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?).

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

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)

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."

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.

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.