Feb 20 2009
ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR
If you have time tomorrow and six bucks you should go. No joke. I went tonight because, well, tomorrow I plan on sitting in the closet smoking slices of black cake and eating buttered toast.
Granted, most of the stuff was expensive (like signed first editions of William Lindsey Gresham's Nightmare Alley for $500 bucks expensive) but there were some bargains to be found. I picked up a collection of William S. Burrough's essays, Robert Bloch's Strange Aeons, and James M. Cain's The Enchanted Isle all for $25. I also picked up a book on Black Magic by Idries Shah, which ... ummmm... yeah ... who knew Ramen noodles could taste so good!
But the real reason to go is to see some of these books. First editions of the Oz books, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Stevenson's Treasure Island with NC Wyeth illustrations, zoological prints, maps, a Sears Roebuck travel guide to Russia circa 1875 (and actually quite cheap at $125), Jiu-Jitsu manuals from the 1920s (also cheap), something titled Private Life in the Middle Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt, and porn, old freakie-freakster porn -- Tijuana Bibles, histories of erotic postcards, and plenty of copies of that Ziegfield Jazz-age Beauties book. You know, the one with all those naked pictures in it.
You ever wonder what happened to those folks in those 50s beatnik nudie films (and don't tell me you haven't) -- come on down to the book fair and meet them. Almost every one of the dealers looks like the old couple from Rosemary's Baby.
And the people wondering around. I swear at least eight of them were Peter Bogdanovich.
Info here.
Granted, most of the stuff was expensive (like signed first editions of William Lindsey Gresham's Nightmare Alley for $500 bucks expensive) but there were some bargains to be found. I picked up a collection of William S. Burrough's essays, Robert Bloch's Strange Aeons, and James M. Cain's The Enchanted Isle all for $25. I also picked up a book on Black Magic by Idries Shah, which ... ummmm... yeah ... who knew Ramen noodles could taste so good!
But the real reason to go is to see some of these books. First editions of the Oz books, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Stevenson's Treasure Island with NC Wyeth illustrations, zoological prints, maps, a Sears Roebuck travel guide to Russia circa 1875 (and actually quite cheap at $125), Jiu-Jitsu manuals from the 1920s (also cheap), something titled Private Life in the Middle Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt, and porn, old freakie-freakster porn -- Tijuana Bibles, histories of erotic postcards, and plenty of copies of that Ziegfield Jazz-age Beauties book. You know, the one with all those naked pictures in it.
You ever wonder what happened to those folks in those 50s beatnik nudie films (and don't tell me you haven't) -- come on down to the book fair and meet them. Almost every one of the dealers looks like the old couple from Rosemary's Baby.
And the people wondering around. I swear at least eight of them were Peter Bogdanovich.
Info here.
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