Whap! Whap! Woohoo! (That’s me slapping myself on the back and giving a general cheer…) The result of proving to myself that an occasional reward is extended for tenacity and sticky-to-it-ness as a book detective.
It might have been five years ago when a customer asked if I could find a book for him. Sure can, I replied. I’ve had pretty good success searching out titles, largely due to the internet. Before the Web, finding an out of print book meant calling bookstores one after another. Visiting fleamarkets. Book fairs. Taking extended buying trips out of state.
Now, I can scour shops from coast to coast by simply visiting a couple of websites. Auctions like eBay have new offerings daily.
Still – the task I was given turned out to be a tough one. It wasn’t the first time I was asked to find a particular book based on the color and shape, but it was the only time I’ve taken up the challenge.
Over the years, the customer has stayed with me – now, he is a regular and respected client. We never meet, though, that he doesn’t ask me if I’ve had any success seeking out the book, the one printed in 1960 or ’61, the one with the white cover, the coil-spiral binding, and the smudgy black and white reference-guide pictures throughout the interior.
Me, repeating our routine of many years: Who’s the author on that?
Mr. Client: Don’t know.
Me, smiling through our stage-play: And what about a title?
Mr. Client: Don’t know it. It had a white cover and a spiral binding at the edge.
Me: The publisher?
Mr. Client: Probably privately published in Chicago.
Me: If I only had the author. Or the title. The publisher. I’m thinking it’s going to come to you in a dream one of these nights.
Mr. Client: Won’t happen. I was just a kid and didn’t pay enough attention.
And so, having run through our well-rehearsed exchange another time, I make a promise to keep me ears peeled, me nose to the stone, and me eyes to the ground in the continuation of the hunt.
There are plenty of tricks to searching the internet beyond the basics. I’ve tried them all. But I haven’t stopped there. I’ve written letters to dealers. Telephoned libraries. Emailed booksellers far and wide. Not many get past the first scoffing reaction to the idea of trying to find a particular book without knowing the title, author, or publisher.
“It’s coil bound,” I’ll tell them. “Probably privately published in Chicago.”
“Good luck,” most reply. “You’ll need it,” some add.
I received a dusting of good luck this week. Found the book.
After so many years, there’s no short way to describe the twisty, keyword-tweaking, obscure-location scouring methods that gave me a first hint of hope. Nah. Not hope. Just the slightest – possibility. The shortened version would go like this: I added a word or two in the search box, clicked on something and saw part of an online classified advertisement. It wouldn’t let me read the ad without first paying an auction-site membership fee, and if I had paid for each opportunity to look at a classified ad over the years it would have amounted to more than the price of the book.
There was this small, compressed-graphics image of a beat up looking old book with a coil binding. The part of the ad that wasn’t hidden from non-members indicated it was printed in the early 1960’s. I got out my magnifying glass and held it up to the computer screen.
There was an author’s name at the bottom of the cover in the picture.
Typed it in, and Bang! Three copies listed. One had an image of the red-ink cover. Not the white I’ve been looking for all these years, but I printed it out anyway. It was an image of the closest thing yet. Out of curiosity, I checked with the World Catalog to see how many copies existed around the world. Six. Including one at the Smithsonian, of all places. Six in libraries, three for sale. Nine in the world. Pretty much a needle-and-haystack search, if ever there was one.
At our next meeting, Mr. Client embarked on our Q-and-A routine about the book, no variation. Afterward, he added: How are we ever going to find it?
I slid the paper across the desk. Maybe you can look this one over, I said. Red cover though.
“That’s IT!”
And the hunt is ended, more than five years in.
Found the book after all, without the title and without the author’s name. Without knowing the publisher or release date. Only an incorrect description of the book’s appearance.
Feels good.
Find your own treasure (without a five year search!) Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main, Broken Arrow OK!
