Chapter 482 2009 Fine Books & Collections Compendium Now Available

Great news! The Fine Books & Collections Winter 2010 Compendium is now available.

Those of you who have been interested in books and book collecting for a while already know that Fine Books & Collections was one of a handful of magazines for book collectors. Last year, the periodical went to an online-only format; no more print versions of the magazine will be printed. While there are still the same well-written articles on all kinds of bookish topics in the online version and there’s also a blog (to which I occasionally contribute), I find it difficult to read through an entire month’s worth of articles on my computer, especially those I might want to keep for future reference. Yes, I love and use digital technology, but I miss print!

According to Fine Books & Collections, The Compendium is a “deluxe edition of the magazine that will include our best columnists, feature articles, a directory of the industry, and more.” Last January, I received an email message from FB &C that “current active subscribers will receive the Compendium as part of your subscription to Fine Books & Collections. “

I look forward to receiving it. I have missed the print version of the magazine, and though this won’t replace that, it will also include the 2010 Gift Guide for the book minded and the 2010 Bookseller Resource Guide, a listing of more than 700 bookstores and book-related institutions worldwide. (Full disclosure: I have purchased a listing in the Resource Guide, the first time I have advertised my business in print.)

If you’re interested, you can order your own copy here.

Happy reading!

Chapter 464 New Book Cover Blog

Richard Minsky, of American Decorated Publishers’ Bindings, 1872-1929 fame has started a new blog, American Book Covers.

Here are his comments on what he plans to do:

I started a blog on book cover art, and in the sidebar have feeds from six other blogs that primarily feature book covers. If anyone thinks that no art has been done on paperbacks or dust jackets in the last 20 years, check out the selections of those bloggers. For my part, I am not adding competition to their well-covered territory, but will present selections from the thousand or so book covers that have been in my exhibitions. To start with I show an anonymous cover that is done in printed paper wrapped boards from Houghton in 1881 with a design that anticipates constructivist, futurist, and abstract expressionist paradigms.

Take a look and be sure and bookmark what is likely to become a useful reference.

Chapter 440 Bookmark This! Laura Ingalls Wilder Bibliography

I had planned to write a post featuring some of the books I hope to read before summer’s end. That plan has been interrupted by something much more important. I’ll write about summer reading tomorrow.

As a Laura Ingalls Wilder fan and collector, I am a regular reader of the Beyond Little House blog. I commented on a recent post that it was unfortunate that, to my knowledge, there was no single print bibliography of all of Wilder’s works, including her many articles and essays written for the Missouri Ruralist. A few hours later, another reader of the Beyond Little House blog emailed me to say that there is an online bibliography of the works written by or about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. (Thanks, Gina!) It’s the most complete bibliography for the two authors I’ve seen to date.

Here’s a link to Pioneer Girl, a site devoted to the “fact and fiction of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” Here you can find almost everything you could possibly wish to know about Wilder — the various places she lived, the various works she wrote, and you can even find out how to get your own research copy of Wilder’s unpublished manuscript, Pioneer Girl. The site also contains a list of all of Wilder’s Missouri Ruralist articles with a link to both text and image of each article.

If you click on the “Research Room” button on the site, you’ll see all of the bibliographic information.

Bookmark Pioneer Girl. This site is a valuable resource for Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane scholars, fans, and collectors.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 438 Must Read of the Day

Over at Book Patrol, Stephen J. Gertz has written a couple of articles of interest to both buyers and sellers of books.

Take a moment to read them and come back. I’ll wait.

What do you think?

I’m too new to the trade (a little over two years in business) to remember a time when book prices have risen significantly or deflated significantly. Looks like now seems to be the time for the latter. This is good news for buyers and for those like me, who are new to the trade and looking to increase the number of quality books we buy for resale. Even so, it’s difficult for me to make an informed judgment about this topic because I lack the experience to do so.

I and my readers would like to hear from those of you who have been booksellers or book collectors longer than I have, if you’re willing to share with us. Have you seen periods of deflation before? How long did those periods last? Do you think we are now in a period of deflation? What are the signs that the market for antiquarian books is improving? How can a serious book collector identify good purchases in a down market?

