Mystery of the Library Book Sale

Now why hasn't this one flown out of the Stowe Free Library Book Sale?

Probably people are waiting for the movie. I know I am.

Happy Book Sale Season!

It has begun again. Libraries all over Vermont will be off-loading excess inventory, donations, and the un-checked-out at porch sales for the next month or so. My ardor has cooled a little this year because, well, I just have too much stuff, and too many books. But the bargains... Oh... the bargains.

And once in a while a treaure. Two books I rummaged from last year's sales netted about $225 on Ebay, which actually made last season profitable.

Kids and I hit our first sale of 2009 yesterday (and again today) at the splendid Goodrich Memorial Library in the local shire town, Newport, Vermont. Above are some great vintage horsey titles the Understudy picked out of the musty boxes. Did you read Misty of Chincoteague once upon a time? All us girls on Riverdale Road read Misty back in the 70s, in this edition, and dreamed of the wild horses we would adopt. Let's see, how many wild ponies could a quarter acre in the suburbs support - not counting the bit under the balcony where nothing could grow? Three? Four?

And National Velvet needs no introduction. (Once, Elizabeth Taylor was 14, unmarried, and had never screwed up a movie or appeared on the cover of a tabloid).

This edition is illustrated by Paul Desmond Brown who has been good to me, by supplying an original drawing I bought cheap at auction and an autographed copy of a horse stories book from the Stowe sale (bought for 50 cents and sold for $175). I also love his style, profits aside.

The other book is a great 1945 production (in compliance with wartime publishing restrictions, meaning the paper's a little flimsy). It's a compilation of stories and poems by really great writers (Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Rose Benet, etc) and has a few wonderful illustrations. E.g.:


"Foxhunting: The unspeakable, chasing the inedible." (As per Oscar Wilde) Well, maybe, but arent' the horses and their riders beautiful? I admit I would love a chance to wear that kit and have my picture taken next to the glossy neck of a chestnut hunter.

Stowe's sale starts next week.

Home to an Empty House and a Book Sale Shocker!

I suppose one day it will be sad to come home and find no husband or kids but that day is not today.



I see from the caller ID that they took a call at 10:30 this morning from our friends from Oxford (UK) who are visiting their place in the vicinity of the Last House for the month of August. We knew they were coming and we have all been looking forward to seeing them. I surmise an invitation was delivered and my lot left in a hurry to accept; disregarding my entreaties/warnings/threats delivered as a I left for work this morning that the toys be off the floor and laundry put away before I got home. Toys everywhere. Laundry wet in the washer and unfolded in a heap on the other wing chair. I am, however, leaving everything as is. If they were here, I would be forced into action and correction. As is, I can rest among the mess. I woke up at 4:45 this AM and thought, why not just stay up? You know how that goes. You just feel awake and there are so many things to do. You know you will pay later in the day, but the place is quiet and you have it to yourself. I had some bills to pay and I wanted to view that DVD I owe back to the library. It also turned out that someone had bought one of my ebay books so I had a package to prepare. I traded emails with my friend Annmarie, who also has two kids and who was also up and an ungodly hour to enjoy a productive pre-dawn.

I didn't write the checks I swore to myself I would do first thing; I did, however, wash the kitchen floor on my hands and knees by 5 AM; even before I had coffee. Then I watched Raise the Red Lantern on my computer with the headphones. I liked it, though feeling the press of time, I had to speed through a little bit at the last. It's a regular wallow in pre-communist China, beautifully photographed and costumed and putting me in the mood for the major dose of all things Chinese we are all going to get at the end of the week.

Then, everyone got up. I showered and dressed; delivered cereal and warnings about a messy house, and went off to work (forgetting to put Raise the Red Lantern and the other DVD that was due today back into the car, naturally).

So, I thought I would grab a quick snooze now, sans famille. But can you believe that even as I type this they have all just pulled up to the door? (Not visiting with the Brits but just at the grocery store and library.)

Oy.

