I have a condition called ABC or Acute Book Collecting.
If I can pass up the filet mignon and champagne and chose an outdated, rusty can of cat food and water instead, and it means that I can now afford to buy a book I desire. Well, it is kitty feed for me, I'm afraid.
Since the forum has been sort of slow lately I thought I would share a couple of my wins on eBay this week.
One is a four volume set of Charlotte Bronte in exquisite, fine condition. Looks almost like new. When this book sold, Andrew Borden still had two years to live. Originally published as a modest if not cheap edition in it's day, today it is very collectable in this condition. Wish it were a copy from Lizzie's library...... oh well! I don't collect Charlotte Bronte, but considering the condition I just had to have it.
Another purchase/win was a volume by Oscar Wilde. A magnificent if not spectacular leather volume. It is part of a bigger set. Sill, it stands on it's own merits as a wonderful example of a fine tooled leather volume. A work of art. Published in 1907 it is part of a limited edition of 124 sets made. Again, I don't collect Oscar Wilde. Love reading him, though. I even try to write along his style.
Just a little enhancement to my book obsession. Just thought I would share.
Now, I wonder how many cans of cat food I have left? Hmmm?
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If you're a bibliophile you might appreciate this. It happened when I was 20 and it's just inexplicable, and amusing, I went into a Greenwich bookshop, half antiquarian half modern, and asked if he might have Dumas' Dame Aux Camélias in the original French and the bookseller said no, nothing at all. I lingered a bit then left. Outside the shop one of those trestle shelves ran along the front window, carrying cheap books, paperbacks, things sold for pennies. And right at the end, alone, just standing alone, was a little volume in honey-tan, gilt-tooled leather. When I opened it to see whatever it could be it was Dumas' Dame Aux Camélias. At the top right corner of the frontspiece was pencilled '20p'. Well I trotted back to the book chap and he suspected me of some elaborate piece of tomfoolery. He sold it for 20p, very grudgingly, because it is also... a first edition. I've never understood this and suppose it's just impossible to understand. It felt like some Imp of the Perverse, having a laugh. And I've never been without it in all the places I've moved and shifted - it's a little good luck talisman. People always said I must have seen and registered it subliminally, on the way in While the bookseller, I remember, swore he would never have put it out there.
Book dealers can't know everything. He probably didn't realize what it was and just placed it on the cheap shelf. Probably didn't want to take the time to investigate the book since in was in another language. Most book dealers are very savvy and not much gets by them. And today there is no excuse not to know what you are selling. Though there are a lot of ignorant people on eBay who think they have treasures and ask big bucks for books when what they really have is something very common. Also, just because a book is very old does not necessarily give it value.
French, heh? I can just about manage the English language. Though I can speak Portuguese fluently, I never learnt to read it.
That was a funny story, InterestedR. Funny interesting, not funny ha ha!
One more. I purchased this book last week and have yet to receive it in the mail.
I have a small collection of miniature books. Most are centered around poetry, prayer, or religious advice, etc. The real value to me is the book cover. Decorative cloth covers. I like them around 2 inches by 3 inches. Nothing much later than 1910. Not interested in the really tiny doll house volumes. They take up a lot less room on the shelf, that's for sure.
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Below is the cover art for Sarah Schmidt's new book, See What I Have Done. I picked this up a couple of weeks ago. It is just the cover art. An advanced proof.
A proof should be the final book, finished, concluded and ready for final publishing. The proof stage is the last official draft, distributed for new eyes who may discover errors missed by professional editors and publication house.
The book appears to be written in multiple voices, with each chapter being told by a different person, Lizzie, Emma, Bridget, etc.
Of course this is just an uncorrected proof and the book will not be out till August. And I have just tumbled through it and have yet to read it. I will wait for the official copy before making any comment or final review. But I do like the cover art. Intriguing!
The cover below is not the final one but just the cover art.