I ask these questions because I think pricing is the most difficult thing for a bookseller to learn. A bookseller has to leave room for a profit (at least most of the time) and a bookseller has to being willing to get what money he can out of book purchased for resale at too high a price (a/k/a “a mistake”). A bookseller needs to research past and current asking prices for a book. A bookseller also has to have a sense of the marketplace — who might buy this book from me and what will they be willing to pay — to set the appropriate price. Navigating through all of these things to set an appropriate price for a book can be tricky, but it is also part of the fun of the trade. While no bookseller hopes for a big deflation in book prices, Mr. Gertz seems to be of the opinion that a general lowering of prices will “openly invite interested newcomers who may feel that current prices push the ‘gentle madness’ of the hobby into a full-blown psychosis that few can afford.”

I hope he is correct. There is nothing I’d like more than to help interested newcomers become passionate book collectors and I’ve always been confident that booksellers (especially this one) can assemble interesting and amazing collections at an affordable price.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 421 Identifying First Editions of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Series

Every now and then I receive questions like this one from readers of the blog:

How do I tell if my Little House in the Big Woods is a 1st edition book or not? It looks like the 1st edition books that I have seen on the web but I am unsure. Any help you can give me is appreciated!

First, it’s important to note the meaning of the term “first edition”, which booksellers who aspire to professionalism use to refer to the first printing of a book. Unfortunately, many booksellers abuse the term “first edition” when it comes to the Little House books. Wilder’s books were first published in the 1930s and were originally illustrated by Helen Sewell and Mildred Boyle. They were popular and reprinted many times. In 1953, the publisher issued a revised edition with black and white illustrations by Garth Williams. This edition has also been reprinted many times. Most recently, it was re-printed with colorized versions of Williams’ illustrations. Many times, particularly when shopping online, I have seen sellers refer to any copy with the early Sewell and Boyle illustrations as first editions. Since the books were reprinted many times, this is not technically correct, and any copy that is not a first printing ought to be identified as such, since most collectors are interested in the earliest appearance of the book in print.

The first edition (i.e. first printing) of any of the Little House books is always stated on the copyright page, as shown below:

Later printings have only a letter code on the copyright page with no statement of edition:

The letters indicate the month and year the book was printed, so it is not unusual to see different letter codes in different copies of the books.

Purple House Press has a very informative page here that shows the original covers and dustjackets of all of the Little House books, the key to the letter code that identifies the month and year the books were printed, and samples of Wilder’s handwriting. If you collect Wilder’s books, especially in first edition copies, bookmark this page and save it. It will come in handy. You can also find all kinds of information about Wilder and her books at the Beyond Little House blog, which is written by Wilder fans and scholars.

Remember, in the case of the Little House books, a true first edition (that is to say, the first printing of the book) always states “First Edition” on the copyright page. If that statement is missing, the book is a later printing. Just because the book has the earlier Helen Sewell and Mildred Boyle illustrations does not make it a first edition.

Hope this is helpful. I’d appreciate hearing from anyone else who has extensive experience with the Little House books and identifying first editions.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 419 Useful References About Ephemera

I wrote about an interesting ephemera find last week, an 1890s board game called The Game of Round the World With Nellie Bly. I promised to share with you the way I planned to research whether this game is (one of) the earliest to be based on an American woman. After a search for references about American board games, I ordered and am waiting to receive, Margaret Hofer’s The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games. If it can’t answer my question, it’s quite likely that it will have a list of additional resources for me to check to see who can answer my question.

I’m also interested in learning more about American trade catalogues. Two catalogues of ephemera from Rulon-Miller Books got me interested. I learn a lot about books from other booksellers’ catalogues, and I expect the same will be true for ephemera. Here are the links to the two ephemera-based catalogues:

American Pamphlets and Trade Catalogues
Travel Guides and Ephemera

And here’s the list of the books I either have or have ordered in the past few days to learn more about ephemera. It’s by no means an extensive list, just a place to start:
Rickards, Maurice. Encyclopedia of Ephemera
Romaine, Lawrence B. Guide to American Trade Catalogs, 1744-1900
Fredgant, Don American Trade Catalog Reference Book
Hofer, Margaret. The Games We Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games

There are a few online resources for learning about ephemera that look as though they may also be useful:

Epehemera Society of America

Their bibliography of ephemera is quite extensive.

