What books are you most keen to find?

[Steven Broomfield]

2 hours ago, Skipman said:

 

Here's the poor man's version(s) Click

 

Mike

All well and good, Mike, but you can't hold it, feel it, smell it ... 

[Derek Black]

7 hours ago, barkalotloudly said:

When i look at the books we are seeking i am very glad indeed that i did a lot of buying during the early 2000`s when i first went on line, did not realise then just how scarce some of these books would become !!  

Care to share any particularly good bargain finds?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

54 minutes ago, Derek Black said:

Care to share any particularly good bargain finds?

While barkalot's drawing up his list, here's a few lucky finds I've had over the years.

Bernard Adams 'Nothing of Importance', 1st in jacket signed by his sister. £6 

Barbusse 'Under Fire', the only copy of a jacketed 1st I've ever seen.£3

Vera Brittain's 'Testament of Youth', jacketed 1st from the same shop. £3

& a couple of weeks ago, jacketed 1sts of Kipling's 'Irish Guards', both volumes signed by Kipling for £35

[seaJane]

14 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Several copies on ABE including a signed one in it's jacket for £83 . Doesn't seem too dear.

I think I must have a low expense threshold

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Steven Broomfield said:

All well and good, Mike, but you can't hold it, feel it, smell it ... 

 

Now. Back to the book. ..........

 

Mike

[barkalotloudly]

11 hours ago, Derek Black said:

Care to share any particularly good bargain finds?

Just a few that come to mind 

Bradford and his brothers {an original} 30.00

The war the infantry knew {one copy 50.00 one copy 10.00}

Artillery and trench mortar memories 15.00

Jacka`s mob {in D/W} 30.00?

Forgotten Legions {Kilmer{ cannot remember exactly but seem to remember being somewhat pleased a very scarce book !! 

Combat in and over Delville wood 35.00

Letters of a young Queenslander 30-40

More letters of a young Queenslander 25.00

Yarn of War 9.00

Battle of the Somme Masefield limited edition with a nice inscription by him 30.00

one of my most interesting buys was a typed memoir of a New Machine gunner, came from an auction house in New Zealand , i traced some of his relatives a couple of years ago they never knew it existed ...made the newspaper in Christchurch  

 

others i have never seen since i purchased them

A year in the Salient

Wilfred Saxby Barham

several obscure little memorial volumes 

Tom`s Letters {american flyer}

 

regards 

[Derek Black]

21 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

While barkalot's drawing up his list, here's a few lucky finds I've had over the years.

Bernard Adams 'Nothing of Importance', 1st in jacket signed by his sister. £6 

Barbusse 'Under Fire', the only copy of a jacketed 1st I've ever seen.£3

Vera Brittain's 'Testament of Youth', jacketed 1st from the same shop. £3

& a couple of weeks ago, jacketed 1sts of Kipling's 'Irish Guards', both volumes signed by Kipling for £35

 

11 hours ago, barkalotloudly said:

Just a few that come to mind 

Bradford and his brothers {an original} 30.00

The war the infantry knew {one copy 50.00 one copy 10.00}

Artillery and trench mortar memories 15.00

Jacka`s mob {in D/W} 30.00?

Forgotten Legions {Kilmer{ cannot remember exactly but seem to remember being somewhat pleased a very scarce book !! 

Combat in and over Delville wood 35.00

Letters of a young Queenslander 30-40

More letters of a young Queenslander 25.00

Yarn of War 9.00

Battle of the Somme Masefield limited edition with a nice inscription by him 30.00

one of my most interesting buys was a typed memoir of a New Machine gunner, came from an auction house in New Zealand , i traced some of his relatives a couple of years ago they never knew it existed ...made the newspaper in Christchurch  

 

others i have never seen since i purchased them

A year in the Salient

Wilfred Saxby Barham

several obscure little memorial volumes 

Tom`s Letters {american flyer}

 

regards 

Thanks lads, i shall keep living in hope of finding a bargain.

[Steven Broomfield]

Let's be careful out there

 

Murdered for a book

 

So far I have nothing work £50,000, but you never know. If a copy of the History of the 5th lancers came up I might just ...

