Biblio-Connecting

February 2012

2012-02-28T19:29:00.004-05:00

Feb 02, 2012:
Dave Larkin, my cataloging partner on Library Thing announces that he has completed the cataloguing of the Boswell books listed in the 1916 Sotheby Sale! All that remains to be catalogued regarding the Boswell libraries is the 1770 Catalogue of Books Belonging to James Boswell and then we will be pau with Boswell. "Pau" means "finished" in Hawaiian.

Feb 03, 2012:
In a local thrift store I pick up a copy of Bookmarks: A Guide to Research and Writing. I intend to continue my research of the pre-1959 editions of Strunk's Elements of Style. I was disappointed in Mark Garvey's 2009 book celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of E.B. White's version of Strunk's book. I intend to write a book celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of Strunk's book in 2018.

Feb 03, 2012:
My biblio-friend from Missouri, Mark Barnett, sends me a link to an 1820 set of the Works of Samuel Johnson that Better World Books is auctioning on eBay:

An impressive set indeed, and it sold for $263! But I'm happy with my set of the 1823 edition. After browsing the other stuff Better World Books has listed on eBay, I include them on my eBay Saved Seller list. Thanks Mark!

Feb 04, 2012:
Per Rålamb, proprietor of Rosenlund Rare Books, informs me that the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies has published an article by him in the latest issue of the FABS periodical. I haven't received my copy yet but I will watch for it.

Feb 05, 2012:
I buy a copy of the romance novel my son Craig's mother-in-law, BonSue Brandvik, recently published: Pearls (Spirits of the Belleview Biltmore)

My wife enjoyed reading the book and is looking forward to reading BonSue's next one in the series. Her book is available on Amazon. Now I'm not into reading romances myself, but I particularly enjoyed reading the inscription BonSue wrote on the title page:

Feb 06, 2012:
Terry Seymour queries me regarding the listing of a lot in the 1893 Auchinleck Sale of the Boswell library. Terry is painstakenly reviewing his research regarding the books formerly owned by James Boswell and his immediate family. And he plans to publish the results of his research! I must say I am looking forward to acquiring a copy. Terry not only identifies the books belonging to the Boswells; he goes the extra mile, and traces the provenance of the books, acquiring the bookseller catalogues of the booksellers who bought the books at the auction, as well as the auction catalogues of the buyers the booksellers sold the books to.

Feb 12, 2012:
16th and 17th Century books bound in vellum advertised for interior decorating purposes??? Per Rålamb's wife found this site while browsing the web.

Feb 17, 2012:
Today is toodle day with the Harrises! But prior to hitting the thrift stores, Eve Harris gives me a book for my Poetry Collection:

I shall catalogue this book under sick humor.

Feb 17, 2012:
Let's try it again. Today is toodle day with the Harrises. . . ! I find only two books today: The Historic Places of Pasco County and a book about celebrity homes presented by Architectural Digest. I get the first book because I live in Pasco County. I get the second book because it displays the homes of Truman Capote, Coco Chanel, Julia Child, Senator Edward Kennedy, Robert Redford, Dinah Shore, Barbara Walters and more, albeit from 1977. Libraries are displayed in some of the photos, the most impressive of which is Coco Chanel's library.

Feb 22, 2012:
In a local thrift store I find a copy of The Big Kiss-Off of 1944: A Jack LeVine Mystery by Andrew Bergman, of Blazing Saddles fame. An excellent book! Moi recommends!

Feb 23, 2012:
I receive an informative email from my London friend Sandy Malcolm. He tells me he'll be meeting Terry Seymour for lunch in London next Saturday the 3rd, along with Howard Mather of Wykeham Books. Sandy also says he attended the Bibliographical Society meeting in London on the 21st, and David Pearson mentioned Library Thing cataloguing early libraries several times in his Presidential Address. Kudos to all LT cataloguers!

Feb 24, 2012:
I query Terry Seymour about his London trip. He's giving a talk before the Boswell Society in Lichfield on the 2nd. Congrats Terry!

Feb 24, 2012:
I kill two birds with one stone. I couldn't put Bergman's first Jack LeVine mystery down and finish it this morning. An hour later I download Hollywood and LeVine unto my Kindle! My very first read of a Kindle edition. So far I'm enjoying the read. But I feel guilty in a way because deep down I'm still a book-in-hand man.

Feb 25, 2012:
I post to My Sentimental Library blog: Odd Volumes, Association Copies, and Other Interesting Items in My Samuel Johnson Collection. In the mail a few hours later I receive a copy of Samuel Johnson: A Collection of Critical Essays edited by Donald J. Greene.

Feb 26, 2012:
Jeremy Dibbell posts a link to My Sentimental Library blog on his Philobiblos blog. Thirty minutes later Google notifies me that the sudden monumental surge on my meter reader stats is bringing blogspot close to crashing! Thanks Jeremy!

Feb 26, 2012:
Terry Seymour challenges me to use my research skills in identifying the buyer of Lot 695 of the 1893 Auchinleck Sale: Wolford or Walford. The book sold in the lot is a descriptive catalogue on gems and cameos. It takes me two hours to identify Edward Walford (1823-1897) as the buyer. Walford edited a number of books including Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer and was personally acquainted with Lord Talbot de Malahide.

Feb 28, 2012:
A few more additions for my library, three of which come via my friends Tom and Eve Harris: Another copy of The Elements of Style; Rereadings by Anne Fadiman and Not For Tourists Guide to New York City 2007. In a Sheriff's Youth Ranch Thrift Store I find a copy of Emergency Preparedness from the Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge Series. This is my third book about the Boy Scouts. Another collection?

No posting tomorrow the 29th! My wife is having a tooth extracted this coming Friday – Ouch! – so tomorrow will be toodling day instead. Until next month . . . .

Biblio-Connecting

2011-07-05T07:28:00.022-04:00

Mar 02, 2010:

James Caudle, Associate Editor of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, prepares to correspond with Terry Seymour, an independent researcher, and with me, a volunteer online cataloguer. We are working on separate but similar projects concerning James Boswell. Terry is compiling a provenance record of the Boswell Family Library intended for publication. I am cataloguing the Boswell Library online at Library Thing, a website where one can catalogue books for all to view. James Caudle says to himself, "You should connect these guys... so they can exchange research findings where relevant. " So he sends an email introducing us to each other.

And that's what this piece is all about: how a bibliophile connects with other people in the book world, corresponds with them, and even meets some of them. It is also about how one person evolves from being an avid reader to becoming an enthusiastic book collector and then to becoming a raving bibliomaniac.

Biblio-Connecting begins!

Jun 1985:
I am stationed at RAF Mildenhall, England about 70 miles northeast of London, serving my last tour in the U.S. Air Force before retiring in 1989. Shortly after my arrival, I buy a 1985 Toyota van, known in England as a Toyota Space Cruiser. While the van is being initially serviced at the dealership in Bury St Edmunds, I browse the antique stores and book stores in the town. I am astounded at the low cost of "old" dictionaries and quotation books –– less than £1. I buy enough books to fill the back of my new van. I had always been an avid reader. Now I want books to keep. I am a book collector!

Note: "old" to newbie book collector me is 'the early 1900s."

Aug, 1985
The book pictured above, lacking both of its covers, significantly expands my horizons as a book collector. It is laying on top of a bookcase in an antique store in one of the villages near RAF Mildenhall, England. My wife is looking at antique furniture, so I pick up the book and start reading it. It is a book of essays, an odd volume of The Works of Samuel Johnson, published in 1806, the Idler essays, to be exact. I am so absorbed in reading the book that the antique store owner lets me keep it. The fact that my wife bought some antique furniture may have had something to do with his generosity.

Sep 1985:
I am at a book fair in Long Melford, Suffolk County, England and notice a 1776 edition of The Rambler by Samuel Johnson:

I enjoyed reading The Idler essays so much that I want more. I buy my first of many Samuel Johnson works. A Samuel Johnson Collector I am!

Sep 1985 –– Jun 1989:

I am a regular customer at Faith Legg's Guildhall Bookroom in Eye, Suffolk County, England. Faith sees that I am building not so much a collector's library , but a reader's library, so she introduces me to the numerous inexpensive trade editions published by J.M. Dent and others. She also gives me a pamphlet which puts a serious dent in the family bank account. She replaces the pamphlet with updated editions each year. What a bookseller!

This pamphlet contains the names, addresses, phone numbers, and specialties of all the booksellers who are members of the Provincial Booksellers Fair Association. Each weekend, my wife and I visit the bookstores listed in the pamphlet as well as the antique stores located in the village. We go to Trinder's Bookseller in Clare, Suffolk County, England one weekend. On the bargain table, my wife finds this book:

The Best Books: A Reader's Guide to the Choice of the Best Available Books (About 50,000) From Every Different Department of Science by William Swann Sonnenschein. This book gets me started in collecting Books About Books.

Cambridge, England is just a short drive from RAF Mildenhall. And there are over ten used and antiquarian bookstores in Cambridge. One of my first purchases here is The Crowned Masterpieces of Eloquence, edited by Augustine Birrell, an author I would become most familiar with.

My biggest buy, however, is in Hay-on-Wye, Richard Booth's town of books:

In Hay-on-Wye, I buy thirty-eight volumes of Johnson's Poets, some of which contain an armorial book stamp. It will take me over fifteen years to identify the owner of the bookstamp, John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745-1799).

And then there are the London bookstores, especially Nigel Burwood's Any Amount of Books on Charing Cross Road. We drive to the outskirts of London and take The Tube the rest of the way. I purchase too many books in London to mention here. But I should mention "the ones that got away." I have the opportunity to buy all the supplements to Sonnenschien's Best Books, but pass them up because I already have an armful of books. When I go back to buy them several weeks later, they were no longer there.

Rick Arlotta, my friend and pinochle partner in England, builds the sewing press pictured below for me. I discover I have a knack for rebinding books, and buy collectible books in need of repair at greatly reduced prices.