An ephemera blog

Here’s a little bit of ephemera I bought at the recent Gold Rush Book Fair. It will fit in nicely with my collection of books by or about American women, which has a tiny section on suffrage. This small pamphlet has a rather controversial title:

And even more startling content (or lack thereof):

The back cover explains all:

Really!

The look of the small pamphlet reminded me of this book, which presents the other point of view, that women should vote and the responsibilities incumbent upon those who did vote:

My catalogue description for this book:
Beatty, Bessie. A POLITICAL PRIMER FOR THE NEW VOTER Introduction by William Kent. San Francisco: Whitaker & Ray Wiggin Co. , 1912. 12mo. 76pp. Tan paper over boards. First edition. Half-title reads, “Compliments of William Kent” (who wrote the introduction). California granted women the vote in 1911, a full decade before the rest of the country. Unusual in its focus, the book is written to explain to the new female voter what is meant by the terms citizenship, elections, government, and the legal status of women. Beatty was a reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin, and later visited Russia with John Reed. In 1919, she published a book on the Russian Revolution called The Red Heart of Russia. Kent was a California Congressman credited with saving what is now called Muir Woods in San Francisco. Minor foxing to endpapers. Near fine.

I just like how the ephemera and the book complement (or perhaps negate?) each other. Do you have any good resources or references for learning about ephemera? If so, share them in the Comments Box below.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 378 Can You Answer a Question for Me?

It’s been a busy weekend filled with everything from magicians to parties to sports games. I want to tell you all about my visit to Electronic Arts last Friday to learn about their new game, Dante’s Inferno, and tell you how it compares to the book. That’s going to have to wait one more day, however, as I just don’t have the time to write a decent post at the moment.

In the meantime, perhaps one of you dear readers can help me answer a question from Bill, a regular reader of this blog. He asks,

“Do you know of any book blogs from the collector’s point of view, rather than the bookseller’s? It seems most of the blogs I have found are from those in the business.”

I can’t think of any blogs by book collectors right off the top of my head, but I am sure some must exist. I’d be interested to read them, too, because I think a collector’s voice provides a needed perspective for us booksellers. If you know of any, please leave a comment below with a link. Thanks!

More on last Friday’s field trip tomorrow.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 364 “What’s This Book Worth?”, Or, On Determining the Value of Books

So there I was this past weekend, reading through one of my local papers, the San Jose Mercury News, scanning for interesting articles. Suddenly, a headline caught my eye: “Web Site Puts a Price Tag on Old Books”. The article, written by Steven Wayne Yvaska, is part of regular column called “What’s it Worth”. The author counsels those who own “old books” to use a bookselling website — abebooks — to learn how much their books are worth. He went on to say, “The Web site is an online marketplace for book lovers. You can buy or sell books, join a club to hobnob with others about a favorite author, and read articles and book reviews.”

My brow immediately furrowed in consternation. While abebooks is certainly a marketplace for books of all kinds and I have bought numerous books there, it is not the best place for a seller to determine price. If all a bookseller does to determine the monetary worth of a book is to look it up on abebooks, is he really a bookseller? After all, what abebooks lists are books for sale. The prices noted on their site are the prices being asked for a particular book, not the prices realized for books actually sold. While knowing the prices currently being asked for a book is indisputably helpful, it is only one of many tools a bookseller uses in determining price.

I’m still new in the antiquarian book business. After two-plus years in the trade, I find pricing to be one of the most difficult aspects of the job. I can remember times when I priced a book too low and times when I’ve lost a sale because I have, perhaps, priced a book too high. Getting it right — where both I and my customer feel I’ve asked a fair price — isn’t always easy. I’m sure more experienced booksellers have a lot they could tell us about their pricing methodologies. Since this is my blog, you’ll have to settle for my opinion on the issue. I have several criteria for reaching a price on an antiquarian book, and I’ll share some of them with you here:

1) The price I set for a book must include room for a profit for my business. I love books and I love my job, but it is, after all, a business.

