Misleading book titles

The polished old oak boards in parts of my home had begun to look scruffy, so I decided to do something about them. I popped into my local Waterstones and saw a new book that seemed perfect. It was called The Care of Wooden Floors and being in a hurry I grabbed it without looking too closely at the dust jacket.. When I got home and opened this book I discovered that the author, someone called Will Wiles, had no professional experience as either a DIY expert or antique restorer, and in fact, was a novelist. His book has nothing whatsoever to do with the respective merits of various types of wood polish, stains and sealants, but was a tale of the misfortunes suffered by someone called Oskar when he entrusted his flat to a friend while he went on holiday. Luckily, I had kept the receipt and now plan to return the book and exchange it for something more useful. But the whole disappointing experience reminded me of other books with misleading titles.

Victoria Beckham, Learning to Fly ( 2001 )

Totally useless if you want to practice for your pilot’s licence. Mrs Beckham, best known for her fashion range and membership of all-girl combo The Spice Girls (itself a misleading title),has written an account of her rise to fame from Goffs Oak model to chanteuse without a single mention of her experiences as a trainee pilot. Exasperating.

Gertrude Stein, How to Write ( Paris 1931) £120+

Anyone wanting to learn the secrets of literary success should avoid this book. For someone who professes an expertise in this field Miss Stein seems woefully unqualified to advise hopeful writers. For instance in her chapter on sentences and paragraphs she tells us that:
‘ A part of a sentence may be a sentence without their meaning. Think of however they went away…’
And furthermore:
‘Every sentence which has a beginning makes it be left more to them…’



Jeanette Winterson, Boating for beginners (1985 ). £30.

Amateur boating enthusiasts in search of tips will gain little practical advice from reading this book, which turns out to be a ‘ comic ‘ story about Noah and the Flood and a romantic novelist named Bunny Mix. Apparently ‘ full of silly things and great fun ‘, according to Winterson, who also wrote Lighthousekeeping, in which a lighthouse figures only tangentially, and The Powerbook, which has nothing whatsoever to do with electrical transmission systems.


Marina Lewycka, A History of the Tractor in Ukrainian (2005).

Wrong from the start. This is published in English. However, it contains little to satisfy those wishing to discover more about the technological developments in agricultural machinery in the Ukraine either before or after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is obvious from the first few pages of a novel about family feuds.



Marian Keyes, Sushi for Beginners, (2003 )

From the title lovers of Japanese cuisine might have expected an introduction to this popular oriental snack. Instead what we get is chick-lit about a London magazine editor called Lisa with a fabulous lifestyle who is assigned to Dublin etc.

Cyril Connolly, The Rock Pool (1936 ) £200 - £300

Worthless for students of littoral environmentalism. As a professional literary critic Mr Connolly is plainly unqualified to write with any scientific authority on such a subject, and though his insights into modern literature may be entertaining, the book as a whole cannot be recommended as a treatise on the natural history of the UK shoreline.

Seamus Heaney, Electric Light ( 2001 )

Alas, this adds nothing to our knowledge of the development of electric illumination from the early nineteenth century onwards. Nor does it offer practical advice to modern students of electrical engineering at HND or undergraduate level. In fact, it consists of nothing but poems.

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (1984 ) £200

Mr Eco has apparently no experience either as a taxonomist or a horticulturalist, which may explain why this medieval fantasy is of little help to those wishing to take up rose-growing as a hobby or career. [R. M. Healey]

Many thanks Robin, as our German colleagues say 'das ist lustig.' You're not wrong-- it has become so bad that when you see a book like 'A Handbook to the Datsun 240Z' you assume it is an earnest novel or possibly a collection of very difficult poetry. I blame James Joyce. There is nothing about Ulysses's 10 year journey back to Ithaca after the Trojan wars in his novel, the whole thing is set in modern day Dublin with the odd trip to Dun Laoghaire. When in 1935 Matisse illustrated 'Ulysses' for the Limited Editions Club he used scenes from the Greek epic for his illustrations. Joyce was not happy that the artist had obviously not read his book and gave up signing after 250 copies. Matisse signed all 1500. The former are worth £15000 and the ones signed only by Matisse a paltry £2500. Bono is said to possess a Matisse only signed Ulysses (pic below) , the double signature being beyond his pocketbook. But that's another story...

This naming of novels as if they are reference manuals has been going on for a few years and is as old hat as books whose titles or subtitles begin 'A Very British...' Another maddening development is the book that looks like a biography (saleable) but turns out to be a novel (almost all unknown contemporary novels are completely and utterly unsaleable)- such a work is Donald Olson's 1993 novel 'Confessions of Aubrey Beardsley'. It even has illustrations. Value in fine condition £0.1 + £2.80 postage and it's a heavy novel so any dealer speculating in it is going to come way with about 70p for their efforts, presuming they paid no money at all for it.

Books Bought 1922

Found on the slightly worn spine of a Kelly's Suffolk 1922 a 'books bought' advertisement by one John Jeffery of 35 High Street, Barnes (London). Kelly's was a sort of yellow pages listing trades and residents by streets and some are much prized by local historians and collectors. The ad reads:

BOOKS BOUGHT. Large or small collections also prints, portraits, engravings etc., Libraries Catalogued and Valued. Any Distance. Write To-day. John Jeffery, 35 High Street, Barnes, S.W. 13.

No phone number so first approaches were made by mail in a leisurely way. I had thought John Jeffery was something to do with George Jeffery of the unforgettable book barrows on London's Farringdon Road - the Jeffery's were trading from about 1880 until the late 1990s. However all Jeffery's were called George and the last street trader was George IV and his son a familiar figure at PBFA bookfairs who also trades online is, I guess, George V.

John Jeffery seems to have flourished in the early 1920s and is only to be found once at Google Books in a 1922 Book Auction Records in a list of dealers. He is next to the legendary dealer Christopher Millard of Abercorn Place St John's Wood, the dealer who set AJA Symons on his quest for Baron Corvo and a pal of the young Anthony Powell to whom he wrote: "A sordid business selling books, but very amusing." I like the sound of Jeffery's Catalogue no 324:

MSS., Association Books, Presentation Copies, etc., including the Original
MS. Volumes of Shelley's Poetical Works, with Notes and a Memoir by Rosetti,
3 vols., 1868-9 £200, ;; Museum Hermeticum, Francofurti, 1678, Arthur
Edward Waite's own copy used for his translation, £65 ; Dee — Relation of
what passed between Dr. John Dee and Some Spirits, folio, 1659, ; etc., etc.

Assuming 15 catalogues a year he must have been trading for at least 20 years. There were rich pickings in country houses after the Great War and I like to think that Jeffery's bold speculation in spine advertising paid off and he hit such a rich hoard of books that he was able to retire in luxury shortly thereafter...

This is not a library...revisited

This an edited reposting of an earlier piece with an added bit on online selling. The bookshop mentioned has closed (forever.) So many bookshops have closed that the type of seller depicted here is fast becoming an endangered species...

'Bookselling is easy', someone said 'you buy a book for a dollar and sell it for two.' That's pretty much it + a pencil, rubber, laptop, battered Volvo and a supply of books, boxes and tape. In my experience books are very easy to buy but less easy to sell. Money is the scarce and rare item, so it is difficult to understand why some booksellers make it so hard for customers to buy books from them. Money is what we want. Money to buy more books. However when a bookseller is not shooting himself in the foot, he is usually punching himself in the face.

