Sunday, Dec 06, 2009

(This blog is also posted at http://betweenthecoversblog.wordpress.com/)

10 Dec 2009 - Posted by Tom Congalton

Off to the New Jersey Book Fair

9 Dec 2009 - Posted by Dan Gregory

Classic Book Cards

We got a nice mention today on the Book Patrol blog, where Steve Gertz wrote enthusiastically about our Classic Book Cards, the trading cards of collectable rare books that we put out as catalogs. They are available from us as individual sets of 76 cards for $20 postpaid, or for a complete run of all three sets (228 unique cards total) for $50 postpaid. Also, just a note, the other night I finally took a few minutes to post some more of Tom Bloom's early catalogs for us. You can view Catalogs 31-40 on our Facebook page.

3 Dec 2009 - Posted by Dan Gregory

Will [The] Real Huck Finn Please Stand Up?

Now that Tom and Matt have both posted multiple times, the pressure has been building for me to set aside whatever else I'm working on (yes, "working" — somebody has to keep this place going — do you think Tom Bloom remembers to send us artwork all on his own?) and write something.

And this isn't just ANY blog entry, it's my first. Matt already did a welcome. Tom already reported on the Boston Book Fair (and he wasn't even there). At a loss for anything more interesting, you get the minutiae of the kind of nonsense problems that keep me busy here at BTC. In preparing a mini-catalog of our Mark Twain inventory, I wanted to keep all the editions of Huck Finn together. We have over forty entries in our database, with about two dozen different rare and used copies in stock at the moment. Some are listed as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and some are listed as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I like our catalogs to be consistent. Consistently good, consistently bad, I don't care. Just consistent. I know Gertrude Stein famously said of Oakland, California, that "There is no there there." So this afternoon I went in pursuit of the answer regarding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — is there a "The" there?

I was taught rare book cataloguing by Tom. Tom, according to his diploma, went to "Chino's School of Harley Repair, Bartending, and Rare Book Cataloguing." But he now teaches at Rare Book School, so I guess somewhere along the way he figured out the important parts. Tom taught me to look at the title page: "That's the title, even if it is different from the cover title."

Fine, so the title page of the first edition of Huck Finn should give the definitive answer, right? Unfortunately, no, not so fast. Huck Finn, one of the key contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, was first published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, two months before the American edition came out. We happen to have nice copies of both in stock at the moment that you can even view in 3D on our website [subliminal advertisement: you want to buy these books from us], allowing for a quick first-hand check of the title page(s). And herein the problem begins.

On the British, TRUE FIRST EDITION, the title page (and cover) says "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." On the American first edition (yes, a copy with the all the important first issue points — don't get me started on those) the title page (and cover) is simply "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." And, further, on BOTH first edition issues, English and American, the first page of text is entitled "The Adventures"¦" So far, it looks like "The" is winning.

But then I noticed on Wikipedia that "Unlike The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn does not have the definite article "˜the' as a part of its proper title. Essayist and critic Philip Young states that this absence represents the "˜never fulfilled anticipations' of Huck's adventures—while Tom's adventures were completed (at least at the time) by the end of his novel, Huck's narrative ends with his stated intention to head West." Like everyone else, I trust Wikipedia on everything, except all the stuff that I know to be erroneous (I used to try to make corrections, but really, who has the time when Tom Bloom needs to be reminded about an art deadline and there is a blog entry to be written?). Young was a respected American literature scholar who specialized on Hemingway, and like most literary scholars he probably would have starved to death if he hadn't kept making and publishing seemingly important critical additions to the canon of American literary theory. I'm not saying he was overreaching a little here — he probably researched more about Twain's intentions when writing Huck Finn than I have. But maybe, just maybe, he never even checked to see if the missing article was deliberate or not. Many a new theory is based on an intelligent mind assiduously applied to incomplete evidence.

