NOTES OF A USED AND OUT-OF-PRINT BOOK DEALER

Issue #10. August 2, 2001

This free email newsletter is issued biweekly by Continental Books. To new readers: theConshohocken stories are fictions built around kernels of truth.

• The Book Trade: An Elmer Conshohocken Story. #4. Don't go away mad.
• Book Review. An historical novel by Maurice Samuel
• Book Collecting. Even an informal note can count as a writing.
• Casual notes and links

ELMER CONSHOHOCKEN AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD SO TO SPEAK.

1
Elmer Conshohocken, the composite used book dealer, has had his brushes with the creative side of publishing. His conclusion: The real value of a book can't be bought, only accessed. Elmer's wife, Shanna, is political. She patrols the outskirts of the land of Free Speech, holding off the barbarians and, on occasion, landing a coup with a sweet sound.

2
"A dinner meeting at the United Nations, you say? " asks an incredulous Elmer. "And in the delegates' dining room?"

"Yes," answers Shanna, "For the defense of the First Amendment."

"But the UN is the benign center of human hopes." muses Elmer, "It's the arena of fifty dollar words, formally dressed and mannered diplomats, prideful international bureaucrats. You don't expect the general public backstage there. The UN might be down-on-its-luck, maybe they're in recession and renting out space to make ends meet. Or the old Andrew Jackson spirit of populism might be rising to the world stage."

3
Famous authors and artists who would otherwise pass on such an event find the invitation irresistible. It has the quality of a visit to Samarkand: You never anticipate it and never expect to repeat it.

It is night in a closed and darkened General Assembly building. A few guards. A walk down the dim and empty winding hall, footfalls echoing. Into the elevator with a well known cartoonist, taller and more mature than imagined, maintaining a surface nonchalance against the incongruity. The dramatic entrance into the brilliantly lighted and glittering large banquet hall, high ceiling, glass wall overlooking the East River, large round tables, elegant and impeccable service. Everyone high on Shanna's gambit, circulating and commemorating the moment with chatter and laughter.

And Shanna is loved and respected by those famous ones who are only available to Elmer through their works. But he recognizes their acceptance of his wife and he suddenly wants to touch and chat with them, glad they are alive and there and seemingly accessible.

He approaches one, "May I introduce myself. I'm Shanna's husband." And famous person smiles. "Yes," continues Elmer, "And you can guess how important the First Amendment is to me." Famous person broadens smile. "Since." explains Elmer, "I am a used book dealer." Deep frown. "Excuse me," the now distracted famous person says, "I see the waiter with the champagne is making the rounds." And off famous person slips.

"Is it me personally?" asks Elmer of a rumpled editorial type he has cornered after several famous person attempts with negative results.

"Royalty." the rumpled one points emphatically into Elmer's chest, "Not the King or Queen but the Royal Jack. The author receives a royalty payment for every new copy of his book sold, but he receives nothing from the resale of a used copy. You are, chum, the writer's thief in the night. Oh here comes the coffee and dessert." He pulls his arm from Elmer's grip.

"Cheese," says a shocked Elmer, "I only sell the physical book, the reader extracts the creative value for himself. Send your invoice to him." To the receding backs of the famous people Elmer shouts, "Love you. No hard feelings." Then with his hands to mouth as a megaphone, "And keep on writing those books."

Note. Royalty stress is at its height while a book is newly issued, but it abates after the publisher remainders the stock and allows the book to fall out-of-print. Some authors, like William Buckley, try to finesse the problem by selling their own books. Some like Larry McMurtry transcend by being both author and book dealer. Many an author after distributing all the copies of his own out-of-print book has to go to the second hand market to get more. But, dealers, watch-out-the-ebook with the possibility of never going out-of-print.

For Buckley see http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=7171

Extraneous reference. The most familiar "Thieves in the Night" title for me is Arthur Koestler's book on the early period of the collective farm movement in Israel. There are many different variants of this title by different authors. It is a religious metaphor suggesting the frightful destruction of the old in anticipation of the new, a process not usually contemplated with relish.

THE BORGIA MODEL

"WEB OF LUCIFER, A Novel of the Borgia Fury" by Maurice Samuel (1895-1972) was published in 1940. It tracks Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander the Sixth in the years around 1499 as he makes his move to unify and dominate Italy. We observe him through a naive but reflective young staff clerk who at first finds Borgia charming, heroic, sincere, honorable, but who is totally disillusioned when he slowly understands that this Cesare is a high order immoral monster. Contrasted against the larger public evil throughout the story is a small coterie of pure, unselfish, loving friends who keep the faith until the clerk returns to them. Machiavelli is on the periphery, an ineffective, oversexed and ultimately failed player. He offers language that explains the political goings-on.

Did the author intend a critical commentary on the many horrible dictatorships at their highest moments of success at the time in which he wrote? Was Borgia being held up as a mirror for Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Tojo et al? Not easily answered. Borgia is so anchored in his time and place that he doesn't easily translate into another setting. Still Samuel's advice, to avoid association with an evil leader no matter how charismatic and, by implication, watch-out-the-leader, is a start toward a useful practice.

At the level of narrative this novel is fun enough: a coming-of-age story, the struggle of good against evil, and lots of violent and romantic action. And, for bonus, it's an easy entrance into the history of the Renaissance era.

See http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=2112

NOTES OF VALUE. A reference book for your consideration

Kunitz, Stanley J. and Howard Haycraft (Editors) TWENTIETH CENTURY AUTHORS. A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature. Complete in one volume with 1850 biographies and 1700 portraits (Small passport type head shots). H.W. Wilson Co. Copyright 1942, This is the sixth printing 1966.

Beyond its value as a biographical and bibliographical reference this book contains texts, however informal and casual, written and contributed by the authors still living at the time it was published "Every living author in this volume who could be reached was invited to write his own sketch." report the editors. And many did. A scattering of these: Louis Adamic, George Ade, Margery Allingham, Erskine Caldwell, Blaise Cendrars, Bruno Frank, Rene Fulop-Muller, Christopher Isherwood, H.L. Mencken, Henry Miller, George Santayana, William Carlos Williams, Philip Wylie. And many more.

If you collect an author you might want an extra little bit of his or her ephemeral writing that is not usually cited.

See http://continentalbooks.com/books.cgi?bk=8209

CASUAL NOTES AND LINKS

1
Still working on the revision of our web site. Now expect to have it running in the new mode within a week. To the data base, offering some of our stock of books for sale, we are adding an archive of past issues of this newsletter and setting pages for serial development of two books: "Ordinary Sociology," an everyday, non-academic version of the subject; and "General Admissions," a more general commentary on current issues and events.

2
Perhaps you have noticed that authors of newly published books set up web sites to advance the sale of their titles and to maintain contact with their readers. You'll usually find the web site address in the promotional matter on the dust jacket or on the paperback cover. The few I've seen are worth while sites reflecting the talents and energy of their authors. My giving links to these with a few comments might prove a useful continuing service. If you have sites you would care to recommend I would very much like to hear from you.

I have one link today...

http://www.aweisbecker.com. Allan Weisbecker, a travel adventure author and skilled photographer, pushes his two books, COSMIC BANDITOS and IN SEARCH OF CAPTAIN ZERO, by offering additional verbal and photographic essays on site. When you get to the home page click on "Big Blue" and then "pictures" to get to the good stuff quickly. Allan also issues an occasional newsletter that keeps us current on his actions and concerns. The last one I saw described a power lunch with a Hollywood producer which was almost as much fun as surfing off a Costa Rican beach.

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Best wishes.

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Alvin Katz copyright 2001