I had seen the thrift store when a friend and I were headed to lunch during a one-day visit to New York a few months ago for an art auction. Since the storefront was so close by, I had to stop, didn’t I?
With a few minutes to spare on the way back to the auction, I stopped in to take a look around. Browsing through the sparse inventory of knickknacks, I found nothing that willed me to come hither. The store’s inventory consisted mainly of clothes, which most of its clientele likely needed more than glassware, and a few people were going through them.
I wandered over to the two bookshelves near the door, hoping that they would redeem the store and make my visit worthwhile. I wasn’t seeing too much there either as I perused the book spines, until I came to a pile of book jackets lying flat on a shelf. They were six children’s books without their hard backs. Their pages – some of them stapled, some not – were like those you’d find in any completed book at any bookstore. The pages were tucked inside the jackets and kept sliding out as I picked up the books, one by one, to see what was there.
The books were marked HarperCollins Publishers along with its Amistad imprint, with a 2005 publication date. Three were African American children’s books, one illustrated by a name I recognized – Philadelphia-born artist E.B. Lewis. Another was a lovely ABC’s book of New York City.
I wasn’t sure what these were or what they were called, since I’m not in the publishing business. But their almost-finished look indicated that they were produced near the final stage of the publishing process. Across the top of the book “The 2000 Year Old Man Goes to School” by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner was written “Art Not Final.”
The Brooks-Reiner book also mentioned on a back page that it was an “Uncorrected proof. Not for review. All art in the final book will be in full color. Not for resale.” The illustrations are in black and white. The text also mentioned the marketing campaign for the book (author appearances, TV satellite tour, online audio excerpt, school promotion).
They all apparently were uncorrected proofs, which are given by the publishing company to authors, editors and proofreaders, reviewers and some booksellers to create a buzz, according to several websites. Some uncorrected proofs, according to lopezbooks.com, are collectible.
I bought the books – the women working the storefront only asked for a donation – because they were unfinished, and I wanted to learn more about them. I don’t know if they are worth anything monetarily, but I love children’s book and tend to buy them quite often – whether they are old or new and especially if they are illustrated by well-known artists.
Several of the books were marked First Edition, which I assume referred to their hard-back versions. Can a book be a First Edition without a back and a spine?
Here’s a list of the books, some info I found out about them, along with links to their authors and illustrators:
“Hold the Flag High” by Catherine Clinton, illustrated by Shane W. Evans: The book is from HarperCollins’ Amistad and Katherine Tegen Books imprints. While an editor at Random House, Charles F. Harris created a paperback anthology called Amistad in 1970 featuring some of the country’s famed African American authors. He launched Amistad Press on his own in 1986, and sold it to HarperCollins in 1999.
“Danitra Brown, Class Clown” by Nikki Grimes and E.B. Lewis, and “Danitra Brown Leaves Town” by Grimes and Floyd Cooper. That book is missing its pages.
“It Is the Wind” by Ferida Wolff, illustrated by James Ransome.
“New York, New York: The Big Apple from A to Z” by Laura Krauss Melmed and Frane Lessac. This is a sweet little book for both young and old who want to familiarize themselves with the treasures of one of the country’s most exciting cities.
“The 2000 Year Old Man Goes to School” by Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, illustrated by James Bennett. The book is a spinoff of a character created by the two when they worked for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows” in the 1950s. Brooks portrayed a 2,000-year-old man who was interviewed by Reiner, and the skit spawned albums, TV appearances and an animated TV special.
