, Modern Library, the Encyclopedia Britannica, pseudonyms. And then there are Howard Fast, Lafcadio Hearn, Maigret, and Sherlock Holmes on postage stamps. Jill Morgan of Purple House Press has amassed samples of 634 author and illustrator signatures (as of September 2002) so you can be sure that what you have is the real thing. http://www.purplehousepress.com/sig.htm Looking for a book that everyone knows about, but no one has ever seen? Visit The Invisible Library–a catalogue of books that appear in other books, books that never were. http://www.invisiblelibrary.com/index.html What does it mean? An authoritative site that explains book terms from Stanford University explains it all. http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/don/dt/dt0226.html If Nancy Drew books are a mystery to you, try this. http://www.stratemeyer.net/stratemeyer/drew/drewform.htm And help with the Bobbsey twins is here. http://www.keeline.com/Bobbsey/ http://members.aol.com/case4nancy/library.htm Greek to you? Or Latin? This is an outstanding site for information on the classics in English, Greek, and Latin. http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/classics.html This site is helpful for kids’ book research. There is some pricing guidance, info on illustrators and authors, and a special Wizard who will help to identify books like, “It had a cow in it, and was red. All I remember is that the cow went to Starbucks and got a latte.” http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/ #reference

Email/Contact Info: afreelunch@aol.com Current Publisher and/or Agent: Counterpoint Press/Basic Books, publisher; Literary and Creative Artists, Inc., agent Published Work(s): Too Smart to Be Rich, 1988, New Chapter Press, humor, paperback original The Exact Image of Mother, 1991, Viking Penguin, literary fiction, hardback Eleanor Rushing, 1999, Counterpoint Press, literary fiction, hardback and paperback Odds, 2000, Counterpoint Press, literary fiction, hardback and paperback Secondhand Smoke, 2002, Counterpoint Press/Basic Books, literary fiction, just released in hardback SYNOPSIS OF CURRENT BOOK/WORK The best description of Secondhand Smoke appeared in Library Journal: they called it “Confederacy of Dunces meets The Corrections.” A dark comedy, this novel places a dysfunctional family into Irish/Italian working-class New Orleans. Somehow it lets a most unlikable old woman and her two unhappy children slug it out and figure it out, then lets us like them all in the end. Jerusha Bailey is toxic: not only does the smoke from her cigarettes probably kill her curmudgeonly husband, her poisonous personality has driven her adult son and daughter as far from her as they can manage. The only person left in her sights is ten-year-old Dustin Puglia, who lives next door with his equally bad mother, sleeparound, neglectful Angela. When Jerusha’s house burns down and Angela pulls a regular disappearing act, Jerusha learns quite a lot about survival from the chubby, streetwise little boy. This is a book about responsibility. Secondhand smoke is just a metaphor: the person puffing away, releasing carcinogens into the air, is harming others far more than she’s harming herself. Or is she? Jerusha’s children, Wilson and Zib, are damaged by the vitriol she spews; at what point do they have to stop blaming her? Readers say they laugh aloud when reading this book. Probably the funniest scene is the one in which Jerusha, on her way to meet Wilson and Zib at Arlington Cemetery for her husband’s funeral, finds his ashes have been stolen in a McDonald’s parking lot. It is possible to read this book just for the humor, but it also raises a lot of serious literary issues. AUTHOR INFO I tell people that when I was younger, I was so shallow that I should have been euthanized. I could form sentences, but I couldn’t think. Not until I was creeping up on 40 did I find my voice. I wrote a paean to failure, a humor book, called Too Smart to Be Rich, my answer to the yuppies. It gave me the entrée into publishing I needed, and since then I’ve been able to write novels that someone would print. My first novel was the requisite roman a clef: The Exact Image of Mother drew on my experience as an educated, middle-class woman (I went to Smith College) who decides to have a child out of wedlock. I did so in 1976, long before it was a movie-star sort of move. My next book, Eleanor Rushing, was a story of erotomania, pure fiction. Odds followed quite quickly, and while it was a product of my imagination, it did spotlight marital abuse. I made the mistake of marrying a very unpleasant man when my daughter was three, but I suppose the pain enriched the prose. I’ve been told that Secondhand Smoke is my breakout book. I hope so. I now have a great husband. He’s a fire captain, so it’s no surprise that smoke and fire and ashes slip into my stories. My books all are character-driven, they all are set in New Orleans, and they all try to limn hilarious pathologies. I am very different from what I was as a young woman: I’ve taken a lot of dares and made a lot of mistakes, and fiction is my vehicle for either vindication or vindictiveness, I’m never sure which! I suppose I raise humans for fun and no profit in my spare time. My daughter is much like me, except that at a very early age she already had a lot to say, and now she’s writing in L.A. I have an adopted son who seems like a full-time job. Or so I say: he’s my excuse for writing an hour a day and brooding the rest of the time… #authors