Thursday, December 31, 2015

25. Rivers of America: The Tennessee, Volume II - The New River: Civil War to TVA

Title: Rivers of America: The Tennessee, Volume II - The New River: Civil War to TVA
Author: Donald Davidson
Year Published: 1948
Year Printed: 1948

Date Acquired: Christmas 2015
Where Purchased: Gift
Price Paid: Gift

Read Status: Read (October 28, 2016)

Notes/Thoughts
  •  

Thursday, December 17, 2015

24. The Chiangs of China

Title: The Chiangs of China
Author: Elmer T. Clark
Year Published: 1943
Year Printed: 1943

Date Acquired: December 16, 2015
Where Purchased: City Center Galley & Books, Fayetteville, NC
Price Paid: $7

Read Status: Read (October 18, 2016)

Notes/Thoughts
  •  

Saturday, November 14, 2015

23. Wells Fargo: Advancing the American Frontier

Title: Wells Fargo: Advancing the American Frontier
Author: Edward Hungerford
Year Published: 1949
Year Printed: 1949

Date Acquired: November 14, 2015
Where Purchased: The Book Stop, Tucson, AZ
Price Paid: $12

Read Status: Read (October 15, 2016)

Notes/Thoughts
  •  

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

22. In Search of Two Characters: Some Intimate Aspects of Napoleon and his Son

Title: In Search of Two Characters: Some Intimate Aspects of Napoleon and his Son
Author: Dormer Creston
Year Published: 1945
Year Printed: 1945

Date Acquired: October 14, 2015
Where Purchased: San Francisco Book Company, Paris, France
Price Paid: 16 Euros

Read Status: Read (February 16, 2016)

Notes/Thoughts
  •  

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

21. Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State

Title: Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State
Author: Federal Writer's Project
Year Published:1939
Year Printed: 1947

Date Acquired: October 6, 2015
Where Purchased: Rhino Booksellers Charlotte Avenue, Nashville, TN
Price Paid: $15

Read Status: Read (January 28, 2016)

Notes/Thoughts
  • Has book jacket and map in pocket of back cover
  • American Guide Series
  • Unfortunately, as reading I've found it's missing a lot of pages. At first it didn't really bother me because it was just the photo insert pages, but then I found the page with the Lexington map missing and that page had text on the back, which was particularly annoying in that it was the rest of the information on the Mary Todd Lincoln home.
  • With all the mentions of the Big Sandy River, the song "Boatin' Up Sandy River" got stuck in my head reading this. (I'm familiar with it from the Bourbon Barrel Congress version.)
  • p. 423 - "There are so many thrilling stories and legends of Daniel Boone’s adventures that the simplicity of the man has been quite obscured….Asked once if he ever got lost, he hesitated a moment; “not lost, so to speak,” he said, “but sometimes bewildered." - But is this quote about being bewildered and not lost a legend or not?

20. Home to the Hermatige

Title: Home to the Hermitage
Author: Alfred Leland Crabb
Year Published:1948
Year Printed: 1948

Date Acquired: October 6, 2015
Where Purchased: Rhino Booksellers Charlotte Avenue, Nashville, TN
Price Paid: $15

Read Status: Read (December 30, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • I've been trying to find Dinner at Belmont to complete the trilogy, but I only spotted Breakfast at the Hermitage here. I had saved this book on my wish list, too, though. I also almost bought another one of his books they had, but he wrote that one in the 1950s and I also found a Federal Writer's Project book to buy here making it three books this Nashville trip already.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

19. Nashville: Athens of the South

Title: Nashville: Athens of the South
Author: Henry McRaven
Year Published: 1949
Year Printed: 1949

Date Acquired: October 2, 2015
Where Purchased: BookManBookWoman Books, Nashville, TN
Price Paid: $27.99 (It was marked $34.99, but there was a sale on history books and I also saved by signing up for their e-newsletter, which I was just doing because we like stopping here when we visit Nashville.)

Read Status: Read (December 21, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  •  Signed by author

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

18. Albert Schweitzer: Genius in the Jungle

Title: Albert Schweitzer: Genius in the Jungle
Author: Joseph Gollomb
Year Published: 1949
Year Printed: 1949

Date Acquired: September 5, 2015
Where Purchased: Myopic Books, Chicago, IL
Price Paid: $6.50

Read Status: Read (December 14, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts

Saturday, August 1, 2015

17. Prince William: The Story of Its People and Its Places

Title: Prince William: The Story of Its People and Its Places
Author: Virginia Writers' Project
Year Published: 1941
Year Printed: 1941

Date Acquired: August 1, 2015
Where Purchased: Book Bank, Alexandria, VA
Price Paid: $12.50

Read Status: Read (December 4, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts


Sunday, June 7, 2015

16. Supper at the Maxwell House

Title: Supper at the Maxwell House
Author: Alfred Leland Crabb
Year Published: 1943
Year Printed: 1943

Date Acquired: June 6, 2015
Where Purchased: Griffon Bookstore (South Bend, IN)
Price Paid: $3.95

Read Status: Read (September 29, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • This bookstore is also a game shop, which seems to be mostly what it carries. The used books are downstairs and while there is not that many it is definitely quite varied. I got excited when I spotted one of the WPA American Guide books, but it turned out to be a 1950s edition of the Tennessee guide.
  • Almost considered getting no book here or this maybe slightly interesting one about what I think was an Indiana politician, but then I spotted Supper at the Maxwell House and had to get it. I'm still barely into the Breakfast at the Hermitage book, but it's just interesting enough that I still want to get the whole series.
  • Has book jacket, although it's in two pieces in the back of the book (maybe I can eventually sort of fix it?).