And that gave me an idea — what does the manuscript say? A call to the Mark Twain Room of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library told me soon enough. The reference staff there, who are to be commended for their accessibility, efficiency, and friendly demeanor, put me on hold for a minute or two, quickly checked Mark Twain's original manuscript, and reported back — no "The" on the title page. (I offered to credit the specific librarian who assisted me, but she wisely thought better than to let her name and mine show up on-line in the same context.) So some time between Twain's writing the manuscript and his British publisher's setting the type, somebody put a "The" in there. (There's a much more famous incident of someone monkeying with the printing plates for Huck Finn, but I'll save that for another blog entry.)

Twain's been one of America's most studied authors for well over a century. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if some Twain scholar, at some point, traced through all of his correspondence and publisher archives and determined when and why the "Adventures" became "The Adventures." On the other hand, this is just the kind of pointless arcana that, in my experience, often gets overlooked. Probably for good reason. [The] end.

OR SO I THOUGHT (oh boy — my first blog entry update!)

Thanks to a little Google in the Book searching, a more definitive answer can be found in the annotations for the edition of Huck Finn put out as part of the Mark Twain Project of the Bancroft Library. On page 378 a lengthy note states:

"[Illustrator Edward] Kemble's use of "˜The' in the title here is mistaken. The definite article was also mistakenly used in the running heads of the first edition, and in some of Webster and Company's advertisements for the books"¦. It appeared throughout the English and Continental editions, as well as the third and fourth American editions, published in 1896 and 1899"¦. Just after completing the book manuscript, Clemens himself quoted the title with [emphasis original] the article in a letter to James R. Osgood, but without it in one to Andrew Chatto, both on 1 September 1883. And probably he, rather than the editor or typesetter, used it in the introductory note for the selections published in the Century Magazine"¦. Still, there is little room for doubt that he intended the book title to omit the article. Kemble's design for the cover, which was among the first illustrations reviewed and approved by Webster and Clemens, omitted the article, as did Clemens's holograph title page from the summer of 1883"¦. The printed title page of the first edition, as well as the printed half-title, the illustrated cover and the spine (and both front and back of the prospectus) all agree with the holograph title page in omitting the definite article."

This actually doesn't add to much to what I had already found — that is, Twain's intention seemed to be to omit the definite article, but everyone else and even he himself was either confused or sometimes forgot this. If it was really important to him there would probably be more correspondence of him raising a stink each time it was included by mistake. But the Mark Twain Project edition also gave numerous citations in their note, providing fuel for those more intrepid than I.

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3 Dec 2009 - Posted by Tom Congalton

ILAB Website Week

Much of my past week has been taken up with the launch of the new ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers) website. The ILAB website was created, and for most of the last decade, maintained by Rockingstone, a Dutch IT company. Last October at the ILAB Congress in Madrid, Rockingstone resigned as of 1 December 2009, and I was made the Chairman of the ILAB Internet Committee.

This was curious, as I have no technical background. Sometimes (who am I kidding, always) I have to ask Dan where the button is to turn on my computer. Indeed, I think I was made IC Chair, because the rest of the ILAB Committee figured I'd use my influence with Dan Gregory, who has helped to plan and/or design both our website, as well as several iterations of the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America) website. It was either that, or I fell asleep when volunteers were called for.

My committee was charged with finding a new search engine provider, a new webmaster, and a new content editor to fill up the new website with book related articles in order to suck the unwary into our web. Somewhere along the line, mostly through the instance of ILAB Executive Secretary Nevine Marchiset, a whole new website design was incorporated into our mandate.

My excellent committee, chosen for their experience, expertise, and willingness to do a lot of work that I wanted desperately to avoid, examined many proposals and finally recommended Marc Simon of Neteor as our new website designer and webmaster; and Jim Hinck of viaLibri to build a new metasearch for the website, replacing the old database search. Both Marc and Jim are Americans living (at least part of the time, in Jim's case) in France, which turned out to be reasonably helpful as the two official languages of ILAB are French and English, and the site has to appear in both languages.

Additionally we hired a German bookseller, Barbara Werner, as our website editor. Luckily her English is better than mine. I don't know how her French is, but no matter, it is still bound to be better than mine. I still retain some high school French, but as I was an adolescent boy at the time, most of what has really stuck with me are curse words and insults, so I generally refrain from using French on the principle of "starting an international incident — bad." It has worked for me so far.