So, here's the book sale shocker. I stopped again at the library sale in Stowe on the way home today and got two more books. Nothing too special. The librarian told me as I was paying (I know her from the gym) that when this sale is over on August 14, the books go to be recycled i.e., trashed. I thought they put them in the basement for another year. Really, a shonda as my Yiddishe friends would say.

A Summer Sunday; Book Sale-ing Update

A wet weekend draws to a close here on the Vermont/Quebec border. It wasn't a total washout, though. Maisy and I took a wet walk on the flanks of Jay Peak on Saturday morning. (See today's banner for the one picture I got of her where she was standing still). Today she and I hit the Newport Bike path, and, though we got rained on, we also had the tree-lined path to ourselves. Oh, the ferns! This wet summer has given them a lease on life that they haven't seen since the late Cretaceous period. I didn't have my camera with me today on the bike path walk (it was impromptu walk.) but the ferns there, along side the path (a former railroad bed) were gorgeous. Here's a picture I took on the mountain yesterday AM:


On Friday afternoon on heading home from work, I managed to get back to the book sales at the Waterbury and Stowe Public libraries (my two favorites). Library book sale season (about which I wrote a few posts back) has only another 10 days or so to run and then it won't be back for another year. Hmmm. Maybe I need to work on a seasonal carol. Look for that in an upcoming post.

Book Sales - This Week's Acquisitions

To begin with today we have the autobiography of the American artist Cecilia Beaux called Background with Figures. It looked interesting, and when I checked on the internet after getting it home, I saw that it might be a little valuable ($50 range). Beaux was a great late 19th century artist, often compared with Singer Sargent. I looked through the book and researched it on the Internet. Then I put it on Ebay. Sort of declasse, I know, but I can't justify buying all these odd bits if I don't catch and release a few.



This is her self-portrait (as it appears in the book)



This one below is really special (and also on Ebay now). It’s a first edition of Great Horse Stories Truth and Fiction (Double Day & Company Inc. 1946, Garden City, New York). It has 82 illustrations by Paul Desmond Brown, the great horse artist (think of the Brooks Bros. equestrian image in the 50s and you're thinking Paul Brown) but what really makes it great is that it includes on the endpapers a pencil sketch of a horse’s head and a handwritten dedication/inscription by Brown and his signature appears on the title page.



Oddly enough, I know about Brown because a few years ago, applying my "it called to me test" at the auction, I bought a nice drawing of a horse and rider going over a fence. It was clearly signed, and, at that point I learned all about Brown. I kept the picture over my desk for quite awhile then needed plane ticket money - which it fetched. The inscription in this book makes me think he might have had a girlfriend around here in the 50s, and maybe left a few drawings behind in Vermont.



Catch and release was in order. School tuition bills are already coming...

These next two are just beautiful (and not valuable - although I think they should be). They came off the discarded kids books trolley at the Waterbury library.

Swimmy is a Leo Lionni classic and this is, I believe, the 1963 first edition. It is in great shape but no dust jacket so not worth flogging (as you can tell, I checked). Also, I have at this late date, developed an admiration and affection for these 60s kids books. I put this in the touchy-feely hippy approved category that really never much spoke to me - until recently. I love the paintings that illustrate this.





And I think this last one is my favorite. Birds in Their Homes from 1946. It is so beautifully illustrated with color lithographs on every other page. Very 40s.



Also, like my blue and white China, not valuable in a monetary sense but this one is a keeper. I learned some things from it myself and I hope my grandchildren will too one day. And check out the illustrations! A dollar well-spent.

Happy Library Book Sale Season!

It's trite and banal, but nevertheless true,that all the Big Holidays have been corrupted by commercialism and, by the time one is my age, (43), freighted with emotional baggage. New Year's Day has been my personal favorite for the last few years since no one expects that you are going to do much of anything that day (except recover from the bigger holidays and maybe clean house). I hadn't really thought much about the failure of the regular holidays to generate much genuine happiness in me until I started thinking about how happy I felt the other day when I noticed the Friends of the Stowe Library "book sale" sign back on Main Street. Oh, hooo-rray!

