Featured Books
Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh My !
Dear Friends,
We are not returning to Oz, nor are we sharing our fears of things that go bump in the night. Instead, we'd like to share some of the wonderful books that are presently in stock in this, and hopefully a weekly blog, over the next 6 weeks. We will create a window display of the books described each week and it will stay up for a couple of weeks before the books go back to their customary lairs. The books are available, as I write, but are often one of a kind so
inquire quickly if a book catches your fancy. So on with the safari.Cynthia and I were both naturalists during our times as teachers and we both love books that can magically take kids on adventures in the natural world. Lions, written by W.W. Robinson with drawings by Irene B. Robinson, First Edition, 1936, $20, takes us on a trip through time exploring the relationship of humans and lions. The gorgeous and vibrant illustrations
compliment the rather explicit text that would be appropriate for an 8 year old and up. I'm also intrigued by the adult book Lions, Wild and Friendly, by Eric F.V. Wells, 1934, First American $15, which follows the author's fascination with lions starting as a hunter, moving on to a photographer, and ending up as a raiser of baby lions. The lovely photogravure photographs accompany an interesting, albeit dated, view of lions typified, perhaps, by one chapter entitled "Lions and their reaction to aircraft." We also, in our room filled with nothing but books about nature, have a panoply of other books, $2 - $10, on 
safari, books by Joy Adamson who gave us a more contemporary view in exploring the life of Elsa the lion and Pippa the cheetah. Oh my, how did Winston Churchill, The Last Lion, slip into this category. Much to my surprise, I didn't find a book on tigers. If you want to search yourself and, if you find one, you can have a 20% discount on it. But I did find an intriguing novel, The Leopard in the Bush, a scarce First Edition, 1927, $75, written
by Cynthia Stockley, an English woman who moved and adopted the life of Rhodesia and the veldt, and the Boers. This novel, seen by some as very early feminist literature, explores the life of a white woman settler who has an unusual affinity for the animals of the wilds. Another distinctive thing about the book is the beautifully designed and decorated cover. There was an art form in the early twentieth century, of which this is a later example, of brightly and ornately decorated front covers, some so distinctive that their creators included an iconographic signature as part of the design. We have more of these titles, mostly in the $10 range in the shop. We also want to call your attention to the large section of books on the supposedly domesticated cousin of 
tigers, cats. Dark River, of the Warriors series, Power of Three, $8 First Edition, is one of several titles we have in this exciting chapter book series for kids on the adventures of a band of feral cats.I hope you'll bear with me as I take a few liberties with the genus ursus.We do have a nice selection of adult and kid books on
Pandas, Polar Bears, and Grizzly bears all under $10. We also have a variety of books on a most popular subspecies, the Teddy Bear, ranging from how to make them to how to collect them, $5-$8. I would be remiss not to mention our huge Presidential section, which lives in the attic, a fitting place for at least some of the presidents, but also the home of books on one of the more interesting, Theodore Roosevelt, who has the dubious and confusing distinction of being linked to the name, Teddy Bear, because of a cartoon created showing him hugging a lovable bear, when the reality seems to be that he has just killed the bear, while hunting in the south. History is strange, isn't it? Speaking of history, let me make a bigger 
leap away from ursus and talk about the Great Bear of Eastern Europe, Russia. We have an interesting section on Russia in our history room, including many titles ranging from $2 up to $30 for a signed first edition of Peter the Great by the renowned historian Robert K. Massie. Even more interesting is the two volume Nolan's History of the Russian War, undated but likely 1857 with over 1600 pages of text, 4 of the 6 folding maps still present and in nice shape, $150. This appears to be a slanted account of what we now call the Crimean War but which the English author called the Russian war in which nearly all of Europe and the Middle East fought over territory, particularly the Ottoman Empire. This nice antiquarian piece has cloth boards and leather and gild labels. Finally, a nod to the art section where we have several "barely" appropriate books of photography
and art which fittingly close this exploration of Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh My !Hope to see you, fully clothed, soon,
Greg and Cynthia
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 additions
In our continued browse through the books in our shop:
We have a magic section in the shop with a variety of funky, wonderful books on this fine art of deception. This particular one, published in England in 1960, is designed for kids and has simple card tricks, etc. Who knows how it found it's way to us, but we're delighted to offer it for $10. Maybe it will be the motivator for the next Houdini.Whilst we are in England, let me suggest a charming gardening book by
one of the masters of garden writing, Beverley Nichols. We have an ex library copy, in dj, of Garden Open Today for $8. I'll let the author speak for himself. In his chapter, Fragrance, he writes, "Scented plants, I think, should be disposed strategically. By which I mean that there should be something at the front door, to calm one's goings out and comfort one's comings in, and something at the end of the lawn to sniff, and crunch, and talk about." 
