Summer Brags

My summer brag is that I haven't been to a garage sale in over a year.
I still have two boxes of garage sale finds sitting in my closet. These
books don't fit in my collections, but were just too good to pass up at
a buck or two a book. Each book might fetch five bucks on a good day on
ebay. I did the math. A power seller I will never be. Consequently, a
summer bragger of garage sales I won't be this year.

In fact, I have to go all the way back to September of '99 to even
remember a garage sale find worth bragging about: a one-volume compact
edition of the OED for $75.

My summer brag this year is that I am suddenly beginning to enjoy what
I have already collected. In the last 31 days, I have read more books
than I've bought!
I usually buy a minimum of ten books on ebay per month. In the last 31
days, I have bought just two books on ebay:

For $22.50, I acquired Vincent Starrett's copy of A Descriptive
Catalogue of the Library of Charles Lamb, New York, 1897, published by
the Dibdin Club. No. 54 of 100 copies printed.

For $5.50, I acquired William Strunk's English Metres, Ithaca, 1922. I
collect early editions of Strunk's grammar book, The Elements of Style.
I also have books that he wrote on William Shakespeare and Samuel
Johnson.

Just yesterday, I ordered two books from Joe Maynard, an abebooks seller
from Brooklyn. For $25, I will acquire a presentation copy of Lawrence
Clark Powell's Ex Libris: Notes on My Family's Bookplates. Powell
presented this book to Mary Crapo Hyde. For $25, I also will acquire an
early edition of Virginia Woolf's The Common Reader,first series, which
bears the signature of Mary Morley Crapo, dated 1930. Mary Morley Crapo
was Mary Hyde's maiden name before she married Donald Hyde. She was
later referred to in literary circles as Mary Crapo Hyde, Mary Hyde
Eccles, Lady Eccles, and Viscountess Eccles. Lord Eccles was her second
husband. I used to refer to her as Her Ladyship, but now, I am
comfortable with referring to her as Mary Hyde Eccles, because that is
the name she called herself in her last book. In his obituary of Lady
Eccles last summer, Nicholas Barker referred to her as Mary Hyde, "as
she was known for half her life."
I have more than a few books from the library of Donald and Mary Hyde,
which I have bragged about previously. Two booksellers currently have
listings for the other leftovers of the Four Oaks Library: Joe Maynard
of abebooks and Oak Knoll Books. I was surprised at the number of books
about books that the Four Oaks Library had, over five hundred of them,
quite a few of them being presentation copies. If you want a book from
one of the great private libraries, you need to acquire a book from the
library of Donald and Mary Hyde.

Jerry Morris,
Book Collector



Tom L M wrote and I snipped
 >....So lets hear some tales of garage sale finds....



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Yesterday while driving to the supermarket, I spotted a July 4 library
sale at the park, next to the picnickers and the pancake breakfast and
the bandstand. A lot of the books had been donated from a nearby
Jewish community center library, and after poking through 20+ boxes
without finding much of interest, and about to give up, I found a
first printing of Tony Hillerman's "The Dark Winds". With that
encouragement, I kept looking a while longer and also discovered
Hillerman's "Ghostway", also a first printing.

I'd call that a good day's scouting, particularly since I didn't start
looking at the books until around 11:30 am and they were probably all
set out for purchase by 8 am or 9 am.

DKM

On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 20:02:52 +0100, "Tom L-M"
<sabran DeleteThis @lintern-mole.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

 >Summer seems a perfect time to buy books - less competition, car boot sales
 >and village fetes abound and my luck seems at its best!
 >
 >So lets hear some tales of garage sale finds....
 >
 >Cheers,
 >
 >Tom L-M
 >


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 >> Stay informed about: Summer Brags 

F/F first of Flickers by Theodore Roszak, $2.50 at July 3 local library sale.

Don Alexander
 >> Stay informed about: Summer Brags 

I found only the second Discworld novel I've seen during my scouting:
SOURCERY. Unfortunately, only a BCE, but a great reading copy of a great
read. I've already read it and passed it along.

Another near miss: Walter McDougall was recently in town flogging his new
history of the U.S. I was eager to find a copy of his *...The Heavens and
the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age*, which won the Pulitzer
Prize in 1986, for him to sign. I figured that wouldn't be too difficult,
but all of my go-to stores came up empty, so I gave up on it. About a month
later, at one of the thrifts on my circuit, a F/F first edition just jumped
off the shelf into my hands. (Reminds me of the firsts of THE RISE OF
THEODORE ROOSEVELT I found--just after meeting Edmund Morris a couple of
years ago.)



William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com
 >> Stay informed about: Summer Brags