McHuston Booksellers

Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: used (Page 4 of 47)

Framed. And liking it.

October 9, 2015 /

Feeling a little Hoity-Toity. An evening visitor at the front counter looked across the store and said:

I love your Larry Greer.

As in… original watercolor painting by artist Larry Greer that’s hanging on the wall of the shop, a painting I’ve owned all of my adult life. And my customer is talking about it with authority.

That was from his post-European-visit phase, she said.

Oh.

MVC-063F

According to her – and I have no reason to disbelieve – the late Mr. Greer was first known as a painter of western-style art. It was a long time ago when I bought the painting and I don’t remember anything else that was on display under his canopy.

It was at the Italian Festival at McAlester, years ago. Back then, the event was a big deal and was attended by at least one of the big-city television stations every couple of years. I don’t know if it has survived as an annual festival or not – shame on me.

The year the Original Greer (I may start calling it that from now on…hoity-toity-like), the year it came into my hands, I was a young DJ working afternoon drive radio in McAlester. The festival committee apparently decided that the way to entice some higher quality artists to display their works was to guarantee that some paintings would be sold.

We were asked as business-folks to promise to shell out some money. I offered to spend eighty dollars (and what was I thinking?) That amount was – as I recall – the figure I was paying for monthly rent. Eighty dollars doesn’t sound like so much now, but think about your own monthly mortgage or rent payment.

Yikes.

What can I say? I was a civic-minded knucklehead and not so good with finances.

MVC-062F

The Italian Festival rolled around and – always one to stand behind my word – I dug into the cigar box and pulled out those saved-up twenty dollar bills. After polishing off a plate of spaghetti and ravioli, I wandered around the grounds looking for something that might liven up my apartment.

Maybe something out of the ordinary, just a tad.

Larry Greer handed over his watercolor and it has been in my custody since. I’ve never known much about it except how it came to be on my wall. Not too long ago, a woman spoke to Dustin about it and later returned with a printed page about an Oklahoma City art auction. It showed the sale of a companion piece to the one I own.

Same red-capped fellow in the same matte and frame, but painted in profile. Auctioned for some twelve-hundred dollars. It made me feel better about spending my eighty all those years ago. It’s still valued at about the same as a rent payment.

Then today, the lady says: I love your Larry Greer.

I may have gotten eighty dollars worth of satisfaction just having someone recognize it. Not a Picasso or Remington print, but still.

Nice to have a life-long companion get a little attention.

It’s Friday night – Late Night – in the Rose District! We’ll be serving lunch tomorrow, so…

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

About Books? First things First!

August 3, 2015 /

Those of us interested in books can obsess over strange things. First Editions. Signed copies. Leather bindings. Sometimes we even like a good story between the book covers.

A First Printing copy might cause a book-lover to get lightheaded. There is a difference between a First Edition and a First Printing, after all.

But sometimes it can get a little confusing.

aTreeLeaf

Here is something to remember. A first printing of a book will always be a First Edition, but a First Edition isn’t always the first printing. Actually, MOST books only have a First Edition. That means it was never changed from the original. Same words, same cover, same number of pages. If you buy a brand-new hardback copy of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, it will be a first edition.

That’s because there isn’t a second edition. There IS a “special illustrated edition.” But no second. It is still the same book, same edition – in a later printing.

J.R.R Tolkien wrote his Lord of the Rings trilogy in the mid-fifties, but made changes to the texts that were published by Houghton Mifflin in 1965 and released as the Second Edition. Most books never have a second edition, but may have numerous reprintings.

When an author is relatively unknown, the publisher is less likely to take a risk by printing a large number of copies on the first run. (Harper Lee and her new novel Go Set a Watchman, on the other hand, is said to have had some two-million copies printed at the time of the first offering.) It’s easy to find a First Edition copy of The Da Vince Code since it has been reprinted over a hundred times, but not so easy to find one from the First Printing order.

I used to own a First Printing set of the Second Edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Sounds a little confusing, though, doesn’t it?) It was a somewhat expensive trio of books, but nothing like a First Printing of the First Edition set. But I do have a First Printing of a J.R.R. Tolkien book. A little lesser-known title.

