The Secrets of the Old Rare Books Collector's Secrets - Part Four - "A Petifore"

The Secrets of the Old Rare Books Collector's Secrets

Part Four

"A Petifore"

            Returning... all the way back... to Part One and its... blue frosted cupcake servings complaisant with servings of old rare books...:  This conclave of neophyte wonderers and their mistress of the old rare books secrets... including her doggie’s darkened library room’s restless waits for tossed shortbread favors... takes a sudden turn to old print on old paper... glued.

            To form an... old rare book... of itself.

            This sudden ‘with glue’ carries our old rare books “speaking of” Mistress (Madam?) to show her as best light when it comes to the ruin of old rare books by the ‘on every page’ ‘glued in’.  I... do not suddenly lean forward in my chair... but as she (Madam) does... the tentative audience... for the most part... peer over their noses and through their glasses.

            At a new wonder.  Purveyed.

            Without ever mentioning my church book sale (Part 3-B) trash can found ‘ruined’ ‘old rare books’ acquisition... nor pointing a finger toward the modern rages of ‘glue gunning’ and ‘scrapbooking’...  Benjamin’s caregiver and old rare book collector “extraordinaire”... brings forth “A TREASURE” (her opening descriptive words) that ...shows its ‘self’ to me as an “Oh one of those” third quarter of the 19^th Century (1850-1875) glue-gah assemblage of ‘old printed paper’ “pasted in”... she titled it.  I call it ‘glued down’.  That is a variant of the old rare book collector’s “Mounted Down” while her wording is a variant of the old rare books collector’s “Tipped In”.  Both of those terms and their actions are old rare books collector’s secrets.  To escape them the reader is best off fumbling with their glue gun... plugged in... and ‘care be taken’ to NOT BURN YOURSELF.

            I take the treasure in stride:  The Victorian glued down printed paper in “an album” (a store bought... and constructed to be this; a scrapbook)... a commercial ‘fancy’ that were coveted by young people who... well... “did them” (made a glued down scrapbook of ‘pretty paper’...  as best they could.

            The last is an ability and a... the materials to work with.  “Pretty Paper” had to be discerned and collected by the ... inner self... art eye... with this philosophical imperative being of very modest depth... AND... this “Pretty Paper” had to be too ...available.

            For best results.

            Yes and for those a little remote in an old Maine farmhouse... the getting of enough pretty paper could take years... especially if one was of the ‘go into town once a year’ set.  Just the thought of that is a ‘leap’ these days and... it is ... much easier to make Benjamin leap in his darkened ‘old book room’ with a toss of shortbread.  In any case... the ground rules of the ‘Victorian Scrapbook’ and it’s ‘scrapbooking’ are presented and now are shown by the old rare book collector Madam... for she ... “has one” for all to “SEE”.

            Now... most of these (Victorian scrapbooks) are a middle-fair production... tending toward the ‘not finished’ and ‘contents dull’ with a dash of ‘not very good at it’ TOO.  These albums are rapidly ‘leaved through’ (each page scrutinized) by knowing collectors and dealers... looking for standout inclusions such as the noted three song sheet discovery (Part 3-B)... and nothing more.  That is a five minute full evaluation of both merit of content and... monetary value... “OF THAT” (content).  But:

            Every now and then the border lands are crossed by the discernment during scrutiny that ‘this one’ (a discovered Victorian scrapbook)... “is special”.  What ‘is special’ is ...is that the whole glued ...old rare book... IS... of itself a WHOLE production being (becoming to the critical eye) “GOOD”.  “PRETTY”.  “NICE”.  And then becomes “a good one”.  Here... Madam showed her conclave... a... “one of those”.  I knew this right away but the rest became mired at “PRETTY” and never... needed to... or thought of...

            “Anything more” (to it then that).  But Benjamin’s caregiver did get a “GOOD EFFORT” from me... and so spastic did I become that I... tossed a shortbread edge off into the dark book room for Benjamin.  I received a complimentary flip of Mistress Book Collector’s eyes from the... old rare books collector... herself.  From self.  Of self... knowingly conveying... that I did know that secret...

            But never the secret... of that secret?

            That is asking a lot... in this setting.  The secret is a tactile, engineered and... ‘a touch of art eye’ paste construction within the sameness of the commercial ‘scrapbook’.  IF more story is told...; the gluing paper expresses a soul....  IF... that... can be... there is a Secret of a Secret.  But... radically avant-garde THAT allotment be in gathered ‘old rare books’ parlor talks and shortbread tossed... doggie favors.