We pride ourselves on having an unusually large drama section which includes a very large selection of scripts, often just $2, including this relatively scarce title by Bertolt Brecht, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a Gangster Spectacle. How can one resist an intriguing title like that. $10
Finally, an example of the delightfully obscure. We have a copy of The 1994 Hymnlet, OHS, Convention, 1994 Connecticutt for
$10. Now for those of you who are uninitiated, the OHS is the Organ Historical Society and I came across a wonderful collection of pipe organ material and am having great fun with it. The group apparently convenes at least once a year in a different part of the country and spends a week touring the local churches and hearing concerts performed on the various organmaster's home organ. Within this hymnlet is the schedule of such performances at this convention as well as the music for featured hymns to be sung at the sundry churches. As I said, you never know what will show up in a used bookstore.December 11, 2010 additions
This charming little piece of local Chestnut Hill History, The Quarries and Stone Masons of Chestnut Hill by Michael Yanni, a quarryman himself, who worked the Wissahickon Schist quarries that were prevalent in this area. You can still see the remains of the quarries in several places and the great work of these stone masons is evident everywhere in houses, public buildings etc. A great piece of local history. $25
Wodehouse was a master of comedy. We struggle to keep his books in stock but at the moment we have this title, The Coming of Bill, and another hardback collection and a few paperbacks. This is a 1976 reprint, in dust jacket, of the original 1920's book which is quite pricey. This copy, $30
Speaking of expensive we have, KING ARTHUR, a poem by Lord Edward Bulwer Lytton, published by Henry Colburn, London, 1848. Leather/Marbled Paper Boards. Book Condition: Very Good 5x7.75. Very scarce first edition. This is a sturdy handsome volume which has aged well. It is one quarter leather, spine has 6 nicley tooled and gilded panels, gilt on leather title label is still bright, spine with mild wear. Marbled paper on the rear board with some wear. Slight loosening to front gutter. Marbled foredges soiled a bit. Marbled endpapers. First few pages and last few with some foxing. Interior pages mostly clean although a bit yellowed. Green ribbon marker still attached, has lightly stained pages 294 and 295. Name of previous owner on second free endpaper. 303+ pp. At $600, one of those scarce, collectible pieces treasured by collectors of King Arthur material or Lytton fans, or fans of 19th century leather books.On the other end of the scale, a book just came in that I'd personally love to read just because I
love the author and the subject of the book. I've added it as a reminder that we have an extensive biography section, both in paperback and hardback and we feature not only famous but also interesting subjects. Also a reminder that most of our books are under $10. Married to Laughter, a Love Story featuring Anne Meara by her husband, Jerry Stiller. $3Browsing
BROWSING and SURPRISES !
I've had many conversations, in the last year or two, about the advent of electronic books like the Kindle or Nook and how that might impact the life of physical, as opposed to virtual, books. I've had lifetime readers tell me they reluctantly made the switch but have grown to like it. I shuddered but kept on listening and thinking. Recently I heard that it is now or soon will be possible to get the daily New York Times on one of these devices and then be able to "read" the whole paper but also be able to immediately access the videos and even, (gasp) do the crossword puzzle on the device and have it store your "in progress" puzzle. Now that's tempting - in fact if I had the time to read the paper, I think I'd bite.
I can also imagine that those kinds of technologies may change what is possible in a "book," make it possible to combine other media with the printed word in new ways and I must admit that's exciting.
However, I still am committed to the physical book - the heft of it, the feel of it, the smell of it, how it looks on the shelf, how it stacks on the floor. How could I be otherwise. I assume that there are many more like me. I also think that, at least for now, I can still provide physical books more cheaply than most virtual books, so I think there are still economic arguments for the existence of used bookstores, for at least a few more years.
But it also occurs to me that, at least as far as I know, you can't browse for virtual books in the same way you can browse in my shop. You certainly can look for and find, on the internet, multiple copies of most books where you already know the author or title. This has been a wonderful boon to readers. But what about the book that you've never heard of? What about the book that "jumps out at you" when your scanning the shelves of a bookstore? The serendipity of finding the unknown, the unexpected, - the thrill of that kind of hunt is still the exclusive purview of a book store. And I would posit that a good used book store is the most fertile hunting territory to be found. Here we have centuries of such books waiting to be discovered. I get that same thrill of finding the new and different every time I open a box of books that has come into the shop. I don't always choose a book just because I haven't seen it before. I'm selective and pick out books that might be of interest to a particular customer, or books that I find intriguing. And then I put them on the shelves for you, the hunter. These books may not be rare, they may not be expensive, they are just new and intriguing to me or you.
