“Fall Milestones” from Zephyr Used & Rare Books

Zephyr Used & Rare Books has issued a second fall catalogue, this one titled Fall Milestones – Catalogue II. It is filled with a variety of books and other types of paper items, even a volvelle. My Windows software calls “volvelle” a misspelled word. It is uneducated. The catalogue is focused on material from the 20^th century, some within the memory of those of us over 40, others too far back for any living being to remember. Either way, it's fascinating to look back at the way we were in simpler times. Here we go.

This is a recipe book, Favorite Foods of the Famous Stars... It is brought to you by Norge, maker of the Rollator Refrigerator. It used a rotary compressor that was quiet and efficient for its time, in this case, 1934. Norge branded refrigerators were made by Borg-Warner in 1934, but the brand was passed around through several manufacturers including Fedders and Maytag. It was phased out several decades ago though you can still buy parts if you have one. Among the stars was Ginger Rogers, who offered tomato ice with baked veal birds. No, I don't know what that is, but it comes with parsley buttered potatoes and date butterscotch pudding. Ida Lupino made a wicked salada luncheon with cream of mushroom soup. These meals will be as delicious today as they were then, whatever that means. Item 62017. Priced at $125.

You may have flown in one of these airplanes. Next is 727 Special Issue, with a lower caption “A new short-range jetliner: Proved in Flight,” with the date June 1963. This promotional periodical from Boeing introduced the new jetliner designed to be able to serve smaller airports where they could feed passengers to larger hubs. They could hold a little over 100 passengers. The plane was launched in 1962 with its first commercial flights the following year. According to Wikipedia, 1,832 were built with the last 727 built in 1984. The last passenger flight in a 727 was in January 2019. There was a built-in air stairway that could be opened in flight. The legendary D. B. Cooper parachuted from it, leading to a design change that prevented it from being opened in flight. Item 62027. $150.

This book is certainly a mixed bag. It is a 1909 book about America's natives, Famous Indian Chiefs, Their Battles, Treaties, Sieges, and Struggles with the Whites for the Possession of America. The author was Charles Haven Ladd Johnston, who wrote numerous history-oriented books for boys. Among the chiefs he writes about are Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Massasoit, King Philip, Black Hawk, Tecumseh, Crazy Horse, Pontiac, Powhatan, and many others. He compliments many of them for their bravery and intelligence in what he saw as overwhelming odds against them. However, for the rest of the Indians, he is filled with racist superiority with little more than contempt. He could not see people who lived differently from the ways of the white man as anything but inferior. He writes, “...the natives with whom the white race were soon to struggle for the possession of the Continent of North America were savage, cruel, vindictive and slothful. They could not adopt the ways of the white man. They could not learn to live by the plough instead of the hunting rifle; they could never see that houses were better to live in than frail wigwams in the forest, and so, in the end, the superior intelligence of the white man triumphed, the Indian was forced into reservations set apart for him and his race, and the country was populated by men of European descent.” He concludes with a “happy” ending, “The Indian of the plains has disappeared. Now, educated in the ways and customs of the whites, in various schools for the members of his race, he joins in the conquest of the soil, and in modern progress, by the same methods adopted by those of superior mental development.” Item 61973. $100.

Single women have long been treated as if there was something wrong with them. This book, published in 1936, is described as “a guide for the extra woman,” Live Alone and Like It, by Marjorie Hillis. The “extra” woman refers to the idea that groups should be composed of couples, a single woman being “extra.” Hillis, a single woman herself (when she wrote the book), emphasizes the independence afforded the single woman. She provides tips on dress, drinking, money, travel, and having affairs. Evidently, there was a need for a guide for single women as this book was a best-seller in 1936. This prejudice is still present today as seen in the comment about “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives.” Ouch. Hillis herself finally gave in to the charms of marriage, marrying three years later at the age of 50. Item 61985. $125.

What's Jim Morrison been up to lately? Nothing, you might say. He died in 1971. True, but what has been happening to Morrison in the afterlife? Well, Mick Farren tells us some of it. It seems that Morrison has been palling around with Doc Holliday. Morrison must have been more interesting than Wyatt Earp. He also found himself chasing the more fun half of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson's soul. That seems an odd match-up, McPherson having been a preacher who reached an enormous audience in personal appearances and radio in the first half of the twentieth century. You can read an update on Morrison's life after he died in Jim Morrison's Adventures in the Afterlife, published in 1999. I think this is fiction, but how can we know for sure? Item 61983. $75.

Zephyr Used & Rare Books may be reached at 360-695-7767 or zephyrbook@gmail.com.