In the comments field several people mentioned the much hated bookshop on Love Street in San Francisco, where customers were routinely demeaned by petulant staff - a typical scene being a young woman who found a dozen books she wanted to buy and as she made her way through the shelves to find a few more, she was informed by an assistant - 'this is not a library'. She put the books down and left the shop forever (after.)

Dylan Moran said of his great curmudgeonly creation, the bookseller of 'Black Books'- "There is a guy in a Dublin bookshop who provided the image of Bernard Black. He looks like he’s swallowed a cup of sour milk and peed himself at the same time. He has this green bilious expression, years of displeasure have shaped his face. In fact he looks like every other second hand bookshop owner I’ve seen. It seems to go with the job - being miserable....He’s still there now seething in his ash-smudged cockpit, daring somebody to buy a book".

Here are some useful guidelines.

1. Price your books so high that they will only sell to the rich or deranged.

2. Make sure your shop looks as if it is closed so that no one comes in. Poor or sparse lighting can help and a stiff unoiled door is a bonus.

3. Post a lot of notices around the shop 'No Mobile Phones' 'Thieves will be prosecuted' 'No returns' 'All sales Final' etc.,

4. Greet the customer with a glower, a scowl or a look of deep mistrust. If you are feeling generous a frosty 'Good Morning! will suffice.

5. Ask them exactly what they want and if you do not have it be sure they leave before they can look round. If you have a specific book that is requested deny its existence but double the price when the customer leaves.*

6. If they don't buy anything follow them with your eyes to the door and plant an imaginary dagger between their shoulder blades and bid them a joyless and sneering goodbye.

7. Refuse all offers on books with a snort of utter contempt and only give a discount (10% absolute maximum) when explicitly requested by long established booksellers who are spending at least £100.

8. Calculate the discount to the nearest penny even if the amount is many hundred of pounds. Thus £112 becomes £100. 80 not £100. In some cases, say in California, sales tax (8.5%) can be added thus reducing the discount to a more acceptable 1.5%.

9. If you must take credit cards charge an extra 5% to cover expenses. Refuse Paypal and wait 2 weeks for checks to clear.

10. Always close exactly on time no matter how many customers are in the shop or how much they are buying. Close on all holidays including President's Day, Michaelmas and Saint Swithin's day.

11. If a customer puts a book aside give them 24 hours to decide but put the book out 24 hours later to the minute (at a greatly increased price.)

12. If another dealer buys an expensive book have a searching enquiry as to what went wrong; if it was priced by a member of staff fire them immediately.

13. If someone dares to phone you offering you a collection of rare books treat them with great suspicion, if any titles are mentioned dismiss them as common and undesirable. If they insist ask them to bring the books to the shop. If they intimate that the books are of very high quality, but they want nothing or very little for them, pick them up in your Volvo when you are in the area.

NEW ONLINE RULES

14. Do not give the condition of any book unless it is fine, in which case call it 'mint.'

15. Demand extra postage on any book that is a gram overweight and charge heavily for materials and packing time.

16. Ignore all requests for pictures of books, these come from time-wasters. If they persist inform them that the camera is broken.

17. Describe all books where there are less than 20 copies available as 'rare' if less than 10 'very rare.' Any book over 20 years old can be described as 'good for its age.'

18. Pack books unwrapped in a (used) jiffy bag, they have sufficient protection in themselves.

19. Fight any attempt to return a book. A statement that all books must be returned within three days of ordering will suffice.

20. Always state if a book is ex-library but don't forget to call it 'fine' ; most are without the stamps, labels and perforations.

***Driffield used to have a good response to the question 'What are you looking for?' His reply was: 'A thousand pound book priced at less than a hundred.'

Fraudulent memoirs

Anne Hughes, The Diary of a Farmer’s Wife , edited by Suzanne Beedell (1964 ) (£15)

Frequently to be found in the biography/memoirs sections of second hand bookshops and a common item online, this brief ‘ diary’ covers just one year (1796/7) and on the surface does appear to offer valuable insights into the life of a middle-class Georgian farmer’s wife, though she is no Woodforde, Cullwick , or Ann Lister.
But all students of social history should beware. The original diary has never been found and Anne Hughes hasn’t been traced, which raises doubts about the book’s authenticity. The journal was serialised in the Farmer’s Weekly in 1937, with a provenance turning on whether the contributor, one Jeanne Preston, an amateur local historian and playwright, was telling the truth when she maintained that the manuscript was given to her by the family nurse. Twenty seven years later the Journal appeared in book form, edited by one Suzanne Beedell, whose books include such classics as Restoring Junk, Brasses and Brass Rubbing and Menopause: questions and answers.

Most people of sense believe that the lack of both a original source and a traceable author make the book worthless as a historical document. But fans of Mrs Hughes seem unabashed. So devoutly do they believe in the writer and her diary that they have created a website as a tribute, though their plea for further information about author and diary has a slight air of desperation.
So, for the sake of scholarship, can I suggest to National Trust speakers that they bin the testimony of Mrs Hughes and find other recipes for salmagundi, syllabub and frumenty.

James Williams, A Narrative of James Williams (American Anti—Slavery Society 1838) ($947)
When this memoir of a slave’s humbling experiences as a ‘ driver ‘on a cotton plantation in Alabama appeared it was accepted at its face value by most readers. The fact that the respected poet and Quaker John Greenleaf Whittier was involved as a sort of editor/consultant doubtless ensured that its probity would never be questioned. However, within two months of its publication doubts were raised by one newspaper editor as to the factual accuracy of its account of life in Alabama, and these questions never really went away. Today, experts in slave trade history regard Williams’ memoirs as a piece of propaganda and one Shadrach Wilkins has been fingered as the author.

Hesketh Pearson, The Whispering Gallery; being leaves from the diary of an ex-diplomat (1926 ) (£50 +)

After starting off in the literary world at the late age of 34 with Modern Men and Manners (1921), a series of theatrical pen portraits, the ingenious native of Hawford Worcestershire, sometime shipping clerk and actor- manager, published anonymously in 1926 what to all intents and purposes appeared to be a rather outspoken and possibly libellous memoirs of Sir Rendell Robb’s dealings with various high-fliers in politics and public life over a distinguished career. After a review in the Daily Mail strongly challenged the veracity of the account, the publisher John Lane brought legal proceedings against the author on the charge of ‘ obtaining money by false pretences’. In court Pearson admitted that the book was fiction, but denied the charge against him and was acquitted. The publisher nevertheless had already ordered that all copies of the book be withdrawn from sale and pulped, which makes the first edition a rare commodity, though oddly, one dealer on ABE has two nice copies priced at £50 and £100
The text was revised for a second edition, which proved a minor best-seller and is to be found very cheaply. From this unpromising start Pearson was to go on to become one of the most prolific biographers of the twentieth century, easily beating the late Humphrey ‘one book a year‘ Carpenter.

