A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

I went to three sales in all, starting Friday morning. I
came away with two real finds;

Dick Francis, Nerve (Harper & Row 1964) book club edition,
near fine (bookplate of former owner) in a very good- jacket
(two small tears).

Alan Furst, Dark Star (Houghton Mifflin 1991) fine in a fine
dust jacket, no marks.

--
Francis A. Miniter

Mesure is Medicine þauh þou muche ȝeor[n]e.
Al nis not good to þe gost þat þe bodi lykeþ,
Ne lyflode to þe licam þat leof is to þe soule.

William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
Passus I, lines 33 - 35

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

On Sep 10, 4:46*pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:
I went to three sales in all, starting Friday morning. *I
came away with two real finds;

Dick Francis, Nerve (Harper & Row 1964) book club edition,
near fine (bookplate of former owner) in a very good- jacket
(two small tears).


I'm a big Dick Francis fan, and have the entire series, most in
British or American firsts (a few even signed!). The hardest one to
get was FORFEIT, perhaps because that's the book that won him the
Edgar. I finally found it a few weeks ago on eBay, for a bit more than
I'd wanted to pay--but when I got the book, I was very pleased with
its condition, and satisfied to have completed my collection.

Not long after that, I spotted the last Simon Raven novel I needed,
PLACES WHERE THEY SING, this for a very good price indeed. It really
just seems to be a matter of patience, and going out there and
looking, both in cyberspace, and in the real world. (I found a Richard
Matheson short story collection at The Strand--where they are not
noted for under-pricing "rare" books--for less than anyone else was
asking!)

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

On 9/10/2011 17:59 PM, J wrote:
On Sep 10, 4:46�pm, "Francis A.
wrote:
I went to three sales in all, starting Friday morning. �I
came away with two real finds;

Dick Francis, Nerve (Harper& Row 1964) book club edition,
near fine (bookplate of former owner) in a very good- jacket
(two small tears).


I'm a big Dick Francis fan, and have the entire series, most in
British or American firsts (a few even signed!). The hardest one to
get was FORFEIT, perhaps because that's the book that won him the
Edgar. I finally found it a few weeks ago on eBay, for a bit more than
I'd wanted to pay--but when I got the book, I was very pleased with
its condition, and satisfied to have completed my collection.

Not long after that, I spotted the last Simon Raven novel I needed,
PLACES WHERE THEY SING, this for a very good price indeed. It really
just seems to be a matter of patience, and going out there and
looking, both in cyberspace, and in the real world. (I found a Richard
Matheson short story collection at The Strand--where they are not
noted for under-pricing "rare" books--for less than anyone else was
asking!)


Very nice indeed. Dick Francis was prolific, so that must
have been quite the effort.

You remind me of something I read a few years back about the
rare book library at the University of Toronto. They had a
collection of the works of Margaret Atwood, the Toronto
novelist. They boasted the completeness of their
collection, including a copy of every one of her works in
translation! Now that is something that the average person
is not going to be able to achieve.

--
Francis A. Miniter

Mesure is Medicine þauh þou muche ȝeor[n]e.
Al nis not good to þe gost þat þe bodi lykeþ,
Ne lyflode to þe licam þat leof is to þe soule.

William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
Passus I, lines 33 - 35

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

On Sep 11, 4:33*pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

You remind me of something I read a few years back about the
rare book library at the University of Toronto. *They had a
collection of the works of Margaret Atwood, the Toronto
novelist. *They boasted the completeness of their
collection, including a copy of every one of her works in
translation! *Now that is something that the average person
is not going to be able to achieve.


I read no language but English, but I still have a few foreign
language editions of authors I like and collect. Part of Dick Francis'
novel TRIAL RUN is set in Moscow, so I have a copy in Russian, and I
have some Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout in every language I could
get my hands on (German, Finnish, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Portuguese,
and Russian--so far, I've never seen one in French in hardcover).

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

On 9/11/2011 22:04 PM, J wrote:
On Sep 11, 4:33�pm, "Francis A.
wrote:

You remind me of something I read a few years back about the
rare book library at the University of Toronto. �They had a
collection of the works of Margaret Atwood, the Toronto
novelist. �They boasted the completeness of their
collection, including a copy of every one of her works in
translation! �Now that is something that the average person
is not going to be able to achieve.


I read no language but English, but I still have a few foreign
language editions of authors I like and collect. Part of Dick Francis'
novel TRIAL RUN is set in Moscow, so I have a copy in Russian, and I
have some Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout in every language I could
get my hands on (German, Finnish, Italian, Czech, Swedish, Portuguese,
and Russian--so far, I've never seen one in French in hardcover).


And just today at Goodwill I picked up three Dick Francis
British firsts - Straight; Driving Force; The Edge - with
the only defects being a bit of delamination on the bottom
edge of two of the three dust jackets and an owner's name in
two of them. I am quite happy enough.

--
Francis A. Miniter

Mesure is Medicine þauh þou muche ȝeor[n]e.
Al nis not good to þe gost þat þe bodi lykeþ,
Ne lyflode to þe licam þat leof is to þe soule.

William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
Passus I, lines 33 - 35

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

On Sep 15, 9:22*pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

And just today at Goodwill I picked up three Dick Francis
British firsts - Straight; Driving Force; The Edge - with
the only defects being a bit of delamination on the bottom
edge of two of the three dust jackets and an owner's name in
two of them. *I am quite happy enough.


And I think the British jackets are so much nicer than the American...

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

I went to three sales in all, starting Friday morning. I came
away with two real finds;

Dick Francis, Nerve (Harper & Row 1964) book club edition,
near fine (bookplate of former owner) in a very good- jacket
(two small tears).

If I'd seen that come in to the charity bookshop I work in, it would have
gone straight into the box of stuff to sell for pulp. No way would I have
bothered to look up a value for it.

People really pay money for book club editions of Dick Francis?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07800 739 557 http://www.campin.me.uk Twitter: JackCampin

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

On 9/16/2011 9:55 AM, Jack Campin wrote:
I went to three sales in all, starting Friday morning. I came
away with two real finds;

Dick Francis, Nerve (Harper& Row 1964) book club edition,
near fine (bookplate of former owner) in a very good- jacket
(two small tears).

If I'd seen that come in to the charity bookshop I work in, it would have
gone straight into the box of stuff to sell for pulp. No way would I have
bothered to look up a value for it.

People really pay money for book club editions of Dick Francis?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07800 739 557http://www.campin.me.uk Twitter: JackCampin


Presumably they do for real early ones. This was, I
believe, his second novel and is fairly scarce in hardcover.
The condition also helped.

--
Francis A. Miniter

Mesure is Medicine þauh þou muche ȝeor[n]e.
Al nis not good to þe gost þat þe bodi lykeþ,
Ne lyflode to þe licam þat leof is to þe soule.

William Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman
Passus I, lines 33 - 35

A Fine Weekend at Library Book Sales
 

On Sep 16, 12:21*pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

Presumably they do for real early ones. *This was, I
believe, his second novel and is fairly scarce in hardcover.
* The condition also helped.


Scarce enough that I was happy to get it in the Harper three-in-one of
Francis novels, THREE TO SHOW.