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Last edited by mbhenty on Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
I find it very strange that so many of the proof editions are showing up on eBay. I have seen at least three or four listed. Corrected proofs are not circulated this way. They use to be called Galley proofs or Advance reading copies, meant for editors, proofreaders, and other authors, or friends and used to weed out errors. Essentially they were not meant for sale. They were officially used as a tool so the final and/or official release could be error free.
Why so many of these are making it to eBay makes no sense. You do see these "proof copies" often on eBay. Proof copies usually show up on the market after the official book has been published. I would think that most authors would want most of these destroyed, since they have errors. If I were Sarah Schmidts I would be upset that so many of these are getting out to the general public and that so many strangers can view my work with its pants down. I would be buying these up and getting them out of the field if I were the author. Not really sure how so many of these got out and on the market.
Yes InterestR: The cost of that book is a little dear.
The best bet is to wait it out and watch eBay and try to get a copy there. This title has become pretty scarce and holding it's resale value. But I would wait for one to come up on eBay. The last time I saw one go cheap was about a year ago on eBay and it went for 75 dollars. But who knows when you will see that price again? And you want to get a nice copy....not necessarily new but in very good to fine condition. When buying a valuable book it is all about condition.
The next best place is the ABE site.
ABEbooks.com
This is a site made up of booksellers all over the world. They have 7 copies listed for sale as we speak. The best deal is one for 223 dollars or 180 pounds. And the dealer is in London. How about that? You should not have to pay much more than this. Unless you want to take a chance and wait for one to come up on eBay.
Right now there are 2 on eBay. One for 529 dollars or 227 pounds and another for 250 dollars or 200 pounds.
The exchange rate is so heinous we try not to look at it...
Well it's going to be dear is Mr Knowlton and I am resigned. Thank-you for the advice.
May I draw your attention to the New England Gas Company or rather its premises on Fifth Street, Fall River?
This building looks to be at least mid-nineteenth century, surely. Yes it is ugly but I am wondering if it had anything to do with the Gas Company in the 1890s. A City Directory for 1896 says the Fall River Gas Company was in Bedford Street so...
You don't happen to know what this odd little building used to be?
On the map it's the yellow star on Fifth Street.
(There's also a wall plaque telling of a skeleton in armour but it won't enlarge to full legibility.)
That's a whopping big motorway runs past the Borden house nowadays...
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Can't say I know anything about the odd brick building on Fifth Street, though when I was working in telecommunications I had been inside it many times.
It has been the gas company at least since the 60s. The building was built in 1899. Not sure when the Gas Company moved there, but it is unlikely that the original building was build for the Gas Company. The gas company address that was on Bedford Street was the main office, which later moved to 155 North Main Street. The building on Fifth Street was where the Gas Company kept it's trucks and where you went to purchase gas fittings and repairs.
The skeleton in armor was found on that corner in 1831. The corner of Hartnell and Fifth Street. Not in that building. At the time it was an empty lot, from what I remember it told. The skeleton was kept in the city hall in the Atheneum. The Atheneum was the city library. When the city hall burnt down in 1843 the skeleton was lost.
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Here is the poem about the skeleton in armor written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow probably heard about the skeleton from his brother Samuel Longfellow, who lived in Fall River and was a pastor here in the 1840s.
The Skeleton in Armor Related Poem Content Details
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
“Speak! speak! thou fearful guest!
Who, with thy hollow breast
Still in rude armor drest,
Comest to daunt me!
Wrapt not in Eastern balms,
But with thy fleshless palms
Stretched, as if asking alms,
Why dost thou haunt me?”
Then, from those cavernous eyes
Pale flashes seemed to rise,
As when the Northern skies
Gleam in December;
And, like the water’s flow
Under December’s snow,
Came a dull voice of woe
From the heart’s chamber.
“I was a Viking old!
My deeds, though manifold,
No Skald in song has told,
No Saga taught thee!
Take heed, that in thy verse
Thou dost the tale rehearse,
Else dread a dead man’s curse;
For this I sought thee.
“Far in the Northern Land,
By the wild Baltic’s strand,
I, with my childish hand,
Tamed the gerfalcon;
And, with my skates fast-bound,
Skimmed the half-frozen Sound,
That the poor whimpering hound
Trembled to walk on.