Sister of the Road; an autobiography of ‘ Boxcar ‘ Bertha as told to Dr Ben L Reitman ( 1937 ) ($10)
Actually, totally written by Ben Reitman. ‘ Boxcar’ Bertha Thompson was a fictional creation of this left-wing, sometime hobo, whorehouse physician and champion of birth control, who duped readers into believing that he was the ghost writer to whom Ms Thompson, a lady hobo, had confided her personal experiences. In fact Sisters of the Road was based on the testimonies of many different female hobos interviewed by Reitman over a period of time. The film Boxcar Bertha (1972), the second feature by Martin Scorsese, bears little resemblance to the text of 1937.
[R.M. Healey]

Many thanks Robin. Sterling work. Good to see Hesketh Pearson there, I was unaware he had his collar felt. This blog was inspired by the young writer Emma Taylor who sent us her blog from a college website 10 Bestselling Books That Were Later Debunked. Thus encouraged Robin dug out a few earlier examples. Emma's were the modern culprits, the sort of writers who have to make grovelling apologies to Oprah when the truth comes out. We are talking 'A Million Little Pieces' by James Frey, 'Three Cups of Tea' by Greg Mortenson and 'Sarah' by JT LeRoy. We may cover some of these later. Few are so far collectable or of value although the very recent fake book (plagiarism) Quentin Rowan's debut thriller 'Assassin of Secrets' seems to have some value already...

Claude Houghton. I am Jonathan Scrivener (1930)

Claude Houghton. I AM JONATHAN SCRIVENER. Thornton Butterworth, London, 1930.

Current Selling Prices
$150-$250 /£100-£160

I first heard of this book when we were buying a wagon-load of (mostly) review books from the British actor and writer Simon Callow. He seems to be using a different dealer now, probably a friend or relation, possibly a dealer more generous than us, although that seems unlikely…The name of the novelist and poet Claude Houghton came up in literary banter and SC mentioned that Houghton's novel I am Jonathan Scrivener had been an influence on Orson Welles in the plotting and style of Citizen Kane - the 'prismatic approach.' Having written a fat bio of Welles his word has some weight and the web bears out this idea with several articles on the matter (some require money to read.) Certainly when I read the book I could see his point, although AJA Symons Quest for Corvo could also be seen in this light. The plot unfolds thus:

One James Wrexham, an impoverished but well-educated Englishman past his first youth answers an advertisement in the London Times and becomes secretary to the mysterious, invisible Jonathan Scrivener.
He never sees his employer, who goes abroad after hiring him (solely on the strength of his letter of application.) Wrexham’s only duties are to live in Scrivener’s London flat, catalogue his library, receive his friends, write occasional reports to his absent employer. One by one Scrivener’s friends turn up in search of him, get acquainted with Wrexham, tell him what they think of Scrivener. Each description is different…who exactly is Jonathan Scrivener?

OK no-one utters the word 'Rosebud' but it is credible as an input for the 'greatest film ever'. The book was a best- seller in its day, especially in USA and the Penguin paperback sold 100,000 copies. ABE has 6 Penguins from £5 to £25 the latter price for a fine copy in a near fine d/w. Penguin jackets often turbo charge prices….The hardback British first can go for £160 fine in jacket and the Simon and Schuster first USA for a little less, although some patient dealers want $200+ for copies sans jacket.

Henry Miller wrote in The Books in My Life that 'it would have made a wonderful movie' and there is even speculation that Godot came out of it, possibly Sam B read it, there was even a French edition Je suis Jonathan Scrivener. The IMDB database shows that it was filmed for TV in 1952 in the Studio One in Hollywood series. The French edition of 1954 has an intro by Henry Miller.

There are some quotable lines in the book:

"Most of us commit suicide, but the fact is only recognized if we blow our brains out.”

“I’ve met a number of people who had endured agonies in their determination not to suffer.”

“To solve a problem, you must have all the data or none.”

At the recent auction of some of Peter Howard's stock in Los Angeles I managed to acquire the typed/ corrected manuscript of the book. I look forward to cataloguing it when it arrives back in the UK. It came with the MS of his novel The Riddle of Helena and the cataloguer records that Claude Houghton (1889-1961) 'enjoyed success as a writer of metaphysical thrillers.' Another cataloguer notes that he was admired by P G Wodehouse and Hugh Walpole. Doubleday, his American publisher described him as 'this fascinating romantic mystic...who insists that there are more spiritual worlds than this one in which we live and that it is man's chief business to discover his relations to these worlds."

Fittingly, four of his novels are listed by E. F. Bleiler in his Checklist of Science Fiction and Supernatural Fiction under such categories as 'mental aberration' 'after death experiences 'visitors from other worlds,times' and 'Supermen.' All the Bleiler titles are obtainable, often signed, at fairly reasonable prices. In his day he was compared to D.H. Lawrence and Emily Bronte, because like both of them he had made a decisive break with the 'novel of manners.' He now belongs in the honourable category of forgotten or even neglected writers but in the 'long tail' of consumer demand his books are likely to be always saleable.

Yoko Ono / Grapefruit

Yoko Ono. GRAPEFRUIT. ( Tokyo, Wunternaum Press 1964)
Current Selling Price
$9000 /£6000

Well-heeled collectors of early Beatles memorabilia ( signed programmes, posters, concert tickets, song lyrics written on napkins etc etc ) may not thank you for offering them a first of Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit, signed or otherwise, at a hefty price. Many fans still blame Ono for contributing to the splitting of the Fab Four and for taking John in a direction that would ultimately lead to his violent death.

Such narrow-mindedness seems absurd when we think of what Lennon achieved while with Ono. As for the woman herself, one art historian has called her ‘ one of the most daring , innovative and eccentric artist-performers of her time’.

Oko was a leading figure with the Fluxus art movement, which originated in New York City in the early sixties and eventually spread to Japan. Fluxus, according to one critic, ‘ encompasses a reductive gesturality, part Dada, part Bauhaus and part Zen, and presumes that all media and all artistic disciplines are fair game for combination and fusion ‘. John Cage was an early member of the movement and ‘do-it-yourself ’ music was often performed. As well as a performer, Ono sees herself as a musician and the instructions she and others issued for enacting the art work they called an ‘ event’ was called an ‘event score’. In Grapefruit she collects some of ‘ pieces’ ( such as ‘Clock Piece’ and ‘Laundry Piece ‘) that she enacted in galleries and concert halls, mainly in the USA. Here are some of the pieces/scores included in Grapefruit:


Imagine the clouds dripping.
Dig a hole in your garden to
Put them in.

Let people copy or photograph your paintings.
Destroy the originals.

Think that snow is falling. Think that snow is falling
Everywhere all the time. When you talk with a person think
Snow is falling between you and the person.
Stop conversing when you think the person is covered by snow.


One can see the influence of Japanese graphic art, the art of haiku and Zen in such ‘instructions ‘.

As you might expect, Grapefruit is as minimal in appearance as a piece of Raku pottery. In fact, from the outside it looks like nothing more than an artist’s sketchbook, square in shape and covered with a dull light brown or cream wrapper. Some way down on the left of the front cover Ono ( a fan of calligraphy ) has inscribed in black ink the single word Grapefruit. Inside, the instructions are printed in black ink using a number of subtly different typefaces.
There are conflicting accounts regarding the first meeting of John and Yoko, but it is generally accepted that the year was 1966, that soon afterwards Yoko sent John a signed copy of Grapefruit, and that the Beatle was intrigued by both book and artist. The rest is history.