I write a definition paper for a College English class at RAF Mildenhall. The piece, appropriately titled "Moi the Bibliomaniac," is a fitting summary of my early book collecting days in England.

Jun 1989:
I am back in the states, residing in Florida, on terminal leave from the Air Force. I will retire in September with almost twenty-three years of service. My first book-related question is "Where are all the book stores?" England spoiled me! On one hand, I can count the number of used and antiquarian bookstores in a twenty-mile radius of my home. I can count on two hands the number of used and antiquarian bookstores in a fifty-mile radius of my home. Faye Wilson's bookstore on Jasmine Blvd is the closest, and Mike Slicker's Lighthouse Books in St. Petersburg is the best the area has to offer.

Jun 1989 – Aug 1998

Once I get settled in, I subscribe to AB Bookman's Weekly. I had picked up a copy of it at the ABAA book fair in London in June, 1989. Each week I scrutinize the lists of books for sale.

I also start buying books about books from Oak Knoll Books, acquiring many of their catalogues along the way.

Jul 1989 – May 1997:
I start working full time for Waldenbooks in the nearby mall. I convert to working part-time at night in May 1990 when my day job becomes delivering the mail for the Post Office. I continue to work for Waldenbooks until May 1997 when working two jobs becomes too much.

Mar 1990 - Mar 2003:
Every March I attend the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, and usually make a sizable amount of purchases.

Aug 09, 1998:
I sign up for eBay. My user id is moi_the_bibliomaniac. eBay quickly becomes my primary source of books, In the next 12 years I will leave feedback for 959 transactions and receive feedback for 834 transactions from 750 different eBay buyers and sellers. This is a list of some of my early eBay purchases:

Apr 04, 1999:
I post to rec.collecting.books (RCB) for the first time. My user id is moibibliomaniac. RCB is an unmoderated usenet group for discussion of all aspects of book collecting. Scot Kamins had announced the formation of the group on Jun 12, 1996. Mike Berro kept the RCB FAQ up to date. I will post to RCB over 1500 times in the next eight years, corresponding off-list with about 10 members of the group.

Nov 15, 1999:
On eBay, I sell some books I no longer want in my book collection to Asta Beckett, a bibliophile from California. We become friends and share hundreds of emails in the years to come.

Nov 21, 1999:
I create my first webtv website, Mois Books About Books, to display my ever-expanding Books About Books Collection. I will eventually have three webtv websites to display all my collections. One of my webtv websites has a domain name, MoisLibrarydotcom with links to all my collections. Webtv is a device that provides internet browsing and email service that is displayed on a television. The display looks lousy on a computer screen. To view it more clearly, it is best to highlight the page when it comes up. To view the entire website, page by page, click "next page" in the bottom right-hand corner.

Dec 03, 2000:
On eBay, I acquire the first seven volumes of the eight-volume set of the First American Edition of Shakespeare's Plays and Poems, published in 1795 and 1796. I acquired Volume VIII several months earlier. I may have the only complete set of the First American Edition of Shakespeare's Works in private hands.

Jan 14, 2001:
Ed Schaeffer, a member of the RCB group, and the webmaster of JamesBoswell.com, invites me to join the Johnsonian Group on Yahoo, a mailing list dedicated to Samuel Johnson. Looking at the membership list, I notice the names of a number of Johnsonian scholars.

Sep 21, 2001:
Old Stoneface: Memories of New York. Nothing to do with books, but everything to do with New York.

Sep 24, 2001:
Sandy Malcolm, a bibliophile from London, posts to RCB for the first time. In the next few months we learn that we have similar book collecting interests, and begin corresponding. Sandy becomes my "London agent" and I become his "American agent," paying for and shipping books across the pond to each other.

Nov 2001: In an email, I introduce Asta Beckett and Sandy Malcolm to each other. Soon, we are sending joint emails. The Three Amigos we are! Sandy visits Asta in California a few years later. And I meet Asta at the airport in California on my way to Hawaii one year.

Jan 02, 2002:
I post a thread on RCB to get people talking about their book collections. The last lines of the thread read, "Pray Tell! What are your collecting whims?"

May 04, 2002:
Another thread on RCB: Collecting Whims Revisited.

Jan 12, 2003:
Sandy Malcolm gives me A Lesson in Bibliography. Believe me, it is well worth reading.

Sep 03, 2003:

Prior to publication in the London newspaper, The Independent, Gabriel Austin emails Nicholas Barker's obituary of Mary Hyde Eccles to family members and friends in the book world. I am one of his friends. I had responded to one of Gabriel Austin's threads on the Ex-Libris-L about a year earlier, and we had been corresponding ever since. ExLibris-L is a mailing list for librarians, booksellers and book collectors. I soon discover that Gabriel Austin was a close friend of Donald and Mary Hyde, and the editor of Four Oaks Farm and Four Oaks Library, Somerville, 1967, two books about the home and library of Donald and Mary Hyde. The Hydes were Samuel Johnson collectors. I am a Samuel Johnson collector. I soon become a Mary Hyde collector as well.

Sep 2003 – Jan. 2007:
I finally become a member of the Florida Bibliophile Society (FBS). Each March the FBS mans a table at the entrance to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, and has a sign-up sheet for new members. Each year since 1990, I sign up to become a member of the FBS, forget about the April meeting, and then decide not to "crash" the FBS's banquet in May because I don't know any of the members. When the FBS meets again each year at 1 PM on the third Sunday in September, I am in my recliner watching football on TV. An avid football fan I am. Baseball too! But books finally win out in 2003. In the next few years, I create a website for the FBS, and then become President of the FBS.

Jul 2004:

The online edition of AB Bookman's Weekly publishes, "The Story of a Bookplate," a piece I wrote about Edward Martin's bookplate. His bookplate tells the story of his service to the great state of Pennsylvania as a General in the National Guard, as a Governor, and as a Senator.

Sep 19, 2004:

At the September meeting of the Florida Bibliophile Society, Lee Harrer, a founding member, hands me a copy of the September 2004 issue of The Caxtonian; Lee is a member of the Caxton Club as well. Because I have similar collecting interests with its author, Paul T. Ruxin, Lee knows I will be interested in reading the feature article, "Other People's Books: Association Copies and Another Pleasure of Collecting." The article is about a book in Paul Ruxin's library that was formerly owned by Samuel Johnson.

Sep 20, 2004:

I contact Paul Ruxin, congratulate him on his article, and tell him that I collect association copies as well, but on a mailman's salary (Paul is a partner in a prestigious Chicago law firm). I tell him that I am going to acquire a copy of his book, Friday Lunch, Cleveland, 2002, containing his talks before the Rowfant Club. I explain that I am going to give talks before the Florida Bibliophile Society and plan on reading his book beforehand. Paul Ruxin responds the next day. We have been corresponding ever since.

Dec 2004:

The online edition of AB Bookman's Weekly publishes "The Sentimental Airman," a piece I wrote about collecting association copies pertaining to the military. My Sentimental Airman Collection includes books formerly owned by a pilot who was a Tuskegee Airman, Charles Lindburgh, General Billy MItchell, and one of the 52 hostages in Iran, the Air Force Attache at the Embassy in Tehran.

Dec 04, 2004:
Another round of Collecting Whims Revisited at RCB.

Mar 20, 2005:

Paul T. Ruxin comes to Florida to be guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Florida Bibliophile Society (I invited him). He visits my library before the meeting then delivers his talk about Samuel Johnson, "Soft-Hearted Sam."

Oct 16, 2005:

I read my paper, "William Targ, Bibliophile," before the Florida Bibliophile Society. Targ is one of the bibliophiles in my library. He was a book collector, bookseller, editor, and publisher from Chicago. Afterwards, I post the paper on my Bibliophiles in My Library blog.

Feb 19, 2006:

I present my talk, "Mary Hyde and the Unending Pursuit," before the Florida Bibliophile Society. Mary Hyde is one of the bibliophiles in my library. I post this talk on my Bibliophiles in My Library blog as well.

Mar – Sep 2006:

I have heart problems and can no longer deliver the mail. To make ends meet until my disability is approved, I sell some of my collections, but manage to keep other collections intact.

Jan 2007:

I take a break from bibliomania. I resign as President of the Florida Bibliophile Society. My wife and I fly to Hawaii to watch some of our grandchildren while their father deploys to Iraq.

Feb 20, 2007:
With my webtv websites now closed, I switch my domain name, moislibrary.com, to my picture trail album. This photo album displays, among other things, my collection of association copies.

Jun 20, 2007:
My Library: A View From the Crib

Oct 28, Nov 1, 2007:
Researching a G.B. Hill A.L.S. I post the results of my research of a George Birkbeck Hill letter to ExLibris- and to the Johnsonian Group at Yahoo. I receive assistance from Anne McDermott, the Johnsonian scholar and from Catherine Dille, the G.B. Hill scholar.

Jan 26, 2008:

(I am back in Florida now) Instead of creating new websites to display my book collections, I catalogue my books on Library Thing. I no sooner finish when Dave Larkin invites me to help him catalogue Samuel Johnson's library. Dave contacts me because I have the largest Samuel Johnson collection on Library Thing. It takes us four months to catalogue the 1785 sale catalogue of Samuel Johnson's library.

Feb 11, 2008:

Lee Harrer informs me that the Caxton Club is requesting submissions for a book on association copies, tentatively titled, Discovery By Association: Insights From Collectors About Their Books. I submit several essay proposals to the Caxton Club.

Mar 2008:

One of my essays, "Hither – unpublished Obiter Dicta," is eventually selected as one of the essays to be published in the upcoming Caxton Club book. My essay is about Augustine Birrell's annotated copy of Lectures on the French Revolution by Lord Acton. Birrell, the author of a number of essays, most notably Obiter Dicta, First and Second Series, was the Irish Secretary in Ireland during the Easter Rising in Ireland. I submit my first draft to my editor Susan Rossen in Mar 2008. There would be several revisions in the months to come.

