Diane Plumley I have no idea! And that’s why I am writing this article, because I’ve had a long discussion on another site about vintage illustration being copied, and one argument against copying public domain images from rare books or postcards is that it hurts the rare paper ephemera business and book sellers. Does it? Do say, … Read more
If you’ve been around my articles for any amount of time you may have noticed my links to the organization called Banned Books Week. There is an actual week of activity and runs the last week of September every year. The campaign was founded in 1982 by prominent First Amendment and library activist Judith Krug … Read more
The January Corpse—Neil Albert – 1991-used When I started doing the 100 mysteries, I thought I had an airtight lineup–the books I remembered as being my favorites were arranged, rearranged, thought about, changed , eliminated, returned, and finalized. Yeah, right. Then out of the blue, I remember a book I thought was fantastic, and I … Read more
This question has been around for a long time, and naturally I have my firm opinions about what qualities and tasks booksellers should focus on. I’ve had a variety of bookselling experience-particularly in Lorry’s Book Company because of its unique stock–a blend of new titles, older but non collectible books, and some things at the … Read more
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