“Oft to his frozen lair
Tracked I the grisly bear,
While from my path the hare
Fled like a shadow;
Oft through the forest dark
Followed the were-wolf’s bark,
Until the soaring lark
Sang from the meadow.
“But when I older grew,
Joining a corsair’s crew,
O’er the dark sea I flew
With the marauders.
Wild was the life we led;
Many the souls that sped,
Many the hearts that bled,
By our stern orders.
“Many a wassail-bout
Wore the long Winter out;
Often our midnight shout
Set the cocks crowing,
As we the Berserk’s tale
Measured in cups of ale,
Draining the oaken pail,
Filled to o’erflowing.
“Once as I told in glee
Tales of the stormy sea,
Soft eyes did gaze on me,
Burning yet tender;
And as the white stars shine
On the dark Norway pine,
On that dark heart of mine
Fell their soft splendor.
“I wooed the blue-eyed maid,
Yielding, yet half afraid,
And in the forest’s shade
Our vows were plighted.
Under its loosened vest
Fluttered her little breast,
Like birds within their nest
By the hawk frighted.
“Bright in her father’s hall
Shields gleamed upon the wall,
Loud sang the minstrels all,
Chanting his glory;
When of old Hildebrand
I asked his daughter’s hand,
Mute did the minstrels stand
To hear my story.
“While the brown ale he quaffed,
Loud then the champion laughed,
And as the wind-gusts waft
The sea-foam brightly,
So the loud laugh of scorn,
Out of those lips unshorn,
From the deep drinking-horn
Blew the foam lightly.
“She was a Prince’s child,
I but a Viking wild,
And though she blushed and smiled,
I was discarded!
Should not the dove so white
Follow the sea-mew’s flight,
Why did they leave that night
Her nest unguarded?
“Scarce had I put to sea,
Bearing the maid with me,
Fairest of all was she
Among the Norsemen!
When on the white sea-strand,
Waving his armed hand,
Saw we old Hildebrand,
With twenty horsemen.
“Then launched they to the blast,
Bent like a reed each mast,
Yet we were gaining fast,
When the wind failed us;
And with a sudden flaw
Came round the gusty Skaw,
So that our foe we saw
Laugh as he hailed us.
“And as to catch the gale
Round veered the flapping sail,
‘Death!’ was the helmsman’s hail,
‘Death without quarter!’
Mid-ships with iron keel
Struck we her ribs of steel;
Down her black hulk did reel
Through the black water!
“As with his wings aslant,
Sails the fierce cormorant,
Seeking some rocky haunt,
With his prey laden, —
So toward the open main,
Beating to sea again,
Through the wild hurricane,
Bore I the maiden.
“Three weeks we westward bore,
And when the storm was o’er,
Cloud-like we saw the shore
Stretching to leeward;
There for my lady’s bower
Built I the lofty tower,
Which, to this very hour,
Stands looking seaward.
“There lived we many years;
Time dried the maiden’s tears;
She had forgot her fears,
She was a mother;
Death closed her mild blue eyes,
Under that tower she lies;
Ne’er shall the sun arise
On such another!
“Still grew my bosom then,
Still as a stagnant fen!
Hateful to me were men,
The sunlight hateful!
In the vast forest here,
Clad in my warlike gear,
Fell I upon my spear,
Oh, death was grateful!
“Thus, seamed with many scars,
Bursting these prison bars,
Up to its native stars
My soul ascended!
There from the flowing bowl
Deep drinks the warrior’s soul,
Skoal! to the Northland! skoal!”
Thus the tale ended.
There's no stopping Longfellow once he gets going..
My partner always says it's a respectable theory, Vikings crossing the Atlantic.
He loves tv series like 'The Mystery of Oak Island' where people assure us there were 'Knights Templar' stomping all over the Americas in the fourteenth century. They went to hide the 'Ark of the Covenant' in an offshore bog.