Jun 02, 2008:

Dave Larkin and I begin cataloguing the library of Charles Lamb on Library Thing. We refer to A Descriptive Catalogue of The Library of Charles Lamb published by the Dibdin Club in 1897, lists of books identified by W. Carew Hazlitt and E.V. Lucas, and specific books mentioned in letters written by Lamb to his friends. I have both the Bibliophile Society and Marrs editions of Lamb's letters. Additionally, I query the librarians on the ExLibris-L mailing list, asking if they have any books from the library of Charles Lamb in their book stacks. The response is huge! I receive inputs from the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University, the John Hay Library at Brown University, the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, the Lilly Library at Indiana State University, the Dunedin Public Libraries in New Zealand, and Cambridge University Library in England. It would take us three months to catalogue Lamb's library.

Oct. 02, 2008:

Dave Larkin and I begin cataloguing the books listed in the 1825 Catalogue of James Boswell on Library Thing. We are joined by Anna Ritchie in Scotland.

Oct 19, 2008:

I query Gabriel Austin, about cataloguing the Library of Donald and Mary Hyde in the new year – such high hopes I had. Gabriel provides me with contact sources and lists of books.

Jan 2009:

I query John Overholt, Assistant Curator of the Hyde Collection and Early Modern Books and Manuscripts at Houghton Library, Harvard, requesting that Harvard export their MARC records of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson to Library Thing.

Mar 2009:

John Overholt notifies me that Harvard approved my request to export the MARC records of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson. But it would take months for John to coordinate the project through the various Harvard offices of responsibility.

Mar 21, 2009:

I read my paper, "Cataloging Dead People's Books, Namely the Libraries of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell, and Charles Lamb" at the monthly meeting of the Florida Bibliophile Society and post it afterwards on my Bibliophiles in My Library blog.

Jun 2009:

I become a member of the Bibliographical Society based at Oxford. Membership provides online access to the archives of The Library, the journal of the Bibliographical Society.

Jul 30, 2009:

Dear Anne Fadiman,

   I am a student of the essay, and just ordered a copy of your book,
   At Large And At Small: Familiar Essays. Several reviews of your
   book mention your love of Charles Lamb, an author I'm most familiar
   with; I recently helped catalogue Charles Lamb's library on Library Thing,
   and thought you might enjoy browsing the catalogue of his library.

best,

Jerry Morris,

book collector

Jul 31, 2009:

Anne Fadiman responds, thanking me for my efforts and for forwarding the link to Lamb's library.

Sep 2009:

The Johnsonian News Letter publishes my notice that the libraries of Samuel Johnson and James Boswell can be viewed online at Librarything.com. The Johnson Library is complete and we are still cataloguing the Boswell Library.

Sep 21, 2009:
A Correction to the Copyright and Bibliographic Records of the Elements of Style.

Sep 28, 2009:

I post a thread to ExLibris-L informing its members that the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson was now available for viewing on Library Thing. I congratulate John Overholt for coordinating the export of the MARC Records of the collection, saving us months of cataloguing time.

Sep 28, 2009

Maureen E. Mulvihill, a scholar and writer in NYC, contacts me, thanking me for my earlier ExLibris-L post. Maureen informs me that her auction report on the Peyraud Collection (Bloomsbury Auctions-New York, May 09), a collection which contained a number of items about Samuel Johnson and his circle, would be published in the Fall, 2009 issue of Eighteenth-Century Studies. Maureen and I would share many emails and useful information in the next 18 months. And in a joint email several months later, I would introduce a new friend, Maureen E. Mulvihill, to an old friend, Sandy Malcolm.

Oct 06, 2009:

I post to Exlibris and to My Sentimental Library blog about "An Unexpected Find in Umatilla, Florida." It was Sidney Ives's annotated copy of W. Jackson Bate's biography of Samuel Johnson – with a letter from Mary Hyde enclosed. Philip Bishop, proprietor of Mosher Books, and the author of several books about Thomas Bird Mosher, compliments me on my article and on my three blogs: My Sentimental Library, Biblio Researching, and Bibliophiles in My Library. Philip Bishop is also one of the authors whose essay will appear in the upcoming Caxton Club book about association copies.

Nov 24, 2009:

We announce on Library Thing that the cataloguing of James Boswell's library is complete. It had taken Dave Larkin, Anna Ritchie and I over 13 months and 2,957 entries to complete the cataloguing of the 1825 auction catalogue.

Nov 29, 2009:

Dave Larkin starts cataloguing the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Japanese Books. Dave, who used to work in Japan, enters the books in both English and Japanese Script, while referring to the copy of the 1988 Christie's auction catalogue that I gave him (I had two copies).

Nov 2009 – Oct 2010:

In the next year, I would complete the cataloguing of the following Hyde collections on Library Thing: Drama, Henry Fielding, Fine Binding, Forgeries, Architecture, and Sporting Books,

Dec 03, 2009:

I query Andrea Lloyd, Books Reference Specialist for the British Library, requesting that the British Library export the MARC Records of the Oscar Wilde Collection to LIbrary Thing. Mary Viscountess Eccles (Mary Hyde) bequeathed this collection to the BL. I mention that the Houghton Library at Harvard exported the MARC Records of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson to Library Thing, saving us months of cataloguing time.

Dec 17, 2009:

Andrea Lloyd informs me that the BL approved my request. I post to the ExLibris-L mailing list, thanking Andrea Lloyd for coordinating the upload to Library Thing of the MARC Records of the Oscar Wilde Collection.

Dec 2009 – Jun 2010:

I catalogue the Undergraduate Library of Samuel Johnson on Library Thing. When Samuel Johnson was forced to leave Pembroke College in December, 1729 because of lack of funds, he left his books behind. While corresponding with the G. B. Hill scholar, Catherine Dille, she informed me that Johnson wrote a catalogue of these books on the back of a 1735 letter to Gilbert Repington, who was caring for his books. I research further. In the footnote to this letter in the Hyde Edition of The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Princeton, 1992, Bruce Redford noted that A. L. Reade described these books in detail in Vol V of Johnsonian Gleanings, New York, 1968 (originally published in 1928). I refer to Reade's book while cataloguing Johnson's Undergraduate Library.

Feb 04, 2010:

James Caudle, Associate Editor of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell, contacts me after reading my notice in the Sep 2009 issue of the Johnsonian News Letter about the Boswell Library being online at library Thing. James introduces himself, and we begin corresponding. When he learns I am looking for a copy of the 1893 Auchinleck Sale to further catalogue the Boswell Library, he sends me a copy.

Mar 02, 2010:

James Caudle prepares to correspond with Terry Seymour, an independent researcher, and with me, a volunteer online cataloger. We are working on separate but similar projects concerning James Boswell. Terry is compiling a provenance record of the Boswell Family Library. I am cataloguing the Boswell Library online at Library Thing, James Caudle says to himself, "You should connect these guys –– or at least provide the means for them to contact each other –– so they can exchange research findings where relevant." So he sends a joint email introducing us to each other.

Mar 02, 2010:

Terry Seymour and I respond to James Caudle's joint email. We would exchange over 100 emails in the next year. We are both contributors to the upcoming Caxton Club book on association copies. I mention that I am taking a break from cataloguing to spruce up my library for some visitors. Mark Samuels Lasner and Donald Farren would be visiting my library the day after the opening of the Tampa exhibition of Mark's "Facing the Late Victorians Exhibition." My wife and I would be attending the exhibition as Mark's guests. Terry replies that he's on the Princeton Library Council with Mark and Don, was unaware of Mark's Exhibition in Tampa, was in Port Charlotte, Fl. for the summer, and would drive up for the Exhibition. I invite Terry to visit my library as well, but he already has plans for Saturday.

Mar 05, 2010:

My wife and I attend the Lasner Exhibition in Tampa. Terry drives up from Port Charlotte. We meet before the exhibition begins. I finally get to meet Mark Samuels Lasner. We had been corresponding for about ten years. Donald Farren does a double-take when he sees Terry Seymour here in Tampa. I buy a copy of Facing the Late Victorians. The cashier asks if I'd like the author to sign it. I reply, "Mark will sign it when he visits my library tomorrow."

Mar 06, 2010: Mark Samuels Lasner and Donald Farren visit my library, browse my books, and we have a bibliofest. They notice a book that Paul Ruxin gave me when he visited my library in 2005. I mention that Paul came down to speak before the Florida Bibliophile Society. Both Mark and Don say they want Paul to speak before the Baltimore Bibliophiles. I forward the invitation to Paul, introducing him to Mark and Don in a joint email.

Mar 08, 2010:

I present a talk on Mary Hyde before the Crescent Oaks Book Club, a ladies group in the local area:

Mar 08, 2010:

In a joint email to Terry Seymour and me, Paul Ruxin introduces us to each other. Terry informs Paul that we actually met each other at the Lasner Exhibition in Tampa just three days prior.

Apr 17, 2010:

In a joint email to Terry Seymour, James Caudle, and me, Paul Ruxin introduces the Caxton Club book editor, Kim Coventry. She will be writing the Preface for the upcoming Caxton Club book whose revised title is Other People's Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell. Kim wants our assistance in identifying the Caxton Club member who was the owner of James Boswell's copy of Johnson's Lives of the Poets, London, 1790, lot number 1482 of the 1825 auction catalogue of Boswell's library. This was one of the works mentioned in the first Caxton Club exhibition catalog of association books in 1896. Samuel Johnson was the only author from the 1896 book mentioned in the forthcoming Caxton Club book. I'm on vacation in a beach-front cabin at Bellows Air Station, a recreation area for the military in Hawaii, but that does not prevent me from researching the matter.

Apr 18, 2010:

   Everyone is still sleeping here in our cabin in Hawaii –except for me – I'm
   listening to the waves and researching Johnson and Boswell on the web.
   Here's a few things I found to help you in our research while I continue my

vacation:

   The Bookman reviewed the catalogue. The owner only had three of the four
   volumes. Growoll, in American Book Clubs, shows two editions of the
   catalogue. The word "Exlibris" is omitted in the second edition.