The pre-publication price of Grapefruit was a mere $3; post publication it doubled. It is not known exactly how many of the edition of 500 were sold. I can’t imagine that Ono kept a list of buyers. It has been said that no copy has appeared at auction for thirty-five years and that this is because most remain with Japanese art collectors, who are hanging on to their copies. However, a well known London dealer has a nice copy for sale at £12,000, and there must be other Grapefruits circulating in the UK, perhaps bought in the era of Flower Power and forgotten about. One of these was acquired by a friend of mine, who now wishes to sell it (see me for details) at a price far below the £12,000 cited. A much expanded trade edition was published by Schuster and Peter Owen in 1970 and a year later Sphere brought out their own edition. These later copies range in price from $20 – $40, though one dealer wants a very un-Zen like £2,250 for one signed by both Yoko and John. [R.M. Healey}



Many thanks Robin. Hope that one finds a buyer-- it certainly should. I remember Yoko as an avant-garde artist before John loomed so large...She used to get people to cut bits off her clothes with scissors at the Round House. Fluxus surely. I always heard that they met at the Indica Gallery in Southampton Row, probably the most interesting thing to happen in that street since Maclaren-Ross moved out of the Bonnington. Meanwhile £2250 for a copy of the UK ed signed by Yoko and John may not be unbuyable - especially less 20 % and with 3 post dated cheques stretching into 2013. A better investment than Groupon shares.

Btw the plain white copy above is the true 1964 first, the title being always handwritten on the cover by Yoko. The b/w one is the USA first, John and Yoko are holding the UK first. Gorrit?

Andre Raffalovich

In a box of pamphlets and booklets at the California Book Fair recently I found a catalogue by the legendary Anthony D'Offay. It appears to date from 1961 and was sent from an address in Jamaica Street, Edinburgh. D'Offay, 21 at the time, was one of the great post war booksellers and probably the richest although most of his money was made in modern art. Books probably provided the seed capital for a business fortune large enough to enable him to generously donate £125 million worth of art to the nation in 2008. His first great coup was to locate and buy much of the book and manuscript collections of the John Gray and his lifelong companion Andre Raffalovich.

Both poets were Roman Catholic converts, both gay and very much creatures of the 1890s--the great English decadence. Also their work is seriously collected and quite valuable - a completist collection of their published books in decent condition would leave little change from $60,000, with Raffalovich using up most of one's funds. In D'Offay's catalogue he has 3 works by Raffalovich. Roses of Shadow a short play which AOD suggests lampoons Wilde with lines such as 'Even my red carnation is getting faded... I wish red flowers never died. I love red I always wear red: the red flower of a passionate life.' It was privately published in 1895 in a very small edition. D'Offay needed 5 guineas for a fine copy, a copy has been sitting on ABE for some while at a fairly challenging £4000 - not as nice as the 1961 copy but a presentation copy from Raffalovich to film star Ernest Thesiger. It is by no means Raffalovich's most valuable book.

Raffalovich, who was quite wealthy, had 2 bookplates one by Eric Gill (top) and one by Austin Osman Spare (one of his best) they always enhance the value of any books they are found in... [to be continued]

Three of the rarest twentieth century books on magic...

Guy Jarrett. Jarrett Magic and Stagecraft ( Written, printed and bound by the author 1936) Current selling price $4,000 +

Guy Jarrett was the magician’s magician. An astonishingly accomplished technical magician and inventor, he was extremely scathing about the deficiencies of his fellow illusionists and apparently difficult to work with. In 1936 he decided to disclose the secrets of his inventions in a book that he would print and bind himself. Using foundry type and a simple printing machine he went about his task, which involved actually writing the book as he set the type for each page, which he printed one at a time. This was not unlike the John Bull method of printing, though with metal rather than with rubber type. As each page was printed Jarrett would remove the type and reassemble it for the next page. The book contained 106 pages and, according to the author, 582,489 characters. It took Jarrett a year to complete this awesome project ( he claimed to have printed 400 copies ) after which he allowed himself a little self-congratulation on the last page:

‘This is a hell of a good book. I just read it. I invented the tricks, built the tricks, made the drawings, set the type, printed the book, and will bind the book. All over and out ‘

Jarrett was as good as his word. He did indeed bind his book in blue cloth—very badly, according to one critic—and on the cover of it in silver lettering he stamped the single word ‘ JARRETT ‘. He priced the book at an amazingly cheap $5, but it didn’t sell. He then advertised that he would increase the price by one dollar a month until it reached $10, at which point he would throw away all the unsold copies. Luckily, he didn’t carry out this threat, but no-one really knows how many copies of Jarrett Magic and Stagecraft have survived. Because of the lack of interest from magicians it is likely that the author bound only around 70 or 80 copies from the sheets. There is evidence that he gave away copies to magicians he liked. As a result, and perhaps because of its poor binding, the book is now exceedingly rare and much sought after by the wealthier professional magicians. Historian Jim Steinmeyer, who in 1981 reprinted it with his own comments as The Complete Jarrett, calls it one of the most important books on illusion ever published.


Wilf Huggins (ed), The Midget Magician ( Published by the author at 171, Argyle Avenue, Hounslow, Middlesex, January 1951 – March 1960 ) Current selling price $8,000+

This was a magazine of truly Lilliputian proportions, each volume being around half the size of a pocket diary, and like Auden’s famous Poems of 1928, hand printed on an Ardana press. Essentially a miscellany of articles on the history of magic, it was published by subscription by magician Wilf Huggins in an edition of 50 for each of its 38 issues. Probably only 30 complete sets have survived, some of which are in academic libraries. The Library of the Magic Circle, for instance, holds one set in limp leather. In 2000 a fan tried to track down the current owners of complete sets and discovered that at least 17 sets were unaccounted for. Individual issues may still in circulation, though the tiny dimensions of each copy would militate against many surviving. Like Jarrett, The Midget Magician is a legendary rarity among collectors, and is probably on more ‘ wants lists ‘ than any other magic books.

S. W. Erdnase, Artifice, Ruse and Subterfuge at the Card Table ( Published by the author, 1902). Current selling price £1,000 +. Later reprints $300 +

The first book to describe in great detail all the gambling moves in cards, and as such is greatly sought after by card magicians throughout the world. Mystery, however surrounds the identity of the author. Obviously, S. W. Erdnase is an anagram and a number of writers have proposed theories. The most substantial book ( 420 pages ) on the subject is The Man who was Erdnase by Bart Waley with Martin Gardner and Jeff Busby, who argue that the mystery figure was an American con man, gambler and murderer called Milton Franklin Andrews . All later issues bear the date 1902, but only the first edition was bound in green cloth. [R. M. Healey]

Many thanks. Too busy to post anything myself and even found it hard to find suitable, clear images-- the top photo is of a late reprint of Erdnasse's fabulous work here got up like a bible and said to be almost as useful as the great book. The other photo ( Jarrett) seems to be from a catalogue of a forthcoming sale where no doubt the book will make the right price...Rock on Robin, will get back to scribbling when these book fairs are behind me...

‘Only one copy known….’ Well… perhaps two.

Arthur Machen, Eleusinia (Joseph Jones, Hereford 1881). One copy known. $15,000


Privately printed by Joseph Jones of Hereford when Machen was just 18, and not long out of Hereford Grammar School, this was a poem of teenage ecstasy by the Welsh wizard of fantasy. According to his biographer John Gawsworth, Machen received only six copies of his poem from the printer, who kept the remainder for himself over a payment dispute. Some say only one copy is known to exist; other say two. Peter Vincent’s story, ‘Completion’, recounts the experiences of one bibliomaniac’s quest to secure a copy of Eleusinia.


