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

Issue 4 03 May 2001 A free biweekly email newsletter issued by Continental Books

Our purpose: To amuse and inform by sharing observations, interests, and projects; and to sell books through our web site

Contents

• The Seagoing Jeep: One Way or Another It's Magic
• Parlor Game with Books: Game #4. One Way or Another It's Fiction
• The Book Trade: Want Lists, Ephemeral Except for a Few Scraps.

1. A Perception of the Literary Side of the Amphibious Jeep

The amphibious jeep, also known as GPA, General Purpose Amphibian, also Seep. Contradictory mixture: Earth and air. Land and sea. It should be the preferred vehicle in the search for mermaids. Developed in haste in wartime, manufactured in a limited edition of 12,700 plus copies, of marginal military utility, quickly declared surplus, it became an unexpected challenge, really a bonanza, for the mechanic-sailor. Its votaries have lavished care and attention on each surviving car-boat as though it were a shrine in transit, a banner for the host in motion along a far shore.

There are two high priests, Ben Carlin, the Australian, and the American, Frank Schreider. Each took his seep out of its garage-sanctuary and went on a chase with a goal specific yet nebulous, heading out toward the wide world's end. Frank to traverse the entire length of the mythic and incomplete Pan-American highway, north to south; and Ben to circle the world entire, west to east. Ensconced in his seep along with, initially, a beautiful and intelligent mate and companion, each voyager, with a character of indomitable persistence, carried through to an end proper and triumphant.

And each reported his adventurous journey in a book: Ben in the fabled "HALF SAFE. Across the Atlantic by Jeep" published in 1955, and Frank in "20,000 MILES SOUTH, A Pan American Adventure" out in 1957. Both wrote subsequent books: "THE DRUMS OF TONKIN, An Adventure in Indonesia" 1963 by the Schreiders, reporting on a year's tour of the islands by seep; and "THE OTHER HALF OF HALF-SAFE" by Carlin which wasn't published until 1989, eight years after his death. A fifth book, called "ONCE A FOOL...FROM JAPAN TO ALASKA BY AMPHIBIOUS JEEP" 2nd edition by Boye Lafayette De Mente, Carlin's extra hand for the trip across the North Pacific, was recently republished (on January 29, 2001) as an ebook, carrying-on the tradition.

Carlin's main problem, beyond interpersonal issues with his companions, was to win universal acceptance of his key over-water passages. Crossing the Atlantic his radio transmissions stopped and this cast doubt over his achievement. And on his transit between the Azores and Africa he got into serious difficulty in a choppy sea and had to be rescued by a Portuguese naval vessel. But it is a miss-the-point carp like criticizing Houdini's escape from a tank of water because it involved a trick. Yes but he was suspended, totally submersed, head down wasn't he? And Carlin made all the land side stops, didn't he? The reality behind the illusion, if we ever learn it, will be just as compelling.

The world center for the Seep is at the Guilford Grammar School in Guilford, Western Australia, Carlin's alma mater, where Half-Safe, Carlin's seep, is on display in a glass-walled garage.

• See http://4wd.sofcom.com/Mil/Seep/Seep.html and http://4wd.sofcom.com/Mil/HalfSafe.html For background.
• Also http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jeep_man/GPA.htm
• See http://members.iinet.net.au/~daveb/halfsafe/halfsafe.html For a summary recounting of Carlin's journey.
• See http://www.4wdonline.com/Places/CentralAmerica/Darien.html For an obstacle faced by the Schreiders.
• See http://www.hadami.com/bookinfo/details.asp?bookID=114 For De Mente's book.

2. Parlor Game with books: Game #4. Fiction about a fiction.

The novel is, after all, a fiction parading as a reflection of real events. There is an image in the mirror but no object out front. We are warned but invariably suspend disbelief. But again some novels, based on actual life, parade as fictions even as they veer toward history. Why should the members of the audience deny themselves the virtues of the creative author: The ambiguity, the play of shadow and light, and the story.

