Helen Dore Boylston-Biblio Checklist

• Sister: The War Diary of a Nurse. NY: Washburn, 1927 . 202pgs, 20cm.
  

• Sue Barton, Student Nurse. Boston: Little, Brown, 1936. Illustrated by Forrest W. Orr. 244pgs, frontis, plates. 22cm.
  

• Sue Barton, Senior Nurse. Boston: Little, Brown, 1937. Illustrated by Major Felten. xi, 220pgs, frontis, plates, 22cm.
  

• Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse. Boston: Little, Brown, 1938. Illustrated by Major Felten. frontis, plates, 22cm.
  

• Sue Barton, Rural Nurse. Boston: Little, Brown, 1939. Illustrated by Forrest W. Orr. 254pgs, 22cm.
  

• Sue Barton, Superintendent of Nurses. Boston: Little, Brown, 1940. Illustrated by Forrest W. Orr. 239pgs, frontis, plates, 21 cm.
  

and then in a break from Sue there was:

• Carol Goes Backstage. Boston: Little, Brown, 1941. Illustrated by Frederick E. Wallace. frontis, plates, 21 cm.
  

• Carol Plays Summer Stock. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942. Illustrated by Major Felten. frontis, plates, 20 cm.

• Carol on Broadway. Boston: Little, Brown, 1944. Illustrated by Major Felten. frontis, plates, 20cm.

• Carol on Tour. Boston: Little, Brown, 1946. Illustrated by Major Felten. frontis, plates, 20cm.

• Carol Goes On the Stage. London: John Lane, 1947. Illustrated by Frederick E. Wallace. 190pgs, frontis, plates, 19cm. This is the English edition of Carol Goes Backstage.
  

then back to Sue Barton with:

• Sue Barton, Neighborhood Nurse. Boston: Little, Brown, 1949. Frontis by Major Felton. 236pgs, col frontis, 20cm.
  

and the final Sue Barton book:

• Sue Barton, Staff Nurse. Boston: Little, Brown, 1952. Illustrated by Major Felten. 204pgs, 20cm.

• Clara Barton: Founder of American Red Cross. NY: Random House, 1955. Illustrated by Paula Hutchison. 182pgs, 22cm.

author's final title:

• Travels With Zenobia: Paris to Albania by Model T Ford (with Rose Wilder Lane). William Holtz (editor). Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1983. 117pgs, 22cm. ISBN: 0826203906.

I would include Boylston's Sue Barton and Carol books on my even as x-libris book list. (With my usual dust jacket caveat.)

Even as x-libris

Another series title that I would pick up even as a library discard if and only if it still had a dust jacket attached is:

Helen Dole Boylston's Sue Barton books. Especially the first in the series: Sue Barton Student Nurse. Originally published by Little Brown in 1936 this book was in print a long time. (Abebooks lists a 43rd printing.)

even as x-libris

Sally Watson wrote great juvenile historical novels and it has always amazed me that her books were never reprinted.

Mistress Malapert. NY: Henry Holt, 1955. Illustrated by Genia. This book in particular seems to generate a great many want requests.

(I'd pick up any of her titles, even as x-libris as long as the dust jackets were not too mangled. )

Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar

The Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar which just finished up in Colorado Springs has been held every summer for well over 20 years. The 5 day seminar is advertised as being a training forum for for Booksellers, Librarians, and Collectors and among the talks includes a detailed training exercise on how properly catalog (describe) a book.

One of these years I'm going to beg, borrow or steal the time and the money and attend. I can't imagine anything more fun than spending 5 days with other crazed booksellers. I've been reading the news group and blog discussions on the seminar and besides making me pea green with envy they got me thinking about how my book descriptions have been dumbed down over the years.

Some of the traditional book selling terms and abbreviations that I no longer use for online book listings are:

signature: a group or gathering of leaves printed together on a sheet of paper which is folded, bound with other signatures and trimmed to form a book or pamphlet; i.e. a section or grouping of pages in a book resulting from printing and binding methodology. (omitted altogether, too many customers confusing this for an author or illustrators signature)

n.d and n.p. are spelled out as no publication date or no place of publication

t.e.g. or a.e.g.: is now written out as top edge gilt or all edges gilt.

x-libris or x-library I've had to change to library discard.

Another identifier that I'm not using at all in online are the traditional book sizes:

Folio: more than 13 inches tall
Quarto (4to): approx. 10 to 13 inches tall, average 12 inches
Octavo (8vo): approx. 8 to 10 inches tall, average 9 inches
Duodecimo (12mo): approx. 7 to 8 inches tall, average 7.5 inches
Sextodecimo (16mo): approx. 6 to 7 inches tall, average 6.5 inches

The Abebooks site has a glossary of bookseller terms, but I find most customers don't want to wade through a lot of abbreviations and in the internet world of instant click are not going to take the time to look up terms they don't understand.