They haven’t made an action movie of this one yet. In fact, Tree and Leaf – it is safe to say – will not end up on any movie screen. But I’m happy to have a First American Edition copy, which is another variation on the whole “first” idea, since Tolkien was a British author and his “first” editions were published in the UK. This one, published for the American market, is labeled as such on the copyright page with the “first printing” notice.

For me, a First Printing is the true First Edition copy. Some booksellers argue that a bound galley proof copy constitutes a First, but by my reckoning a “proof” copy is one that is subject to change or edits by the proofreaders and cannot be considered a finished copy of the book.

Having that First Printing is special in the case of long-dead authors – at least, to me – in that the book could have been in the hands of the author since it was printed in his lifetime. It’s crazy, I know, but I like the idea that my First Edition copy of Charles Dicken’s Bleak House could have been for sale originally in the bookstore where Mr Dickens liked to drop in to visit. Could have happened!

Our copy of Mr Tolkien’s Tree and Leaf was printed for the American market, but the author was still living when it was first available. For me, that is significant.

Even this little known book is pricey as a First, but ours is a little more affordable since it once sat on a public library shelf. Still has the little card envelope in the back. (Some of you younger folks may not have ever seen those little hand-stamped “due date” cards in the back of a book… replaced in most libraries these days by a bar-code tag.) An “ex-library” copy is considered less desirable by deep-pocketed collectors.

But for some of us, just having a copy at all in “First Edition” causes the book-lover’s grin that we try to keep hidden when handling books in public.

If you’re curious about First Editions and how to identify them, I’d be happy to share a spotter’s tip or two.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 S. Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

Seen & Scene around the Rose District

June 25, 2015 /

Here’s proof that Broken Arrow has outgrown its small-town beginnings. In McAlester, where I grew up, if one of the banks was remodeling its building, everyone in town would know about it. Too big a secret to keep, especially if the construction was taking place on Main Street. BA is big enough now that Main Street and bank buildings aren’t on everyone’s radar.

I’ve been asked almost every day for the past several weeks – “What’s going in across the street?”

1BankA

The building project is hard to miss, but perhaps it is harder to see the artist’s depiction of the finished version hanging on the temporary fence around the north and west sides of the building. It’s still 1st National Bank over there. Employees are a little jammed up while the work is being done, but none of the many who drop by for lunch have complained.

And – the job is apparently still on budget and on time.

I had suspected that the extent of the renovation might have thrown some projections off. I understood that the condition of the structure behind the façade might have been somewhat of a surprise. But the previous wooden supports have been replaced by a formidable set of steel beams and girder that should hold up the roof quite nicely.

1BankB

Although the bank has undergone remodeling before, the business has occupied what used to be separate buildings that were merged as the bank expanded. When the front exterior was removed, it was easy to spot where the old structures had their original walls.

According to the 1930 Broken Arrow telephone directory I’m looking at, and the First National Bank ad on page eight (there are a total of sixteen pages in the little phone book), you would have talked to a banker by dialing 234. The ad proclaims the business to be “Faithful Throughout the Years” and “Established 1902.” The address is given as 123 S. Main, which puts them directly across from the current bookstore location at 122. (It has been pointed out to me that one did not ‘dial’ the phone back in that time. An operator came on the line and asked, Number please…)

The bank is still directly across, but it is quite a bit larger these days.

Back in 1930, Kennedy Implement Company was also directly across the street from what is now our shop, and it took up considerably larger parts of Main. The business owned by J. W. Kennedy took up buildings at 117, 119, and 121 South Main – pretty much the part of the bank building currently under renovation.

Mr. Kennedy was a versatile businessman. In addition to the implements, furniture and hardware he sold at retail, residents could summon his aid by dialing 365 and he would dispatch an ambulance. If that didn’t work out, calling the same number would connect the next of kin to Kennedy Funeral Service and the expertise of L.L. Streed, the funeral director in the employ of Mr. Kennedy. Of course, during the daytime hours, Mr. Streed had his own direct line, and could be reached at 211.

So – it may be another few weeks before the bank’s exterior will reassure folks that First National is remaining at its current location on Main, in our Rose District. Until then, I’ll have to keep answering the questions.

And no, it isn’t going to be a new mall.

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow, OK!

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