[bksvol-discuss] Re: rare out of print books, was, Re: Re: The Hold Issue & wish list books
- From: Valerie Maples <vlmaples@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2012 06:34:20 -0700 (PDT)
Hey, Julia!
Worldcat.org shows a copy of My Philippa in a Toronto Library if a
Canadian volunteer has access.
Valerie
Join us in celebrating our 10th Anniversary!
Bookshare: Bringing Reading to Life for 10 Years
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________________________________
From: Julia <julia.kulak@xxxxxxxxx>
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, July 25, 2012 12:34:42 AM
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] rare out of print books, was, Re: Re: The Hold Issue
&
wish list books
Hi everyone.
Speaking of hard to find books, Maureen Peters is another author whose
books
are extremely rare. She's written several, mostly short historical fiction
under
200 pages. My Philippa, in particular, only seems to be available on the net
for
a whopping $150, all the way from New Zealand.
Julia
On 25/07/2012 1:02 AM, Ali Al-hajamy wrote:
That's a noble goal. I was thinking about this topic recently, books that
would,
if not for the digitisation process, otherwise be lost. Joseph McElroy, an
author I have mentioned on here once before, is practically unknown within the
literary world. I don't think there has ever been a single year where all of
his
books were in print at one time (He's written eight or nine), and there are two
in particular, one called Hind's Kidnap, the other Actress in the House, which
were never reprinted after their firszt hardcover run. (D. Keith Mano had the
same thing happen to his novel Take Five [according to him, 1756 copies were
sent out, and somehow, 1817 came back to the publisher].) Because of this,
Hind's Kidnap is, for now, incredibly rare and expensive. There was a person at
Constant Conversation who recalled going to a bookstore, and seeing ten copies
of it sitting on the shelves, all available for the low low price of... $110. I
was thinking about what it would be like if, after a few decades, there would
simply be no more copies of Hind's Kidnap available for general consumption by
anyone who wasn't a rare book collector and who would thus never read or sell
them to anyone. I found the thought very disturbing. Would we have to depend on
the few people who have read it to tell us what the book was about and what the
experience of reading it was like? Would the half remembered lines of prose
from
a person here and there who had read it be the only indication of the quality
of
its writing? Would Joseph McElroy die knowing that his novel, over the years,
had simply stopped existing, all copies available having been destroyed or
lost?
Alexander Theroux was glad that his books were not readily available or read to
or by the public, viewing it as the partial punishment of a society which
rejected his texts due to their unconventionality; I see it as a tragedy. I
even
expressed a wish, in the Goodreads comment I wrote about this in, that someone
scan the book and put it on the ebook pirate networks that I'm sure exist
somewhere should anyone wish to find them. I wouldn't like that, I said, but it
was far preferable to that book just vanishing. Then I was given a link to a
publishing house which is going to digitize most of McElroy's books, Hind's
Kidnap included, and I wasn't disturbed anymore. The fact remains, though, that
if not for the process of putting print books into digital formats, many, I
might even take a guess and say the majority of, paper only books can, and do,
disappear, so any attempts to save them is, I think, an incredibly magnanimous
effort.
>
>On 25-Jul-12 00:32, Valerie Maples wrote:
>Cindy;
>>
>>
>>We buy copies of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books as we can afford and
>>find
>>them, so eventually, if we are allowed to continue our quest on kids series,
>>they will be done. Em Rose has access to many Nancy Drew and I have proofed
>>hers as well as Vivian Flores and Sister Dolores Dean's as soon as they were
>>up;
>>usually within three days. It is just getting them bought or located.
>>
>>
>>The bright side of this is my OCD need to preserve these historical series
>>will
>>one day mean Bookshare will be the only library in the country that has the
>>only
>>intact series of several out of print series. We completed the Connie Blair
>>Mysteries, Cherry Ames, Vicki Barr, and Sue Barton, just to name a few. We
>>are
>>working on Kay Tracey, Dana Girls, Kim Aldrich, Robin Kane, Ginny Gordon,
>>Donna
>>Parker and I have nearly half the Judy Bolton books, just to name a few. We
>>own
>>about forty Nancy Drew and possibly 25 Hardy Boys, among others.
>>
>>
>>I want to continue to help Bookshare grow and preserve books that will soon
>>be
>>lost if not digitized.
>> Valerie
>>
>>
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