[mc4wp_form id="1782"]

Old Gems found in Fourteen Great Detective Stories

I dipped into this wonderful old anthology over the past couple of weeks.  I once actively collected the Modern Library series, and this book was on those shelves, though it’s in far from collectible condition. It does have a fun old gift inscription and a big old crease through the front board, which somehow makes the book look more friendly.

Earlier I read an essay about how the story The Case of  Oscar Brodski, one of the Dr. Thorndyke mysteries by R. Austin Freeman was revolutionary for being the first We See Who Commits the Crime, Will They Be Caught style of stories.  In old essays about crime fiction, this is often called an Inverted Detective Story.  I had never read Dr. Thorndyke and was not familiar at all with The Case of Oscar Brodski.  Then, VOILA, springing forth from my own shelves, there it was. I think Freeman’s story holds up and was pretty good, even to this modern reader.

However, also in this book, the real treat was Cornell Woolrich’s short story The Dancing Detective.  Wow!  For suspense, menace, and just a straight-up creepy story, what a knockout! The narrator’s voice was so enjoyable, with just the right amount of dark humor. The contemporary slang, also very well done and hilarious. This short story exceeds a lot of stuff coming out today, but then again, Cornell Woolrich is still considered a master of the genre.

 

The stories included in this edition (earlier editions had slightly different contents):

Bailey, H.C. The Yellow Slugs
Bentley, E.C. The Little Mystery
Chesterton, G.K. The Blue Cross
Christie, Agatha The Third-Floor Flat 
Dickson, Carter The House of Goblin Wood
Doyle, A. ConanThe Red-Headed League 
Freeman, R. Austin The Case of Oscar Brodski
Futrelle, Jacques The Problem Of Cell 13
Poe, Edgar Allan The Purloined Letter
Post, Melville Davisson The Age of Miracles
Queen, Ellery The Adventure of the African Traveler 
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Bone of Contention
Stout, Rex Instead of Evidence
Woolrich, Cornell The Dancing Detective

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

Cross Border Raid for Books

Every bibliophile wants to hunt at Larry McMurtry’s Booked Up in Archer City, Texas. At least you should. It was my pleasure to organize such a trip for the toddling Bibliophiles of Oklahoma back in January.
 
Photo by the author: Storefront of Booked Up, Inc., No. 1
 

If you’ve not heard of Booked Up, it is a world-class book mine in an unlikely place. McMurtry has bought and sold books for decades. Sure, he’s a Pulitzer Prize/Oscar-winning writer, but in interviews and his recent memoir Books , he’s just another bibliophile bookseller. McMurtry’s purpose for relocating to his ancestral home was to establish an American book town (without a festival, which, “is the last thing I want”, according to McMurtry). A fantastic interview spelling out his motivations and ideas on Nigel Beale’s Biblio File is here.


For most book collectors, Archer City may as well be on the moon, but for we few book lovers shouting in the hinterlands, it is our Shangri La. We don’t have a Strand, a Powell’s, or a CODEX book fair. Having journeyed to Booked Up a few times before, I served as the bibliosherpa, along with Lynn Wienck of Chisholm Trail Bookstore, who is even more familiar with the environs of the Red River country.

.

For the Bibliophiles of Oklahoma, this was our most well-attended event, so we will certainly go again, perhaps in early autumn. North Texas can be merciless in the summer. For our trip, at the end of January, the weather was pleasant, though crisp. It looks chilly in the photos, right? All of our members found additions to their collections. Not too hard when a dozen ravenous bibliophiles descend on 400-500,000 quality books. Everyone also saw items that surprised them. For me, it was a very nice (bargain!) copy of The Great Gatsby for my Modern Library collection. One spouse that was dragged along was surprised how such a large number of books could be so well organized, well-lit, and clean. Her one complaint was that the 10′ shelves were too tall for her. An example is below. This is where I spent more than half my day, in the Books About Books section. Yes, nearly that entire run visible, all 10′ high, are Books About Books — publishing memoirs, bibliographies, and other wonderous treasures.

When it comes to surprises, you don’t have to take my word for it. John C. Roberts, a member of the esteemed Caxton Club of Chicago, published a fantastic article in the January issue of the Caxtonian about his own southern sojourn from Chicago. Even this more established collector of modern firsts found surprises.

Photo by the author: The Books About Books section

There are a few practical considerations weighing a trip to Booked Up.

You won’t go there “passing through” to somewhere else. For many collectors, Archer City can be a destination. Really.


Virtually none of the inventory, which is hand-selected by McMurtry for quality, is online. None. And, perhaps as many as 500,000 books, no junk. None.


Wear layers. There is little/no heating or air-conditioning in the four buildings, and north Texas can have erratic weather. The buildings are a little spread out.


According to the signs posted about, books are organized Erratically/ Impressionistically/ Whimsically/ Open to Interpretation. Moby Dick could be in American Fiction, Animals, Nautical, Fishing & Hunting, Travel, etc.

Photo by the author: Storefront of Booked Up, Inc., No. 2


As of this writing, they still accept major credit cards and cash.

If you go with a group, bring your own water and synchronize watches. Cell service is spotty at best.

For those of you who went, leave a comment below to make everyone jealous to go with us next time!

 

 

About the Author: Benjamin L. Clark writes and works as a museum curator.

UCO Book Sale Report

Book Shelves

.

college-photo_15695
via U.S. News & World Report

Last night I attended the 8th annual Friends of the Library (FOL) sale benefiting the University of Central Oklahoma Library. I’ve visited the UCO campus a couple times before, but never the library. So I started in the visitor lot (mistake) and wondered around. There are no maps posted, so I relied on the kindness of students hanging around to point the library out. The Max Chambers library is in the Northwestern quarter of campus.

It was Friends day, so I joined at the door. Membership levels start at $5, which is quite a bargain! Books were shelved along general topical lines. You know; environmental law in gardening, etc. I arrived at the end of the evening, long after the afternoon rush, so it was a little rummaged, but I still found some great books. There was a good mix of newer and older, hardback and paperback, ex-library and donated. Found some great additions to my Modern Library collection. Prices are very reasonable, and of course, go to a good cause.

Also, I found a flyaway for the record books. Flyaways are the random stuff found in books. Usually postcards, receipts, etc. Well, this was nothing like that. The book was published in 1889, in cloth with a shaken spine and hinges starting. There seemed to be a good-sized pebble or something in the spine. I tried to peek down the back strip– something was down there alright, but I couldn’t see what. I delicately prodded it with my Parker Jotter, popping the invader loose. It clunked out on the shelf — a chocolate chip. Whole and unsullied. Weird.

.