For me, books are sacred. You don’t tear out the pages or write on them or mar them in any way. That’s a no-no. Imagine my horror when I came across sets of pages torn from…
Category: Books
I have a friend who bleeds red. Not in the color of blood but the apple red color of her sorority Delta Sigma Theta. I have another friend who bleeds pink and green – as…
Lewis Carroll’s book “Alice in Wonderland” keeps sneaking up on me. I’ve found two editions of it hiding among books and small items I’ve picked up in box lots at auctions over the past few months. I can understand why…
I had thumbed quickly through the two long rows of African American-themed books on a table at auction this week, but nothing struck me. Until another auction-goer mentioned that he had set aside a copy…
Currier & Ives’ repro print of black Civil War regiment
Posted in Art, Books, and collectibles
I was doing a sweep of sellers at a flea market Sunday and came across an oversize book of Currier & Ives Civil War prints. The book opened to one of the most interesting of its reproductions: the assault…
I was reading the food section of my local newspaper recently and came across a story about retro food. A restaurateur was offering what the article called golden oldies, dishes from the 1961 “New York Times…
I was recently thumbing through some old books that I’d found among my box lots from auctions. I usually get medical books, art books, classic novels, cookbooks and children’s books. I opened one hardback book with a maroon…
Lawn jockey, Underground Railroad and a collection
Posted in Books, collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, and Photos
I met the historian and bibliophile Charles Blockson some years after I arrived in Philadelphia. I had gone to his enclave at Temple University, a small space that housed the thousands of books, manuscripts and artifacts…
A dream book of lottery numbers
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, and Religion
I get a lot of requests from readers wanting to know where to buy a dream book and asking me to look up numbers for them. Please Google “dream book” to find an online store that sells…
The lost art of cookbook advertising pamphlets
Posted in Books, collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and food
Last week, I wrote about the lithographs on needle packs. They were executed so well that some of them were like works of art. This week, as I was going through my trove of ephemera…