News about Pulpfest 2011 got me thinking about vintage paperbacks, which will be part of the July fun. Here are some in my library, although I'm not sure they're vintage and collectible versus just old and irresistible.
Category: First Editions
How do you spell Mississippi?
Here's a great novel, one of the contenders for the 2011 Edgar Awards in the category of Best Novel. It's got wonderful characters, intriguing mysteries and a deep south setting so richly evoked you feel like it's just outside your back door.
The kind of question one can never answer
Snooping through the bookshelves of The Little Bookshop in Westerville, Ohio, I came across a novel published in 1949 with interesting copy on the back of the dust jacket. Not the usual plot summary or praises of the book one would expect, rather a commentary about reading, written by the book editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer. A curiosity worth sharing.
Hymns to the fragility of human culture
I found this incredible creation of book art, a great grandmother's autograph book turned into a series of clay pages. Yes, we're going back to Mesopotamia. No e-books here.
So very far from the madding crowd
Paradise or hell? I'm thinking hell to inhabit, but these 50 remote islands are paradise to look at and read about in Judith Schalansky's "Atlas of Remote Islands."
Separated by that pistol shot
One of the best books I ever read. A powerful evocation of regret after a minor and unintended act of unkindness. It should've been one of my 54 books in 54 years.
Shopping New York City bookstores
It's that time of year when holiday shoppers head to NYC to spend at Bergdorf Goodman, Macy's, Bloomingdale's and the many other stores decked out with merry-making windows. I went to shop the bookstores, including this odd one. Check out its unique name.
A literary estate under siege
Katherine Anne Porter didn't publish many books, but what she did publish is considered to be some of the 20th century's best short-story literature. Her literary estate is in a messy court battle, summarized here on TLC. Also, my Katherine Anne Porter "Phooey!" book.
A year of reading old books
How would you react if you were given a mandate of no new books for one year? That's what Susan Hill gave herself, when she discovered dozens of books in her personal library she hadn't read. Her new book, soon to be released, tells the journey.
Ernest Hemingway meets Lassie
The fruits of some recent book collecting. From highbrow to TV kitsch.
The Picasso of graphic design
The Guardian published a list of top 10 graphic design books this week. #7 on the list is "Paul Rand: A Designer's Art." A long time ago, I received this Rand book as a gift. Here's the story and a short description of this now out-of-print classic.
“Telling It Like It Was,” August 1968
A paperback book I purchased about the Chicago Riots during the 1968 Democratic Convention. Nostalgia for the 1960s made me do it.
Carson McCullers’ eyes on me
In a Hitchcock movie, her eyes in this photo would move, and she'd reach out and touch me.
Alan Furst’s new day in the barrel
Alan Furst wasn't always a best-selling espionage novelist. He's traveled his way to the top, starting with three novels he'd rather not talk about and a cult following for his now acclaimed WWII series. Here's some insight on his literary journey, and also his newest novel, published this summer.
I discovered Wakoski’s “Greed”
Confessional poet Diane Wakoski wrote "The Collected Greed Parts 1-13" over several years. She writes in the introduction that she wanted to pontificate about life, to moralize, and yet somehow to write a poem which would have a nobility to it. And so she did.
The Longest Chapter 