[Rarebooks] [topic] My Uncle Irving

Thu May 20 12:02:20 EDT 2004

My Uncle Irving was a bookman's bookman.  He was the sort of bookman who
would walk into an unknown bookstore, stop just inside the door, sniff the
air, and declare in a low, determined voice, "Smells like there are
Hemingway firsts in here, by golly".

He once spent three days waiting in line so he could be the first at a
library sale.  People laughed at him as he sat there in the snow in his
WWII Army-surplus pup tent, with his cot and Coleman stove, eating baked
beans out of a can.  What's more, when the sale opened, Uncle Irving
didn't buy anything!  He wandered around the room, peering at this and
that, holding a few books for a moment before putting them back.  "I know
there's something here," he told me, "I can feel it in my bones.  I
wonder...".  He wandered over to a small table piled high with copies of
"Little Journeys" and "The Bibelot", rummaged around for a moment, then
pulled out an inscribed copy of Poe's Tamerlane.  On his way toward the
door he topped the bag off with a pile of early 19th-century western
exploration pamphlets which had been stuck in amongst a pile of ex-grammar
school geography books.

"I can feel it in my bones," he explained later.  "I knew there was
*something* there".

My Uncle Irving was always ahead of the curve.  He collected early
botanical color plate books in the 1940s, when everyone else thought they
were expensive, stocked up on inscribed Gertrude Stein and Hemingway
firsts in the 1960s, and put away a case of the first printing of an
obscure kid's book by some woman named "Rowling" when it first hit the
stores here a few years ago.  My Uncle Irving could not only sniff out
what was currently rare and desirable, he could look ahead and spot a
coming trend.

I remember the last time I saw my Uncle Irving.  He was in a hospital bed,
surrounded by stacks of AB Bookmans and Swann catalogs.  He had been badly
injured in one of those freak accidents that could only happen to my
uncle, run down by the local bookmobile as he crossed the street for
lunch.

"Come here," he whispered as I entered the room.  "I have something to
tell you."

I drew closer and he seemed to take on renewed strength, almost sitting
up.  He took my hand and held it in his viselike grip.  Decades of pulling
books off shelves had given my Uncle Irving hand muscles that had the
strength of pneumatic car-crushers.

"I've tried to teach you everything I know," Uncle Irving wheezed.  "How
to collate a plate book, how to tell a second printing by touch, how to
smell forged cancel leaves, and the most arcane secrets of
bibliography..."

His voice trailed off, and there was a teardrop at the corner of my eye.
My Uncle Irving had taught me all those things, and so much more.

His hand tightened again.  "I have one more thing to tell you," he said. 
"This is the most important thing of all.  I've seen many things, my boy,
but this one makes all the rest look like week-old gefilte fish.  If you
remember it and take advantage when the time comes, your way as a bookman
is made!"

He pulled me down so that my ear was just inches from him.

"When the time comes", he whispered, "get in early on..."

His words were interrupted by an attack of coughing- rough, hacking
coughs.  I knew that the end was rapidly approaching for my Uncle Irving. 
He got his breath back and continued, his words even lower and more
urgent.

"It's an opportunity some may be tempted to pass up at first," he croaked.
 "But you shouldn't miss it, or you'll be sorry.  When the time comes", he
whispered urgently, "get in early on virtual book fairs."

And then he died.

Considering that it was 1974 and the internet had not been invented yet, I
had no idea what my Uncle Irving was talking about.

       But I've always remembered his words.

          And now I can put them to use.

      The Virtual Book Fair has just opened-
        <http://www.virtualbookfair.com>

VIRTUAL CELEBRATION OF THE BOOK / ON-LINE BOOK FAIR

                MAY 19th- 22nd, 2004

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) will celebrate
its 57th birthday by hosting a “virtual celebration of the book” online at
www.ilab.org, May 19 – 22, 2004. The four day event will include a virtual
auction, book fair, lectures, appraisals, and a “Biblio Quiz” where
entrants can win prizes by testing their book knowledge.

ILAB will also launch new features on its website, including educational
resources for book collectors and highlighting its powerful new search
engine which searches a database of over 3 million books, maps, prints and
autographs from nearly 2000 booksellers from all over the world.

The celebratory event will kick off Wednesday, May 19, 2004, at 6:00 p.m.
Amsterdam time – the site of ILAB’s first conference in 1947 – with a
virtual auction to benefit the U.S. Fund for Unicef, a non-profit
organization helping children in need around the world, and will continue
through May 22nd. Donated by ILAB booksellers, books and prints will be up
for auction at www.ilab.org during the four day event.

Thousands of antiquarian books, prints, maps and autographs will be
available for purchase from trusted ILAB booksellers through the Virtual
Book Fair, beginning at 6:00 p.m. Amsterdam time on Thursday, May 20th and
running until 10:00 p.m. May 22nd. Visitors to the book fair at
www.ilab.org can also test their book knowledge and compete for prizes
such as gift certificates during the Biblio Quiz on May 22nd.

Friday, May 21st, brings Education Day to www.ilab.org. Guests will find a
large resource of information related to the book collecting hobby,
libraries, and ILAB, as well as the opportunity to post their own favorite
book related website links.

The virtual Celebration of the Book concludes Saturday, May 22nd, with
Appraisal Day. ILAB booksellers will be available for live online
appraisals from 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Amsterdam time.

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, an organization of
national associations of antiquarian booksellers around the world, speaks
for twenty nations and nearly two thousand leading booksellers bound by a
code of ethics to promote the integrity and professionalism of the
antiquarian book trade worldwide.

___________________________________
JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA / ILAB
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
Post Office Box 516
Concord, Massachusetts 01742 USA
telephone (617) 492-5367
email <office at joslinhall.com>;
~~
Our full-service website features 82 separate subject categories, is
updated daily and has full search capabilities. http://www.joslinhall.com
~~
Subscribe to our free email News List and get special discounts and offers
on selected books! Send e-mail to
<JHRBnews- at joslinhall.com>; and put the word
"subscribe" (without quotes) in the Subject line of your note.
~~
Check out our "Featured Book"
http://www.joslinhall.com/today1.htm
~~

TERMS:
All payments must be in U.S. funds and negotiable through a U.S. bank; We
accept checks, money orders, American Express, Visa, Mastercard and
Discover.
Books may be reserved pending payment; Institutions may be billed;
Standard courtesies to institutions and the trade; Postage charges are
$5.00 for the first book, and $1.50 for each additional book.
Shipments outside the U.S. will be billed at cost. We accept returns if we
are notified within ten days of your receipt of the books-please
ask for full instructions and terms. Massachusetts residents must add 5%
state sales tax.

As members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America we are
committed to upholding high professional standards and making sure your
bookbuying experience is enjoyable.

Subscribe to the free Rare Books Mailing List
http://www.rarebooksmailinglist.com