Thank-you very much for answering what must seem a painfully recondite question about the Fifth Street building. It's not so old after all.
On this 1883 map there's a 'Gas Light Company' in the same spot... so I wonder if there was an earlier building.
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Last edited by InterestedReader on Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
The wonders of a little research, heh, InterestR. Good find.
You very well could be right. It does look like there was some sort of Gas Company on that spot in 1883. The Gas Company could have had possession of that lot all these years, which means that they probably built the brick building that is there today. Very interesting. I have a couple of books on historical buildings in fall river, but that building is not in any of them.
Directly across the street on Fifth Street from the Gas Company is another interesting brick building. I would have to look into it, but probably dates around the same time as the Gas Company Building and very well may be the one across the street from the Gas Company on the 1883 map. This Property belong to Tecumseh Mills. Strange building. Makes me wonder why the restriction of light was employed by using tiny windows.
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mbhenty wrote:You very well could be right. It does look like there was some sort of Gas Company on that spot in 1883. The Gas Company could have had possession of that lot all these years, which means that they probably built the brick building that is there today. Very interesting. I have a couple of books on historical buildings in fall river, but that building is not in any of them.
Thanks for looking!
Next along, same side, set back from the road, you see another brick building, oldish, but not so old as the first. This has an 1930s-looking metal sign, '[Something] Gas Company'. Today both buildings are New England Gas Company with a car-park extending to Brow Street. But yes, it looks like that whole plot end of Fifth Street has been Gas Company land all along. I've lots of indications it was in the 1890s but I've yet to learn what was going on there as distinct from the Bedford Street premises.
(And it's weird but on the 1883 map you have a piece belonging to 'Borden' and another piece to 'Mrs Borden'. I don't know what the likelihood is of that being Andrew and Abbie.)
In the middle of this plot today is a house squishy-squashed against the Gas Company building, clearly an earlier build, and orientated as if it should face Fifth Street or Brow Street. Here's a Google snap of the house with star, and the Street View from Fifth, then the slice of its Street View from Brow Street.
MB, are you able to date this house?
(We just never built this way in the UK and I don't find it easy telling the age).
It looks as if its entrance faces Brow Street today but is there any chance this originally had a Fifth Street address?
mbhenty wrote:Directly across the street on Fifth Street from the Gas Company is another interesting brick building. I would have to look into it, but probably dates around the same time as the Gas Company Building and very well may be the one across the street from the Gas Company on the 1883 map. This Property belong to Tecumseh Mills. Strange building. Makes me wonder why the restriction of light was employed by using tiny windows.
Yes, that one's brutish. The first building, opposite, had all its many lower windows removed, at some point.
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Last edited by InterestedReader on Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:15 am, edited 4 times in total.
Unfortunately, yes they do. The city and most of the citizenry just don't care. One of the reasons I will be moving out of the city as soon as I can. This house on fourth street is owned by a slum lord named Quintal. He owns like 20 other buildings. Just behind this building there is another which is boarded up. I worked inside these building many year ago when they were in decent shape. The one you displayed was built in 1894 and the one behind it was built in1865. Known as the John Rockett house. At the moment, I could not tell you who John Rockett was. Just before these two buildings is 153 Fourth street. A two story colonial. One of the oldest houses in Fall River. In the top 25 or so. It was built in 1835. Ten years before the Borden house. It is known as the Wilson-James-Milne House.
The Borden neighborhood is one of the oldest in the city. So many of the nearby architecture have age. At least age on an America scale. (I visited a couple when I was in Wales whose house use to be a barn and was suppose to have been built around the time Columbus discovered America.)
But the house up against the Gas Company, the one with the star, faces Brow Street. It is considered 28 Brow street and was built in 1865. The house that stands in front of it is number 30 Brow street and it was built around 1845. To get to number 28 you must walk up a right of way by number 30, though both properties are owned by the same owner.
Now here's an interesting house with a Lizzie connection. Is stands on Fourth Street right across from the house you posted that is falling apart. It is the Cook Borden house, or the Jerome Borden, his son and cousin to Lizzie. I believe that Jerome became the president of Andrew Borden's Bank after Andrew died. The Cook Borden house was built in 1870. Nice house and looks out of place in the neighborhood.