Over the past few weeks, a small working group consisting of Marc, Jim, Barbara, Nevine, ILAB President Adrian Harrington (often referred to as The Supreme Commander), and myself have been sending emails and phone calls whizzing across the globe, and sure enough on Tuesday morning of the 1st of December the new website and search engine were up and running, and I think, quite nice they are. There are still a few glitches, but it seems they are rapidly being sought out and eradicated.

The website has plenty of content, but not nearly as much as it will shortly, as Barbara Werner has prepared a great deal more, but the technical framework wasn't in place to get it all up on December 1st. However, I doubt anyone would notice it unless I mentioned it. At any rate, we plan to cram the site with content in the near future. As an extra incentive to visit the site, be aware that some of the latest BTC catalogues are available on the ILAB site as pdf files here.

As of this afternoon the volume of emails from confused booksellers and book collectors about the website has slowed to a trickle, and I have had time to write this blog entry!

A footnote about Matt's post of last week:

Matt mentioned that my highly organized workspace seemed a tad disheveled. Matt is relatively new here and obviously doesn't understand the law of physics that states, as any novice bookseller can tell you, that "books abhor a vacuum, and will expand to fill any space, especially a flat space, or even more especially a nice, neat flat space on Matt's desk." That might be why he has to clear stuff away from it every morning. You see, I stay here later than he does most evenings.

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2 Dec 2009 - Posted by Matt Histand

Excuses and More Excuses

Geez, it's my second post and I've already let our reader(s) down. In my first post I wrote that we would publish a new blog entry every Tuesday. It's now Wednesday, so obviously that didn't happen. Since I have no excuse, let me amend my earlier statement to say that from now on I do solemnly swear to post a new entry every week — probably. Whether that post is from me or Tom will most likely depend on whether he has something more interesting to catalog that day. If you would like more posts from Tom — the one who actually knows something about books, please encourage him by writing comments about his next post. Otherwise you'll be stuck with my ruminations on things you don't care about or probably already know.

As for what's new at BTC, the Holiday Catalog (a.k.a. catalog #155) has mailed and many of you are no doubt pouring over its contents. Just note that when you make that inevitable purchase, please call (856) 456-8008, and not the number listed in the catalog. Through some fantastically rare oversight that we are blaming on a computer glitch, Wall Street insiders and the looming H1N1 pandemic, two numbers were transposed. (Our sincere apologies to Manny's House of Cheese who has been kindly redirecting our sales calls.)

Lastly, browse over to the bio page to see our new avatars, courtesy of Tom Bloom. Mine, which had been an old balding writer, has been replaced with a more youthful image (shown above). Tom C. is now smartly dressed in a jacket and tie, as he appears each day here at BTC, and Dan is wearing his patented dress shirt and sweater vest combo. Books may be our business but looking good is our passion.

Cheers!

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25 Nov 2009 - Posted by Matt Histand

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you're familiar with Between the Covers, you certainly know Tom Bloom. His wonderful art decorates our website, most of our catalogs, and our fancy new blog. So on this Thanksgiving Eve, we figure what better way to say thanks than to pawn off his personal holiday card as our own. Happy Thanksgiving!

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24 Nov 2009 - Posted by Tom Congalton

MIA at the Boston Book Fair

Well, apparently Between the Covers now has a blog. Where to begin"¦ How about with what's been going on lately?

For the first time in nearly two decades I managed to personally miss the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. Now don't get me wrong, BTC exhibited, as we have every year since the powers-that-be at the ABAA nodded off and let me in. The booth was consigned to the reasonably competent supervision of Dan Gregory and Dave Stewart (don't even get me started about what those two rascals got up to on my dime: you guys had better return those 50 pounds of M&Ms to the Brattle Book Shop!)