2) The price I set for a book includes a look at prices actually realized for the same title and edition in similar condition at auction. Two websites, subscriptions required, are very useful in ascertaining these numbers: American Book Prices Current and Americana Exchange. Though they charge an annual subscription, both sites have far more reliable information on prices realized than looking up prices being asked on abebooks. The information I learn there has justified the subscription costs many times over.

3) The price I set for a book includes a look at the marketplace. Sure, that means I look at abebooks, too. But I also examine prices on Amazon, Google Shopping, Bookfinder, and Via Libri. Looking at the aggregate of books offered across several marketplaces will give you a better sense of the overall market. I also take into consideration whether I think a particular book will sell fastest at a book fair, online, or through direct quote to a customer.

4) The price I set for a book includes my making an informed judgment about the book in hand. Is my book worth a high-end of market price (maybe if it’s in better condition than all the others offered or it’s the only one being offered or it has a special inscription from the author) or are the other copies currently on the market overvalued (my copy might sell faster if it is priced lower than the dozen other copies offered for sale)?

5) The most important criteria I use when I offer a book for sale is to do some research (and not just online research; I use reference books and bibliographies, primarily) on that particular book or author. Occasionally, but often enough to make it worthwhile, I find information not widely known by other sellers that illumines the book’s significance for others.

All of these thoughts and more were swirling through my head as I turned the page to read the bulk of the article. I was relieved to see that the author had ended his article with the following:

“Professional appraisers use all sorts of tools to assign values to personal property. They check book auction results and records for specialized sales. Undoubtedly, sellers confer with one another to compare their expertise. Discovering values can be exhaustive and painstaking. You won’t find everything you seek on a web site. . . .”

Quite some time ago I wrote an article about what makes an antiquarian bookseller different from other booksellers. The primary difference is that antiquarian booksellers do not just look up prices asked by other booksellers to determine the value of their own books; rather, antiquarian booksellers use knowledge to find the value in books and to illumine the importance of a particular book for others. To be at all effective and accurate, this knowledge must necessarily include more than the know-how to look up prices on abebooks.

See you in the stacks!

Chapter 351 The Kindle — Five Months Post-Purchase, Or, Amazon, Are You Listening?

I’ve had my Kindle e-reader for five months now, enough time to really determine whether it is, for me, a useful item. My opinion?

The Kindle could be a useful item, but it isn’t there yet.

Amid rumors that Amazon will release Kindle 2.0 today, it’s not the design or the technology to which I object. I find both those things to be unobtrusive and easy to use.

It’s the e-book selection. Despite the fact that there are over 190,000 books available in Kindle format, none of them seem to be books I want to read. Perhaps I’m not searching correctly or perhaps the bulk of these 190,000 “books” is made up solely of bestsellers and the myriad titles one finds on the “remainder” table in a brick and mortar shop. I’m at a loss if I’m looking for a specialized book, like a bibliography or reference book, a cookbook, or a travel guide.

Maybe it’s an indication of how strange my tastes are, but the last 10 books I’ve purchased are not available in Kindle format. Remember when I told you about how much I enjoyed The Provincial Lady series, by E.M. Delafield? Not available for the Kindle. How about the next books I’ve purchased, Dorothy Canfield Fisher’s The Home-Maker and D.E. Stevenson’s Miss Buncle’s Book? Also not available for the Kindle. I’ll grant you that these are older titles, published mostly in the 1930s, but they are still not out of print, so someone must be reading them. Perhaps you think that if I would just read more a courant bestsellers and the like, I would find plenty of books to read in this new electronic format.

It’s true that bestsellers abound in Amazon’s Kindle store, but they still have yet to include any of the books most all people read and use — cookbooks and travel guides. I’ve written before about wanting to have my cookbooks on the Kindle. I could then take the Kindle to the store in my purse and use the recipe as a my shopping list. Additionally, I am planning a trip to Southern California, and I want to bring several travel guides with me. Wouldn’t it be great, if instead of lugging a bag of five or six books, I could load the travel guides onto my Kindle and refer to it while out touring around? But I could not find travel guides for the places I’m going (places commonly visited by tourists from all over the world) in Kindle format.