If you remember Jerome Borden testified that the day after the murders he was able to walk in the front door without a problem and that it was left unlocked.
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The Gas Company address on Bedford Street was their business address, or corporate office if you will. The address on fifth street was where they kept their equipment and gas, oil, or coal storage. If you wanted to conduct business with the gas company you would visit their Bedford Street address.
Thank you very much for all the information.
You'll know how it's all brickwork and stone in the British Isles - wooden houses begin in Norway or Sweden!
Also, we live in swathes of conservation. On Streetview Fall River looks almost arbitrary in what's preserved and what's not - There'll be a wonderful house like the Cook Borden right next to something derelict.
Here is the latest acquisition to my miniature book collection. Ebay find. Poetry centered around flowers. (doesn't mean I'm a delicate petal, you understand)
Running out of book shelves and room. I have more books in boxes than I do on display. So I have resorted to collecting tiny books. Wonderful little item. Nice condition for a book that's probably over 150 years old. (copyrighted in 1851, but more than likely a later publication) Still nice. Just thought I'd share... you know, eye candy.
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Now here's another book I picked up just a week ago. Part of my collection includes books about sailing. The item below is a striking find. It is called The Voyage of the Liberdade, by Joshua Slocum. Those of you familiar with nautical literature or voyages are very familiar with Slocum. He was the first man to take a small boat around the world and author of Sailing Alone Around the World. First editions of SAATW usually sells for 200 to 500 dollars. Signed copies between 1200 and 2000 dollars.
I was very excited to find The Voyage of the Liberdade. I have been looking for a first edition (1890) for quite a while. At least one I could afford. Lord and behold, one comes up on eBay. Not only is it a first edition, it is signed by Slocum. A very rare find. The last one I saw for sale was a first edition on ABE and it was 250 dollars. It was NOT signed. Just a plain trade first edition. This copy was much cheaper, and an eBay 'buy it now.'
One particular curiosity about the book is the binding and end papers. The binding is very close in appearance in cloth type and color to Porter's first edition, The Fall River Tragedy, the first account of the Borden murders, and the motif of the endpapers are very close also to those in Porter's book.
Hmm, interesting. Nonetheless.... about The Voyage of the Liberdade, (Liberdade, Portuguese for liberty or freedom)
Oh happy, happy days.
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Sarah Schmidt tells her story about when she spent the night in Lizzie's house. If this is in the wrong thread I am sorry but couldn't find in the search a specific thread for this. http://lithub.com/the-night-i-spent-in- ... ens-house/
Interesting story! Thank you for sharing this with us, Patsy.
In remembrance of my beloved son: "Vaya Con Dios" (Spanish for: "Go with God"), by Anne Murray ( https://tinyurl.com/y8nvqqx9 ) “God has you in heaven, but I have you in my heart.” ~ TobyMac (https://tinyurl.com/rakc5nd )
Collecting continues as it has for the past 4 decades.
Included are: A Boys book, The Boy's Book of the Sea. (Addition to my boy's book collection)
Little Women, collected for the cover art. (and I didn't own a copy of Little Women)
Another addition to my Robinson Crusoe collection.
And finally a French title about ballooning. Au Pole Sud En Ballon or At the South Pole in a Ballon. Great stuff. An addition to my Polar/Arctic collection. Great cover art and in very nice condition. Even if it is written in French, a great deal for 15 dollars.
Now I need a book on how to read in French.
(Oh yes. On the cover of Au Pole Sud En Ballon We see penguins and a polar bear. There are no polar bears in the South Pole)
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Last edited by mbhenty on Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
And here's one more. This little volume came in just last Friday. Titled, Great Britain for Little Britons. A history of Great Britain written for children. Circa 1888. This copy is in mint condition. I dare call it new. Remarkable condition for a book that's almost 130 years old. Published 4 years before the Borden murders. An exemplary copy which cost just about twice what a new hardcover book would cost today.