This year I had to attend the wedding (or more accurately, the three-day "wedding event") of a family friend and former employee, the exotically named Mercury Winberg to the almost exotically named Dusty Amodio. Mercury was one of the earliest of BTC's "Summer Elves", those are the summer employees who do all the stuff that we adults are usually too lazy to do. She spent most of one summer scanning every single book in our inventory that didn't have an image, and that, along with her regal bearing earned her the nickname of The Scan Queen. But I digress.

Peter Stern expressed his sadness that I wouldn't be in Boston for the fair, claiming that he wanted me to join the elaborate dinner party that he has traditionally hosted in the past. When I intimated I might be able to get away for just the one evening he promptly rescinded the invitation. In retrospect, I'm not sure he was sad at all.

Unlike last year, when the fair wore a funereal aspect in the wake of the demise of the lamented and lamentable economy, sales were reasonably good, with sales to collectors, the trade, and librarians. After careful analysis I've determined that the good results were either due to an increased confidence in the economy, a flight to durable goods (i.e. rare books), or to the fact that I wasn't there to annoy customers in the booth. No need to speculate further about what the most important factor was. In any event, we'll take it.

Next up on the BTC book fair schedule is the New Jersey Antiquarian Book Fair on December 11-12, in East Hanover, New Jersey. This is usually an amusing little event, and we always look forward to seeing such giants of the trade as the aforementioned Stern, Jim Cummins, and Gary Austin. Of course, it's usually easiest to find them in the sports bar that adjoins the fair. Oh, yeah, and you can buy some books there too.

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24 Nov 2009 - Posted by Matt Histand

Welcome to the Between the Covers Blog

I'd like to welcome you to the first entry of the Between The Covers Blog. My name is Matt Histand and the powers-that-be have put me in charge of this new endeavor. In the coming days, Tom Congalton, Dan Gregory, and myself will take turns posting new entries on a weekly basis, so please check back with us every Tuesday to read about the doings here at BTC, and occasionally the topic of bookselling.

So who am I? Someone who sold Tom a couple books a few years ago and had been looking for a job ever since. Fortunately for me, my want for a job finally caught up to BTC's need for a new employee and I was hired. My desk is actually pictured on the BTC website here. It's the one labeled: "Tom's office." It's sort of hard to see under the piles of books, but you can spot it if you look for the empty chair. My desk has since been cleared off. Corey Bechelli, who lays out our catalogues, sits on the other side of the white shelves, along with Dan Gregory.

Tom's desk is just a few feet away by the windows, not that I've seen it in my two months here. I know generally where it is because I can see Tom's head above the pile. The clutter bothers Tom — at least in relation to my more Spartan workspace — because he's tasked me with chiding him from time to time about cleaning up his desk. It usually goes something like this:

Me: Tom, you should clean up your desk.
Tom: Clean up my desk?!
Me: Yes, it's cluttered and you told me"¦
Tom: You eyeballing me boy?!
Me: I'm looking at you.
Tom: I said, are you eyeballing me?!
Me: I guess so"¦
Tom: Never look me in the eyes.
Me: Ok"¦
Tom: I've been a bookseller for over 25 years. You're just a guy working for me. Never tell me what to do and never look me in the eyes!
Dan: Maybe you should leave Matt alone.
Tom: What?!
Dan: Maybe you should cut Matt some slack"¦
Tom: This isn't a book fair, Dan. You speak only when spoken to. Now don't you have some pictures to take?
Dan: Yes, Mr. Congalton"¦
Me: You should clean up your desk.
Tom: You're fired!
Me: Then you'll have to scan those books yourself.
Tom: Well, I guess in that case, you're hired again. But from now on call me Emperor!

Okay, that's not really how it goes here. It's usually more like this:

Me: Tom, you should clean up your desk.
Tom: Jolly good. Thanks for reminding me, dude.
Me: No problem.

You can see the lack of drama in that exchange. Actually, there's not much drama of any kind here. Both Dan and Tom are very even-tempered — though Tom does get a little grouchy when he has to handle a reprint. And Corey just cruises along on a sea of calm. It's a big change from previous jobs, I can tell you that.