Everyone is waking up now so I'm going back to vacation mode.

Aloha,

Jerry, on the beach in Hawaii

Apr 20 – 22, 2010:

I was to send two additional emails concerning Dewitt MIller from my beach-front cabin at Bellows Air Force Station, Hawaii.
Note: The image above, taken on the beach at Bellows , serves as my desktop background. Is it vacation time again yet?

May 02, 2010:

(I am back in Florida now) Dave Larkin, Anna Ritchie, and I begin cataloguing the books listed in the 1893 Auchinleck Sale of the Boswell Library. Anna is now in the Netherlands.

May 03, 2010:

Kim Coventry provides the Boswell Group (Terry, James, and I) with a list of the subscribers to the 1896 Caxton Club exhibition catalogue on association copies.

May 05, 2010:

I research the Caxton Club members. Jahu Dewitt Miller, a flamboyant book collector, appears to be the most likely owner of Boswell's copy of The Lives; he even had two copies of the Caxton Club catalogue.

May 10, 2010:

I query the Exlibris-L mailing list with the following Subject line: Is Boswell's Copy of __The Lives__ Sitting in Your Stacks?

I receive a few leads, but nothing pans out. The Caxtonian, John P. Chalmers, suggests we contact Nicholas B. Sheetz, Manuscripts Librarian at Georgetown University Library, who collected Dewitt Miller's books. Ironically, Nicholas is also a contributor to the forthcoming Caxton Club book on association copies. And his essay is about Dewitt Miller! Norman Kane, Proprietor of The Americanist, recalls that Miller stored his books in the library of an all-girls school on property that was eventually taken over by the government, and used to house personnel from Walter Reed Hospital. Norman gives me the name and city of Col. Paul Jung, a retired army colonel from Walter Reed, who was interested in the Miller Library.

May 11, 2010:

I track down Retired Col. Paul Jung in Bechtelsville, Pa. by phone. We have an extended conversation which brings back pleasant memories for him, but no evidence that Boswell's copy of The Lives was ever at the National Park Seminary, the name of the school in Forest Glen, Maryland.

May 13, 2010:

I query Don Farren asking him to bring up my Dewitt Miller query at the meeting of the Baltimore Bibliophiles on the 19th. Don posts a joint email to all the members of the Baltimore Bibliophiles. We receive several substantial leads but nothing that identifies Dewitt Miller as the owner.

May 14, 2010:

I contact Kim Coventry conceding that I could not prove that Miller was the owner of Boswell's copy of The Lives. We were, however, able to track the trail of provenance from "Jesse" (possibly Edward Jesse) who bought it at the auction in 1825, to the Johnsonian, J.W. Croker, to Gen. Horatio Rogers, and then to the still unidentified Caxton Club owner of 1896.

Jun 07, 2010:

I drive up to New York for a family memorial service in the beginning of June. On the following Monday, Terry Seymour drives from Pennsylvania, picks me up in West Harrison, New York, and we meet Dave Larkin in the lobby of the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University. We then meet James Caudle, who gives us a tour of the "Boswell Factory," and introduces us to Gordon Turnbull, editor of the Yale Editions of the Private Papers of James Boswell. Joining us for lunch is the eminent bookseller Robert J. Barry. A fine biblio day was had by all.

Jun 08, 2010:

I drive to Pennsylvania to visit Terry Seymour's library. The entire basement is devoted to the books of the Everyman's Library series – over five thousand books from every edition J. M. Dent published and more:

Jun 2010:

I acquire a KB pass from the Library of the Netherlands. The pass gives me access to online scholarly journals (JSTOR, Project Muse) and numerous online databases.

Jul 08, 2010:

Paul Tankard, the scholar from New Zealand, queries me with a question about James Boswell's library. He is preparing an edition of Boswell's journalistic writings and wants to know how many books were in Boswell's Library. Good question. No good definite answer. No one knows which books belonged to James Boswell, and which ones belonged to his sons or to his father.

Jul 24, 2010:

I am guest blogger on Lew Jaffe's blog, "Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie." I provide a "collector profile" and display my Henry Blackwell bookplates. Blackwell was a bookbinder in New York City. He wrote a chapter on the study and arrangement of bookplates for W.G. Bowdoin's book, The Rise of the Book-Plate, New York, 1901.

Oct 24, 2010:

I review the final layout of my essay, "Hither-Unpublished Obiter Dicta," and submit it to Kim Coventry, the editor of Other People's Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell. It had taken months of coordination with my editor, Susan Rossen to get the essay in perfect shape. The book would be released in March 2011.

Oct 26, 2010:
I create the RCB Refugee Camp, a private group on Library Thing where former RCBers and their friends can communicate, brag, or commiserate. Some of the former RCBers who joined are MIke Berro, Scot Kamins, John Pelan, Bud Webster, Denise Enck, John Yamamoto-Wilson, William Klimon, Alice Voith, John Kunzig, James Keeline, and Gary Pfeifer.

Feb 02, 2011:

On My Sentimental Library Blog, I post "Changing Bookplates: Multiple Bookplates of Famous People," displaying bookplates from my own collection and from the collection of Lew Jaffe, the bookplate maven. Linde Brocato, the scholar in Early Spanish Literature, provides information on a Picasso bookplate belonging to Nelson Rockefeller in Jaffe's collection.

Mar 06, 2011:

I post a list of Maureen E. Mulvihill's online work on My Sentimental Library blog. The links to some of her hosted essays had been changed by the publishers. My blog post provides a comprehensive list of links to her hosted essays.

Mar 11, 2011:

I take a break from cataloguing the 1893 Auchinleck Sale on Library Thing, and make preparations to drive up for the Caxton Club book signing and dinner in Chicago. We expect to complete the cataloguing of the 1893 Auchinleck Sale by June 2011.

March 18, 2011:

I go to Chicago to attend the book signing of Other People's Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell. I walk from my hotel to Paul Ruxin's residence. I finally get to visit Paul Ruxin's library. In one word, his library is fabulous! I meet two of his friends and fellow authors of the Caxton Club book: Sam Ellenport the Boston bookbinder, and Steven Enniss, the Eric Weinmann librarian at the Folger. Together we walk to the Newberry Library, enjoy cocktails before dinner, and sign other people's copies of Other People's Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell. We have other authors sign our copies. I proudly wear a name tag that says "Jerry Morris, Author." Terry Seymour and I sit at the dinner table with Paul Ruxin, Sam Ellenport and their wives. A night to remember! A night to write about!

Mar 30, 2011:
On My Sentimental Library blog, I post Two Hurt Books and Their Former Owners.

Apr 28, 2011:
On My Sentimental Library blog, I display my William Targ Collection.

May 21, 2011:
On My Sentimental Library Blog, I discuss and display My Many Lives of Samuel Johnson.

Jun 12, 2011:
In emails to ExLibris-L and C-18-L lists, I announce the completion of the cataloguing of the 1893 Auchinleck Sale. It had previously taken volunteer Boswell Cataloguers Dave Larkin, Anna Ritchie, and me 13 months to catalogue the 1825 Auction Catalogue. It took the team another 13 months to catalogue the 1893 Auchinleck Sale. The Boswell Cataloguing team is currently at work cataloguing the 1810 Catalogue of Greek and Latin Classics in the Auchinleck Library, and the 1916 Sotheby's Catalogue of the James Boswell Talbot Sale.

Jun 30, 2011:
I finally made it to Archer City, Larry McMurtry's town of books in Texas. I describe the trip in my monthly Sentimental Library blog post, Ten Books From Texas and Two Reminiscences.

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Jul 01, 2011:
I receive lots of feedback from my biblio-buddies concerning my Texas blog post.

Jul 05, 2011:
Talk about an introduction! Rebecca Rego Barry, editor of Fine Books & Collections, sends me a link to her blog post concerning this, my new blog: Biblio-Connecting.

Jul 08, 2011:
I receive an email from Lew Jaffe, the bookplate maven, asking me to call him. Lew has a Henry Blackwell lead for me. Blackwell is one of the bibliophiles in my library. Lew tells me that he talked to Henry Blacwell's great-grandson, who just happens to live in Florida, and has some of his great-grandfather's books and letters. I talk to the great-grandson several days later, and arrange to meet him the next time I'm on the east coast of Florida, probably in August). I intend to view Henry Blackwell's books and letters, take lots of pictures, and write an article for Fine Books & Collections.

Jul 08, 2011:
I finally get around to asking Lew Jaffe about the JMA bookplate which was pasted in one of the books I purchased at Larry McMurtry's Booked Up in Texas. Lew identifies the owner of the bookplate. Who was it? I will tell you in my next post on My Sentimental Library blog.

Jul 11, 2011:
I offer Maureen E. Mulvihill a music book another friend acquired at a library sale. Maureen's husband is a musician. Neither Maureen or her husband are interested in the books, but she forwards my email to a bookseller she knows. Presto! One book sold! Now if I could only sell some of the books I no longer want in my own library!

Jul 14-18, 2011:
I am cataloguing the books listed in the 1810 Catalogue of Greek & Latin Classics in the Auchinleck Library. I have problems with the books by Statius. Problems and solutions which I first express to my Boswell Advisory Group (James Caudle, Terry Seymour, and Paul Ruxin) and then in a blog post on my Biblio Researching blog: A Statius Check.

Jul 18, 2011:
I introduce Per Ralåmb to Maureen E. Mulvihill. Per is one of the authors of the Caxton Club book, <i>Other People's Books...</i> His essay was titled. "An Unexpected Isaac Newton Provenance." He's the proprietor of Rosenlund Rare Books in New Jersey. I had previously introduced Per to Sandy Malcolm and Sandy to Maureen, but somehow never connected the three until now.