Robert Frost, Twilight( Laurence, Mass. 1894)

Two copies made; one was said to have been destroyed by the author. $75,000 (Ahearne 2000). When it fetched $3,000 in 1949 this was the highest price paid for a contemporary American author. This surviving copy ended up in an American library.
Apparently, the man who became one of America’s greatest poets was so unsure of his talent that he only paid for two copies of this debut volume of six poems, one of which was meant for his fiancée. A re-reading of these callow effusions may be the reason why he later destroyed one copy. Pray that more were printed.



John Bunyan, A Book for Boys and Girls, or Country Rhimes for Children (London, N. Ponder, 1686). Two known copies. £20,000+.

The BL claims to have one of the two known. Published posthumously, this illustrated anthology of Christian homilies, or meditations, on ‘74 things’ was deemed ‘lost‘ to bibliographers until the copy that had been bought in the year of its printing by Narcissus Luttrell for 6d turned up at a London bookshop c 1882. This in turn was bought for 40 guineas by an American collector who soon afterwards let it go to the British Museum Library. The Library of California at Santa Barbara has the other known copy. Why there are so few copies is a bit of a mystery, but the answer may lie in the fact that little children tend to tear up books, especially if they contain pictures.

Robert Burns, The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799).Two known copies. £20,000 +

One copy of this collection of extremely bawdy songs based on examples found among Burns’ papers at his death in 1795 is owned by the University of South Carolina. It is not known how many of these were composed by the Bard himself, and for this reason some Burns enthusiasts are reluctant to admit the collection into the canon. Another reason why only two copies are known may have something to do with British Puritanism--- many of the songs feature human genitalia.

John R. Ridge, The Life and Adventures of Joaquim Murieta (1854). $15,000 Only 2 copies known.

One is at Yale, the other is in a private collection. Ridge, or ‘ Yellow Bird ‘ has been claimed as the ‘ first Native American novelist ‘ and his book ‘ the first Californian novel ‘. Murrieta (note alternative spelling) was a bloodthirsty Mexican bandit who terrorised California in its formative years. He was killed at the age of 21 and Ridge somewhat romanticises his life.

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Poems (c1903) pp29. Two known copies. $20,000+

Montgomery (1874 – 1942) was, of course, the author of the classic Anne of Green Gables (1908 ), a first of which can fetch around $10,000 in decent condition. The poems, published when Montgomery was 27, are 32 in number and most are printed on one side of the paper only, which suggests that some sort of crude printing devise was used . The librarian at the Canadian library that owns a copy, speculates that the author probably gave a ‘very limited ‘number of copies to friends around Christmas 1903. How many is ‘very limited ‘? Hope that Miss Montgomery had plenty of friends if you want to secure a copy. You won’t find the title listed in Ahearne (2000), so one can only hazard an educated guess at its value.

To be continued….

[R. M. Healey ]


Many thanks Robin. Awesome and inspiring. Will start searching right away. The sort of books that show up at a church jumble sale once in a blue moon...

Second hand bookshop window display

I am fortunate to live near a good second hand bookshop Reed Books 2 on the High Street in Aldeburgh on the Suffolk Coast of the sceptered isle. Idyllic but a bit too close to the mighty Sizewell Nuclear Power station. Time and again this shop gets annoyingly good books some of which end up on the web, but many go out in the shop and I occasionally buy some with a view to making money. Reed Books 1 was across the way and closed a couple of years ago - it was run by book enthusiast and party hound Julius Reed kinsman of "wild thing" actor Oliver Reed. Julius at one point had a rave in his bookshop which attracted a younger crowd but drew some disapproval from the council. He has moved into antiques and his cohort Robin Summers has taken over the mantle and now runs and owns Reed Books 2.

A retired TV actor not unknown to the IMDB database Robin has a very good eye and has done at least 3 themed window displays. My photo above shows his latest-- carefully chosen faces staring out of the window. He also had a great window entirely full of Britain in Pictures - apparently when shown like this en masse they sell well. He also had a window display of Teach Yourself books, covered in an earlier posting. The subject of displays in bookshop windows is not without interest-- very few shops pay a lot of attention to staging. Robin consciously sets aside books for his window and it pays off.



In a display in his shop window of books with bizarre or unfortunate titles I picked up a Scouts in Bondage (in dust wrapper) for £20. It is rare thus and the profit might pay for one night in a half decent London hotel, and possibly a meal - but I am not selling at present.. If any readers have photos of thematic bookshop displays please send them in. We are doing a sports window for the London Olympics this July... slightly predictable but almost obligatory.

Vivian Nicholson. Spend, Spend, Spend...

Vivian Nicholson & Stephen Smith. SPEND, SPEND, SPEND. Jonathan Cape, London 1977.

Current Selling Prices
£50-£100

A book that looks like nothing...In 1961 Vivian ('Viv') Nicholson won £152,000 on the football pools when she correctly predicted 8 draws. She announced to the press that she was going to "spend, spend, spend". The phrase has entered the language, a recent £8 million pound lottery winner also said she intended to 'spend,spend, spend.' Within 3 years the wild Viv had spent the lot (the equivalent of £3 million nowadays). She had been a tabloid sensation, she recorded a single ('Spend, Spend, Spend') appeared in a strip club dancing to 'Hey Big Spender' and was the subject of a musical and TV play by the late Jack Rosenthal. Rosenthal's play was based on this book of taped interviews with Viv by ghostwriter Stephen Smith.


Rosenthal was a colleague of the PR man who, on behalf of Littlewoods Pools, persuaded Nicholson to allow publicity for her pools win. He wrote in his autobiography: "From that day on, I followed her wild, seemingly stupid adventures in the papers - and believed every snide, snooty, biased word the relentless publicity said. All adding up to one word - that she was a cow." Reading the book caused Rosenthal to reassess his attitude and he "became a fan" eager to put across an explanation of her behaviour.



The 1978 musical was successful, although I tend to agree with the acerbic critic Martin Cropper who stated that in his opinion all musicals were bad. It's a botched art form, although a million busloads of punters would disagree. Certainly the lyrics are unpromising:

'8 draws, you've got them all, 8 draws,
Love was a bitch, but now you're rich,
She's bloody Santa Claus.'

As a kind of outrageous pre-Punk she was a natural hero for that anarchic era. Her photograph later appeared on the cover of The Smiths' 1984 single "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "Barbarism Begins At Home". In 2012 she may be slightly neglected but the book still commands fancy prices with Angela Carter's copy at £150, and a copy with two pages missing (but supplied in xerox) at a chancer's £75. The paperback version which I just picked up for 20p (reduced from 35p) has to be worth £20+ and has a better cover than the hardback. The book is as the blurb says "...a totally unselfconscious self - portrait, a ripping good tale, fast cars, booze, 'sexual happenings', deaths...you name it Viv can talk about it as if it were the most natural thing in the world." The style is 'Educating Rita' before her Michael Caine makeover. The book ends- 'I still have hopes of making me million...pinning me hopes on the rock opera version, I am.'

Same name, different game….2

I ‘ve now discovered that not only does my namesake, the elderly woolly jumper-admiring New Zealand poet, have at least one fan in the world (according to the bookride comments box), but also there are many copies on ABE of two books by yet another Robin Healey.

