As you may have seen in the Comments section of my last post, there was no rockin’ and rollin’ for me last night. A much ballyhooed winter storm alert shut down Party Central, so no Christmas and no champagne for Dandi’s big wins until a later date. Most likely it will be the week after next, as every one of us had a conflict on a different night of the upcoming week. For me it’s a NOB’s book fair committee meeting on Wednesday which I MUST go to since it’s almost countdown time to the book and paper fair in April. I’m excited because the first day of the fair falls on my birthday this year. I can’t think of anything I’d rather do to celebrate, that is if you even celebrate such a thing as turning ... yeah.
It’s funny what just popped into my head this second. Last week I read a short piece in the New Yorker in the Talk of the Town section about a bunch of serious book guys meeting at Bauman’s Rare Books in NYC. The writer commented that they were all dressed in “bibiliophile regalia” which consisted of grey sweaters and spectacles. Oh my. I am definitely not in gear here. As I think about the Akron book fair the male dealers seem to wear either sweaters or sport jackets, but I am drawing a complete blank on the women which is not a good sign. There are not that many of them, so you’d think I’d know, but I don’t. Now all of a sudden I have a hunch that I am a tad too frivolous, especially given the fact that two of the long time dealers we like once told me that when they first saw me they thought I’d be gone in a heartbeat because I looked so “girly-girl” which I think is a nice way of saying that I don’t look like I have a brain in my head, much less know anything about books. Hmmmmmm – this is worrisome. And like I need something else to obsess about right now.It does of course bring up the question of whether it’s more important to look like you belong, or to be true to who you are. I can wear a serious gray sweater. And I can lose the dangly earrings and the high-heels. But should I? Is there some rule that says you can’t know stuff and still be fashionable? I’m not a fashionista for Pete’s sake. I just believe in lipstick, earrings and skinny jeans. Oh, I’m not going to think about this anymore. It’s freaking me out and I’m sorry I even remembered it.
I think the reason I did is because Bauman’s has been on my mind since yesterday when I dragged out a rare baseball book I got this past summer but never listed because I couldn’t satisfy myself as to why it was so expensive. I was at a NOBS board meeting this past Wednesday and Andrea and I got to talking about it and then Brian, the, NOBS PR guy, got in on it, and the ensuing discussion convinced me that it’s high time to list it. I looked online for like copies and found a beat-up example priced under $200 with most people in the $400-500 range for nicer ones. But a google search showed that Bauman’s Rare Books had it listed at $2000 and marked it SOLD. I forwarded the link to my bookseller friend Paul Bauer of Archer’s Books who wrote a baseball book and is a collector of same. He said he’d never seen it before (Bauman’s had a great photo), but that with baseball books age is paramount, so my 1910 copyright is a good thing. Also, the cartoons inside are rendered by C.A. Briggs who worked for newspapers in both Chicago and New York and was considered the best sports cartoonist of his day.
It’s interesting how we came to have this little treasure. Eric went out on a house call by himself back in the late summer or early fall AFTER a very respected long-time seller had already skimmed the cream off the top. He bought everything that was left, which included many very nice books that I could take to the antiques mall and sell in the $30-$50 range, which I did. The only wildly expensive one was this one, but what a little sleeper it is. I think maybe, given the rapidity of the sale of
2 comments:
It is a delightful book Tess!
I think so too! It's fun to have it around it for awhile. Emphasis on for awhile! :-)
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