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

15. Fishes of the Great Lakes Region

Title: Fishes of the Great Lakes Region
Author: Carl L. Hubbs and Karl F. Lagler
Year Published: 1947
Year Printed: 1949 (Second Printing)

Date Acquired: June 3, 2015
Where Purchased: Glory Days Antiques (Newburg, MD)
Price Paid: $7

Read Status: Read (June 26, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • Didn't think I'd end up with a 1940s book today. Not that I didn't think about it as I did try to see if there were any used bookstores to check out on our route today, but the only interesting one was a little too far out of the way. We just popped in here because it looked fun to browse (and it was). I didn't even consider it would be a place for some old books, but it actually was, although only two 1940s books. I really wanted the History of Fishes one, too, but didn't want to spend $35 today (or at least not on one item because I did come close since I also picked up some records).
  • "In his own right, the collector may use any means to capture fish for which he can obtain sanction from oval authorities. He may bait- or fly-fish, spear or gig, seine, net, trap, poison, electrocute, stun with explosives, use a set-line, shoot, or even collect fish by shooting fish-eating animals. Effort should be made, however, to avoid arousing antipathy of conservation officials, sportsmen and land owners." p. 15

Sunday, April 12, 2015

14. Cecil Troxel

Title: Cecil Troxel: The Man and the Work
Author: Mrs. Cecil Troxel and Mrs. John J. Trachsel
Year Published: 1948
Year Printed: 1948

Date Acquired: April 12, 2015
Where Purchased: Already Read Used Books (Alexandria, VA)
Price Paid: $6


Read Status: Read (October 19, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • I only was going to get one 1940s book this visit like I usually do, but then I had to get the Maria by Maria Von Trapp book that I've really been wanting to read and they had a buy two get one free deal so I got this and ended up with the Maria book as my free book. Also, with this being a 1948 book and the other I got this visit being 1943, I now have at least one book for every year.

13. Colonel Effingham's Raid

Title: Colonel Effingham's Raid
Author: Barry Fleming
Year Published: 1943
Year Printed: 1943

Date Acquired: April 12, 2015
Where Purchased: Already Read Used Books (Alexandria, VA)
Price Paid: $6

Read Status: Read (August 7, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • Officially, no longer caring about sticking to the local sections for this collection, but definitely still sticking to what I can randomly find at used bookstores for now. I guess I already relaxed that criteria in Lafayette and then first expanded to novels at The Hermitage, but now this one is both a novel and not local related. At least as long as I still have a to read pile of 1940s books, I'm not even tempted to start breaking the sticking to finding the books at used bookstores criteria for my collection. There was probably something local to be found here (I found a really interesting one that I had to pass up because it was sadly 1939) as it is a really fun bookstore to browse since it's just totally cluttered with books on shelves and in boxes. However, not finding something local in our cursory visit is kind of a good thing because my collection is currently very Virginia heavy.
  • This ended up being a really interesting book about a retired Colonel challenging the local government mainly over repairing the existing courthouse rather than building a new one. The book and the historical context of it being as World War II is going on and the U.S. just entering as the book ends is summed up very well in the below quote.
    • “But, floods, boy!” cried Cousin Willy. “Are you proposing to fight dictatorships abroad and submit to one in your home town?” (p. 88)
  • “History is an ennobling study, —ennobling, as a man usually seems ennobled in death. History is humanity’s death mask and on it even our errors assume some dignity.” (p. 16)
  • “We in the South regard our kin more or less in the light of an Organized Reserves, to be called to the colors in an emergency like a marriage or a funeral, and even to undergo an occasional training period at a family-reunion barbecue, but of the most part the kinship is an inactive service and we not only rarely encounter each other directly but if we chance to pass on the street are as likely as not to fail in recognition.” - p. 25
  • “Most us in the South, you know, have a very prominent sense of humor; it works as a stabilizer against excesses, supplementing the action of the climate in discouraging us from acting either too quickly or too positively and so laying ourselves open to a sort of social sunstroke.” (p. 89)
  • “That’s the wonderful thing about working in a Christian community; they know they are sinners and they know that any news is going to be bad. Buildings crumble, rust corrupts, thieves break in and steal, and there is no health anywhere. Taxes are high and benefits are low; that’s what the Bible says and that’s just how things are in the world. You don’t complain because that’s the way, mysteriously enough, it was meant to be; if you watch your step you may get a better break at the next stop." (p. 132-133)
  • "'Seriousness won’t bite you.' 'I’m a Southerner, darling,' I laughed, 'and
    I’m scared to death of it.'" (p. 278)

