Northampton, where Old is new to us

Our three-week trip concluded, we returned home to host some guests from Spain for a few days, and now we've had some time to breathe and get caught up to date on our bookstore travels in the Northeast. Up first, our trip to Old Book Store in Northampton, Massachusetts.

We'd been to Old Book Store before. Maybe a few times in the 10 months we lived in Northampton. I remember being disappointed on a Monday or two (yes, more than once -- silly, I know) when I would take a walk from my terrible job and head toward Old Book Store, only to be disappointed to find it closed.

As we made our way to Old Book Store on our first stop in Northampton on this trip -- our first time in Northampton as "Get a Spine" -- I had a good feeling about what we might find.

After three minutes inside, my feelings were justified, 10 times over.

As we have mentioned time and time again, we collect a certain style of Riverside Editions from Houghton Mifflin. We collect them both for their look and the quality of the intros and other materials they include with each work. We've had a hard time determining exactly how many and what novels were published in this style, but using the various lists in the back of each one we add, we at least knew a The Last of the Mohicans was out there somewhere. We figured it would be hard to find, especially since we were looking for it...

Yet there it was at Old Book Store, right before my eyes. I couldn't believe it, I told Deborah she wouldn't believe it... yet it was true. And in probably the best condition of any Riverside we have collected. It's practically new. Just awesome.

After that, anything else we left with was gravy, and we found some pretty good gravy at that, including two more Riversides, a Modern Library Grapes of Wrath and one of Deborah's favorites, Love in the Time of Cholera, published in the year it first appeared in print in English by the original English-language publisher (we think it's not a first edition, but a later run that year).

As we checked out, we introduced ourselves to the store's owner (as we normally do), and proceeded to have a very nice conversation with Grant Walz about his bookstore, and the future of used-book collecting and used-book store owners. We can't say it was an optimistic conversation about the future, but we can say that it was a really enjoyable meeting, and we were glad to meet Mr. Walz, and at the very least, maybe give him a little more hope about the future than he may have started the day with.

Books added: The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper; The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; The Ordeal of Richard Feverel by George Meredith; Six Eighteenth-Century Plays

Publishers (in same order): Houghton Mifflin Co. Riverside Editions; Random House Modern Library; Alfred A. Knopf; Houghton Mifflin Co. Riverside Editions; Houghton Mifflin Co. Riverside Editions

Years: 1958; 1943; 1988; 1971; 1963

Where obtained: Old Book Store

Price: $12.00 total

A find that makes sense, given where we were

Our last stop of Thursday (after this one and this one) was at The Dust Jacket in Cincinnati's very nice "Mt. Lookout" section of town.

It was easy to see from our first step into The Dust Jacket that this was a place for us. Wall to wall hardcovers of all ages, many of which we would have gladly taken home. But as one of our goals is to stay reasonably well budgeted in our collecting, a $475 first-edition of a lesser-known Hemingway novel wasn't going to be in our sights for very long, nor (though it was close) an N.C. Wyeth-illustrated edition of James Fenimore Cooper's The Pathfinder for $55. That one was tough to leave behind.

We immediately struck up a conversation with The Dust Jacket co-owner Sam Jenike, who was extremely friendly and very welcoming. We told him who we were and what we were doing with Get a Spine, and proceeded to spend about an hour or so talking and perusing the store.

Sam and his business partner, Phil Metz, have been in business at The Dust Jacket for over 30 years, and they seem to still be going strong, which was great to see. It really is a terrific store, one of our favorites, for sure.

We learned a little about the history of the store and the books for sale at The Dust Jacket from Sam, and told some stories of our own, all the while making sure our little girl wasn't terrorizing the collection (we think we did OK, sorry, Sam, if we didn't!).

When it got down to the buying, we ended up settling on two books -- though we wanted more. The first adds another copy of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage to our collection. I am fairly certain that the copy I have is a high school paperback, and it's pretty lame, so this 1942 Modern Library edition (for $4) is a welcome upgrade to our shelves.

