Where The Hell Is ABAA, Michigan?
This past weekend was the annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair at the Coliseum in St. Petersburg. I went last year, when I still had a job, and with the permission of my lovely wife bought a two volume first edition of Adolphus Greeley's exploits in the Arctic. He never found John Franklin but his group did achieve a farthest north at one point, before massive screw-ups back home caused resupply issues and a forgotten adventure. The survivors were rescued at the last off of Cape Sabine, lying among the partially eaten remnants of some of their fellow crew.
There's a power in books that suffuses the atmosphere in that crowded hall and its 115 vendors. I finally saw not one but two actual Everest expedition books, one for the 1924 adventure where George Mallory was lost, and one from 1931 when the ice axe of his partner, Andrew Irvine, was found. I had to send away to Kathmandu a few years ago to get my paperback copies. They were a lot cheaper and clearly don't have the intrinsic value of the originals, but they were the only copies I couldn find anywhere. Until this past weekend.
Last year I saw a re-bound collection of the works of African explorer James Bruce but at seventeen hundred dollars much too rich for my blood. I saw a number of editions of H. M. Stanley's works, both covering his successful search for Dr. Livingstone as well as the record of his march through and back (several times) through the jungles of the Congo on his way to rescue Emin Pasha, General Gordon's last free surviving lieutenant. Absolutely riveting stuff, and much more alive when you hold in your hands these volumes of the same vintage as when the text itself was written. I appreciate my facsimile trade paperbacks but it's not the same experience.
There were different copies of Samuel Baker's works detailing his search for the source of the Nile, accompanied by his wife every step of the way. He was a precursor to Gordon in the fight against the slave trade as well as to his own brother, Valentine. Fleeing a scandalous situation involving a young lady and a coach, he went off to the Sudan to clear his name by achieving the glory that Hicks Pasha failed to achieve when he and all that were with him were wiped off the map by the soldiers of the Mahdi in the deserts of the Sudan. Valentine Baker led his troops to the same fate as Hicks'. I have no copies of Samuel Baker's work in any form. I want to read about his remarkable wife...
I found two American editions of some works of Charles Dickens that were clearly contemporary to his time. I remembered the story of his first visit and how let down he felt at some of the aspects of America's implementation of democratic government, and how he spoke publicly against the lack of respect for foreign copyrights. Those books I held in my hands, lacking standard publishing information on the masthead, were probably examples of the very bootlegs he was complaining about. Out of respect to the late author, I did not purchase them.
This is all redundant to anyone who loves books, reading and history. There is a gravity or gravitas to the show that can lead one to new depths of the appreciation for these soulful things. No matter the arguments about the used book market and its affect on the sales of new books, or a diminishing general readership, or any other topic of the times. Letting go, traveling back through time in the world of the books and the memories of the people that wrote them, is a poignant and significant reminder of this world in which we've involved ourselves. The modern publishing world cannot hurt that.
And yes, there's room for the novice book collector, the curious, and the ill informed. At the booth of a vendor from somewhere in Michigan, I overheard a gentleman browser, apparently also from that great state, ask the bookseller just where exactly was ABAA, Michigan? The name of the bookstore, followed by a comma and those letters, appeared on the printed sign over the booth, followed by his state's abbreviation.
Very patiently, the bookseller explained that ABAA was not a place but an acronym, representing the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. That made me smile. I hope the gentleman finds himself a good book.
There's a power in books that suffuses the atmosphere in that crowded hall and its 115 vendors. I finally saw not one but two actual Everest expedition books, one for the 1924 adventure where George Mallory was lost, and one from 1931 when the ice axe of his partner, Andrew Irvine, was found. I had to send away to Kathmandu a few years ago to get my paperback copies. They were a lot cheaper and clearly don't have the intrinsic value of the originals, but they were the only copies I couldn find anywhere. Until this past weekend.
Last year I saw a re-bound collection of the works of African explorer James Bruce but at seventeen hundred dollars much too rich for my blood. I saw a number of editions of H. M. Stanley's works, both covering his successful search for Dr. Livingstone as well as the record of his march through and back (several times) through the jungles of the Congo on his way to rescue Emin Pasha, General Gordon's last free surviving lieutenant. Absolutely riveting stuff, and much more alive when you hold in your hands these volumes of the same vintage as when the text itself was written. I appreciate my facsimile trade paperbacks but it's not the same experience.
There were different copies of Samuel Baker's works detailing his search for the source of the Nile, accompanied by his wife every step of the way. He was a precursor to Gordon in the fight against the slave trade as well as to his own brother, Valentine. Fleeing a scandalous situation involving a young lady and a coach, he went off to the Sudan to clear his name by achieving the glory that Hicks Pasha failed to achieve when he and all that were with him were wiped off the map by the soldiers of the Mahdi in the deserts of the Sudan. Valentine Baker led his troops to the same fate as Hicks'. I have no copies of Samuel Baker's work in any form. I want to read about his remarkable wife...
I found two American editions of some works of Charles Dickens that were clearly contemporary to his time. I remembered the story of his first visit and how let down he felt at some of the aspects of America's implementation of democratic government, and how he spoke publicly against the lack of respect for foreign copyrights. Those books I held in my hands, lacking standard publishing information on the masthead, were probably examples of the very bootlegs he was complaining about. Out of respect to the late author, I did not purchase them.
This is all redundant to anyone who loves books, reading and history. There is a gravity or gravitas to the show that can lead one to new depths of the appreciation for these soulful things. No matter the arguments about the used book market and its affect on the sales of new books, or a diminishing general readership, or any other topic of the times. Letting go, traveling back through time in the world of the books and the memories of the people that wrote them, is a poignant and significant reminder of this world in which we've involved ourselves. The modern publishing world cannot hurt that.
And yes, there's room for the novice book collector, the curious, and the ill informed. At the booth of a vendor from somewhere in Michigan, I overheard a gentleman browser, apparently also from that great state, ask the bookseller just where exactly was ABAA, Michigan? The name of the bookstore, followed by a comma and those letters, appeared on the printed sign over the booth, followed by his state's abbreviation.
Very patiently, the bookseller explained that ABAA was not a place but an acronym, representing the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. That made me smile. I hope the gentleman finds himself a good book.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 1:09 PM
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