Jul 20, 2011:
I book airline tickets to New York to attend a wedding in September. I contact Mark Samuels Lasner and make arrangements to meet him in NYC one day in September. I have never had a biblio day in NYC, and I grew up in New York!

Jul 21-28 2011:
My friend Asta queries me about the 1636 Elzevir edition Virgilii Maronis Opera she has listed on eBay. Someone claims her edition is a counterfeit because part of the text on two certain pages is in black instead of red. I forward her email to Per, Maureen, and Sandy, and we have a lively and extended discussion. It turns out that early bibliographers did consider the copy Asta had to be a forgery, until Willems showed that it was a reissue which contained corrections to the text.

Jul 22, 2011:
Benjamin Clark, a friend at Library Thing, will be visiting Florida in August, and hopefully we'll get together. Benj is an avid bibliophile who moved from Oklahoma to Sidney, Montana to take the job of Executive Director of a museum. Love his blog name: Exile Bibliophile!

Jul 28, 2011:
I complete the cataloguing of the 279 works listed in the 1810 Catalogue of Greek & Latin Classics in the Auchinleck Library. I have more than a few corrections which need to be verified by those more knowledgeable of the classics than me. I submit my blog post, Corrections to the 1810 Catalogue of Greek & Latin Classics in the Auchinleck Library, to ExLibris, and to my Boswell Advisory Group. I would send the blog to Maureen, Per and Sandy the next day.

Aug 1, 2011:
Michael Sims, the author of The Story of Charlotte's Web: E.B. White's Eccentric Life in Nature and the Birth of an American Classic responds to my review of his book. I received the book via Library Thing's Early Reviewer's program, and have sent copies of my recent reviews to the authors. All of them have responded.

Aug 2, 2011:
I hadn't received any emails or email responses from fellow books-about-books collector, Jan Clark in months. I found out why today. She is still recovering from emergency surgery performed on April 1st. Prayers and wishes for a speedier recovery go to her.

Aug 6, 2011:
A word of caution: If you moderate the comments to your blogs before posting them, don't rely on Blogger to notify you. I recently discovered a comment a bookseller had posted almost a year ago concerning my Elements of Style Collection. I belatedly answer the bookseller and then decide to check my other blogs for comments awaiting moderation. Lo and behold! I find a comment that Warwick Harte, a musician from England, placed in February 2011! He was responding to a post about Jean Austin Dobson in my blog, The Displaced Book Collector, a blog I posted to in 2007! I will have more about Warwick and Jean Austin Dobson in my Aug 24 post on "Grand Moments."

Aug 6, 2011:
I complete the modernization of the names of the authors and the Latin place names of the books from Alexander Boswell's 1810 Catalogue of Greek & Latin Classics. Here is an excellent reference source for Latin place names.

Aug 9, 2011:
This month seems to be a good month for reading and reviewing books. I review The New Boswell, a book I bought at Alley Cat Books in Texas in June. I think I'd need a séance to send this author a copy of my review.

Aug 24, 2011:
I post "Grand Moments" to My Sentimental Library blog.

Aug 24, 2011:
I post "Loves Me, Loves Me Not" to my Idlewild Blue Yonder blog. This story is based on a real-life episode from my childhood. My original intent for this blog was to post memories from my childhood days while growing up near Idlewild Airport [Idlewild], from my years of service in the Air Force [Blue], and from my days working in the Post Office and beyond [Yonder]. But some memories are best left for friends and family, and not to be broadcast on the internet. There will be exceptions, and these will be posted on this blog, though few and far between.

Sept 01, 2011:
Terry Seymour returns from his trip to the UK. He informs me of his progress in researching books belonging to James Boswell. Terry spent a day at Quaritch in London. They were most helpful, providing access to a commission ledger which identified some of the buyers of the books Quaritch purchased at the 1893 Auchinleck Sale. Terry spent another day at the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, viewing the Rothschild collection of 17 Boswell books. Terry then went to Scotland and toured Auchinleck and visited the Signet Library and the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. Lastly, Terry visited the Johnson House in London, viewing one book belonging to Johnson and one belonging to Boswell. You'll be able to read more about Terry's trip when he completes his research and publishes his book on the books formerly owned by James Boswell.

Sept 03, 2011:
Do you remember the book I bought in Larry McMurtry's book store in Texas in June that had the inscription, "Stolen from Frank M. Morris?" The story continues! I finally touch bases with Frank M. Morris's great-grandson, and we strike a deal. In the mail today, I receive a copy of the following book:

On the title page, the author writes a presentation inscription to me:

Sept 06, 2011:
I receive an email from Anna Ritchie in the Netherlands, one of my James Boswell cataloguing partners on Library Thing. She is reading the September issue of the Johnsonian News Letter on her way to work and writes, "I am indeed enjoying it; on the train this morning, as it happens, looking like a right swot. ;)"

Anna had paid for the renewal of my KB pass at the National Library of the Netherlands last July, which gives me online access to all kinds of databases and e-journals. In return, I bought her a two-year subscription to The Johnsonian News Letter.

Sept 12, 2011:
I am on the train from White Plains, New York to Grand Central Station, It is a little after 9:00 am. I flew up to White Plains to attend a wedding the previous weekend. But today I will partake of the book collecting pleasures for the first time ever in New York City! Although I grew up on Long Island, I didn't start collecting books until my last overseas tour with the U.S. Air Force in the late 1980s. I have only one scheduled event today: I will meet Mark Samuels Lasner at the Grolier Club at 3:30 pm! But until then, I will browse the books at the Strand Book Store on Broadway. Please grab a soda or a cup of coffee and join me; this day's post will be quite long.

They say there are 18 miles of books at the Strand. My feet say the distance is longer. I leisurely browsed the bargain books outside the store, the books in the basement, and the books on the first and second floors. But I methodically inspected the Books About Books in the Rare Book Room on the third floor. The Strand houses its Books About Books in a cubby hole behind a long wall. There are a chair and a ladder in the cubby hole, and I had to close them in order to turn them around. That's how narrow the space between the shelves was. I had the whole section to myself the entire time I was there before and after lunch. All told, there was probably less than a mile of books about books, but a pleasurable mile it was! I saw many friends on the shelves and even met some new ones. And the prices weren't bad! I asked a Strand employee to reserve two books for me, and to price two others, and then went to lunch.

The Strand employee recommended a place to eat but those hot dog stands looked good! I ended buying a hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut and a soda on Broadway for .... drum roll please... three bucks! I joined a bunch of New Yorkers sitting on the pavement in Union Square Park and enjoyed my hot dog in the beautiful 80 degree sunny weather.

Back to the Strand! One of the books set aside was a copy of The Library of Jean Grolier: A Preliminary Catalogue by Gabriel Austin New York, 1971. I had been wanting a copy of that book for some time. All in all, I ended up buying seven books at the Strand. A Rare Book Room employee carried my purchases and accompanied me down the elevator to the register on the first floor –– there are no stairs to the third floor, and no register there either. I bought one other item as a memento of my visit to the Strand:

I allowed myself more than enough time to get to the Grolier Club –– too much time, in fact. I arrived near the lower numbers on East 60th St. around 2:30 pm –– the Grolier Club would be just a little further up the way at 47 East 60th Street –– so I stopped in a place on 60th St. for my afternoon cup of coffee or two, not to mention dessert. I'm glad I had a cheap lunch! The dessert alone cost me seven dollars. I won't mention what it was in case my cardiologist is reading this blog.

On my way to the Grolier Club again! I'm walking and walking and walking, but don't see any signs for the Grolier Club. The next address I see is 117 or something. I think maybe I wrote down the wrong address. I ask several New Yorkers where the Grolier Club is, but no one knows. I backtrack and walk and walk and walk, ending up where I had coffee and dessert. I ask the maitre d' if he knew where the Grolier Club was, and he says, "yes, it's right next door!" I was expecting to see a sign hanging outward with the words The Grolier Club in big bold letters. Instead, the name and number are on a plate beside the door:

I wish I had brought my camera with me because my words alone cannot describe the grandeur of the Grolier Club, especially to a books about books collector like me. And to have Mark Samuels Lasner as my tour guide! Mark was quite familiar with what was on the shelves in the Grolier Club Library, including Mary Hyde's books, and what was stored in the nooks and crannies, particularly the fragments of letters and manuscripts belonging to Sir Thomas Phillips. One of the books I bought at the Strand was the Franklin reprint of A Bibliography of Austin Dobson by Francis Edwin Murray. Mark had the original 1900 London edition, and remarked that the book was rectangular in shape to account for Murray providing the information on the title pages verbatim. He showed me the Grolier Club copy and discovered another volume he didn't know about next to it: the author's copy, with numerous notes and corrections written in pencil. I'm sure Mark will return to the Grolier Club and spend hours poring over the author's notes. If I lived closer, I would be there too! Mark had an engagement at the Grolier at 5:00 pm, and guests were coming in, so I thanked him for the tour and went on my way back to White Plains.

I should mention that I was wary of going to NYC the day after the anniversary of 9/11, but the police were visible everywhere, especially in the subway stations. To many, it was just another day in New York City, but for me, it was a special one.

Sept 18, 2011:
I attend the September meeting of the Florida Bibliophile Society. I enjoy the talk and slideshow of "Largo and Beyond" by the guest speaker, Jim Schnur, the author of the Images of America edition of Largo. I donate two bumper stickers to Larry McMurtry's Booked Up in Texas for the Society to auction off in the coming months. I finally get to meet Maureen E. Mulvihill, one of the Society's newest members, and guest speaker at next month's meeting.

Sept 26, 2011:
For my monthly post on My Sentimental Library blog, I choose to display My Autograph Letter Collection. One autograph letter I do not display is from the writer and book collector Agnes Repplier, simply because I have yet to acquire any books she wrote. I find some of her essays on Google Books, and yes, she is a keeper.