Apparently, I am the only person who thinks that e-book availability of such books as bibliographies, travel guides, and cookbooks would be at all useful. I keep my Kindle in my purse, so I tend to use it on the go. When I am lounging at home, I almost always read a book printed on paper. When I’m out and about, grocery shopping or touring, I would love to use the Kindle. Unfortunately, I am unable to do so at this juncture because of the lack of books available.

In a somewhat-related topic, I recently received my second e-issue of Fine Books and Collections. I have to say that I really miss the print version of this particular magazine. When it used to arrive in the mail, I put it aside for when I had time to read and savor each page. I looked forward to reading it each month, and would [nerd alert] make myself a pot of tea and a special snack when I had time to sit and read it cover to cover. Now that it’s delivered via email, I find I read one or two of the most interesting articles, and I rarely re-visit. I do read many things on the computer screen, so it’s not that doing so is unfamiliar, but my previously established habits mean that the computer is for “work” and therefore my reading must be hurried and cursory. I take my time and absorb things much better when they are in print, and I associated reading FB & C with enjoyment when it was in print. Now it has become another “work” item in my email queue. Articles I would have read just because I turned the page I now skip unless the title suggests something of relevance or interest. I could read all the articles, and time allowing, I think I would, but I’m just not inclined to spend an hour or more reading a magazine on the computer. That said, I am glad Fine Books continues to exist in any format whatsoever. The book collecting world would be much the poorer without it. I hope it continues, even if only electronically.

The good news is that later this week, I will be surrounded by many thousands of print books and by a couple of hundred dealers at what is, according to some reports, the world’s largest antiquarian book fair: The San Francisco International Antiquarian Book Fair. I have a feeling I’ll feel right at home there. I wonder how many Kindles I’ll see?

See you in the stacks, where the real books live.

Chapter 321 Rare Book School’s 2009 Schedule, Or, Good News for a Change

Time for some happy news today. I may be a little late reporting this, but I want to point out to all of you who want to learn more about rare books that the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia has posted it’s 2009 course schedule. I plan to enroll in a course there myself this summer, and from all others I know who have attended, Rare Book School is a bibliophile’s delight.

Now here’s some news to give you Easterners and Mid-Westerners a laugh. I’ve been waiting for the season to change from summer to fall since mid-September. The sun shone all through October and November, each day about 70 degrees (Fahrenheit). It was nice weather, but not the seasonal feeling I wished for. Finally, about two days ago, Autumn arrived in the Bay Area. Here’s my Japanese Maple Tree on a damp, foggy morning. The leaves finally began to turn:

I think I may have mentioned before that this tree was planted so I could look out the window and pretend I live somewhere with seasons, like New England. To really imagine that, I have to focus so that I only see the leaves on the tree and not the still-blooming, tropical hibiscus — like this:

Lovely fall foliage. Somebody get me a hot apple cider, please.

Autumn will, apparently, be short lived. I awoke to a cold, frosty morning today. The high temperature at mid-day was about 54. When I awoke this morning, it was about 40. My dog didn’t even want to go outside. If the cold snap continues, I expect the leaves to fall off the tree by the end of the week. So much for enjoying the view.

(Here’s the part where you non-Californians are probably laughing at my inability to recognize true cold. Go ahead. I deserve it. I bet you’d be putting on shorts in weather like this. We’ll see who is laughing when I go to the beach in February.) I have been cold all day. I had to put on socks and real shoes (as opposed to my usual barefoot or flip-flopped self). I am wearing a sweater. I am freezing (insert teeth chattering here). Huck is asking if we can build a fire, even though it is only about 4:00 p.m. here. I am brewing a hot pot of Holiday Blend Tea and preparing to dive under the covers and address Christmas cards.

I often wonder if I could survive if I lived someplace with a real winter. I doubt it. I admire those of you who do.

See you in the stacks!