(no subject)
Veronica got up bright and early with me yesterday to go book buying. This time it wasn't for sale, it was for my personal collection. Literally the day it was announced that the tax cuts to the rich were going away, my rare book sales slowed to a trickle. As such, I really haven't been buying- it's something I'll do again when the economy is better.
However, the other day I was walking down Hawthorne, and saw a flyer for a private library being sold off. There were 4000 books, with fixed rates between $2-$3, depending on the type, and a breakdown of the number in each subject. I looked at the number on Russian history, and did a double take- it would be extremely difficult to have a Russian history library that large, which included a lot of pre-revolutionary history, and not have a significant number of rare books. The west just wasn't as interested in Russia up until the soviet era.
I was not disappointed when I went with Veronica. While I didn't find anything ultra-rare in the history section, I did find a number of Imperial Russian history books which I've been wanting for myself, and could never have afforded otherwise.
I also did find something which, though I haven't verified it yet, may be reasonably rare for my own collection. I'll have to check up on it to see exactly what it is. However, there was a copy of The Three Musketeers, obviously old, but in good condition. It had a number of little mistranslations in it, of the sort that you see a lot of in French books being translated to English for the first time. Some of the early Jules Verne translations are good examples of this. At any rate, I love Dumas, so I picked it up.
However, the other day I was walking down Hawthorne, and saw a flyer for a private library being sold off. There were 4000 books, with fixed rates between $2-$3, depending on the type, and a breakdown of the number in each subject. I looked at the number on Russian history, and did a double take- it would be extremely difficult to have a Russian history library that large, which included a lot of pre-revolutionary history, and not have a significant number of rare books. The west just wasn't as interested in Russia up until the soviet era.
I was not disappointed when I went with Veronica. While I didn't find anything ultra-rare in the history section, I did find a number of Imperial Russian history books which I've been wanting for myself, and could never have afforded otherwise.
I also did find something which, though I haven't verified it yet, may be reasonably rare for my own collection. I'll have to check up on it to see exactly what it is. However, there was a copy of The Three Musketeers, obviously old, but in good condition. It had a number of little mistranslations in it, of the sort that you see a lot of in French books being translated to English for the first time. Some of the early Jules Verne translations are good examples of this. At any rate, I love Dumas, so I picked it up.