New Bibliography discoveries.

On my way home from buying the Robert Munsch books (see the next post down), I stopped at a Rare Books bookshop - D.E. LAKE - not too far from my home. Now I haven't been in this shop for quite a while (maybe 2 years) because quite frankly the owner is intimidating. He knows I cant afford books, and (2 years ago) when I asked him if he had any books about Britain, he led me to the back of the shop, where all the expensive books were, and left me to it. When I saw that the prices were all at least $100 and more (some of these were really old books) I left fairly fast. But the look he gave me - he had a big frown on his face - and I knew he was thinking that I was just a waste of time.

Anyway, today I went back, and boy have things changed. The grumpy owner wasn't there. His wife and daughter were running the place, and they could not have been more helpful. The place was literally OVERFLOWING with books - piled up on every single shelf, so high you could not see the books already on the shelves. It was not this crowded the last time I went in. Back then everything was neat and tidy and every book was in its proper place.

Anyway, I went in and asked if they had any Rostenberg & Stern books. Actually, I also asked if they were new management. Coz the fellow who owned the shop is always there. The young lady I spoke too hadn't heard of Rostenberg & Stern. My dad's off somewhere else today. I'll have to call my mom. She gets on the phone and calls mom. The daughter gets instructions on where the books about dealers memoirs are, and takes me down. After a bit of looking we eventually find them. And then she shows me a pile of books about books.

I found a bookseller biography going for $70, (can't remember the name - sorry) and sadly I put it back on the shelf. Then I found a Rosenbach biography going for $180. That too went back on the shelf. They didn't have any Rostenberg & Stern, and no Sowerby either. But I did find The Adventures of a Treasure Hunter by Charles P. Everitt at $14, and snapped it up. And in the same pile, I hit the jackpot.

An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students by Ronald B. McKerrow. Oak Knoll edition 1994. Going for $40. I snapped that up as well. So starts my real education.