Sept 27, 2011:
I order my first Agnes Repplier book, Books and Men. And I accomplish another first; I order it via IOBA, the Independent Online Booksellers Association, from Doug Clausen of Clausen Books in Colorado. My friend Alice Voith finally got me to try the IOBA. I looked at the list of members and recognize a number of names from Abebooks.

Sept 28, 2011:
Today started great and ended on an even greater plateau. To begin with, my mailman had two packages for me! The first was for My Sentimental Library Collection, and the second was from the Bibliographical Society in London –– probably the book the society selected as part of the annual subscription –– but it sure was heavy.
Telling you about the first book includes how I acquired it: When I look for association copies online, I search phrases such as: "From the library of. From the private library of. From his library. From her library. Bookplate of." and more than a few more. I stumbled onto a new one: "with his blindstamp:"

Pictured above is the blindstamp of the bibliographer Jacob Blanck, author of the monumental work, Bibliography of American Literature, which was embossed on his copy of The Library of the Late Jonas H. French of Boston, Boston, 1904. The ebay seller may have done better if he had listed the book as "From the library of Jacob Blanck."

The book –– or should say "books –– from the Bibliographical Society were well worth the $65 in membership dues:

Thomas Bewick: The Complete Illustrative Work, London, 2011, the mammoth three-volume set of Bewick's engravings. I have a few Bewick books in my library, but nothing compared to this set!

Now what could top that? And on an even greater plateau? You would have to be a baseball fan to understand, and a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays at that. Down 7 to 0 in the eighth inning against the Yankees. Score 6 runs in the eighth inning. Tie the score on a home run in the ninth inning. And win it with a home run in the twelfth inning! Go Rays!

Sept 30, 2011:
I just scored tickets for Game 3 of the playoffs between the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays. They have a lottery drawing to pick potential buyers of tickets. This is the view from where we'll be sitting:

I can recommend an excellent book about the Rays. You can even read my review:
The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri.

Oct 01, 2011:

Members of the Caxton Club who are readers of this blog receive a surprise. An abbreviated version of "Biblio-Connecting" is published in the October issue of the Caxtonian. I had originally submitted the piece for publication last June, writing it primarily for the reader of the Caxtonion." But when the editor of the Caxtonian rejected it, I expanded the diary to include my early days of book collecting, and published it online in July as this new blog. The Caxtonian editor changed his mind and the abbreviated version of "Biblio-Connecting" in now in print!

Oct 03, 2011:

If I had to provide a title for this day's post, it would would be "Why Did I Wait So Long?" In the mail today, I receive my very first book order via the IOBA (see my Sep 27, 2011 post). Never heard of the IOBA? IOBA stands for the Independent Online Booksellers Association. It's been around since 1999, but publicity is not one of its strong suits. Booksellers will find it less expensive to list books on IOBA than on AbeBooks. As for the book buyer, there is unexplored territory here! There are over 300 booksellers who list their books on IOBA, many of whom only list on IOBA. Here's the link to the IOBA website.

Oct 05, 2011:

Jeremy Dibbell, the leader of the Legacy Libraries at Library Thing, forwards an email about Mary Hyde from Jim McCue, Institute of English Studies, University of London, to John Overholt, Acting Curator of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson/Early Modern Books and Manuscripts,Houghton Library,Harvard University, and to me (I spearheaded the cataloging of Mary Hyde's library on Library Thing). Jim McCue is working with Christopher Ricks, Boston University on the editing of the poems of T.S.Eliot for a major research project. In 1934, T.S. Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes, directed by Hallie Flanagan, was performed at Vassar, and Eliot answered questions from the student body the following day. Mary Hyde had written a short masque called Penthouse, which was included as part of the play. Jim McCue is hoping that Mary Hyde recorded these events in a diary or notes. He mentioned to Jeremy Dibbell that he had heard from William Zachs, author and friend of Mary Hyde, about –– and I quote–– "the astonishing work on Mary Hyde's Library," and was seeking assistance. John Overholt provides Mr. McCue with a mountain of information, including a finding aid to Mary Hyde's papers. I provide Mr. McCue with a PDF file of information concerning Eliot that I extracted from Hallie Flanagan's book, Dynamo: An Adventure in the College Theatre, New York, 1943.

Oct 08, 2011:

William Zachs invites me to Edinburgh to celebrate James Boswell's birthday!

Oct 10, 2011:

There is a discussion on the C-18-L list, an 18th Century Interdisciplinary Discussion Group, on when the long s went out of use. I respond and include an old usenet post summarizing an article by Paul Nash on the topic.

Oct 12, 2011:

On Library Thing, Dave Larkin has been cataloguing the 1916 Sotheby Sale which contains books owned by James Boswell Talbot, the great-great-grandson of James Boswell. I begin cataloguing the 1917 Dowell Sale which contains the remnants of the Auchinleck Library. We are both looking forward to finally completing the cataloguing of the Boswell libraries. The catalogue of the 1917 Dowell Sale leaves something to be desired. One of the first listings reads, ""Poetæ Minores, Greek et Latin, cf., Paris 1579." I determine, after extensive research, that no such title was published in Paris in 1579. However, a work by that title was published in Paris in 1627. Since Theocritus is one of the authors, I search COPAC for a work by him that was published in Paris in 1579. The result is a work that is in the Hyde Collection at Harvard, except that the place of publication is listed as [Geneva]. The brackets denote that the place of publication is not identified on the title page. Believing this is the same book listed in the 1917 Dowell Sale, I query John Overholt at Harvard. Sure enough, John replies that the spine title of the Hyde copy of the book is “Poetae Minores Gr: Lat:."

Oct 14, 2011:

At a church flea market sale, laying in a box under a table full of books I found a book for my Samuel Johnson Collection:

Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage by Richard Holmes, New York, 1994.

Oct 16, 2011:

I attend the October meeting of the Florida Bibliophile Society. The guest speaker is my friend Maureen E. Mulvihill:

Actually, Maureen has two tables of selected rarities on display and discusses them all, providing purchase prices and current values:

Oct 16, 2011:

For $12.50, I win an ebay auction for a pristine copy of The Man of Feeling, by Henry Mackenzie, Paris, 1807:

This work was first published in London in 1771. But I am more interested in the former owner of the book: Moncure Biddle (1882-1956), the book collector from Philadelphia. You'll hear more about Mr. Biddle in the months to come.

Oct 21, 2011:

Terry Seymour queries me about information provided in the Library Thing listing of a Grolier binding that was sold in the 1893 Auchinleck Sale. Terry is attempting to identify the current locations of books formerly owned by Boswell's immediate family. In the listing (lot 482), which Dave Larkin first compiled in May 2011, Dave wrote that this Grolier binding was formerly owned by Robert Hoe. At first, Terry couldn't find the listing in the Hoe Catalogue –– I couldn't find it either –– but then he did. I research further and find that in 1951 Mrs. Wilton Lloyd-Smith had given the book to Princeton University in memory of her husband. The Princeton listing mentioned the Grolier binding and the Robert Hoe connection, but did not mention that the book contained the signatures of Thomas Ruddiman,1730, and Alexander Boswell (Lord Auchinleck), 1758. According to Terry, the book has been displayed at numerous exhibitions in the last 50 years, yet no one noticed the provenance, probably because they were blinded by the magnificence of the Grolier binding:

Oct 21, 2011:

I post "In and About Foley" to My Sentimental Library blog, a piece on one of our early American bibliographers.

Oct 27, 2011:

On the Johnsonian Mailing List at Yahoo this morning, I notice that someone posted a link to this blog: Samuel Johnson's Essays ~ Republished 260 Years Later. The San Diego website designer, Matt Kirkland is the creator of this blog. Kudos to him!

Nov 03, 2011:

My friend Per Rålamb, proprietor of Rosenlund Rare Books and Manuscripts, recently acquires one of Douglas McMurtrie's books and asks if I know of a bibliography of his works. I find a copy listed on abebooks.

Nov 04, 2011:

Kevin Mac Donnell, the renowned bookseller from Austin, Texas queries the Ex-Libris L Mailing List about when the New York office of Cassell & Co. moved from Broadway. I have a book about the Cassell firm in my library in Florida; however, I am near Fort Hood, Texas visiting my son Todd before he deploys to Afghanistan. By a stroke of luck, I am able to open up a Google snippit of the book, which provides the information Mr. Mac Donnell needs.

Nov 07, 2011:

I am back in Florida. I went to Texas, but there was no trip to Archer City this time. My wife and I helped our daughter and her family move from Florida to Monahans, Texas. Her husband has been working in the oil business and is making good money. We left Florida on the 28th of October, stopped at my son's house near Fort Hood, Texas, and arrived in Monahans on the 29th. We stayed there a few days, then visited my son near Foot Hood for a few days and then drove home. We put 3000 miles on our 2012 Kia Sedona Van. I also brought back a cold or virus one of my grandchildren shared with me. :-(

Nov 10, 2011:

I post my review of Mission to Mach 2: A Fighter Pilot's Memoir of Supersonic Flight. I acquired this book via Library Thing's Early Reviewers Program.

Nov 12, 2011:

James Keeline posts a link on Library Thing to a N.Y, Times article: The Subconscious Shelf. An excellent article by Leah Price and a teaser for her upcoming book: Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books. I shall order a copy.

Nov 15, 2011:

Bill Klimon informs of a little bit of indirect Johnsoniana. From Oak Knoll Books, he recently acquired Mary Hyde's copy of Kai Kin Yung's National Portrait Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 1856-1979 for his Catholic Convert Collection. Yung inscribed the book:

"To Mary, A small token of my esteem and gratitude for all her Johnsonian advice, encouragement, and support, from Kai Kin, 11 November 1983."

Yung was the registrar of the National Portrait Gallery in the U.K. and was the curator of a Johnsonian bicentennial exhibition in 1984.

This book that Bill Klimon bought is listed in the Oak Knoll Catalogue 256. I am cataloguing the Mary Hyde books listed in that catalogue in the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection on Library Thing. I will get back to cataloguing the Hyde Collection some time next year, once we finish Boswell.

