Long time library friend John Burt (right) and volunteers.
By Karen Wright
I probably shouldn't tell you about this; there were too many people there as it was, but here goes, anyway. We were getting itchy feet last month and decided we needed a couple of days to go for a drive. I hadn't bought any new books for weeks and I jumped on the net to see what kinds of book sales I could find in the San Francisco Bay area. After all, buying books is a great (and tax deductible) excuse to spend a couple of days away from home. You can't say we book dealers don't know how to have fun!
So, I got to the Palo Alto Friends of the Library website and they had pictures of a lot of the very special books that they offer. Palo Alto, for you easterners, is where Stanford University is located, so the town has big bucks, an extremely literate community, and lots and lots of book readers who donate very freely to their Friends Store. Oh boy!
Lo and behold, as I perused the online selection of collectibles, I found a copy of a book I have been looking for the last ten years or so. It is called; "The Manly Art of Knitting" by Dave Fougner. The book is an actual manual on how to knit things like dog beds and horse blankets, not to mention rope hammocks. "Only a man would knit a hammock with shovel handles for needles and manila rope for yarn," says the blurb on the back; and the cover is priceless. The book is just a pamphlet, 64 pages, and very scarce, so now I'm caught in the age-old bookseller's trap; keep it 'cause I love it and it belongs with my Western Collection which includes Tom Mix's book about his horse, Tony, and my collection of Francis the Talking Mule books, or be a good bookseller and sell it. Meanwhile, our real, live Western Cowboy friend is going to get a framed scan of the cowboy-on-horseback-with-knitting-needles cover for his new apartment.
Well, on the strength of that one book, plus several others we found that looked HOT, I got very excited and my husband and I jumped in the ever-faithful Subaru and trotted off to Palo Alto. It is about six hours from our house (including lunch, of course) and upon arrival, we grabbed a room at good old Motel 6, ate dinner at Cibo's, which was good but not exceptional, and ended the evening at Trader Vic's for a glass of wine on their outside deck - it was a beautiful warm night.
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Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing
Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
Leland Little, Jan. 22: The First Issue of Robert Frost's A Boy's Will, In Extremely Scarce Binding.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: Knight's An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Locke's Important Treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: The Richly Illustrated First French Edition of Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: Scarce First Issue of An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, Finely Bound and With Celebrated John Speed Map.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: Humphrey's An Historical Account, Complete with Scarce Folding Maps.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Chamberlain's Scarce Civil War Memoir The Passing of the Armies.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: A Rare Photograph of David Bruce Brown and #48 Fiat.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: George Cruikshank (England, 1792-1878), Archive of Sketches, Notes, and Letters.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: Extremely Scarce Copy of Die Samländische Ode (The Samland Ode), Signed by Max Pechstein.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: Andy Warhol's The Thirteen Most Wanted Men Exhibition Catalogue.
Leland Little, Jan. 22: Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Every Building on the Sunset Strip.