(Information that I always include in my listings is: Author(s), Illustrator(s), Publisher including place and date. Binding type i.e. Hard Cover, Soft Cover Library Binding etc. Edition statement and a solid description of book and dust jacket condition. )

even as x-libris

Another good book to scout is Tony Hillerman's only children's book, The Boy Who Made Dragonfly: A Zuni Myth. Harper & Row, 1972. Illustrated By Laszlo Kubinyi.

(This one has an ISBN # so you will have to grab fast or fight the Scoutpal users for it.)

even as x-libris

With a nod both to the legion of series collectors and my own childhood memories:

Robert Arthur's Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators and the Secret of Terror Castle. NY: Random House, 1964. Issued without a dust jacket. This is the first book written in The Three Investigator's juvenile mystery series.

(I loved this series as a kid and judging from the large number of fan sites I'm not the only one who remembers it fondly.)

even as x-libris

Another title I'm always searching for:

Madeliene L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1962. (This is the 1963 Newbery Award book and notoriously hard to find in the first state dust jacket, library discard or not.)

even as x-libris

Another book that is always worth scouting for, dust jacket is important on this one:

Ruchlis, Hyman & Eidinoff, Maxwell. Atomics For Millions. N.Y.: Whittlesey House/McGraw-Hill, 1947. Illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

This is the first book Sendak illustrated.

even as x-libris

Always keep a look out for any in the Lucky Star science fiction series, (Lucky Star and the Pirates of the Asteroids, Lucky Star and the Oceans of Venus etc). The books, published by Doubleday, were written under the pseudonym of Paul French, in actuality were penned by Isaac Asimov. The whole series is collectible even when they are hard cover library discard copies. (Best if they still have the dustjackets though.)

even as x-libris

Another title that I'd pick up even as a library discard:

Have Space Suit Will Travel by Robert Heinlein. Published by Scribners in 1961.

(For that matter, I'd pick up any any early hard cover Heinlein juvenile, this one just is a personal favorite.)

even as x-libris

Another title that I'm always looking for at library sales is:

MR. WICKER'S WINDOW by Carley Dawson. Illustrated by Lynd Ward. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1952.

This was a very well written time-slip fantasy as were the sequels THE SIGN of THE SEVEN SEAS and DRAGON RUN. All three were well written, very collectible, and well worth picking up even as a library discard.

even as x-libris

Over the years I have had numerous requests for this book but I have never even seen a copy!

THE CHRISTMAS COOKIE SPRINKLE SNITCHER by Robert Kraus. Illustrated by VIP. New York: Windmill Books 1969.

Condition, It's all about Condition

As a general rule, for a collectible modern children's book, the least acceptable condition for books I buy or sell, is Very Good in a Good dust jacket. Of course there are always books that are exceptions to the rule, see even as x-libris .

This is not so much elitist as practical, by the time all the faults in a book and dj are described, (bumped corners, foxing, dj tears, names or scribbles by previous owners etc.) only the most hard to find of titles are going to be attractive to the book buyer, especially for an internet sale where the buyer can't examine the book until after purchase.

My book conditions in descending order are:

AS NEW: I very rarely use this, I've had books new from the publisher that I won't call As New. ( The term Mint is for coins and chocolates, not books).

Fine: Is in unread or very lightly read condition. Dj is unmarred and not clipped.

Near Fine: I know a lot of dealers don't use this term, but dang it, a book with lightly bumped corners or a small crimp to the boards is not good enough to be Fine but too good to be Very Good. For a dust jacket to be Near Fine it may be slightly shelf rubbed, be price clipped or have a very small closed tear. (NOT all at the same time).

Very Good: May have previous owners inscription, light foxing (yellowing) bumped corners etc. But all major detractions should be listed in the description. Dj may be sun faded or lightly to moderately soiled. I've been known to use a plus and minus sign, IE Very Good+ for a book that is in better condition than Very Good, but not quite near fine. This also is not common practice for all booksellers.

Good: For collectible modern children's books Good is not good. Examples of books that fall into this category are, X-libris, (library discard), books that are foxed, have shaken bindings or are heavily marked and soiled; the book is intact and readable but it better be pretty darned desirable to make it worth having in this condition. A Good condition dust jacket may have tears or chips missing, be heavily soiled or sun faded. As with the Very Good category the major defects should be described.

I won't buy or sell books in Poor or Fair condition. I don't have the room to store them or the sales technique to describe them well enough that someone would want to buy them.

even as x-libris

Another title I would buy at a library sale even if it were a library discard:

THE CITY UNDER THE BACK STEPS by Evelyn Sibley Lampman. Garden City: Doubleday, 1962. ( This is a classic fantasy which should have gone on my dream book list.) Very difficult to find in any condition.

even as x-libris

There are very few modern children's books that have any monetary value once it has been processed and subsequently discarded from a library. One exception to this rule is:

SINBAD and ME by Kin Platt. Phila: Chilton Books, 1966. Great juvenile mystery about a boy and his bulldog Sinbad. Won the Edgar for best juvenile mystery. I loved this book as a kid and enjoyed re-reading it as an adult.

Not only collectible as a library discard, the last time I checked the Tempo paperback was going for $80 dollars or so in Very Good condition. It's also very difficult to find.