This upstart, it would seem, is a world expert on Italian literature, whose Italian Literature before 1900 in English Translation and Twentieth century Italian Literature in translation: an annotated bibliography, 1927 - 1997 appear to have created quite a stir in the academy, judging by the reviews. I was particularly delighted to read that ‘ If anything, Healey is much too modest about his own accomplishments ‘.

Along with the disadvantages of having a nominal doppelganger in the literary stakes, come some obvious advantages. Online Googlers will make gratifying assumptions in your favour regarding books bearing your name, including details relating to your age, education and background. Which is nice. Meanwhile, here are some further names to conjure with.


Geoffrey Archer, Dark Angel, Skydancer, Scorpion Trail, etc etc etc.

Matthew Arnold, Stakeholder negotiations: Exercises in sustainable development, 1995.

Jane Austin, Jump Start
The Overwrought Urn (Graphic Originals)

James Baldwin, Whole Earth Ecology, an environmental tool-kit.

John A. Brain, An Evening with Thomas Talfourd , 1889.

John F. Brain, The Man who created God.

Robert Bridges, Invitation to Fly Flight Manouevres Manual for Private Pilots, 1983.

Frank Bruno, Riggermortis, 1966

Roy Campbell, Measuring the Sales and Profit Results of Advertising

Edward Carpenter, The Service of a Parson: why is he there and what he does.

Steven Crane, The personal Income Tax Savings Handbook

Steven A. Crane, Ashamed of Joseph: Mormon Foundations Crumble.
Is Mormonism now Christian ?



Raymond Chandler, All that Glitters, the crime and the cover-up. (Chandler was the lawyer uncle of the boy at the heart of the Michael Jackson scandal ).

Leonard Cohen, Choosing to work: an action-oriented job-finding book, 1979.

Harry H. Crosby, A Wing and a Prayer: the ‘ Bloody 100th ‘ Bomb Group of the eighth US Air Force in action over Europe in World War II.

John Dunne, Reasons of the Heart

William C. Falkner, The Siege of Monteray

Iain Fleming, Accounting for Business management, 1997.

Robert Frost, Victorian and Edwardian Staffordshire from old Photographs, 1977.

Robert Frost, All for Strings ( comprehensive string method ), 1986

John G. Fuller, Prescriptions for Better Home Video Movies

Alan Ginsburg, American and British Regional Export Determinants, 1969

William E. Hague, Remodel, don’t move: how to change your home to fit your lifestyle. New Complete Basic Book of Home Decoration, 1982.

Ian Hamilton, Resources and Industry (OUP)

Dennis Healy, The Illustrated Rules of Baseball, 1995.

Geoffrey Hill, Illuminating Shadows: the mythic power of film, 1992

Susan Hill, Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel: meet the ‘Munks.
Spider-Man: Spider man versus Electro.

David Hulme, Will Christ Return ?, 1990.

Lee Hunt, The Vampire of New York

M. R. James, Successful Bowhunting

John Keates, Understanding maps, 1996

John Locke, Isometric perspective designs and how to create them

Mary McCarthy, Making Books by hand

Margaret Mitchell, Mealtime Magic Cookbook.

Henry Miller, California Missions: the earliest series of views made in 1856

Keith Richards, Tender mercies: inside the world of a child-abuse investigator, 1991

Walter Scott, Lung Cancer: a guide to diagnosis and treatment, 2002.




Ian Sinclair, Photographic Guide to Birds of Southern Africa.

Adam Smith, Supermoney, 1972.

John Wain, Wildtrack, a poem.

Harold K Wilson, Grain Crops, 1955

W. B. Yates, Diaspora .



[R.M.Healey]

Many thanks Robin. Got a feeling that John Wain (angry young man) actually wrote 'Wildtrack', but not John Wayne the cowboy actor. As for 'Adam Smith' I guess that was a sort of 'nom de blague' (real name Hiram Potts or something.) The odd thing is when a well known writer also wrote a very minor book as well. Robert Aickman the highly rated, valuable and collected writer of ghost stories and fantasy was also the was founder and Vice-President of the Inland Waterways Association. He wrote 'Know Your Waterways. Holidays on Inland Waterways' which is worth £10 as opposed to £500 or more for some of his fiction. One wonders whether any of the above writers are one and the same with their famous namesakes -- could Frank Bruno have knocked out a forensic thriller ('Riggermortis') between bouts in the ring or Geoffrey Hill, the great poet, also be an expert on cinema and myth... ?

Alastair (Count Hans-Henning von Voigt 1887-1969)

An illustrator whose real name was Count Hans-Henning von Voigt, but who published under the pseudonym Alastair. Born in 1887, he was a very late convert to symbolism , adopting in the twenties a decorative style heavily indebted to Beardsley years after the artist had died. He (not surprisingly ) illustrated Wilde and Pater , but also Frank Wedekind, the expressionist playwright whose sexually explicit plays scandalised the Weimer Republic. Movie buffs now admire him because he illustrated Wedekind’s Lulu, who was immortalised in Pabst’s film of the same name starring the exquisite Louise Brooks; Goths worship him (see their websites) because they see him as an ideological fellow traveller.

Anecdotes about his outrageous behaviour abound. When Gabriele Annunzio met him in 1914 he was dressed in priestly blue brocade robes performing ‘gothic dances‘ around a gilded unicorn. Thirteen years later the poet and publisher Caresse Crosby describes her first meeting with him:

"... a blackamoor ushered us into a room where their was a black piano with a single candle burning on it. Soon Alastair himself appeared in the doorway in a white satin suit; he bowed, did a flying split and slid across the polished floor to stop at my feet, where he looked and said, “Ah, Mrs Crosby !“.

Soon afterwards he began what would become a fruitful relationship with Crosby and her husband Harry, who were about to launch the Black Sun Press. The twenties was the heyday of Alastair. His debut was a 1920 edition of Wilde’s The Sphinx, for which he contributed ten remarkable black and turquoise illustrations. For this you might expect to cough up around $800. This was followed by a commission from high class Munich publisher Georg Muller, who asked him to illustrate the two sumptuous posthumous limited edition volumes of Wedekind’s two Lulu plays, Erdgeist and Pandora’s Box, which duly appeared in 1921. Although some films based on the Lulu character had already been made by this date, it is likely that the producers of the Pabst movie of 1927 had Alistair’s iconic depiction of Lulu in mind when they cast the gamine Louise Brooks in the title role. Because of this link, the two ‘Lulu‘ volumes are in great demand from cineastes, especially members of the Louise Brooks Society. My own copies (which are, incidentally, up for grabs) have their boards hand-blocked in a black, green and red honey-bee cell pattern and 24 extraordinary full page plates in black and red showing the artist operating in full Beardsley mode.



Although these two volumes are among the most coveted of Alastair’s productions there were further triumphs to come. The nine illustrations which accompanied a French edition of Wilde’s Salome in 1922, are also in black and red. The fact that this was not a limited edition is reflected in the prices featured on ABE, which range from an amazingly reasonable $55 to a frankly silly $650. And if you lust for an original Alastair drawing for this book there is one available too on ABE at an eye-watering $17,500 !