Sunday, March 29, 2015

12. The Mammals of Virginia

Title: The Mammals of Virginia
Author: John Wendell Bailey
Year Published: 1946
Year Printed: 1946

Date Acquired: March 29, 2015
Where Purchased: Black Swan Books and Music, Staunton, VA
Price Paid: $9.50

Read Status: Read (June 15, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • p. 192 - "In 1808 a law in force in Ohio required that each free white male deliver 100 squirrel scalps a year or pay $3 in cash."
  • p. 297 - "The Roman word for money was pecunia, from pecus, cattle, and in all antiquity it was apparent that cattle were prized possessions. They are still. Even a beef steak is now a prized possession in any country."

Friday, February 20, 2015

11. Bar Nothing Ranch

Title: Bar Nothing Ranch
Author: Rosemary Taylor
Year Published:1947
Year Printed: 1947

Date Acquired: February 19, 2015
Where Purchased: The Book Stop, Tucson, AZ
Price Paid: $10

Read Status: Read (February 22, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • I wasn't planning to add anything to my collection this Tucson trip, but I had just recently finished Ridin' the Rainbow and really wanted to find Chicken Every Sunday. I didn't find a copy of that, but they did have this Rosemary Taylor novel, which I bought without even looking at the date because I had wandered in just as they were about to close early. Also, I loved Ridin' the Rainbow so much I wanted to read her other books even if I had to later go back and find an actual 1940s edition for my collection. However, I don't have to and if I ever manage to get down to having no 1940s books in my to read pile, I know Chicken Every Sunday will be the book that breaks my trend of buying the books for the collection in person from independent used bookstores.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

D. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Fifth Edition

Title: Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Fifth Edition: The Largest Abridgement of Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition
Year Published: 1947
Year Printed: 1947

Date Acquired: 2014
Acquired From: Dad

Notes/Thoughts
  • Originally my grandfather's
  • My dad gave this to me shortly after I decided to collect 1940s edition books.

C. The Senior Confirmation Book

Title: The Senior Confirmation Book
Author: Jacob Tanner
Year Published: 1941
Year Printed: 1941

Date Acquired: 2008
Acquired From: Grandma

Notes/Thoughts

B. Bet It's A Boy

Title: Bet It's A Boy
Author: Betty Bacon Blunt
Year Published: 1940
Year Printed: 1940

Date Acquired: 2008
Acquired From: Grandma

Notes/Thoughts
  • This was given to my great-grandmother by her doctor in 1941, which would've been when she was pregnant with my grandma.
  • This is an interesting book of illustrations. Spoiler: It ends with the woman having twin girls.

A. Holy Bible Illustrated

Title: Holy Bible
Year Published: 1611 (or at least that's when the King James Version originally dates to)
Year Printed: 1946 (or at least year given to my grandma)

Date Acquired: 2008
Acquired From: Grandma

Notes/Thoughts
  • Says illustrated on spine, but kind of seems a misnomer when there only seems to be a few illustrations or at least in comparison to a much more illustrated 1930s book of Biblical stories I also have from her.
  • Given to my grandma by her grandfather for Christmas in 1946

Sunday, February 8, 2015

10. Rivers of America: The James - From Iron Gate to the Sea

Title: The James: From Iron Gate to the Sea
Author: Blair Niles
Year Published: 1945 (New Revised Edition, original 1939)
Year Printed: 1945

Date Acquired: February 7. 2015
Where Purchased: Capitol Hill Books, Washington, DC
Price Paid: $8.50

Read Status: Read (June 28, 2015)

Notes/Thoughts
  • Of course, another Virginia book. I really did intend to try for a D.C. book, but I quickly spotted this book and did not look any further as this is part of the Rivers of America series that I already got The Tennessee River: Volume I from. Perhaps next visit I'll at least truly look for a D.C. book.
  • Covers how "involuntary servitude" (p. 58) was not just African slaves including instances of them becoming free and owning slaves, but also English children kidnapped to be servants in the colonies. (mostly Chapter 4) 
  • Good detailed description of the life cycle measured in tobacco. (p. 79-83) "Planters and laborers and slaves alike lived in the rhythm of tobacco." (p. 83)
  • Colonial Abbreviations (p. 116-117)
    • tobo = tobacco
    • hhd = hogshead
    • Hble Servt. = Humble Servant
    • oppy = opportunity
    • Dr = Dear
  • George Washington "keeping copybooks in which he set down whatever appeared to him to be desirable knowledge." (p. 120)
  • Student Debt in 1800s - "It is said that the merchants of Charlottesville exploited for their own ends this new freedom for youth. They offered limitless credit; whatever the young gentlemen wanted was theirs. In due time their fathers would receive bills." (p. 227)