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Here are a couple more that have made it to my shelves:
Diana Polwarth Royalist is the first book. Ashamed to say that I don't know enough about it. The way I look at it, its like a blind date. I'll know more once I read it. Is that not what most books are like. Of course it is British history, which as an American, I am not as familiar with. Not certain whether the story has any truth to it, though I believe it's about real people.
Non-the-less the cover sold me. For now, into my Cover Art Collection it goes.
The other title was a famous title in it's time. (sold 100,000 copies in the first year. That's a lot considering it was the 1850s) The Lamplighter. Published in the middle 19th century. The story is still popular today and holds it's place comfortably and positively in reader reviews.
This particular book is early. This copy could be a 1st edition, as it was published in the same year. The story is about an orphan who is taken in by a lamplighter. The story has it's core in religion, old world values, and generally a positive story. Have not read it, yet. This copy is a nice one with a colored frontispiece.
The author, Mrs Cummins, was Maria Susanna Cummins born in Massachusetts thirty three years before Lizzie Borden. She was only 39 when she died, when Lizzie was six, having written only four books.
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Here's one I hope to bid on in the future. Remarkable condition for a book that is almost 120 years old, taking into consideration that it was a young adult title; all be it, by a child who was very proud of owning the book or perhaps having never taken it off the shelf.
A Heroine of the Sea was written by Bessie Marchant. She was born in England around the same time as Lizzie Borden and died some time in the late thirties or early forties. She was a very prolific writer, writing books about and for young children and young adults, and having written over 100 titles. Many are illustrated as the one below. Though I don't collect Ms. Marchant, this copy is exceptional and would nicely balance my boy's book collection.
(Fits into my boy's (girls' or young adult) book compendium, cover art, books about the sea, etc.) Nice Very nice
Cool eh
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My partner and I usually argue about who will go down the street for the mail. If I know there's a book coming, there is no squabble. I go!
And today I received my reward.
A book
The Young Rajah, by by W.H.G. Kingston. Mr. kingston was a writer of boy's books in the middle of the last century. British, of course. All your great boy adventure books written in Victorian times were done by English authors. Names such as George Alfred Henty W.H.G. Kingston, Robert Michael Ballantyne, George Manville Fenn, Gordon Stables, Herbert Strang, etc. Many were very violent in its content, such as the title below. A good portion of them were written around military and historical backdrops. Most are based in adventure and honor, moral character and triumph.
I have only one other Kingston title. Namely, Peter and the Whaler, which was one of Kingston's early titles. The volume below is in nice condition and a happy find to grace my mailbox and bless my bookshelf.
Oh yes, and the title in the post above will soon sit on the shelf with The Young Raja!
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Here's a beautiful copy of DAISY by Susan Warner. Susan wrote in the mid 19th century. She was born forty years before Lizzie Borden and died in the mid 1880s. She wrote upwards of 30 novels; most based with religious themes. The novel Daisy was a sequel to an earlier book named MelbourneHouse.
Beautiful Victorian style binding. Definite eye candy and excellent shelf presence. I bid on it on eBay but it went for too much..... at least more than I had wished to pay. Still worth posting.
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Since things are slow here on the forum I'll post some more eye candy.
Won this title on Ebay recently. Don't know anything about it except that it's a group of short stories by a fellow named Horace Happyman. (Circa 1900 to 1910 or so) Don't know who he is and can't find any reference to him anywhere. But it looks like a whimsical title and the cover sold me. Wonderful and colorful Art Nouveau flowered cover. A quirky cover that will spice up my book shelf and with a great title.
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Along with the title in the post above I won this wonderful Victorian period title.
Seaside Walks of a Naturalist. Quite early, 1870s. This fits into my Nautical collection. It has wonderful chrome lithographs of birds and sea creatures. A delightful publication. British of course
.
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Could not help but bid on this Shakespeare set. Surprisingly, I was the only one. This was a must have for a bibliophile. Very attractive clean set. 20 bucks. Cool!