In 1927 an edition of Walter Pater’s Sebastian van Storck included eight extraordinary plates by Alastair. The only copy currently on ABE has a superb cover which stylistically belongs at least 20 years earlier to the fag end of the aesthetic movement. In the same year, that first extraordinary meeting with Caresse Crosby developed into a fruitful partnership which resulted in at least four commissions. The first was to supply drawings for a limited edition of Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher, which appeared in 1928 under the Editions Narcisse imprint. For this, Alastair seems to have abandoned his familiar style for a more conventional, though hardly naturalistic, one. There is a copy on ABE for $600. When, not long afterwards, the Black Sun Press began to produce its beautiful hand-crafted limited editions, Alastair was asked to illustrated Harry Crosby’s own volume of poems, Red Skeletons, which remains one of the most sought after of the Press’s titles. An edition limited to 100 of Wilde’s The Birthday of the Infanta , complete with glassine wrapper (pay up to $2,872), also appeared in 1928. Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses followed in 1929. With the tragic suicide of Harry Crosby in this year Alastair’s association with the Black Sun Press seems to have faded. Certainly, it would appear that the opportunities to contribute drawings in the styles he favoured were becoming fewer after this date.

The cheapest Alastair book on ABE is the 1931 Rarity Press edition of Manon Lescaut, of which there are several for sale at a bargain $4. The appearance of this title also signalled the end of his career as a book illustrator at the ripe old age of 48. He returned to drawing in 1964, but published little, if anything. Right up to his death in 1969 he remained true to himself. In his eighties he could be seen with powdered white face, bold black eyebrows, his black silk shoes poking out from the voluminous trousers. [R. M. Healey]



Many thanks Robin. I have not seen a 'Red Skeletons' for a while, we sold a decent copy in 2001 for £800. Mad, bad Harry Crosby's finest... As for Alastair's drawings they occasionally show up in auction, last month a 1920 drawing 'Le Vampire' made 800 Euros at Sotheby's Paris and there are many other results at less than a 1000 Euros. A superb iconic drawing might make 5000 Euros. $17500 is stronging it but not unimaginable - Alastair probably has appeal to those laden with cash. For far less money you can occasionally buy drawings by our own 'gin and tonic' version of Alastair- the fabulous Beresford Egan, but that's another story (watch this space.)

Give Puce a Chance

Forgive the pun, but it was suggested by the war theme of this (presumably) early 1914 pamphlet. Wyndham Lewis's Vorticist magazine BLAST (aka 'the puce monster') appeared in July of that year, the same month as war broke out and the pamphlet judging by the title appeared earlier that year. Was there a load of puce dye offloaded in London at that time, was it the colour of the moment? Is this really puce? The nearest dictionary (the big Bloomsbury) describes it as 'a brilliant purplish red colour.' Did Wyndham Lewis spot someone hawking the pamphlet in the street, it seems quite possible - even the typography is similar (at least the angular printing...)



The pamphlet (of which I have the cover only) is unknowable, no such title shows at WorldCat or Copac and the title page may have born a different title and possibly the name of an author. A colour that used to be seen in the 1990s 'hot pink' was similar to puce but rather cheap looking; the 1940s Elsa Schiaparelli colour 'shocking pink' is nearer to the mark but puce has a glamour all of its own. A fine copy of BLAST would be a thing to behold and I can think of two thousand reasons why I would like one. They usually turn up in distressing shape, as for the war pamphlet it is probably too rare to have real value - unless you found Lewis's or Pound's copy -- even Gaudier-Brzeska's, with a small sketch.

Below is a recently added and obviously modern puce publication - of which I know nothing, except it appears to be part of the enviable collection of kunstler Richard Prince.

John Le Carré

John Le Carré. THE LOOKING-GLASS WAR. Heinemann, London 1965.

Current Selling Prices
$60+ /£40+

I was chuffed to see a copy of this book making £840 at Dominic Winter yesterday. It was described thus:

Author's presentation copy, inscribed to title: "John Le Carre aka David Cornwell - with best wishes! Cornwall 2nd March '03. P.S. I'm not sure that poor George Smiley c[oul]d handle the present mess - I'm rather glad he hung up his boots! J.L.C." The inscription refers to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Le Carre, of course, was no fan of Blair - feeling he was America's poodle ('minstrel') in the Iraq war and called for him to resign as quickly and 'elegantly' as possible. The inscription is surprisingly restrained in view of this. It belies the old 'Flatsigned' axiom that a plain signature is worth more than an inscription as copies of the book merely signed by Le Carré can be had for £100. The egregious inventor of the word wrote an entire guide book where every plain signature was priced 25% higher than an inscription. Thus if Nelson Mandela inscribed a book to someone he had known in jail it would be trumped by a plain signature...

Not a scarce book but hard to find in faultless condition as the spine tends to fade, sometimes badly. The preceding book The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is also not scarce but worth ten times more. The jacket on the Spy did not change in any way for the first dozen or so printings so marriages are not uncommon, a fine jacket often covering a slightly tired looking book. Le Carre is a generous signer and late works signed can be had for £20 or less, however I think he will prove a good investment in the long term. The latest star heavy movie was well received. In it Gary Oldman (formerly Sid Vicious and Joe Orton) played the stolid George Smiley. According to Huffington at the UK premiere of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Oldman asked Le Carré if he liked what he'd seen. "I'm chuffed to fuck," came the reply.

Collecting Books on Magic 1

This can be an expensive area for collectors. Amateur magicians and historians of the subject are up against big name magicians like David Copperfield, Raymond Teller and Ricky Jay, who can afford the rarest and most desirable titles. However, those with limited means may build up a decent collection, provided they steer clear of certain glamorous titles, aren’t bothered too much about editions and condition, and avoid signed and extra illustrated items.

Two works should be on top of the rich collector’s wish list. One is Porta’s Magi Naturalis, which dates from 1558. As its title implies, it deals primarily with the wonderful properties of Nature, rather than deception and illusion. There are, for instance, sections on geology, optics, cooking, magnetism and gunpowder, but (alas) no illustrations. This is a truly early work, and was much reprinted in the original Latin; the English edition didn’t appear until 1658. It is extremely early and very rare, but the fact that the first English edition didn’t appear for a hundred years rather spoils its appeal for me. If you are lucky enough to find a copy of the first in Latin it will cost you a cool thousand pounds today, though the edition in English is more sought after. Equally glamorous is Reginald Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), a legendary work of myth-debunking from an enlightened JP who argued that the magic ascribed to witches could be reproduced by anyone with the skills and resources. Scot made many enemies in his defence of those who were persecuted as witches, and James I ordered the burning of all copies of the book in 1603. Few survived the flames and those that did could probably be numbered at below twenty.

Raymond Teller was pursuing a first of The Discoverie not too long ago and was overjoyed to find one, despite its steep price. There are hundreds of Dover reprints around and currently on ABE twelve copies of the 1930 John Rodker limited edition, with an introduction by Montague Summers. One chancer has the gall to boast that this particular edition is ‘ almost as rare as the 1st ‘. Hollow laughter from the direction of Raymond Teller ! Hocus Pocus Junior (1634) was heavily indebted to Scot, but is worth looking out for, nevertheless, for its illustrations and lively descriptions of legerdemain and magic trickery. A first will set you back thousands, but a 1950 limited edition reprint is currently on ABE at an amazing $775.