The more exciting find at The Dust Jacket, however, was one on Deborah's list -- sort of.

Back in April, Deborah found one half of a two-volume Brontë sisters set, a Jane Eyre/Wuthering Heights oversized combo box, with both books illustrated by the famous engraver Fritz Eichenberg. With Jane Eyre already in our possession, the companion volume is always a goal whenever we visit a book store.

Deborah inquired with Sam about whether they had what we were looking for -- of all the book stores we've visited, The Dust Jacket has easily had the most oversized-book, sleeved editions -- and Sam said he thought they might... but a search came up empty.

It wasn't until later in our visit that Deborah spotted the "Mini-me" version of what she'd been looking for. Wuthering Heights, illustrated/engraved by Eichenberg, but in a normal-sized book (published in 1946), not the oversized one we're after. But that's not even the best part about this $20 find. The dust jacket on this book -- found at The Dust Jacket -- was the most unique we've seen.

It was clear plastic like many others, and you could see through to the cloth binding and Eichenberg engraving on the cover. But the title, author's name, illustrator's name and publisher were all printed directly onto the clear plastic dust jacket (you can feel each raised letter), so that if you removed the dust jacket, you remove all of that info from your book's cover.

It may not be best way to describe it, but you'll have to trust us: it's pretty awesome.

Oh, and Sam was nice enough to give us the store's dealer discount of 10%. Thanks, Sam!

Books added: The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane; Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Publishers:  Random House, Modern Library

Years: 1942; 1946

Where obtained: The Dust Jacket, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Price: $21.60 for both

Two Significant finds in Cincinnati

Next on our map after the first stop of the day on Thursday was a place called Significant Books. I mean, how do you not go to a book store with that name?

Also north and east of downtown Cincinnati, Significant Books was only noticeable because we saw one street-level white door with an "Open" sign and handwritten sign that said "All books 65% off." Enticing, but when a sale is that deep, you know it can't be for good reasons. Upstairs we went.

In our research, we had found some info that Significant Books was a nonfiction store only. And while not entirely true, it is probably at least 90% true. So our shopping was pretty quick -- but fruitful.

We added another Modern Library edition, this one Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley from 1941, for $1.75 after the discount, and then Deborah found Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, published in 1945, in the dollar box, which meant that one was a whopping $0.35.

A couple of interesting things about these two books. First, we are fairly certain that this copy of Brideshead Revisited is the a first U.S. edition copy, which we are very excited about, and on the "open market" it seems to be selling for hundreds of dollars. We'd never sell, because that's not why we buy, but we mention the selling price out there in the world only to say that for $0.35, that seems a bit crazy!

Second, neither of us have yet read Antic Hay or Brideshead Revisited, but in our quick research of Antic Hay, it turns out that Brideshead Revisited actually mentions Antic Hay! Quite a coincidence, and reason enough to read those two back to back someday.

Borrowed from Wikipedia, here is the mention in Brideshead:

"Picture me, my dear, alone and studious. I had just bought a rather forbidding book called Antic Hay, which I knew I must read before going to Garsington on Sunday, because everyone was bound to talk about it, and it's so banal saying you have not read the book of the moment, if you haven't."

Lastly, while checking out, we had the opportunity to meet Significant Books' co-owner, Carolyn Downing. Carolyn is a lovely woman in her late 60s, and in our conversation we learned the reason for the 65% sale... Significant Books is trying to close its doors for good, so everything must go.

After 30 or so years at their current location, and longer than that in the book business, Carolyn and her husband, Bill, are calling it a day due to a multitude of factors (health primary among them), meaning another great used-book store is nearing its end. We certainly wish Bill and Carolyn the best as they move on to some new adventures (likely sometime this summer or by fall), and even though it was only a brief visit and we might not have made it back ever again, we're saddened to know that one of the great stores will no longer be out there.

Good luck, Carolyn and Bill!