Nov 27, 2011:

I am still cataloguing Boswell's library, currently the 1917 Dowell Sale. I come across the copy of Cicero that is currently in Paul Ruxin's library. Paul Ruxin, Terry Seymour, James Caudle, Dave Larkin and I have a discussion lasting several days on whether the 1916 Sotheby Sale and the 1917 Dowell Sale will be the last lists we catalogue. I commit to cataloguing Jing-fen Su's 1770 list of Boswell's library before calling it quits sometime next year. We have been cataloguing Boswell's library for three years now.

Nov 27, 2011:

I post my review of The Shakespeare Thefts by Eric Rasmussen. A disappointing book that irritated me more than a bit.

Nov 30, 2011:

My monthly post for My Sentimental Library blog is J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Bibliophile.

Dec 01, 2011:

Lee Harrer, one of the founding members of the Florida Bibliophile Society, notifies me that Oak Knoll has an incomplete set of Reade's Johnsonian Gleanings on sale at 40% off. I already have three of the volumes including Vol 5, which I used to catalogue Samuel Johnson's Undergraduate Library on Library Thing last year.

Dec 02, 2011:

It is Friday and that means "toodling" around the antique stores and bookstores. Some people may call it "tootling," but we find "toodling" to be more enjoyable. Today turns out to be a day for baseball books. At The Little Red Schoolhouse Bookstore in Spring Hill, Florida, I find three books by Yogi Berra, and a book about the Baltimore Orioles, and a book of stories from baseball broadcasters.

Dec 02, 2011:

In the mail today I receive a gift from Per Rålamb, proprietor of Rosenlund Rare Books & Manuscripts: a copy of Shaksperiana by John Wilson, London, 1827, an early bibliography of pamphlets written about Shakespeare. This book is in need of rebinding, but it will be a fitting addition to my Shakespeare Collection after I repair it. Thanks Per!

Dec 05, 2011:

On eBay, I list a friend's set of Bibliographica Papers on Books their History and Art. Surprisingly no one bids on the set. And I listed it twice!

Dec 05, 2011:

In the mail today I recieve a gift from my Paul Ruxin, Chair of the Board of Governors at the Folger Shakespeare Library, another fabulous addition to my Shakespeare Collection, a copy of Foliomania! Stories Behind Shakespeare's Most Important Book. Thanks Paul!

Dec 06, 2011:

This is a good month for books! In the mail today I receive a copy of Mainly on the Air by Max Beerbohm –– that should make Mark Samuel Lasner happy! When he visited my library last year he inscribed my copy of Facing the Late Victorians, "For Jerry. with the hope that my Victorians will find a home among his bibliophiles." –– I had another reason for wanting this Beerbohm book. It was formerly owned by one of my favorite biblio researchers, Richard Daniel Altick.

Dec 08, 2011:

On the ExLibris-L Mailing List, John P. Chalmers, from the Caxton Club, posts a link to "Bookhunting as a Sport," a talk by James Westfall Thompson given before the Caxton Club in 1909.

Dec 08, 2011:

An eBay bookseller queries our Samuel Johnson Library page at Library Thing. He has a copy of Paradise Lost that has the inscription, "S. Johnson No. 95," and wants to verify that it is the Dictionary Johnson. I respond that our Samuel Johnson didn't write his name in that manner and, to the best of my knowledge, didn't number his books.

Dec 12, 2011:

Terry Seymour writes that at a recent Bonhams auction, he acquired a second edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson in –– I'm jealous –– original boards!! Pasted into Vol 1 was the bookplate of the Johnsonian scholar, R.W. Chapman. And to top it off, tipped into Vol 1 was an endpaper from another book on which was inscribed "James Boswell, London, 1778." Congrats Terry!

Dec 12, 2011:

I finally finish rebinding my set of G.B Hill's edition of Boswell's LOJ. This is only the third of fifteen bookbinding projects I planned to complete in 2011. I will lower my goal to one bookbinding project per month for next year. :-)

Dec 13, 2011:

I finally complete the cataloging of another portion of the Boswell Library on Library Thing, the Auchinleck Library books that were sold at the 1917 Dowell Sale. Next up is Jing-fen Su's update of the 1770 list of books in the Boswell Library.

Dec 16, 2011:

Today is Friday, and that means toodling with the Harrisses. Eve Harris spots a unique addition for my library in the local Jericho Ministries Thrift Store: four bookish storage boxes which now store my bookbinding tools and supplies:

Dec 19, 2011:

On the C-18-L mailing list, Lisa Berglund announces the publication the annual Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. The journal contains two articles about Boswell's Scottish Dictionary. Lisa writes,"In the first, “Boswell’s Scottish Dictionary Rediscovered,” Susan Rennie explains how she found the manuscript and offers an overview of its history and contents. “James Boswell…and his Design for a Dictionary of the Scottish Language,” by James J. Caudle, examines Boswell’s lexicographical goals and practice." Congrats to Susan and Jim!

Note: I will join The Dictionary Society of North America, but not until February –– I have to pay my Bibliographical Society dues in January!

Dec 19,2011:

I receive a comment from Chris Larizza of Stratford, Ct to My Sentimental Library blog concerning Halliwell-Phillips, the topic of my last post. Chris has a presentation copy of the 1882 second edition ofOutlines of the Life of Shakespeare and queries me as to its value. I post the results of my research to my Biblio Researching blog.

Dec 19, 2011:

In the mail today I receive my copy of A Printing History of Everyman's Library 1906-1982 by Terry Seymour. You can buy a copy at Amazon for $78 OR you can buy it via Author House at the current price of $49. We shall meet for dinner with our wives sometime after the New Year, and I shall have Terry inscribe the book for me.

Dec 20, 2011:

In the mail today I receive a copy of Republic of Words : The Atlantic Monthly and its Writers, 1857-1925. The book is from the publisher, University Press of New England, via the Early Reviewer's Program at Library Thing. This book bypassed my reading pile and landed right in my lap! I am enjoying it. Look forward for my review after the New Year.

Dec 21, 2011:

On the ExLibris-L mailing list, Robert Simola posts a query about an interpretation of some of Chaucer's verses which were published in the People's Magazine. Here is his query. Here is my reply.

Dec 23, 2011:

Today is Friday, and that means toodling with the Harrises. A name on the spine of a book grabs my attention: Hallie Flanagan:

I already have her book Dynamo: An Adventure in the College Theatre, New York, 1943. Hallie was the leader of the experimental theatre at Vassar. Mary Hyde, then Mary Carpo, wrote and starred in some of the plays. Another book for my Mary Hyde Collection!

Afterwards, we exchange Christmas gifts with the Harrisses. Tom's wife, Eve, gets trinket boxes from my wife. Tom gets a shelf full of biographies about movie stars from me, and chocolate and tea from my wife. My wife gets books about Hawaii and B&G plates. And I get books for three of my collections. from Tom & Eve. For my New York Collection, I get Fifth Avenue Old and New, 1824-1924.

For my Baseball Collection, I get Baseball: An Illustrated History.

And I get three more books for my Bathrooms and Outhouses Collection.

Dec 24, 2011:

Terry Seymour is editing his upcoming book on the Boswell Library, and queries me about a note I added to the four books listed in lot number 65 of the 1893 Auchinleck Sale. I had added the following information to each listing: "According to an article in the Publications of the Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, the volume contains Ruddiman's bookplate and the autograph of Alexander Boswell." I remember seeing the information in a snippit view on Google Books, but try as I might, I cannot relocate the reference again. :-(

Dec 25, 2011:

My wife and I spend an enjoyable Christmas Day at my son Craig's house with his wife Tina and her father and brother.

We really need to be with family on this day because our daughter and three of our grandchildren moved to Texas in October. We share gifts after dinner. Tina & Craig give me a Kindle! Mind you, I will always prefer book in hand, but the Kindle will come in handy on trips.

Dec 28, 2011:

In the mail today, I receive a two-volume set of A Latter Pepys from Lew Jaffe the Bookplate maven. Thanks Lew! The set was formerly owned by the American author Alfred Henry Lewis, and contained his bookplate by Remington, which Lew removed for his bookplate collection before selling the set to me. I briefly research Alfred Henry Lewis, and will have to acquire some of his books in the coming years.

Dec 31, 2011:

I now say farewell to 2011. I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and bookish New Year!

Jan 03, 2012:
Per Rålamb, proprietor of Rosenlund Rare Books, and a collector of 16th century editions of Greek and Roman classics tells me about a shelf sale listing from an east coast auction house that he recently read. The lot was described as "3 vol. Greek Thesaurus 1572." Per thought it could be the Estienne edition, which he already had; but this set would have been incomplete because the Estienne edition was published in four volumes. Out of curiosity, Per queried the auction house. The person Per talked to didn't read Greek so Per asked him if there was a man standing under a tree on the title page. Sure enough there was, meaning that the set they sold was an Estienne edition. Per than asked them to check with the owner to see if vols 3 and 4 were bound together. They were, meaning that someone bought a set worth up to $4000 for $70. Per also learned that some of the boards were detached but the buyer was still extremely happy with his purchase. He should be!

Jan 05, 2012:
I am still cataloging Boswell's 1770 Catalogue on Library Thing and come across this listing on the web from the National Library of Scotland. I ask Terry Seymour if he got a chance to view the document when he visited Scotland. Yes he did! He discovered that the pages the Yale scholars (Lincoln & Su) were working with were not in the correct order as the manuscript copy.

Jan 06, 2012:
Today is Friday and that means a toodling we shall go! At The Kirk thrift store I find two Floridiana books:

Click on the images to enlarge them. And click on the X in the top right hand corner to return to this page.

Jan 14, 2012:
I submit my review of Republic of Words: The Atlantic Monthly and Its Writers, 1857-1925. I send a copy to Susan Goodman the author who thanks me for my review.

