Thursday, March 28, 2013

A Snippet about Grosset & Dunlap

Nothing big here, but we all know how frustrating it can be to establish an exact date for a Grosset issue. I've got one of their early books in front of me, (a work by Liberty Hyde Bailey) and the title page has Grosset's imprint, along with a date and an address ....
11 East 16th Street, New York ... 1906.  I had the thought that it might be a good idea to keep that address on hand, which could help at least with zeroing in to a closer circa date for other Grosset issues, if the address be present in those books sans date.  If there is no address on title page, then check for the publisher's catalog or list at the rear.

Just thought some of you might like this little snippet. (And I realize the information may well be present elsewhere)

Maybe someone else can chime in if they know the duration of their publishing from that address.

The printer for this particular book is stated as Mount Pleasant Press, J. Horace McFarland Company, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Price of a new Grosset & Dunlap book in 1906 : 75¢

Monday, March 4, 2013

FICTIONAL BOOK SHOPS

Of course, as one might expect, I am drawn to fiction in which bookstores figure largely as a character in the story.  One finds fictional book shops in the most unexpected places.

This charming vintage scene by Harrie Wood of a shop interior is especially poignant for me, and speaks beguilingly to memory.  For me, its sense of a still-living past carried into the future is strong.


The book is a juvenile story about the Boy Scouts entitled Three Points of Honor and was written by Russell Gordon Carter and  Published in 1929 by Little Brown, and Company. 

This picture and the story it illustrates  are both fictions - but the illustration has great veracity in terms of its depiction of the character of a used book shop.