Treasure Island

Another classic... this one I found near Quinte Ontario. Small little bookstore, cost me $29 but in great shape for being from 1913!

Tennyson

I've never been a fan of re-gifting at Christmas until a few years ago....

For YEARS my mother in law in her house in Kingston had a selection of old Tennyson books as decoration in one of the guest bedrooms. I coveted those books and dropped many a hint for years... to no avail.

Then, one Christmas a few years back, someone thought it would be a good idea to re-gift something as one of the presents we each had to give someone else. I guess my Mother in Law picked my name out of the hat and for lack of a better idea she gave me the books!

There are 13 of them in all, in great shape, apparently known as the "Aldworth Editions" and are copyrighted at 1901.

 

Vol I - Memoir Early Poems
Vol II - English Idylls and Other Poems, Ballads and Other Poems
Vol III - Locksley Hall and Other Poems, Reprinted Poems
Vol IV - Lucretius and Other Poems, Sonnets, Translations etc.
Vol V - Idylls of the King Part 1
Vol VI - The Princess, the Cup, The Falcon
Vol VII- Maud, Enoch Arden, The Promise of May
Vol VIII - Idylls of the King Part II
Vol IX - In Memoriam Harold
Vol X - Queen Mary the Lovers Tale
Vol XI - Tiresias and Other Poems
Vol XII - Becket
Vol XIII - Poems by Two Brothers, Index

Shakespeare

Another treasure from McGahern books. A Shakespeare collection from 1864. Great condition for its age.

Milton

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. What a day for a book-geek! I found my new favorite book store.

I had some time between appointments today in downtown Ottawa and visited small used book store on Laurier east of Dalhousie. A nice small store with a friendly owner, but most of the stock was relatively contemporary. Nothing wrong with that, but when I mentioned to the owner that I was looking for some older editions he suggested I try a store called "Patrick McGahern Books". I visited the store and it was worth the 3 story climb to their shop at the top of 368 Dalhousie Street. 613-230-2275.

The entire store is antique and specialized used and rare books on every subject. I made a B-Line to the literature section and lost myself for an hour thumbing through nothing that looked younger than 50 years. And yes, I smelled every book. ;-)

I had to limit myself or my wife would want to know why I mortgaged the house to buy old books... so I ended up settling on 2. Milton's poetry and a Shakespeare collection.

The Milton poetry book is "estimated" to be from 1850. I found this interesting when I spoke to the gentleman who helped me told me how they date a book that does not have a date printed in it. They go by the paper used, the quality of the book, the name of the publisher, and other factors to estimate a date. They can tell by the name of a publisher for example, if that publisher has records (which they do) on when they published an edition even if it doesn't appear in the book itself. So the company records show they printed one edition of a work in a certain year.

Either way, its cool and I like Milton, so its neat to hold a book of one of my favorites that was 110 years old before I was even born.

 

Mr. "Robert Humble Newcastle", if you're still alive and enjoying the ripe old age of 165, please contact me so I can return your book. ;-)

William Blake 1

From downtown Ottawa:

"Blakes Poetical Works", edited by William Michael Rossetti.

I've liked William Blake since he was part of a course I took at U of Waterloo a few years back. I have more recent collections but I saw this one today from 1890. As of this writing, this edition is 125 years old!

The title page has a book-plate with the name Jane Campbell. I doubt Ms. Campbell is still with us, but if someone looks her name up and finds this, that would be cool. ;-)

Old Curiosity Shop

Another of the books from the used store in Nova Scotia.

Charles Dickens is one of my favorites and I found this edition of The Old Curiosity Shop that dates from 1913,

 

Someone named Eileen Cantwell or (Eileen Cartwell). She lived at 47 Plaza Street in Biklyn? Can't read this one perfectly and I can't find a place named Biklyn so perhaps it is an abbreviation for Brooklyn? Over a century ago!

 

 

Don Quixote

 

 From Bridgetown Nova Scotia I paid only a few dollars for this older edition of Don Quixote which the title page lists as being from 1941. Not my oldest book by far, but a neat older and illustrated edition in really good conditiion.

 

 

Interesting if someone looks for their own name in a search engine and finds this book they used to own from over 70 years ago. The book came with a book-plate sticker naming "Sarah Lemnon" (I think).

 

 

I paid $7.50 for this edition but saw the exact same one in a downtown Ottawa bookstore for $40. So either the Nova Scotia dealer didn't know what his book was worth or the Ottawa dealer is WAAAY overpriced. I tend to think the latter as the downtown dealer seems known for slightly overpriced inventory.