Found around town
Books of interest turn up at local Las Vegas yard sales, estate sales, and thrift shops.
No, with the frequent exception of their very first book or two (press runs tend to be smaller for first-time authors, then when the rookie hits big the collectors scramble for first printings of titles like "Hunt for Red October" or "Horseman Pass By"), I'm not talking about those shelves and boxes full of the later works of Tom Clancy, Larry McMurtry, or Danielle Steele.
I'm talking about Gloria Swanson's personal copy of Fannie Hurst's "Imitation of Life," with Ms. Swanson's Art Deco black-and-white bookplate inside the front cover (and also with a stamped notation that the book must be returned to the studio library -- I wonder how much Miss Swanson's back fines add up to, by now), which I found in the garage underneath the plastic flowers at a local estate sale recently.
Or a 1940 inspirational title called "Hello Life!" by Elsie Talmadge Brandley, who had served on the board of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association in Salt Lake City, very good but in a chipped and "only good" dust jacket, found at a local thrift shop a few weeks back.
And why should anyone care about the work of Elsie Talmadge Brandley? Pretty much no one does, actually. (Though I'm sure she was a lovely person.)
No, this book is of interest because of the hand-penned gift inscription, to one Sister Edith Gibson, expressing deep regret at the accident which has brought her so near death, as well as faith that she will show a complete recovery. Or at least complete enough to allow her to read the book.
The message is then signed -- taking up two full blank pages -- in 21 different hands, by the 21 High Priests of the Las Vegas LDS (Mormon) Ward, circa 1940, including (assuming I've deciphered the handwritings correctly) Samuel F. Davis, Walter V. Long, S.E. Huntsman, Eldon Larson, Bryan L. Bunker, M. Joy Christensen, Reed Whipple, et al.
No, that doesn't make for a $500 book, like the true first of Mr. Clancy's "Hunt for Red October" (no price on the dust jacket flap, but don't be fooled by later book club editions; you want only six blurbs on the back panel of the jacket).
It isn't even a $50 book.
But this copy of "Hello Life!" is a little hologram of local Nevada history, fortuitously spared the dumpster, for which I give thanks.
Don't write embarrassing things in your books. That's why 3M invented Post-It Notes. If your ex DID write something embarrassing in your book, don't tear out the page, which will render the whole thing worthless. Smile at the follies of youth and pass the volume along intact, secure in the knowledge that in practically no time, no one will have the slightest idea who "Sweetie-kins" was, anyway.
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