            No...:  Mostly this ‘that’ never happens and that is assured by the fore mentioned ‘middle-fair’.  These of those do suggest a ‘getting there’... but rarely a bomb blast of being ... a that-there.  Here, this day, that is all we get; the Young Wonder’s... glued down... her (his?) arrangement of pretty paper world view and... leaves us (the centennial plus [100+ years old] viewers) with only that ‘pretty’ and ‘nice’ arrangement of inner soul.  The glued album closes... on that suggestive note.  That is okay for the Secret of the Secret is the ‘knowing this’ and that MAY sometimes be ...an expression of an avant-garde soul.  Do you understand?

            The Secret of the Secret is ...knowing of... the secret.

            In this room... of the gathered old rare book collector’s show and tell talk... this aspect of the scrapbook; it being an expression of soul... is... “LOST”.  The best is the accomplishment of ‘pretty’ and ‘nice’ denoted as a conscious ‘glued’ expression... sort of

            Maybe.

            Just toss the shortbread favor... off into the dark room of the book collector’s old rare books... and be done with this notice of art... for the sake of art.  I will always step forward and serve myself when such circumstance DOES appear.  This ‘good habit’ has been a deceptively trite way of I showing how good art may be found ‘hidden’ in the common place... and how easily it may go unnoticed.  I am always looking in the trash cans of this Secret of a Secret.  An old rare book as an art form is not a delusional missed perception.

            It is an honor to engage.

            This all brings us to a horror of the note that old rare books maybe, of themselves, a more than meets an eye.  Constantly.  As a daily creed.  As a feature factor of the that; God has damned the old rare book in our world.  I have expanded the vantage of the old rare book?  Yes I have and its expansion is well past ‘nice’ but I will retain Benjamin as a keynote; a balance.  For he is “nice”.

            The realm of the damned book (“pretty”) is the matter and it is a ‘usual matter’ to I.  Let us jump through the ‘God has damned’ hoop again and see if we may discern another Secret... of a Secret.

            “Yellow Back”... is a last term defined in the books of old rare book terms defined; it is last page... last term.  A... “Yellow Back”.  Well it is not that simple.  It is the “Y” that makes it ‘last’ and the “Y” is for the color ‘yellow’ and that, the definition assures, MAY be the color but ‘not necessarily’.  But we; the old rare books collector realm... and the God damned old rare books realm... LIKES the color and the term so... that is that... secret.  “Yellow Back” defines a certain specific school of publisher’s bound book that is puffed (promoted) as a cheap English edition of a popular title that has a cheap cloth over stiff paper boards cover... binding the cheap paper stock text. That cover was, too, of a (once a long time ago in most cases) bright yellow glazed cloth color.

            To know one is to see one and once this book collector’s secret is ‘known’ they are easy to spot when they turn up (church basement book sales on the dollar table).  And you; the old rare book collector or dealer, may become smug of self when you do... ‘find one’:  A “Yellow Back Edition”.

            No one cares and you will have to learn that too.  Carry your newly discovered yellow back over to the baked goods table and... you will too... become ‘God Damned’.  Let me be clear:  These books are not, generally, ‘of (monetary) value’.  NONE of the books I have been writing about are “valuable” as money.  No.  I said early on (Part One at the very end) that ...that... makes one a ‘value-ist’... not an old rare book collector.  Yellow Backs are what they are.  And are... delightful... particularly when self discovered... alone... while wandering “through” a church book sale... or such.  They were made to be vended at cheap book stalls that ‘flew by night’ at train stations and boat docks, street corners and theatre districts.  They were a cheap read and didn’t hold up well from being this ‘cheap’.  And the yellow cloth bindings too... were brilliant hand held advertisements for themselves.  Then thrown away, fell apart, lost overboard, given away, passed along or... recklessly abandoned.  But still always a ‘Yellow Back”.  Yes and ‘goodness me’ still a Yellow Back to this very day.  I cannot miss them.  They are a book collector’s secret to the eye.  And... “Look at them!”... too. 

            I illustrate with an 1879 London edition of “The Scarlet Letter”.  “Who wrote that?”.  Even Benjamin knows THAT.  What train station sold it?  NO!  LOOK at the title page and discover an old ink stamp from an English bookseller in Constantinople. “OH hasn’t THIS BOOK (a Yellow Back) TRAVELED AROUND!”  Yes... it has... and see two already defined secrets of secrets at work here; obsessive (obsession) and romantic (Romance).  May there be another secret of a secret?  YES!  It is titled ‘appreciation’.  The more obsessively one looks at the old traveled Yellow Back edition of The Scarlet Letter, the more romantic it becomes and... the more appreciation of this Yellow Back edition one has... for it:  THIS COPY of THIS Edition...; the one from Constantinople.