The books on magic you are more likely to find today date from the late eighteenth century, were often scissors and paste jobs. One of the better known examples is the four volume Rational Recreations (1774 ) by William Hooper, who is said to have been heavily indebted to Guyot’s Nouvelle Recreations, Physique et Mathematique. Hooper brings together a lot of practical or ‘ parlour ‘magic, such as optical illusions, magnetism, chemical experiments and fireworks . A ‘ sturdy ‘copy of the 1794 edition is priced at a not unreasonable £495 on ABE, where there is also a first at double that figure. John Badcock, was another- scissors- and- paste man whose Philosophical Recreations or Winter Amusements (circa 1820) contains material from a variety of sources. All editions appear to feature many attractive plates, which may explain the fancy prices—from $719 - $1200. A similar kind of book, Endless Amusement (1822), which went through many editions in the early 19th century, will cost at least £150.

Works on the history of magic date from the Victorian period are perhaps more sought after by collectors, since they were not often reprinted. Thomas Frost wrote three books, all of which are worth looking out for. The Old Showman and the Old London Fairs (1874) can be had for around $250. His Last Lives of the Conjurors (1876 )is much rarer, while Circus Life (1876), is rightly been described as a ‘ classic ‘ of its type. If you can tolerate a ‘ working ‘ copy of this book there is one in New Zealand at a reasonable $100. For a better copy you may have to pay four times this amount elsewhere.

Along with the early books on magic were the magazines, most of which are hard to find. The Conjuror’s Magazine was published in the 1790s and was the earliest magazine entirely devoted to magic. It’s very difficult to locate a single volume, let alone a complete run. Look out for the supplements on physiognomy, which were bound in with the magazine, but were often removed.

Houdini is a name collectors can’t ignore, though he was more a showman than a gifted illusionist. His books are ghosted because he couldn’t write for toffee. His titles, which include The Unmasking of Robert Houdin (1908), are collected avidly in his native United States, where they tend to be more expensive, especially if signed. In fact, it seems that anything associated with Houdini has a fancy price tag Stateside. Currently on ABE are a paper bag signed by the master at a painful $3,000+ while a longish letter of 1901 from him comes in at $14,500. All collectors must beware of forgeries. [ R.M. Healey]

Many thanks Robin. 'Endless amusement' as the old book has it. It is very common and very slightly vexing for dealers to hear that collections of magic books have been offered to the Magic Circle, almost as common as military books that have been offered to the Imperial War Museum. The magic books always seem to get accepted but the military books are far less often wanted...

Magazines (first issues)

The recent 50th Anniversary issue of Private Eye prints a letter from someone called David Lyon recalling a lucky find one evening in October 1961. Apparently, while walking through Soho he noticed a box fixed to a lamp-post:

‘It contained some roughly printed pamphlets on yellow paper, with a notice inviting me to take one in exchange for sixpence. I was not to know that my tanner had purchased a potentially valuable document : nowadays, apparently, copies of Private Eye Vol 1 No 1 are worth at least £1,000…’

Unluckily for the young Peter Cook, Richard Ingrams et al, quite a few thievish Soho-ites had removed the copies without placing the requisite payment in the honesty box. Fifty years on, the ‘roughly printed pamphlets‘ have turned into a British Institution, and its surviving founders and present editor, pillars of the media establishment. And yes, incredibly rare first issues of the Eye can fetch around a grand (depending on condition), though demand from ( I suspect ) present employees of the magazine mean that examples are extremely hard to find. Even the more common early copies from 1961/62 are very scarce.

So, I began to wonder what was the story behind other style ‘pamphlets ‘that had became British Institutions.—Viz, for instance. Back in 1979, when the incomparable chanteuse, Lene Lovich was enchanting us all, satirical artist Chris Donald produced the first issue of a magazine which was to raise puerile humour to new heights of comic inventiveness. Put together in a bedroom in his parent’s house in Jesmond, Viz comic had an initial print run of 150 and sold for 20p in a local pub. After this first run had sold out in hours, a new edition had to be run off. If you want to buy the particular copy from the initial run that Donald gave to a friend you’d have to shell out a mere $2,060 via ABE.



Punch, the Daddy of all great satirical magazines, but now sadly no more, also began unpromisingly. On17 July 1841 a small group of writers and artists who were friends, like the Private Eye crowd, saw a gap in the market for a satirical magazine and so the London Charivari was born. The print run was pretty large and so the first half-yearly volume of the magazine is not rare, though it can’t usually be found as a singleton. Don’t pay more than £10.

The general rule of thumb it would seem is that the more primitive and/or basic -looking the first issues were of a magazine that later achieved cult status, the more appealing (and therefore more expensive) they are. So, it follows that the reverse rule applies. Take, for example, the more respectable Scrutiny and Horizon,. The former highly influential mouthpiece of the Leavis circle, began as a very professionally produced critical review in 1932 and so copies of the highly combative debut issue tend not to be too expensive. I got mine for about £1, which though very cheap, but the single copy on ABE of the same issue is a reasonable $112. 22. In contrast, the first issue of Spender and Connolly’s Horizon, which first appeared in 1940, looks much like the last and shouldn’t set you back much more than £20. The same goes for first issues of other significant magazines that began well and continued looking much the same for years and years. There are obvious exceptions to this rule. A first issue of Radio Times (1923) is currently on ABE at £300. A first issue of the less prestigious TV Times (1955 ) shouldn’t cost you more than £30, whereas The Listener might come in at around a fiver. There is no obvious logic in all this, apart from the law of supply and demand.

Collectors might also be surprised at how reasonably priced other first issues of famous newspapers are. To start at the very lowest end of the market for quality, one can find copies of the first Daily Mail (1896) at about £60 and The Daily Express (1900), Daily Mirror (1903 ) and Sun (1964 ) cannot be much more. However, a first issue of The Times, which began in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, will probably set you back £200- £300, depending on the condition, which is likely to be good, since the newsprint used in the late eighteenth century contained a much higher percentage of rags to acidic wood pulp than that produced from the mid Victorian period onwards. First issues of both The Daily Telegraph (1855) and The Grauniad (1821) may cost a bit less. Incidentally, first issues of all the above are exceptionally hard to locate online. [R. M. Healey]

Many thanks Robin. Yes early EYE issues (first 10) are rare as rockinghorse and highly desirable. Below are some 5 year old auction records - without the premiums (20%):

Private Eye. [N.p.: Andrew Osmond], 25 Oct, 1961 - Vol I, No 1 - 4to, - stapled as issued - Ptd on orange paper. - Bonham's, June 6, 2006, lot 1000, £1,250 ($2,300)
Private Eye. [N.p.: Andrew Osmond], 25 Oct, 1961 - Vol I, No 1 - 4to, - stapled as issued - Ptd on orange paper. - Minor stain to final page - Bonham's, Feb 24, 2004, lot 100, £880 ($1,636.80)
Private Eye. [N.p.: Andrew Osmond], 7 Nov, 1961 - Vol I, No 2 - 4to, - stapled as issued - Ptd on orange paper - Bonham's, Feb 24, 2004, lot 101, £550 ($1,023)
Private Eye. [N.p.: Andrew Osmond], 7 Nov, 1961 - Vol I, No 3 - 4to, - unsewn as issued - Ptd on orange paper - Bonham's, Feb 24, 2004, lot 102, £550 ($1,023)

Note these ones were orange. Possibly other colours exist. Andrew Osmond, by the way, was the original `Lord Gnome'. He backed the young satirists with all the money he had - £450 - and thought of the title. He deserved a peerage. Robin's little misspelling 'Grauniad' for 'Guardian' of course comes from the Eye and reflects the large amount of typos that used to occur in that worthy broadsheet...