Sometimes my books are rare and they are expensive because bibliophiles who suffer from "that gentle madness" of book collecting have added other ingredients to their hunt - finding the most pristine copy of a book or finding a first edition in a dust jacket of a book they love or finding all the works by a given author, etc. and this has caused more scarcity and thus prices have risen. I have some of those books as well.
I'd like to start sharing some of the books that are available, at least as of the present, in our shop that might be the type of book that would "jump out" at you. Books that you may not have heard of. Books that are pleasant surprises. If you're intrigued stop by or give us a call. If we don't still have it, we can help you search elsewhere. Come join and enjoy the hunt!
Let's start with the "Grandaddy" of dictionaries, The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. This one still has the magnifying lens that makes using this dictionary possible. They took the multi-volume complete OED, as they say, and reduced the size of the print so it is unreadable without the magnifying lens. They put 8 pages of original text on 1. Ingenious. Absolutely outstanding dictionary when it comes to etymology. This set $100.From the sublime to the ridiculous- several versions of Dr. Who. Paperbacks (we have quite a run of them,) at $2, to two different versions of comic books ($10-$15).
A first edition of Robots and Empires signed by the prolific and talented Isaac Asimov on the title page. This 1985 sequel to The Robots of Dawn weaves together three of Asimov's most famous series, Robot, Foundation and Empire. This is a very nice copy with just a few chips along the edge of the bright dust jacket. $150
where. As a college kid, I jumped a freight train over the Santa Cruz mountains and lived to tell about it. And now, I see, almost daily, the fascination with trains in the eyes of little children who make a visit to the station to watch a train go through - this is the highlight of their day. I have trouble keeping kids’ books about trains in stock but at the moment I have three different stories, written in the 1950’s, in England, by the Rev. W. Awdrey, in which we meet Percy, the Small Engine, and Gordon, the Big Engine, each First Editions, in hardback, at $10 – those of you who have had train buff children 
know these are the original versions out of which grew Thomas the Tank Engine.
a true train buff’s idea of heaven and printed and photographed and typeset so elegantly to be of interest to artists. And to add to the historical interest of Philadelphians, these came from the collection of Paul Seel, Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Pennsylvania RR from the 1930’s to the 1960’s and some include notes, in his hand, correcting details in the publications. 
Two books that stand out from our aviation collection almost bookend the history of flight. Heaven High, Hell Deep, 1917-1918, $60, signed by the author, Norman Archibald, is, if one can judge a book by the reviews on the cover, a very well written account of one WWI aviator’s training, fighting, and capture and imprisonment. It has a very cool, aluminum colored dust jacket, which, as you can see, was a challenge to photograph. On the other end is Learning to Fly Helicopters, a 1992 paperback, $9, by R. Randall Padfield. Let’s hope the book is just an introduction to further studies by any pilot !
English sea captains agaist Barbary Pirates, the Spanish Fleet, and Russian supply lines, just to name a few. Moving into the mid 20th century we have a wonderful paperback, Fabulous FOLBOT HOLIDAYS, signed by the author-editor, J. Kissner, $11, undated but 4th edition and appears to be 1950’s or 60’s. This company, still in existence, makes a variety of boats, mostly kayaks, that can be built at home or bought built from the factory and this book features articles and great color photos by users of the boats who 
use it birdwatching, kayaking among ice floes, running rapids etc. Great stuff that makes you want to join Toad and start messing around in boats.
wonderful quote from the foreword, "To the American woman abroad is due the credit of having so far influenced the conventions and traditions of the Old World as to have it recognize and accept with good grace (in so far at least as her own acttions are concerned) a new standard of feminine conduct --- freer and more independent than its own, but none the less modest and self-protective." This may have been an early feminist but she was also carrying some pretty ethnocentric baggage, or I should say, her porters were carrying it for her. 
"The Famous Tramp" who traveled 500,000 miles for $7.61, AKA Leon Ray Livingston. This equally modest writer, wrote in his foreword, "To Restless Young Men and Boys, Who Read this Book, the Author, who Has Led for Over a Quarter of a Century, the Pitiful and Dangerous Life of a Tramp, gives this Well-Meant Advice: 