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Here's another nice set. Travel book. Dated. But with nice illustrations of scenery as witnessed over 100 years ago. The Mediterranean and its BorderLands. Still a nice book. Ten dollars! I purchased this for its gilt covers. A nice shelf filler. Boards are as new. When these books arrive in the mail they are well wrapped. Unwrapping them makes me feel like it's Christmas all over again and I'm 10 years old. Thus the sentiments of a book lover.
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And lastly, arriving yesterday, was this copy of Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. My interested here is the illustrator John Austen. He was British and a popular book designer during the early part of the 20th century. Much of his stuff borders on Art Deco. Some of his stuff reminds me of Amedeo Modigliani. I like his style and just recently began collecting titles with his illustrations in them.
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It sits by a bottle of Buzzards Bay Brewery, Lizzie Beer, a Limited boxed edition of Lizzie Borden the Girl with the Pansy Pin, and Mary Livermore's, The Story of My Life.
Cool, heh?
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My condition has been critical and buying books the reason for my serious but marvelously acute circumstance. So, since things are slow on the forum I will post some eye candy and new acquisitions.
Sadly, antiquarian bookstores are a dying breed. In the old days every weekend I would travel to Cape Cod or along the Rhode Island Coast, hitting used book stores along the way. Rarely did I come home empty handed. Also, there were a couple of dealers who would send me their book catalogues of collectable books, some very, very expensive. This was the principle way I acquired books in the fields I collected. These days most of my purchases are made on eBay. I pay very little. Money is not what it use to be and my palate for cat food is waining. Here are a couple of books which I recently won:
Harry the Shrimper: What a marvelous little book. A children's book. Published in 1863. This fits into my miniature collection, being less than 3 inches wide and a little more than 4 inches tall.
The poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Nice straight forward 1920s two volume set. Some interesting tidbits you may already know. Shelley Married Mary Godwin after his first wife, Harriet drowned herself at the age of twenty one. Of course his wife Mary Godwin became Mary Shelley, the writer of Frankenstein.
And finally:
American Authors Their Homes. Nice clean cover. Published in 1901 and a deal for 5 bucks. At least to me.....
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Old Paths and Legends of New England. A casual look at towns in New England in 1903. Nice well made book. Off course the information is all dated but a well written and illustrated example of an early travel guide book. An sumptuous publication. To me, you understand. Now to find room on my shelf
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Still dealing with my biblio disorder.... buying books, that is.
The book below is collected for its cover art. One of Margaret Armstrong's designer signed covers. Margaret, a book designer, signed much of her work somewhere on the cover. You can see the little MA at the bottom of the book.
The title of this little gem is "Wanted - A Matchmaker", by Paul Leicester Ford. Ford was famous for writing bios of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson. He also wrote novels like this one. A New York author.
He died young. In his thirties. He was killed by his brother, Malcom Ford. Shot him dead, then killed himself. Tragic
Originally published in 1901, this copy of, Wanted A Matchmaker, was published in 1903. Nice clean copy.
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The Ann Maria was a whaling vessel out of Lizzie's Fall River. I haven't had time to read it but it appears to be a book of poetry. Though the book was published in 1869, I think the Ann Maria was built sometime in the late 30s or early 40s. (1840s.) Nice Fall River item.
Below that is a copy of Edwin Porter's "A Fall River Tragedy". The original 1893 first edition. It came in today. I bid on it just to have some fun. I had no intention os winning it and thought it would go for much more than what I paid. Ultimately, I purchased it. Now I have 3 copies of Porter's first edition. Still happy. This copy is in real nice condition. Much better than common.
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Yes, I have about 2 thousand books in boxes. There are boxes all over my apartment. I have no room to display them. And I still keep on buying. Every once in a while I open a box, caress and kiss a book, or even read one, then put it away. At one time I was going to open a bookstore. Never got around to it. Too busy sailing.
Below is an example of what I purchased a couple of weeks ago. (As if what I have posted is not enough )
I have always been fascinated by Oscar Wilde. Hope to read about him.
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