Another Year, Another Book Sale

A couple of weeks ago I made my second annual trip to the Bryn-Mawr Wellesley Book Sale, one of the biggest on the East Coast. I didn't make it there on half-price day like I did last year, but still did  well for myself, coming away with almost thirty books for just over $50. Here's a look at what I found:

A new-to-me novel and novella by Edith Wharton; a lavishly illustrated copy of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall by Washington Irving, which I know nothing about but looks like it might be worth a read when the holidays roll around; and a little book called A Gift From the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindburgh, which drew me in with it's sweet book jacket.

Vintage Penguin editions of novels by Sinclair Lewis and Evelyn Waugh; The Little Girls by Elizabeth Bowen; a collection of the juvenilia of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte; and Miss Mackenzie by Trollope.

A smattering of (mostly) more recent novels that have (mostly) been on my To Read list for a while: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Charms for the Easy Life by Kay Gibbons, The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa, Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf, Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner, and All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky.

Several Barbara Pym novels to round out (and add a couple duplicates) to my collection, plus three novels that I hadn't heard of but picked up based on the fact that they were green Virago editions: The Squire's Daughter by F.M. Mayor, On the Side of Angels by Betty Miller, and Red Pottage by Mary Cholmondeley.

And last but not least, my favorite finds of the day were a handful of books that I've been on the hunt for for quite a while: three installments of E.F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia series, The Levant Trilogy by Olivia Manning, and the first installment of Angela Thirkell's Chronicles of Barsetshire series.

Have you found any used book treasures lately? Are there any that you would particularly love to find?

Heat Lightning

When I was in Maine last summer, I went to the Big Chicken Barn Antique and Used Book store, which has a massive second floor entirely devoted to shelves and shelves of used books. Although I only came away with one find, it was a good one: a vintage copy of Heat Lightning by Helen Hull, which I snapped up knowing that it had been recently reissued by Persephone Books. It wasn't until several months had passed, however, and I finally took it off the shelf to read that I realized what I treasure I had found....

...when I opened the front cover and discovered an inscription from the author, reading "Inscribed for Gale M. Hinckley, Most Sincerely Yours, Helen Hull, July 31, 1936". 

Interestingly, on a whim I Googled Gale M. Hinckley and, in addition to some census records, a number of results came up for used book dealers that mention Gale M. Hinckley's bookplate in the description of various books they have available for sale. One is even noted as being inscribed "with cordial regards, J. Edgar Hoover, 1938". It's so fascinating to think that this woman, a fairly ordinary person as far as I can tell, has spread a tiny legacy of herself through her bookplates. It makes me want to start using them in my own books now.

After the discovery of the inscription, it was icing on the cake to find that I completely loved Hull's writing in Heat Lightning. The novel tells the story of Amy Norton, a New Yorker who returns to her Midwestern hometown for a week's respite to escape a rough patch in her marriage. Amy's family is one of the most prominent in their small town and her week with them is filled with all manner of drama, from birth to death with several revelations of scandalous family secrets in between. It's a plot that in lesser hands could easily fall into the territory of silly melodrama, but Hull handles them skillfully and with subtlety. The family members' interactions with one another offer one of the most realistic portrayals of an extended family that I've seen, even in spite of some of the less than typical situations that are thrown at them. During the course of Amy's visit, she sees the lifecycle of her family condensed into a matter of days, which in turn makes her reassess her own life with her family in New York. I highly recommend this one--even if you're not lucky enough to get your hands on an autographed copy.

Book Sale Recap, Part 2

As promised, here's the recap of the hardcover books I found at the book sale:

First there's Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen and an edition that combines two of Elizabeth Gaskell's works, Cranford, which I already own, and Sylvia's Lovers, which I hadn't heard of before and made it worth the purchase.

Then I couldn't help but get a copy of Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb, plus a collection of some of his other writings. Although I had mixed feelings when I recently read Essays of Elia, to a certain extent I feel a kind of obligation to be a proponent of his work in whatever little way I can.

A copy of When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne was too sweet to pass up (especially for the price of $0.25!).

And finally, I have a soft spot for used books that have inscriptions written in them and I found two at the sale. The first was in a pretty edition of Thirty Clocks Strike the Hour, a collection of stories by Vita Sackville West, which was dedicated to Edgar Park from his wife in 1932.

The second inscribed copy was a colorful and highly illustrated edition of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper.

Although it's not really a book I'd be interested in in its own right, the 1953 Christmas gift inscription from a mother to her son in Uppsala, Sweden just appealed to me.

The fact that it was one of the final days of the sale also meant that it was half price day. My grand total was 24 books for just $21.75! 

Needless to say, I was pretty happy with my book loot. Don't let the small size of the bags fool you--my arms were about to break off!

I'll definitely be looking to make this an annual event in years to come.

Book Sale Recap, Part 1

As I alluded to last week, I spent one of my days off from work paying a visit to the largest and longest running book sale on the East Coast.

Not only is it the largest used book sale, but it turns out that it's also one with a really interesting history. Begun in 1931, the Bryn Mawr-Wellesely Book Sale started as a way to raise scholarship money to help girls attend college during the Great Depression. The tradition continues on today with alumnae from both schools running the sale and donating proceeds to their respective scholarship funds. It's a week long event that's held at a fancy day school in Princeton, NJ. 

I took it as a good omen when I saw this statue outside the school building on the way in.

Filling two large rooms, the sale was well organized and, surprisingly, fairly empty, which translated into about two hours worth of leisurely but intense browsing.

I can't help but be struck by the fact that so many of the books I found at the sale were ones I may not have even noticed if it hadn't been for reading other book blogs and discovering some of the lesser known authors who are now among my favorites. The treasures I came away with included a bunch of vintage orange Penguins, Virago classics, and even a Persephone edition. Here's the full recap:

There were a lot of Penguins to be had and my selections included the nonfiction books A Narrow Street by Elliot Paul and One Pair of Feet by Monica Dickens, which I was thrilled to find after recently finishing her wonderful novel Mariana. The novels in the group included The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold by Evelyn Waugh, Ukridge by P.G. Wodehouse, The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley, and Girl with Green Eyes by Edna O'Brien.

For the times when I want to get lost in a really fat novel, I picked up Camilla by Fanny Burney as well as two titles from Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series. Although I've yet to read anything by Trollope, I have a copy of The Warden waiting on my shelf and have a sneaking suspicion I"m going to want to continue on with his works.

Even though it's not the most attractive edition, I couldn't pass up owning a copy of Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy after enjoying it last year. I was even more excited to find another out of print novel by Manning called The Play Room and, of course, didn't even stop to read the title when I saw the signature grey of a Persephone edition--it went right into my bag. (Turns out it was An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941-43, who is described as an adult counterpart to Anne Frank.)

Then there was an early novel by Booth Tarkington, two Muriel Spark novels, books by Rosamond Lehmann, E.M. Delafield, and Anita Brookner (none of whom I've read, but all of whom I've heard great things about), and another addition for my growing Barbara Pym collection

And those are just the paperbacks! Check back tomorrow for a look at the hardcover editions I found.