            That is a Secret of the old book collector’s Secrets:  Appreciation.

            And again... this book is of no monetary value...  

            It is a simple old rare books collector’s... old rare book.  It is that only.  It has been damned by God in our current world.  And even Benjamin knows this.  I’d toss him a petifore on that notice... if I had one.

The Secrets of the Old Rare Books Collector's Secrets - Part Three (B) - "Handbill Throwaway"

The Secrets of the Old Rare Books Collector's Secrets

Part Three (B)

"Handbill Throwaway"

            The secret of that secret (Part Three [A])... is the ‘obsessive’.  I am the obsessive of the handbill throwaway old rare books collector’s secret.  That is not a bad obsessive... in the world of the God has damned... old rare books.  It; obsessive, at the least, leaves me alone; a ‘without you’... most of the time

            And that is just fine.

            Yes:  Eating the cupcakes (Part One).  Tossing Benjamin shortbread.  Chattering.  Then prattling.  Never looking... at print... of printing... on paper... “stock”.  No; abstention is the world of the... God has damned ‘old rare books’.  I am alone midst the ‘abstain’.  May I show you again?

            This second absurd wisp of print on paper... is even a ‘too’ for me.  But I must... for my eyes did and still do... scrutinize... obsessively.  The preliminary standard is simple and ‘met’; it is a broadside handbill throwaway... meeting all criteria... but:

            What catches notice of the bibliomane’s eye is... the three colors of the print on the... salmon pink paper stock.  Yes:  Look.  Three colors of print:  Red, green and black.  On this... what is it... four by five inch paper wisp... informing a ‘we are going on summer vacation’ printing business’ notice.  So stop right there.  That alone is enough; the three colors... ‘it’ is printed ‘in’.  Why?  Because this ...handmade, hand printed... letterpress wisp ... would have had to ‘go through’ the (printing) press THREE TIMES to print its stupid message in the three colors.  THREE TIMES for a “JUNK” broadside handbill throwaway.

            Yes... a ‘too much work for that’ BUT NONE THE LESS... absolutely noticed to my biblio eye... instantly.  I am always looking at ... old.... print on... old paper.  THAT is a demon in the God’s damned world of the ‘old rare books’.  So I ‘see’ that and most ‘no one else’ ever does... ‘except a few’.  What is a ‘few’ here, for this “THAT”?

            Well we have to look again at the whole handbill... and discover that the MAKER (printer) WAS and is still considered to be ‘once’ ‘one of the’ ‘if not the’ BEST Maine printer... “EVER”... with a hidden collector following who “collect the press”; ANYTHING and EVERYTHING... “they printed”.  For example, special collections (‘rare books’) at the Bowdoin College Library hoards a very large if not largest collection of imprints from and by this Maine press. So that gives us... this piece of paper... prominence.  Sort of... right?  ‘Sort of’ is because... ‘nobody cares’.  I mean... you don’t... RIGHT?  And I do thank you for being ‘that way’.

            I have established the fun of obsessive bibliomane notice of print and emphasized the obsessive of that as being a ...secret of an old rare book collector’s secrets... too.  Now I step back to my opening utterance that this wisp “is even ‘too’ for me”.  For it is.

            My ‘it is an abomination’ is fair found.  Although a true broadside handbill throwaway, the actual whole of it... is that it is a disingenuous, contrived... even patronizing... vanity... production.  It, in whole and as a whole, is not a pure broadside handbill throwaway... as a classic sidewalk handout (pure) form.  What-why?  It has to do with the maker who... is (was) very well informed of the delight the obsessive bibliomane finds in handbill throwaway imprints (printing), the STYLE of those... those... as here discerned readily within by the affected faux theatrical language... the three color printing and a.... generally affected vanity FEEL to the whole.  It... this broadside handbill throwaway... is a little TOO TOO... for my obsessive street smart old rare books dealer...:

            MOST DO NOT know or understand or... anything of any of this.  That furthers the points.  This handbill throwaway ‘plays’ to a ‘friendly room’.  In fact all of this press’ production and including the press itself... play to that friendly room.  That is what the title ‘vanity press’ means.  That (vanity press) is an old rare books collector’s secret.  Dismissing ‘any and all’ vanity presses and all of their production... is a very... very... secret of the rare book collector’s secrets.  NONE the less the handbill is a wonderful printing specimen for obsessive ‘looking at’ old print on paper ...training.  Or maybe a snug moist piece of the shortbread... will suffice (Part Two).