[barkalotloudly]

A couple more i have just picked up quite cheaply "A Kitchener`s Man bit" and the Diary of Cook Somerset Light Infantry, the latter is very scarce printed in 1957 Some where else i would always look is in the back of "Stand To" magazine at the small self published books {usually in quite small numbers}  these will be hard to find in the years to come   

[Guest]

   A good topic for Man Booker Prize week. Yours truly is a semi-retired "antiquarian" (ie not new paperbacks) bookseller- And,God, I hate modern novels-refused to stock fiction when we ran a shop in central London. My view has always been that a good Victorian military memoir has more literary quality than most of the "Fiction" dross that gets piled up on tables at Waterstones. eg-One of favourites is Lt Col Edwin Alderson "Wth the Mounted Infantry"- which is easily available as a Rhodesiana Library reprint-the whole series was heavily remaindered 30 years ago but it had very good reproduction qualities. Or,indeed, the first military memoir I bought when a student at the LSE in 1972- "Listening for the Drums" by Sir Ian Hamilton- Published in reasonable print run during WW2 but doesnt turn up that much- 

    I was very fortunate before I took up bookselling to buy a whole clutch of Boer War privately printed soldiers accounts from an old-time London bookseller (W.H.Fletcher-"Bill") who had set aside privately printed books in a cupboard over many years for no better reason than they had bought so much from the dispersal of the Derby library at Knowsley (some 15 tons-his son,Keith Fletcher,had to sit on the tail-board of a Pickfords van all the way back to London as there was nowehere else to sit) that soem stuff got stuck on the side-and like old-time booksellers with a huge flow of books coming in,it never got dealt with.

     I am not a military book collector, let alone Dustjackets but I do appreciate that they are now scarce (is DJC perhaps Tom Donovan himself???)  Its not something I follow but I still have a copy of Scheer "Germany's High Seas Fleet in nthe World War" in DJ- bought for £1.50 from George Jeffery (the real one) in 1973- and thinking about it, I have never seen another.

 

        Some time ago,I had a whinge that IWM were less than helpful during the centennial years as what was needed was a good thorough bibliography of "regimentals" to include unit histories, individual accounts and,perhaps,even journal articles. The "wants" listed above by others show that a good loisting of all this stuff is long overdue.

 

         And for Steve Broomfield....

 

all Cads, Tiffen, and Mutton Chop side burns that`s just the stuff to give the troops, cannot beat it. and then after 30 years duty on the sub continent retired retire to "Rose Villa" somewhere on the outskirts of London where you can get  a train at midnight on a sunday in the middle in the middle of winter. 

   Well, there are trains in the far suburbs of London on a Sunday at midnight........... unfortunately, they are the ones that should have arrived on time during the FRiday evening rush-hour but got "delayed"

 

 

[Steven Broomfield]

   A good topic for Man Booker Prize week. Yours truly is a semi-retired "antiquarian" (ie not new paperbacks) bookseller- And,God, I hate modern novels-

 

 

Good man. With very few exceptions (and, to be fair, I can think of very few), I never bother with any fiction written since I was born (1955) (actually, the latter stages of Powell's Dance to the Music of Time passes muster, but with so much still to read pre-1955 I see no need. Between you and me, I also strenuously avoid fiction by Americans, most of which could do with a jolly good editor.

 

 

         And for Steve Broomfield....

 

all Cads, Tiffen, and Mutton Chop side burns that`s just the stuff to give the troops, cannot beat it. and then after 30 years duty on the sub continent retired retire to "Rose Villa" somewhere on the outskirts of London where you can get  a train at midnight on a sunday in the middle in the middle of winter. 

   Well, there are trains in the far suburbs of London on a Sunday at midnight........... unfortunately, they are the ones that should have arrived on time during the FRiday evening rush-hour but got "delayed"

 

 

My kind of language.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

I feel I must scotch the suggestion that TD & I are one & the same person. Would that we were, it would have saved me a small fortune over the years! Plus he's a much younger fellow.

[barkalotloudly]

Well i think you are!!! and i claim my 10 shillings 

[John Thorne]

Mine sounds a bit boring, compared to the titles already listed. However, I desperately want a copy of the Summary of Artillery Information, No. 18, 1929 (26/Publications/1598).

Edited 28 October , 2016 by John Thorne

[Matthew B.]

I would really like an original copy of "History of the 26th Punjabis 1857-1923" by Stoney. I know that N&M Press have reprinted it but I would still like an original copy.

 

Matthew

[Dust Jacket Collector]

A few more to fill some gaps.

Military Operations : Persia

Order of Battle of Divisions : vol.3a

Any of the 12 vol. History of the Ministry of Munitions

Jacketed 1sts of Carroll Carstairs 'A Generation Missing', Anthony Bertram's 'The Sword Falls' & 'Here We Ride' & John Rodker's 'Memoirs of Other Ranks'.

[Guest]

Apologies to Dust Jacket Collector!!    The similar location on the coast and the liking for WW1 books in DJs set my mind running-As it is, then  if you are of mature years then another old pastime of the south coast comes to mind- Surely, if I carry a copy of the "Daily Mirror" and challenge someone on Brighton seafront with the words "Your are Dust Jacket Collector and I claim my £5 prize" then surely I must win-Makes a change from "Chalky White" of yesteryear.

