Brag & Thanks

I have a brag and thanks for r.c.b.

Today I had a ball at a garage sale. From what I heard, the landlord
of an rental building was selling abandoned property left in the
garage. It was a backyard full of junk, including a dozen boxes of
books. Unfortunately, many books were badly damaged, to some degree or
another. HBs were 50 cents; PBs were 25 cents.

Today I'm bragging about "Collected Poems" by HP Lovecraft, published
by Arkham House, with DJ, and want to thank the readers of
rec.collecting.books because Arkham House books are frequently
discussed here. I might not have bought the book if I hadn't read
about Arkham House, since I would have thought that a 1963 book would
not be a valuable edition. This book has gotten wet, staining the
inside of the DJ and some pages.

I also got "The Circus of Dr. Lao" by Charles Finney and illustrated
by Boris Artzybasheff, 3rd printing, no DJ. From what I see on ABE,
even later printings are fairly expensive.

I got some other books, "Police Dogs", "Butterick Cook Book 1911",
"Techniques of Safecracking", "Duncan's Masonic Ritual Monitor".

One would-be gem was "The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi" , 1931. In
good condition, this is a beautiful and brag-worthy book, beautifully
illustrated by Willy Pogany. Though this copy is so sadly damaged,
Pogany's illustrations still shine.

Anyway, not all books have to be Fine/Fine to be bragged about! And it
sure is fun when you find a really mixed bag of odd books.

DKM