OK - I recognize that a book sale appeals to what I might have to call my character flaws - books (as objects, since I can always get things I want to read out of the library), treasure hunting, bargain shopping. But it's just so fun to shop these sales. I am not even going to try to resist.

In recognition of the little thrill of joy this stirred in me, I have declared a personal holiday season; akin to the 12 days of Christmas; the Vermont Library Summer Book Sale Season. No one else I know shares my keen interest, so this is not a group holiday (at least not yet). My budget for indulging this holiday season will be less than $40. The Season extends here in Vermont from the second week of July to the first week of August.

Stowe is selling books on the porch and in the gazebo and in a tent from July 8 to August 14. Most books are $1 or $2 but you can get a bag of kids books for $3.00. Stowe has my favorite book sale. You never know what you will find on those tables - the population of Stowe, as I have noted here before, is an interesting one and the books that appear at the book sale reflect this. Last year I bought about 10 books. I kept some and sold some. (One on Cyprus fetched $50 on Ebay...). I got a calendar from around 1910 decorated with all kinds of art nouveau pictures and featuring the art treasures of the Schleswig (sp?)-Holstein area of Germany. Stowe, however, isn't the only game in town, so to speak. Every little Vermont village and burg has a library and most of them offload their discards and unusable donations at a sale held in July. The libraries use the money to buy new stuff so it's all good. The Stowe Library web site says the sale netted the library $10,000 last year.

My second favorite sale is at the Waterbury library. I spent a happy lunch hour on the back porch there this week and picked up a few little gems (all for home use, by the way). I had to stop buying because I was on foot and had to schlep the books about 3/4 of a mile back to the office. I couldn't carry all the ones I had picked out so I was forced to leave a few behind. Here are a few of the treasures I snagged this last week on the library porches. I photographed only a few to give you a sense of the range of what I found. I don't go for the newish bestsellers, though there are lots of those. Total expenditure in the realm of $20 so far.

Re: the first picture: when Kid 1 was a baby Wooolfoot Husband insisted we find and buy a copy of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. Out of touch with the 21st century as he sometimes is, he was dumbfounded to learn it was out of print. He ordered a "turtle back" version, which is a paper back that has been cardboardized. Not a handsome book. He has tried on a couple of occasions to persuade the kids that this book would be a positive party for them if they would read it or allow him to read it to them. Still, when I spotted this nice big new-looking hard cover (kids have not been biting for at least a generation, it appears) and the great 1960s illustrations, I had to buy it. I doubt the kids will develop an interest now but who knows...



This one just screamed "buy me!" at the Waterbury sale ($2). It's a beautiful reproduction of the famous "Tres Riches Heures de la Duc de Berry" a/k/a Belles Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. This one was printed in 1974 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The real book is there, at the Cloisters, a place I have always meant to visit. And, as you can see (I hope you are sitting down) this book included a slip cover, and all those engravings for Cripes sake! A beauty. It must weigh four pounds. Quality. I considered leaving it on my desk but it came home with me so I could show Woolfoot Husband. I bought him a 1960s cookbook (not photographed) of famous recipes from great restaurants around the world. It was signed by the author and numbered. I looked at Addall Used Books and found that everybody's copy seems to be one of these 5,000 - but still, it was cool.




We have been visiting with our horsey friends again and Kid 1 is clamoring to recommence riding lessons. As an object, this little leather book had a certain appeal. A pocket guide that has been in some pockets. Kid 1 was happy to get it (although she was happier about the brand-new-looking paperback about Kit, the American Girl, that I picked up for 50 cents at the same time).



The Modern Library has always been appealing to me. Nice little hardcovers and I love their Art Deco Prometheus trademark. And Edgar Allan Poe - and a beautiful dust jacket. What better way to spend $2? I'll actually read some of this one.



Great '50s artwork on the dust jacket here caught my eye and we are forever wondering on our various walks and hikes around northern Vermont what kind of animal left a track (or a poo - I mean "spore" - copiously illustrated here [not photographed, thank goodness). I gave it to Kid 2 who can't read it but who is always happy to get anything.