            So... if I am going to throw away this vanity handbill throwaway... as vain... after extolling the workings of my

            Brain

Upon its old printed soul... what should I... how should I ... drag you along too:  Away from the church book sale ‘collector’s table’ (old books the church sale group have corralled as, in their judgment, to be... ahhhh... “rare...books”).  I want to drag you over to the church sale’s old rare book “these are worthless” TRASH CAN.  That is where they usually offer their ‘better things’?

            Yes.

            Now... if one has an old rare book that has been ruined; someone ruined it... they say

Of it

            Along its way.

            Then... “throw that out”

            They say.

            That is why old rare books people... who ‘know’... are always poking in the church sale’s trash cans.  Mingled within (the trash cans) including Benjamin’s discovered, removed and neatly packaged in a paper towel... most recent “accident” (Part One) (yes even at a church book sale Benjamin leaves his mark) (and... he flourishes from snippets ‘dropped’ at the baked goods table too)... are a few old books “I find”  ‘they threw out’.

            I only took one of the cast off old books.  Yes it is so... cast off... of me... but I couldn’t help myself.  The book in discovery is “dated” (imprint edition date) “1825” so I know that the book... IS OLD.  But ruined.  What they did to the old book... what some Cretan did to the old book... was take personally chosen newspaper clippings... and such... and paste them ‘front and back’, to every page of the old book.  It is the “and such” that interests... us.

            I am not going to account this trash can found old ruined rare book... yet.  I want to come back to it as a whole... abscess... that I ...lance.  The book and its heritage is swell enough (as an old rare book) to be “FUN” doing that... as well as being a sort of swell-fun secret of an old rare books collector’s secrets... along ‘in there’ too.  So I step away from the whole book and

            Just expostulate on the ‘and such’ I found within.

            Okay:  The book is an old rare book ruined by a Cretan gluing (today it would be ‘glue gunning’) their selected clippings into and on to... every page.  Most all are cheesy newspaper clipping ‘of amusement’ to... and only to... the gluing clipper.  NOTHING is interesting about them... at all.  I flip through the whole glued pages mess hovering above the church trash can preparing to return the ‘ruined old book’ to its liberation demise of ‘passing’ to the ‘other side’ of God’s damned old rare books... until... all of this taking place in mere seconds... I find an ‘and such’.  I find THREE of them, actually, all in a consecutive three leaf glue job (a leaf is two pages; a leaf may be printed on both sides)... with absolutely NO inclusion comment, suggestion or notice in any way from the Cretan Glue who... stuck these three ‘and such’ into the book and... just as rapidly... MOVED ON... back to gluing newspaper clipping.

            BUT I AM smitten; I am caught... my eye.  I ‘know’.  I see.  I find. I discover.  I discern...”:

            THREE broadside handbill throwaways.  Yes three, not one, in a glued row.  And in seconds (still hovering above the trash can sale table... too... I am raking my eye for “IMPRINT” and “DATE”.  I find the former delight (the imprint) in their... provincial obscurity (Vanetten [Van Etten], New York State in the Binghamton – Elmira region; a rural small town then and ‘still is’).  I see no date but the third handbill says (Civil War) Northern in its title so... 1860... ‘is fine’. 

            And what are they... exactly.  The three are, each, a single broadside handbill throwaway SONG SHEET... a form of local communication appearing in New England (carrying on a European tradition) in the 1600’s and “lasting” through to... maybe... WWI.  Actually... the song sheet... ‘still lingers’.  The ‘song’ or ‘poem’ or whatever the printed utterance... IS NOT the point of the song sheet throwaway... although the lyrical content is scanned by ME for... simply... “HISTORIC CONTENT” (relevance).  The real fruit of the song sheet is the ...imprint... should there be one... and many have none.  MY EYE rakes and delights to find the imprint doing exactly what it is suppose to do:  Advertise the printer-publisher and his wares ...in tiny text... at the bottom of the “SONG”.  Some kid stood out in front of the ‘his –the publisher’s- store’ and HANDED these three “SONGS” out as a... self business promotion and

            SOME CRETAN (see Part One) came along and received three of the handbills, took them with care... home and... glued them in a his (or her?) (scrap) book... an old book...

            That I find delegated as a ruined old book in the church book sale trash.  How do I get the book out of there?  I pay a dollar for it after stating I ‘found it on the dollar table’.

            Somewhere within all this is a secret of old rare book collector’s secrets?

            Yes.  But you do have to look for it.  The secret of the secret is... romance.