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Major Brag, Minor Brags, and Nothing to Brag About



 
 
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Old February 21st 04, 03:55 PM
Jerry Morris
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Default Major Brag, Minor Brags, and Nothing to Brag About

Jumping on the bandwagon of recent brags, I received my "Major brag"
yesterday. For $35. for My Sentimental Library, I acquired a book from
the library of "Major" J.R. Abbey, with his bookplate attached.

The book, Gabriel Austin's The Grolier Club Iter Italicum, New
York,1963, contains a typed gift memo to Abbey from Donald F. Hyde, and
is about the Grolier Club tour of Italy in 1962.
.........My friend, Sandy Malcolm, suggested that I should ask Gabriel
Austin to sign it. Since I collect books by Gabriel Austin, as well as
by Mary Hyde and Donald Hyde, that's not a bad idea!

For $95, from the same abebooks bookseller, I bought Michael
Papantonio's copy of The Grolier Club Tour of Italy: May 1962. Verona,
1962. Papantonio was the joint proprietor of the legendary Seven Gables
Bookshop in New York, and was one of the travelers on the Grolier trip
to Italy in 1962. Whereas Gabriel Austin's book describes the tour and
the eleven libraries visited, this book contains a formal listing of
the books exhibited at each library as well as two pamphlets concerning
the informal reunion of the Grolier travelers held at H.P. Kraus in New
York on October 2,1962. Papantonio's Initials, "M P," and signature
are inscribed in pencil on the ffep.

For $36 on ebay, I bought another book for My Sentimental Library: a
book from the library of Tuskegee Airman, Colonel Harry A. Sheppard.
The book, Lasting Valor, Columbus, Mississippi, 1997, is the
autobiography of Vernon J. Baker, "the only living Black World War II
veteran to earn the Medal of Honor." Baker's prologue is one of the
most powerful prologues I have ever read: ".....The rest of us were
black Buffalo Soldiers, regarded as too worthless to lead ourselves.
The Army decided we needed supervision from white southerners, as if war
was plantation work and fighting Germans was picking cotton.......I am
haunted by what I cannot remember. Everywhere I go, people ask me to
recite the names of those nineteen men I left in the shadow of Castle
Aghinolfi.....I cannot."

Also on ebay, for $25.38, for my Vol I No 1 Collection, I bought Vol I
of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June to November, 1850. A steal!

For $9.95 on ebay, I finally acquired Logan Pearsall Smith's first book,
Youth of Parnassus, London and New York,1895. For the longest time
(twenty years), I couldn't buy a copy of this book for less than $100.
My copy is in the variant red cloth binding, but I haven't figured out
if it's the British or American edition. It was printed in Glasgow at
the University Press by Robert MacLehose. Macmillan is the only
publisher listed on the title page.

For $9.99, for my Books About Books Collection, I bought an Americana
catalogue from the bookstore of that famous bibliophile, Charles P.
Everitt. Yeah!

Finally, I should mention the book in the "nothing to brag about
category." For $79.99 on ebay, I bought a book that was supposedly from
the library of Andrew Jackson. There are a slew of question marks
surounding this purchase, one of which is "Why the heck did I bid on it
anyway?" Research afterwards shows that the inscriptions were not
written by the hand of Andrew Jackson. Who wrote them? A servant? A
hoaxer? See My Sentimental Library for additional details. Andrew
Jackson supposedly purchased this book in Washington D.C. on December
24th,1828. There's a big question mark concerning this date: On
December 24th, 1828, Andrew Jackson was in Nashville, Tennessee, burying
his wife. C'est la vie!

Jerry Morris


Welcome to Moi's Books About Books: http://www.tinyurl.com/hib7
My Sentimental Library http://www.picturetrail.com/mylibrary and
moislibrary.com http://www.tinyurl.com/hisn






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