Book show buys

I had some great conversations and bought some really cool stuff at the book show last weekend.

Bought a nice first edition in dust jacket of Margaret Wise Brown's first book. WHEN THE WIND BLEW. Harper & Bros 1937.

and from quite a few decades later:  Peter Spier's Caldecot award winner, NOAH'S ARK. Doubleday, 1977. First edition SIGNED and Inscribed by Spier with a quick sketch.

Sleepers

In every generation there are books that may not have been financially successful or widely read when they were published, that end up growing in desirability as the children of that generation become adults with children of their own.

Sleepers like THE BOY WHO ATE FLOWERS or the CHRISTMAS COOKIE SPRINKLE SNITCHER two titles from the 1960's or one of my favorite sleepers from the 1990's; THE HIGH RISE GLORIOUS SKITTLE SKAT ROARIOUS SKY PIE ANGEL FOOD CAKE.

It has a great message, lovely illustrations and a title which probably drives Librarians, um I mean Media Specialists crazy.

Book Scouting

On the subject of non traditional book scouting locations....


Rare Charles Darwin book found on toilet bookshelf

LONDON – An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" found in a family's guest lavatory in southern England.

Christie's auction house said Sunday the book — one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 — had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family's home in Oxford.

The book will be auctioned on Tuesday, the 150th anniversary of the publication of the famous work. Christie's said the book is likely to sell for 60,000 pounds ($99,000).

Darwin's "The Origin of Species" outlined his theory of natural selection, the foundation for the modern understanding of evolution.

Celebrations around the world this year have marked the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth.

I also check out the books used for displays in furniture stores and restaurants, have not found anything exciting yet but I can dream...

Market Research and Buying New Stock

The in-print portion of an out of print and collectible book business is the speculative portion. If you can discover the new Harry Potter before everyone else, guess correctly on the next Caledecott or Newbery winner, or develop a mad passion for a new author well before the public discovers them-there is the potential to realize a large profit. Even though you are making a guess, the trick is to make it an educated guess, or you will be paying at or near full retail for stock which may never sell for retail again.

Routinely peruse Publisher's Weekly magazine and see what books are going to be published, (or as is the case with many children's titles, re-published). You can get a good feeling not only for trends but also how much marketing money/buzz a publisher is putting into a title or an author.

Also, for children's books, The Horn Book Review is a great way to identify interesting titles or upcoming authors and illustrators. A dealer specializing in in-print titles, no matter what the genre, should be studying both these publications as well as individual publisher's catalogs. Even for an out of print dealer, these magazines can help you determine which titles are generating buzz, and also ones are going to have a large initial print run and therefore would be wiser, to wait a bit and not pay full retail price.

Catalogs are great, but display is better, so I try to get to the in-print bookstores, chain and independent, at least 2 to 3 times a month. I'm also lucky enough to live close to a remainder warehouse, which I try to visit at least once a month, so I can also see which titles are on the way out of print. In some cases I'm able to purchase books I'm interested in, at a decent price, BEFORE they are attacked by the dreaded black marker.


To be totally honest, some of these recommendations are things that I SHOULD routinely be doing and don't; in part because I don't have the manpower, time, organization, or discipline.

Series Books

Collectors of series books, bless their hearts, are a passionate and dedicated group. Anytime that I get a good series title in and list it in my inventory I can count on calls from collectors not just for the title listed, but for other titles in the series that I might have stashed away or may find in the future.

The problem is that I have over 13,000 children's books online, at any given time maybe 10 of them are series titles. I've found that serious collectors of series books are not usually interested in collecting other genres, and to specialize in series books as a dealer takes a major commitment in time, reference material, and most importantly space.

I never mind getting a call from collectors wanting to talk books, I always come away learning something, like the last book of most series is the most valuable etc. Kind of like the market research coming to me. But it does get frustrated at times to get calls that can't turn into sales.

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. )

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.)

(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....)

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.)

Book Scouting Children's Books-mini tip

Another type of children's book that I will pick up for general stock are books with children's names in the title. I have sold books titled; "Mary, The Mouse Champion", "David's First Boat", "Ellen's Blue Jay", "Roger and the Fishes" and I just finished wrapping a book called "Jonathan's Sparrow" for shipment in tomorrow's mail run.

I still have a copy of Jennifer-the-Jerk 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.)

One That Got Away....

About 10 years ago I was processing a collection of mostly children's books when I came across an adult title in the box. The book was titled A GRIEF OBSERVED by N.W. Clerk, publisher was Seabury Press and the book was not only in fine condition, it looked to be completely unread.

I sat at the computer and did a quick read of a couple of chapters of the book, which appeared to be by a religious gentleman discussing the loss of his wife. I processed the book, put a price of about $20 on, based on it's condition alone and was very surprised when it sold immediately. Of course the second person who called (not emailed) to order the book was very sad that it sold and happy to point out to me that the "religious" gentleman's real name was C.S. Lewis.....

(It's not the gross underpricing of the book that bothers me as much as the fact that I read some of it and did not recognize the writing style. For crying out loud, I specialize in children's books!)

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.

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.