I'm not superstitious, but....

It always amazes me when I take notice of a book that I've had in inventory since the earth was young and greet it with some version of "what are you still doing here" only to have that book sell within a few days.

It's said that talking to your plants is good for them, but I never heard the same said for talking to books.

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

To my mind Harold and the Purple Crayon is one of the classics. The original edition was written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson and published by Harper in 1955. It's still in print and has spawned a series of Harold adventures. I'm always looking for first edition Crockett Johnson books, especially this title.

Symeon Shimin Revisited

I was very lucky to be able to pick up a signed sketch on boards by Shimen. The sketch is of an illustration he did for a book called Sam by Ann Herbert Scott. NY: McGraw-Hill 1967. I've had to show some people the book to convince them that this is the right way was up for this sketch. Doesn't anyone else but me remember practicing standing on their head with the aid of a kitchen chair?

Words 'n Pictures

dichotomy

A definition from dictionary.com:

"division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups"

An illustrated example:

Cover by Margot Austin, October 1956 Jack and Jill Magazine

Words 'n Pictures

meme

a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition in a manner analogous to the biological transmission of genes.

a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

(Dictionary.com dates the origin of this word 1976, I did not realize it predated the internet...)

Illustrated example-Norman Rockwell's "Gossip"

Symeon Shimin- Illustrator

I became a fan of Symeon Shimin's illustrations the first time I saw the lovely little parable he illustrated for Madeliene L'Engle called Dance in the Desert. I've always had a special fondness for night time illustrations done well, and the illustrations for this book were done very well indeed.



A very short bio of Shimin from the Children's Literature Resource page of the Kerlan Collection:

Symeon Shimin was born November 1, 1902, in Astrakhan, Russia, and came to the United States in 1912. Primarily self-taught as a artist, he studied for a short time at Cooper Union and traveled to France and Spain in the 1920s and early 30s to study the old masters and contemporary European artists. He began his long career as a painter and illustrator in the 1920s, and in 1950 illustrated his first children's book, How Big It IS, revised edition, written by Herman and Nina Schneider. Throughout his long career, he illustrated books for many different children's and young adult authors, including Margaret Wise Brown, Joseph Krumgold, Virginia Hamiltor, Byrd Baylor, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Madeleine L'Engle. He illustrated both fiction and non-fiction, including many books on animals, and preferred to work from live models to give his works realism and authenticity. Shimin died in 1984.

(Another) One that Got Away

Most dealers (myself included) love to talk about the rare, scarce and truly wonderful titles that we found on scouting trips; attributing the find to luck, fate, karma, or just our overall brilliance and knowledge as a bookseller. Those same dealers (myself included!) are a lot more reluctant to talk about those cosmic moments when fate, luck or karma was virtually screaming in our ears but was ignored in what can only be attributed to a massive brain fart.

My most spectacular moment of mental flatulence occurred on the third day of a 4 day book scouting trip in the mid-west. I found myself standing in the upper floor of an antiques mall with an absolutely brilliant copy of 1906 novel in my hands. The cloth was in beautiful condition, the pictorial paste down, showing a Gibsonesque bust of a young woman was spotless. In short the book was in absolutely amazing condition, especially considering that it was almost 100 years old.

I still remember standing there with book in hand and convincing myself that the $12 asking price was too high, reminding myself that I specialized in children's books, ignoring that little voice that told me that I really should buy it, and feeling as smug as a dieter turning down the last brownie when I put the book back on the shelf.

Flash forward to about 6 months later, I'm thumbing through a copy of the PBA Rare Books auction catalog and lo and behold there is the picture of my Gibson Girl. Condition of the book in the catalog was barely Very Good, auction estimate $3,000. The book? Annabel by Suzanne Metcalf. Reilly & Britton, 1906. And oh yeah, Suzanne Metcalf was a pseudonym of L. Frank Baum.


(Rule #1 Trust your instincts, the worse that can happen is you die with a lot of books!

Rule #2 Learn your pseudonyms....especially those of the mainstays of early 20th century children's literature.

Rule #3 Keep a log of your book search locations....after about the 6th place it's easy to forget what you saw and where you saw it....)