Preparation is required. A week before the game the host must contact each player and ask that a verbal presentation be readied of the plot of a work of fiction. Each person must have a unique title, no duplicates permitted. The player must guarantee that a hardbound copy of the selected novel will be supplied and contributed as a gift to the group. Each must also identify which among the titles presented he or she has not read. Any novel all players have read will be discarded and replaced by another. The coordinator must be certain that everyone will be both a presenter of one plot and a naive responder for another, consequently there can only be an even number of participants -- in the order of 8 or 10.

The players assemble in a circle and select the order of presentation by a random method like a spinning bottle. The chosen presenter will then outline the beginning of the plot of his novel, naming and describing quickly the main characters and their initial situation. The respondent now must outline the subsequent development of the story through its complexities and convolutions to a conclusion. He must, that is, invent the rest of the story. Hint: If your muse of pure imagination does not appear fall back upon your own experience or borrow from the novels, biographies and histories you know. These won't fail you. The primary respondent can be assisted but only by others who also don't know the book. The rest of the circle should act as claque or critic as the spirit moves them. When the false fiction is complete the presenter will sum up the real plot from start to finish. This should naturally lead to a general discussion comparing the two designs and canvassing other possibilities.

Scoring is by secret vote on a scale of one to ten, low to high, for each presenter and each respondent. At game's end the ratings are summed and two winners, high and low, discovered. They will be rewarded with the dish washing and cleaning up chores. The game continues until each player has performed on both sides and it ends with each presenter inscribing and signing his book and giving it to his respondent who by this time should be well motivated to read it.

To come down from the high of the game the group should practice Inuit string patterns. Finish with a cheer for the coordinator.

If you need a novel to play the game, we have a few listed at: http://continentalbooks.com/novels Drop in for a look around.

The Book Trade. All wants are temporary

The primitive system of searching for books a few years back included dealers' "want lists" in which titles requested by customers were accumulated into long typed lists stretching into hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of items. These were either mimeographed or offset into gatherings and mailed to active dealers and scouts with large stocks who quoted back offers to sell.

To relieve the tedium of scanning the lists the issuer often included an entertainment in the form of a mild distraction. The limit was set by the crude methods of production. These weren't high gloss magazines but short-lived working papers. Throwaways: here today, gone today.

These lists are casualties of the technical advance of the Internet. Everyone can search for himself now with casual strokes on the keyboard, and fewer and fewer die-hards with their stiff collars and spats persist in the old way. Perhaps it's not too soon to recognize one of the old timers in the trade. Dick Kreig ran a want list from 1957 on as Blitz Books from Weaverville, California. In 1979 he proudly bragged that in all his years as publisher he only lost one quoter to blindness.

Longevity is good but what distinguished him was his quarter page of commentary, set down week in and out as a moment of relief for his readers. These established a persona for me of the lean rural man with his beat-up felt hat, sitting outside his book shop, whittling and spitting tobacco juice, expounding a stoic philosophy. In one of his adventures he returns a stolen book to a library only to discover later that it was a legitimate book that the library had never owned.

I've managed to salvage some fifty plus pages of these original paragraphs, but not the associated book lists. I tossed the ephemera and kept the literary residue.

During the same era Buccaneer Books of Laguna Beach, California issued a list of considerable charm. They interspersed their pages with little designs, used pleasingly colored paper and added occasional features and remarks in smaller print suggesting an ironic view of the world. For example, to a listing "Growing through Death" by Jim Smoke they added, "There must be a better way." Jack and Ann Vincent were the publishers from the 1970's through to 1995. Ruth Adams did the typing and the add-ons.

I put out a list but could only manage short encouraging sentiments in my introductory paragraph, like "Keep your chin up when not reading." I would have attempted more except for the production costs.

The Krieg's, Dick and Lee, no longer have a phone listed in Weaverville, California. There is no Blitz Books on the Internet that I could find. Buccaneer Books of Laguna Beach is still in business with 15,000 titles listed on line. Jack and Ruth each have a bound copy of all issues of their want list.

New readers are welcome and can receive their own free copies with an email to: subscribe@continentalbooks.com To stop the process send an email to: alkatz@continentalbooks.com with "unsubscribe" as message.

Within a week we will be listing for sale a copy of Joel E. Fisher. PROBLEMS IN THE GEOLOGY OF MOUNTAINS. Watch out for it.

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Copyright 2001 Alvin Katz