Books added: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh; Antic Hay by Aldous Huxley

Publishers (in same order):  Little Brown and Company; Random House, Modern Library

Years: 1945; 1941

Where obtained: Significant Books, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Price: $2.10 for both

At least we found the Forsyth Library sale, Pt. II

Monday we made the rounds to the four bookstores, and I have to say that we were mostly disappointed by what we found... or rather, didn't find. In short, the first stop -- 2nd Chance Ventures -- wasn't a stop at all. It didn't exist ... at least as a bookstore, if at all. So 0-for-1.

The next stop, Laster's Fine Art and Antiques, was actually pretty cool. It was an antiques/estate sale shop, and they did have a fair number of late 19th- and early 20th-century hardcovers, including one full bookcase devoted entirely to works in other languages. And while fun to browse, many of the books were priced too high for us -- not too high in general, but for us, relative to whether we liked the editions, they just weren't right-- or we recognized them as old but pirated copies of books we'd like, but not enough to pull the trigger.

On to Edward McKay Used Books & More, a North Carolina chain that is as much a music, movie and video games store as it as bookstore. Not much for us there. A lot of titles, but almost all newer editions, the kind of newer editions you'd find in a college bookstore.

Lastly, and without a lot of hope, we headed out past Wake Forest University to Piedmont Books. Again, this was a multi-purpose shop, but we were pleasantly surprised to find a moderately substantial classics section, in which we were able to improve our Anna Karenina collection by getting a Modern Library edition of the Leo Tolstoy work. Our only edition prior was a 2002 paperback, so a c.1934 copy was a much-needed "update."

So five stops total, and seven new additions. Not great, but we had a good time on the hunt, and on our visit to Winston-Salem. We'd definitely go back.

Book added: Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

Publisher:  Random House, Modern Library

Year: c.1934

Where obtained: Piedmont Books, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Price: $4.00

Do we have to leave? -- Part II

So I made it through Thursday -- barely -- without heading back over to the Gordon Ave. Library Sale to make sure I could still snap up the G.P. Putnam's Mohawk Edition James Fenimore Cooper set, but I had to at least check on them today.

As we entered and headed directly toward the back to the section of sets, Deborah thought it'd be hilarious to play with my emotions by saying, "Oh, honey, I think they're gone..." Thankfully, they were not gone, and after the momentary fright, I was determined to take them home that day.

I did a little asking around to see who was in charge, and once I learned that I had to look for "Bill," that's exactly what I did. I found Bill in a makeshift office near the back exits, and approached him like so (paraphrasing somewhat):

"Hi. I am very interested in the set of Cooper novels you have back there, and was trying to wait until tomorrow when they are half price, but am worried they'll be gone. Since the set is not actually complete and is missing the two most popular works, would you consider selling them to me today for somewhere between the $50 price tag and what they'd be tomorrow?"

Bill: "Sure, how about $35."

"Deal."

So that was that. I loaded up one of the sale's empty plastic boxes with my new -- incomplete -- set of works by an author whom I admire and feel a connection to. Somewhere out there I will come across The Last of the Mohicans and The Prairie  to complete this part of our collection.

The fun didn't end there, though, as they had one bookcase dedicated to "small" fiction, meaning physically short books. Which we like, because two of the shelves on the cases we bought from the former Massachusetts congressional candidate do not allow for anything but short books.

Cue the Random House Modern Library hardcovers of the early-to-mid part of the 20th century. We had a couple prior to today, and we like their look. Classic, colorful when gathered together, and many different titles and opportunities to put together a unique collection of those editions.

We added a handful, and decided to sit tight on anything more until half-price weekend begins tomorrow.

Books added: The Republic, Plato (1941); Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev (1950); Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson (1947); The Old Wives' Tale, Arnold Bennett (1931); I, Claudius, Robert Graves (1937)

Publisher:  Random House, Modern Library

Year: Various

Where obtained: Gordon Ave. Library Sale, Charlottesville, Va.

Price: $2.00 each

Books added: The Works of James Fenimore Cooper, (30/32 vols.), James Fenimore Cooper

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Year: c.1896

Where obtained: Gordon Ave. Library Sale, Charlottesville, Va.

Price: $35.00 for 30 vols.