I Love Old Books! (Part 2)

Ever since the Crossroads Used Book Sale, I’ve been enjoying my new old books and writing about why they are such a delight to me. I treasure them because I believe these books were far more precious in their day than a book is now, simply because of the relative scarcity of books and the cost of publishing. Only the cream of the crop would be published. Owning something that was highly valued by the society that produced it makes me value it, too. It is evident that these volumes were made to last, and they did last. Would a book published in 2012 last until 2112? Maybe, but probably not as well as those leather covers and thick pages have lasted.

Here is a well-travelled Christmas present. Notice the “This is My Book” section from Edmonton, Alberta, and the sticker from Santa Monica, California. It is Myths Every Child Should Know, originally published in 1905, edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie.

And those marvellous inscriptions! Did everyone have such exquisite handwriting? Judging from the old school books which made handwriting such a priority, I think most did. (I used to have legible handwriting, until my fingers got out of the habit of writing slowly and gracefully!) Not only is the penmanship a work of art, but reading the note makes me feel like I’m getting a peek into the personal life and family of the original owner.

Here is one of my favorite signatures, in The Pleasures of Life by Sir John Lubbock (copyright 1887). I also love the embossed designs and flowers on the cover.

Any book can transport you to another world and another time in the same way a traveler goes on a holiday, but old books can be like the person who actually lived in that other place and time. You can’t help but notice the differences in language, attitudes and the political climate that come through unintentionally by what the author writes. It makes me feel like I know the author’s world, instead of just reading about it in a history book.

Here is a sweet children’s story book with an inscription from 1923, given as a birthday present. (Don’t you just love how they used the term “Master” for boys?)

And this 1915 book was a reward for a job well done, learning the Ten Commandments…

Do you have any old books that particularly thrill you? Do tell! Send me a message on my About page if you want to send me photos to include on another post.

Happy hunting, and happy reading!

I Love Old Books!

As I mentioned in a previous post, my strategy when tackling huge used book sales is to go to the old books first. But I wonder why? What is it that makes the old books such a delight to me? It was probably my mom who instilled in me a love for old things that stand the test of time, and how I appreciate that, because otherwise I may have skipped the old for the new and missed such joys!

What really excites me is that a hundred-year-old book feels like my little piece of history; these bundles of paper have survived—with little or no aging—for a century! What else do we have that is a hundred years old? For example, can you imagine that the book you hold in your hand with the hundred-year-old copyright was ON THIS EARTH when the Titanic sank, all during World War I (did a soldier have your book in his backpack?), when the first talking movies were invented, when Alexander Fleming was discovering penicillin (could he have owned it?) and during the stock market crash of 1929?

Who bought it first? And how did it get from its first owner to its most recent owner (me)? Did it get handed down to a relative, who loaned it to a friend, who lost it while traveling on a ship and it was eventually found by another passenger years later, who kept it safe and sound in a drawer until giving it to a library, which eventually put it on a bargain table where someone bought it for an antique-lover, who finally donated it to the Calgary Crossroads Book Sale where I bought it?

Here is the first really old book I found, McGuffey’s Eclectic Fourth Reader, published in 1853 by Winthrop B Smith. In about 1990 I was browsing around one of the wonderful used book stores on 16 Avenue NW (that is no longer there), and when I told the owner that I collected old school readers, he said he didn’t have any upstairs, but I could look around in the basement. I picked through boxes and bags of books and found this gem. I think I paid $5 for it.

The spine is in rough shape, and it shows another document under the spine and the top left corner of the front cover. If anyone knows what that practice was for, let me know.

The front cover has a name stamped on it, my best guess being “J. Bruce Smith, HC CALGARY”. It makes me wonder if the schools stamped each book with the student’s name, or if that particular student stamped his own name on it. Or is the Smith on the cover related to the publisher Smith?

Inside the cover on the first page is an inscription (I love inscriptions!). It looks like “Elias N. ___, Jan. 3rd, 1859”.

It actually looks like 1839 to me, but in the text it says it was published in 1853.

The Table of Contents is filled with “Directions for Reading” and interesting-looking Prose and Poetry Lessons, some by authors we still read today. Here is a readable version of the Table of Contents.

In the back there is a refund notice: “Refund 2.50 if returned before June 20, 1932, A.W. ___”. It’s interesting to think that around 1932 the book was already 80 years old, so perhaps it was in the reference section of a library.

Wow, this book was around during the California Gold Rush, and in the same year the Washington Territory was created from the Oregon Territory. Maybe some of the children in the covered wagons did their schooling from my book. Vincent Van Gogh was born, in 1953, and Napoleon was married that same year. This book on my shelf was published almost 10 years BEFORE the U.S. Civil War began. Did a ten-year-old student worry about his father fighting in Gettysburg while turning these very pages?

Enough pondering. I would so love to hear about some of your favorite old books! I hope you’ll post a comment below, or even send me photos, so we can trade stories.

Used Book Sales

THANK YOU CALGARY CROSSROADS MARKET BOOK SALE (BLACKFOOT AND 26TH AVENUE) FOR HELPING TO SUPPORT SERVANTS ANONYMOUS.

Ever since the end of winter I’ve looked forward to the giant used book sales held every spring. I admit that I go for the joy of being surrounded by so many books and so many book lovers. And this year the shoppers included plenty of young girls and boys who were just as intense and excited as their parents at finding their own treasures. That was a bonus thrill.

I don’t need any more books, of course. I need less books because I’ve started to set stacks of books beside my bookcase. But I do now have a strategy when I go to these sales. I head straight for the “antique” book section, and there I focus on the old children’s books first, and then all the rest. After that, I browse quickly through the other sections, slowing down at the health, Christian and writing books, and settling in at the children’s books.

Last Friday I used some banked time to leave work 2 hours early in order to beat the weekend rush to the first weekend of the SAS sale at Crossroads Market. And the place was already packed!

Here is one of my new treasures:

Have you ever seen anything like this?