Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2014 Issue

When Life Intervenes – a bookseller’s stock to be sold

Dealers retire, the books live on

Anyone involved with books knows that they have babies at a rate that puts rabbits to shame.  Many people don’t want them and others can’t live without them.  In a town just north of Columbus, Ohio, in Hilliard they have been loved and appreciated for decades and have been particularly fecund.  Nelda Bridgeman, after more than thirty years in the trade and some eight decades on the planet is looking, hoping, expecting to sell her stock of what has become some 20,000+ items.  It is time.  She is eighty-two and is planning a get-away.  And her transition is someone else’s opportunity, her goal to sell the entire stock.

 

By categories she is offering:

 

5,000 military with strong section of submarine material, military history and dozens of early Jane’s;

 

600 examples of western Americana, 2,000 on the United States and 300 on the Civil War, and 1,000 maps;

 

Juveniles.  Many scarce firsts;

 

A strong selection on Ohio and James Thurber;

 

Sets.  Too many to enumerate, also runs of magazines;

 

The Collection of a later 20th century weapons inventor including 130 military manuals, bomb and shell casings, rifle stocks, and uniforms.  File drawers of air cuttings from the Von Kirk [Enola Gay navigator], a collection bought many years ago;

 

64 boxes of reference material;

 

More, much more including 90 metal 3 deep shelving units.  Also many singles;

 

“Why am I selling?  When you get to be 82 you know its time.  My material has been stored for years and is in very good condition.  I believe it to have a retail value of $230,000.  For this I am asking $75,000.”  Visits and calls are welcome.

 

As Ms. Bridgeman has made abundantly clear, “the time has come.”

 

To read her description, an appealing compilation, click here.

 

To contact the seller, Nelda Bridgeman

 

3987 Main Street

Hilliard, Ohio 43026

614.876.6403

 

Email: bookphilately@gmail.com

 

 

 

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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