Jan 14, 2012:
My London friend Sandy Malcolm collects, among other bookish things, auction catalogues, and reports that he recently acquired a copy of the 1916 Sotheby Auction Sale for £1. He discovered when he got home that it contains a portion of the Auchinleck Library belonging to James Boswell Talbot. He asks if we need any details from the catalogue. "No, but thanks for thinking of my interests," I reply. James Caudle previously provided us with copies of all the Boswell catalogues. We are currently cataloging the 1916 Sotheby Sale. I forward Sandy's email to Terry Seymour, who mentions that he'd like to have copies of the Boswell catalogs for his own collection. Sandy says he will keep his eyes open.

Jan 16, 2012:
I finally order an e-book for my Kindle, a book by Greg Iles, an author both my wife and I like. I give my wife first dibs with reading the book on "our" Kindle and she is loving it. Beautiful! Because I still prefer to read with "book in hand."

Jan 16, 2012:
For a change-of-pace, and nothing to do with books, I post an episode from my childhood to my often-neglected blog, Idlewild Blue Yonder.

Jan 17, 2012:
Tuesday is Weight Watcher meeting day for my wife Linda and Tom's wife Eve, so Tom and I usually toodle in the local thrift stores. Tom found this book for my wife's Hawaiiana Collection:

Jan 17, 2012
Tom and Eve volunteer at their local library bookstore, and Eve recently came across a book for my New York Collection, which she gives to me today. Mind you, the only words Eve focused on in the title were the words, "New York."

With friends like this who need aliens < ? ? > < ? ? >

Jan 18, 2012:
Speaking of friends, beware of Linkedin! According to Linkedin, one of my friends invites me to join Linkedin this morning. I query my friend and he says he doesn't belong to Linkedin. I wonder about the legality of sending me a phony invitation supposedly from my friend and that has my friend's email address on it as "proof" he is the one inviting me. If not illegal, it is definitely unethical.

Jan 20, 2012:
Toodle day again! Friday already? The special today at the Little Red Schoolhouse Bookstore is $5 for one plastic bag of fiction books. Tom and I fill a bag. I get two Ed McBain 87th Precinct novels that don't look familiar, a western (!) by Robert Parker, another Greg Iles novel, a few other novels, and one more book for my wife's Hawaiiana Collection,

Jan 21, 2012:
Mark Samuels Lasner posts to the Ex-Libris mailing list inviting people to a "Celebrating Dickens" symposium at the Morris Library, University of Delaware on Feb 18, 2012. If you go, tell Mark I said hello.

Jan 23, 2012:
I receive an email from Ruth Meyers, a Library Thing member, who is cleaning up the LT list of education books published by the Grolier Society. One of our Boswell books mistakenly lists Grolier as the author of a book published in 1502. Grolier was the binder of the book, not the author. I revise the listing, providing the reason for the error.

Jan 25, 2012:
On My Sentimental Library blog last August, I posted Grand Moments, which was all about grandchildren, mine and those belonging to bibliophiles in my library. Today I receive an email from Emily McAdams whose third great-grandfather, Thomas B. Walker, is the author of a book in my wife's Hawaiiana Collection. Emily remarked that she would have enjoyed hearing the conversations between Walker and his father-in-law, her fourth great-grandfather John Adams Kaukini Cummins. Here's a Hawaiian genealogical table linking both Walker and Cummins.

Jan 25, 2012:
I receive a box of Agnes Repplier books from Gabriel Austin (Gabriel is a reader, not a collector). I will send half of the books to Gabriel's friend Daniel Krotz, a writer and bookseller in Arkansas. Dan has both a radio podcast and a blog. On the latter, he calls himself "The Ubiquitous Pig."

Jan 27, 2012:
Toodle day again! Today we go to Tarpon Springs and visit Boe Rushing and his Back in the Day Books on Tarpon Ave. Our wives are at the antique store next door, Cindy Comstock's Court of Two Sisters. Cindy has some books too, including a booth of books belonging to the bookman from St. Pete, T. Allen Smith. Here are just some of the books I buy today:
A book about Niagara Falls (for my New York Collection).
A book about President McKinley
A book about chorus girls
A play, Panic, for my Archibald MacLeish Collection
And a book for my Books About Books and Bookbinding Collections:

Jan 29, 2012:
I complete my post for this month for My Sentimental Library blog.

Jan 29, 2012:
Bill Klimon reads My Sentimental Library blog and notes that he recently donated an Agnes Repplier document to his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, which has the bulk of her personal papers. If you find another one Bill, let me know!

Jan 31, 2012:
Steve Mauer, owner of the Bookmine, posts a link on ExLibris for "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Very moving, and no pun intended! This movie is 15 minutes long. Enjoy!

Jan 31, 2012:

Here's a late blog post from my son who is currently serving in Afghanistan. The title of his blog post is "My Last Military Vacation."

Feb 02, 2012:

Dave Larkin, my cataloging partner on Library Thing announces that he has completed the cataloguing of the Boswell books listed in the 1916 Sotheby Sale! All that remains to be catalogued regarding the Boswell libraries is the 1770 Catalogue of Books Belonging to James Boswell and then we will be pau with Boswell. "Pau" means "finished" in Hawaiian.

Feb 03, 2012:

In a local thrift store I pick up a copy of Bookmarks: A Guide to Research and Writing. I intend to continue my research of the pre-1959 editions of Strunk's Elements of Style. I was disappointed in Mark Garvey's 2009 book celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of E.B. White's version of Strunk's book. I intend to write a book celebrating the one-hundredth anniversary of Strunk's book in 2018.

Feb 03, 2012:

My biblio-friend from Missouri, Mark Barnett, sends me a link to an 1820 set of the Works of Samuel Johnson that Better World Books is auctioning on eBay:

Feb 04, 2012:

Per Rålamb, proprietor of Rosenlund Rare Books, informs me that the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies has published an article by him in the latest issue of the FABS periodical. I haven't received my copy yet but I will watch for it.

Feb 05, 2012:

I buy a copy of the romance novel my son Craig's mother-in-law, BonSue Brandvik, recently published: Pearls (Spirits of the Belleview Biltmore)

Feb 06, 2012:

Terry Seymour queries me regarding the listing of a lot in the 1893 Auchinleck Sale of the Boswell library. Terry is painstakenly reviewing his research regarding the books formerly owned by James Boswell and his immediate family. And he plans to publish the results of his research! I must say I am looking forward to acquiring a copy. Terry not only identifies the books belonging to the Boswells; he goes the extra mile, and traces the provenance of the books, acquiring the bookseller catalogues of the booksellers who bought the books at the auction, as well as the auction catalogues of the buyers the booksellers sold the books to.

Feb 12, 2012:

16th and 17th Century books bound in vellum advertised for interior decorating purposes??? Per Rålamb's wife found this site while browsing the web.

Feb 17, 2012:

Today is toodle day with the Harrises! But prior to hitting the thrift stores, Eve Harris gives me a book for my Poetry Collection:

I shall catalogue this book under sick humor.

Feb 17, 2012:

Let's try it again. Today is toodle day with the Harrises. . . ! I find only two books today: The Historic Places of Pasco County and a book about celebrity homes presented by Architectural Digest. I get the first book because I live in Pasco County. I get the second book because it displays the homes of Truman Capote, Coco Chanel, Julia Child, Senator Edward Kennedy, Robert Redford, Dinah Shore, Barbara Walters and more, albeit from 1977. Libraries are displayed in some of the photos, the most impressive of which is Coco Chanel's library.

Feb 22, 2012:

In a local thrift store I find a copy of The Big Kiss-Off of 1944: A Jack LeVine Mystery by Andrew Bergman, of Blazing Saddles fame. An excellent book! Moi recommends!

Feb 23, 2012:

I receive an informative email from my London friend Sandy Malcolm. He tells me he'll be meeting Terry Seymour for lunch in London next Saturday the 3rd, along with Howard Mather of Wykeham Books. Sandy also says he attended the Bibliographical Society meeting in London on the 21st, and David Pearson mentioned Library Thing cataloguing early libraries several times in his Presidential Address. Kudos to all LT cataloguers!

Feb 24, 2012:

I query Terry Seymour about his London trip. He's giving a talk before the Boswell Society in Lichfield on the 2nd. Congrats Terry!

Feb 24, 2012:

I kill two birds with one stone. I couldn't put Bergman's first Jack LeVine mystery down and finish it this morning. An hour later I download Hollywood and LeVine unto my Kindle! My very first read of a Kindle edition. So far I'm enjoying the read. But I feel guilty in a way because deep down I'm still a book-in-hand man.

Feb 25, 2012:

I post to My Sentimental Library blog: Odd Volumes, Association Copies, and Other Interesting Items in My Samuel Johnson Collection. In the mail a few hours later I receive a copy of Samuel Johnson: A Collection of Critical Essays edited by Donald J. Greene.

Feb 26, 2012:

Jeremy Dibbell posts a link to My Sentimental Library blog on his Philobiblos blog. Thirty minutes later Google notifies me that the sudden monumental surge on my meter reader stats is bringing blogspot close to crashing! Thanks Jeremy!

Feb 26, 2012:

Terry Seymour challenges me to use my research skills in identifying the buyer of Lot 695 of the 1893 Auchinleck Sale: Wolford or Walford. The book sold in the lot is a descriptive catalogue on gems and cameos. It takes me two hours to identify Edward Walford (1823-1897) as the buyer. Walford edited a number of books including Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer and was personally acquainted with Lord Talbot de Malahide.

Feb 28, 2012:

A few more additions for my library, three of which come via my friends Tom and Eve Harris: Another copy of The Elements of Style; Rereadings by Anne Fadiman and Not For Tourists Guide to New York City 2007. In a Sheriff's Youth Ranch Thrift Store I find a copy of Emergency Preparedness from the Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge Series. This is my third book about the Boy Scouts. Another collection?

No posting tomorrow the 29th! My wife is having a tooth extracted this coming Friday – Ouch! – so tomorrow will be toodling day instead. Until next month . . . .