By now I believed I’d pretty much acquainted myself with all of the important Golden Age mystery authors, or at least up until the 50s. Even if never read, I recognize their names as ones that wrote classic or bad mysteries, or even mediocre ones. But the other day in trying to locate info about … Read more
Recently, a friend and iconic member of the independent bookshop community, Enid Schantz, lost her battle with cancer. Enid with her husband Tom, were one of the first to deal in rare and collectible crime fiction. They ran Rue Morgue bookstore in Colorado for decades, later concentrating on publishing Golden Age mystery writers introducing many … Read more
The Last Will and Testament of Constance Cobble—Stanton Forbes–1980–used A mystery within a mystery makes this a standout among many Stanton Forbes’ excellent novels. I first came across Ms. Forbes the summer after my first year at college. I was at loose ends, didn’t have a job, couldn’t figure out what to do, so I … Read more
On one of my weird road trips I had the privilege of visiting the little town of Wells in the NY Adirondack mountains. So it’s disturbing to find out how much damage has been done to their library and the entire picture book collection for children. They are asking for monetary donations to replace the … Read more
If it were up to me, probably never. No, that’s not true, I’ve taken some Anne Anderson Mother Goose illustrations and framed them. The book was missing half of the other plates, and already damaged. So, if the book is damaged, is it OK to remove plates? And how damaged is damaged enough? And once … Read more
