A Quick Road Trip

We returned a week ago today (Sunday, June 30th) from a quick road trip of four days that took us to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Winslow, Arizona. In Santa Fe we visited Katie's sister and husband, who have just moved into a new house that they built themselves. Very beautiful. In Winslow we visited our favorite hotel and restaurant - La Posada and The Turquoise Room. Santa Fe is blessed with about 5 times as many bookstores as Tucson has - doesn't seem fair. Regardless, I managed to visit four stores while we were there.

Nicholas Potter is closing his open shop that has been on Palace across from the Cathedral for many years. I have stopped in every once awhile for over 15 years now - I will miss his shop and chatting with him. Between now and Labor Day he will continue his draw-down sale and then close shop after that.

I browsed through Gunstock Hill Books (my first visit) and noted many desirable titles - more than I could cope with during my short stay. This store is owned by Henry A. Lewis and can be visited on the web at   www.gunstockhillbooks.com

I have visited Dumont Maps & Books of the West a number of times and always find many items of interest. This store is in a slightly different location than when I last visited. It is owned by Andre and Carol Dumont and is now at 407 West San Francisco Street. Visit them at  www.dumontbooks.com

Finally, I stopped by Books of Interest, another first time visit. Lots of art books plus a diverse stock of both new and used titles. This was a pleasant stop and I will definitely visit again. This store is owned by Leo and Elizabeth Romero. They are on the web at   www.booksofinterest.com  There is a photo gallery of this store at    http://www.flickr.com/photos/booksofinterestsfcomphotos/

Although the landscapes were hot and terribly parched and skies were smokey the whole trip, we had an enjoyable time. Some of the books that adopted us and came home to Tucson are shown below.

Lawrence Clark Powell

Lawrence Clark Powell (b. Washington, DC, September 6, 1906; d. Tucson, Arizona, March 14, 2001) was a librarian, literary critic, bibliographer, self-proclaimed "bibliomaniac", and author of more than 100 books.

He received a BA from Occidental College in 1928, a doctorate from the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France, in 1932, and Certificate of Librarianship from UC Berkeley in 1937. He was University Librarian at the UCLA Library and head librarian of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library from 1944 until 1961. He was the first Dean of the School of Library Service at UCLA.

Powell was a Tucson resident for more than 30 years and helped to found the University of Arizona's School of Library and Information Science in the 1970s. After his death in 2001, in memory of Powell's writings and reverence for the Southwest, a lecture bearing his name has been delivered each year by an author whose breadth of work reflects the values, landscape, history and culture of the region. In addition to the lecture, the library honors one person with the Lawrence Clark Powell Lifetime Achievement Award for his/her contribution to southwestern letters. This award, sometimes called "The Powie", was first presented in 2002.

Squid Ink Books has a small collection of books by Powell that are available at our website (www.squidinkbooks.com). A pdf of the special list can be sent on request via email.

The George W. Bush Library

It is ironic that the least literary of our Presidents has built the largest of all Presidential Libraries. It is on the campus of SMU in Dallas, Texas. The grounds cover 23 acres and include hundreds of trees and shrubs. Molly Ivins would be pleased! Entrance to museum and library is shown above, with an armed guard in place. A few facts highlighted in the news this past week.

The new W library will house 80 terabytes of digital data - thus, explaining why the facility had to be so large. I doubt that W could access any of this digital archive without help. It is possible that the number of real, old fashioned books eventually may exceed 100.

It is the first LEED certified Presidential Library - seems strange from a leader with such an environmentally hostile administration (some of the landscaping is shown below). It is rumored that when serious trimming efforts are needed on the grounds that Bush will drive his huge pickup, with chain saw, up to SMU. Some pundits are now speculating that W was really a closet greenie.

Just less than a year ago I noted: In an ironic twist of fate, Ray Bradbury was presented the National Medal of Arts (2004) by one of our most non-literary presidents - ceremony shown below. Kurt Vonnegut would say: "So it goes."

More On Gatsby!

Oh my - There is new edition of The Great Gatsby out that is a tie-in with the new movie. A 3-D, full-color movie of the 1920s classic - sounds very vile to me. The garish cover of the new trade paperback edition is shown above. It is causing a bit of a stir and got its own article in the NY Times. A quote from the article:

“It’s just God-awful,” Kevin Cassem, a bookseller at McNally Jackson, said on Tuesday. “ ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a pillar of American literature, and people don’t want it messed with. We’re selling the classic cover and have no intention of selling the new one.”

Movie tie-in editions are issued regularly in the book business, but rarely has the contrast between two covers of the same title been so pronounced.

The link to the full article :  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/business/media/new-great-gatsby-book-carries-a-hollywood-look.html?emc=eta1

"A Book By Its Covers"

An interesting feature appeared in the NY Times during the past week and in their Sunday's "Style" Magazine. The article is by Jeff Oloizia and is focused on various dust jackets/book covers that have appeared on "The Great Gatsby." The examples are from the collection of the late Matthew J. Bruccoli. The article can be accessed at: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/a-book-by-its-covers/ 

Below are six of the examples from the article - note particularly the final paperback cover from Bantam!

Robert Ludlum's First Two Books

 

I have continued to get far behind in mentioning books that I’ve read recently. “Recent” now means back to around last November.

Back then, I decided to read Robert Ludlum’s first two books: The Scarlatti Inheritance and The Osterman Weekend. The books were published by World Publishing in 1971 and 1972. I had read his first book long ago and, after beginning the second, realized that I had also read it at some time. I didn’t find either book to be good reading this time around. The plots of both are completely beyond any level of credibility. Numerous reviews can be easily googled on line and I will not go into any detail here. I couldn’t really recommend either title. Obviously, Ludlum’s thrillers either improved substantially, or reader’s were just taken with his leading characters, since his titles have sold hundreds of millions of copies over the years. New titles carrying his name are still appearing, even though he died in 2001.

However, both of these books present a real challenge for collectors. They were bound in cheap leatherette boards which were prone to chipping and cracking with age. The jackets for both were printed on clear acetate which did not age well, with copies often having yellowed and chipped jackets. Further, the BOMC versions were identical to the first editions, except for small, square blind  stamps to the lower corner of the back board, near the gutter. The BOMC jackets were not priced. BOMC copies are sometimes mistaken for 1st printings, so caution is needed. Copies of the both books, when found in collectible condition, may be priced at several hundred dollars, more if signed.

Ludlum was an actor and became well-known for his deep vocals in numerous TV commercials over the years. His death, at 73, seems more of a mystery than those of some of his novels. Thirteen days after signing a new will, leaving his entire estate to his second wife of four years, he was engulfed in flames while lounging pool-side at his estate in Florida. There was little investigation of the unexplained fire, and he died shortly after being released from the hospital, following treatment for severe burns. Some relatives contend that he was murdered and fights over his estate continue to this day.

2013 Festival Of Books Now History

The festival has come and gone, and reports indicate that it was quite a success. The first day was a bit dicey with the wind, cold, and showers, but the second day was very pleasant. Photos below are from the Festival's newsletter. The three authors shown are: Ted Danson throwing a pitch (actor, author, and environmental activist - middle left), Robert Crais (author of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike mysteries - middle right), and Jodi Picoult (author of fiction best sellers - bottom left). The dates for the next Festival are already set - 15, 16 March 2014.

Photos courtesy of James S. Wood Photography, David Whitney French Photography, and Monica Surfaro Spigelman for the Tucson Festival of Books