 

      On a more serious note, I come back to the need for a good lsiting of thse little memoirs, locally printed histories,etc. I have a few bits and bobs that I got before bookselling then I retain-  eg "Letters on Russian Affairs" by Captain Cromie, RN-naval attache during the Bolshevik Revolution. Privately printed=never seen another

 

       All I can say is that stuff does turn up- usually stuff that you were not looking for but even more interesting than what you were.

 

       The rarest item I think I have ever had was a totally unrecorded 8pp. pamphlet with what is called a "drop-head" title- intriguingly headed "Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut". It comprised of 2 sheets of blue paper, printed and folded to make 8pages- Anything on blue paper attracts as it was the colour of paper used for confidential stuff-OK, the word "Secret" printed on the front was also a bit of a clue. Bought 3 books on the Indian Mutiny out of a teachest of old-time general books bought by another bookseller at a London auction. Tucked inside one was this pamphlet-my fellow booksller knew it was there and costed the 4 items at £25. I thought this would be an easy job- Get home and reach for my own copy of a Cambridge University Press book(by Palmer) very cunningly called "The Mutiny Outbreak at Meerut"- not a mention of it-Bl____dy useless book, thinks I.

     Sat in my office desk for 3 years until I was casually mentione it to a fellow bookseller and travel specialist- She sold it on my behalf to the India Office Rcords and Library.

 

        Turned out it was the first account of the outbreak-printed the same day or the next-it had a handwritten list of officers at the end with their fates-"Killed" "Still missing". And its author was the British officer who provoked it all, by the stuff about greased cartridges

     And after 150 years, it was completely unknown and unrecorded. (You can find it listed on its title terms on the British Library online catalogue if you are a student of the Mutiny

 

   So there is still stuff to be found- and again, the need for a good new bibliography,by unit, but with all these small items correctly listed must be a desireable. I suspect there is stuff out there which members of this Forum hold but which are outside holding of any online library catalogue. A Forum member pointed me at a reference to a man from Wanstead killed serving with the London Rifle Brigade in 1915- he had a copy of a fallen officer's privately printed letters from the time-Yes, there was a copy with IWM but not elsewhere- the same with another local casualty for me-Captain Loscombe Law Stable (2 RWF- only a passing mention in "The War the Infantry Knew"). Again, IWM has a copy of his letters but COPAC, Worldcat,etc list no others.

 

 

[Steven Broomfield]

Let's hope DJC doesn't fall foul of a latter-day Pinkie Brown.

[IPT]

I seek "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows" by Aristide Torchi.

 

DJC would be wise not stand in my way.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

39 minutes ago, IPT said:

I seek "The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows" by Aristide Torchi.

 

DJC would be wise not stand in my way.

I think you'll find that the illustrations have already been removed.

[Guest]

Nine Gates- this appears to be the only available modern hardback reprint- have a look on www.bookfinder.com

 

 

Pazuzu Press via United States

Hardcover Publisher: Unknown, 2009 412 pages. Collectible - Like New, Usually ships in 1-2 business days, 2009; Balkan Kessler and Fargas Copies with Chapter Headings Latin text and corresponding engravings proper to each book as seen in the movie, Plus a Journal version with Blank Pages except for the corresponding Engraving Plate Pages which are Present in their correct order and Place in the Book; CaseWrap Hardcovers; New Condition all 4 volumes; Plate verification Index card included with each volume ASIN: B003ODB05Y

£318.06

 

[IPT]

Hmmm.... let's see.

 

[Guest]

And West Yorkshire Regiment, Volume ii   -Ceredigion Bookshop-on ABE

 

		Notes	Price
1.	Ceredigion Book Shop via United Kingdom	Hardcover, ISBN 1111111111 Publisher: Percy Lund, Humphries & Co, 1923 Used - Acceptable. No dust jacket. Significant bumping, discolouration and marks to spine and boards. Page edges grubby and tanned with considerable foxing creeping into the pages. Smudges and other marks on quite a few pages. Biro scribbles on a few pages. Fold out maps not torn. Damage to hinges and binding. GRADED COMMENSURATE WITH AGE OF BOOK PLEASE BE AWARE THIS BOOK IS PRE 1965 AND THE GRADE WILL REFLECT ITS AGE Major signs of wear and tear. Very well read. Reading copy only. May not...

 

[Nigel Marshall]

On 21/10/2016 at 14:46, Steven Broomfield said:

Ta da! Tom Donovan (Don't know if it's still available)

Thank you, Steven.

I've ordered the book.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

[Steven Broomfield]

I am here to please.