Over the weekend I interviewed librarian and author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson about her new "documentary novel" No Crystal Stair.  The innovative novel follows the life and career of the bookseller and civil rights activist Lewis Michaux, who operated the African National Memorial Bookstore in Harlem from c.1932 - 1974.

NP: When and how did you first become interested in writing about Lewis Michaux and the National Memorial?

VMN: I started collecting information about him and the store in the late 1980s while I was in library school at the University of Pittsburgh.  As more and more people asked if I was related to the Harlem bookseller Lewis Michaux, my curiosity grew.  At the time, I wasn't thinking about writing a book.  I was compiling family history.  It wasn't until the mid 1990s that the idea of a biography became real.  By then, I had learned enough about Lewis to realize that the bookstore was only part of the story, that the real story was in Lewis's journey toward salvation.  Books saved him, and Lewis saved others by bringing them to books.

NP: Could you tell us a bit about the concept of a documentary novel? What about that format appeals to you?

VMN: No Crystal Stair began as straight biography, but evolved into a kind of historical work that my husband started calling 'documentary fiction'.  When we were kicking around titles, my editor suggested we use "documentary novel" in the subtitle.  This worked for me.   Think of it as the book equivalent of a film documentary in which individuals with some connection to the subject share their thoughts and experiences amidst historical photos and footage -- all filtered through a writer's imagination. 

After I shifted to the new format, I found real pleasure in the storytelling.  It gave me options and flexibility, and allowed me to explore Lewis in a deeper way.  I came to know the people around him more intimately.   One of the things I admire about Marilyn Nelson's Carver: A Life in Poems is that she informs readers about George Washington Carver's brilliance and accomplishments, while capturing the essence of the man, the nature of his spirit.  This was my intent with No Crystal Stair. 

NP: What did you think of National Memorial when you visited the bookshop as a teenager?

VMN: I remember that the store was narrow and crowded with books and pamphlets and customers, and I remember the portraits of famous black people lining the walls.  Uncle Lonnie (as we knew him) gave me two books -- The Masquerade, a historical novel by Oscar Micheaux and a copy of the King James Bible.  It was 1968.  I know this because Lewis signed and dated the Bible.  The two books remain in my collection.

NP: One thing that struck me as I read the book and your notes on the research was the shifting concept of time.  Lewis provided differing birth years for himself, differing years for the start of his bookshop.  Government records were often missing or inaccurate.  It's such a contrast to this day and age where it feels like every moment of our lives is documented for posterity.  I liked the sense of mystery about it.  How did you feel about this as a researcher and writer?  Why do you think Lewis was guarded about dates?

VMN: Lewis was quite a raconteur and sometimes embellished the facts in one venue and then forgot, or didn't care, that he'd done so.  I think he suggested he was ten years older than I believe he was because he got a kick out of appearing more youthful than the age he claimed.  

These kinds of inconsistencies were frustrating when I was attempting to research and write straight biography.  I wanted to get the facts right.  But, once I shifted to documentary fiction and allowed myself the freedom to speculate and imagine, I began to feel like you.  The sense of mystery added intrigue and led me to wonder.  This wondering, I believe, brought me to truths that I might not have discovered otherwise.  However, as someone trying to uncover family history, I wish I had more answers.  My search isn't over. 

NP: What do you think is the lasting legacy of National Memorial?

VMN: That who we become depends a great deal on our own desire to be educated, our efforts to know our history and gain knowledge of ourselves, as well as how we might contribute.  And, of course, that books help us succeed.  To quote Lewis, "Knowledge is power, you need it every hour.  Read a book!"

NP: What do you think bookshops of today could learn from National Memorial?  Are there any currently operating bookshops that remind you of National Memorial or are in some way carrying on the legacy?

VMN: Every bookshop has it's own clientele and community to which it looks when tailoring it's offerings.  But one thing to take from National Memorial is that the draw of a bookstore is not only the books; it's the people who customers encounter there.  Bookstore employees need to be knowledgeable and passionate about what they sell.  Lewis knew and loved his stock.  But he also made it his business to connect with his community.  He gave as much time to people who came to look or talk as to those who came to buy.  And closing time wasn't dictated by the clock.    

If you do a quick Internet search of black bookstores, you will find that they exist all over the country.  I can't claim to know much about these stores as I haven't had the opportunity to patronize them.  There are none near me.   I'd like to visit them one day but, right now, I can only hope each embodies something of Lewis's spirit.


VMN: I love and collect books of many kinds, but I seem to gravitate to children's books, classics, and black history.

NP: What is your next project?

VMN: A picture book for younger readers about Lewis and the bookstore.  Gregory Christie, the artist for No Crystal Stair, will create the art.  Gregory also illustrated my picture book biography, Bad News for Outlaws: the Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal, another project which required quite a bit of historical digging.  I'm always working on something, but after dedicating 15 years to No Crystal Stair, I need a break from heavy research.  I'm taking a breath.


[Many thanks to Vaunda for this interview.  You can purchase her book from Amazon, or from a wide variety of independent booksellers.]

[Many thanks as well to the bookseller Marc Selvaggio for drawing my attention to this book].

[Photo of National Memorial from an unidentified photographer. Photo of Vaunda taken by her husband, Drew Nelson]

Identifying First Editions with McBride's Guide
Reviewed by Bill Butts

The greatest fear of novice collectors is not being able to correctly identify a book's edition. This can lead to costly mistakes or can cause you to pass up an underpriced bargain. The vast majority of noncollectors are under the impression that a first edition is identified by those two words on the copyright page. Sometimes this is indeed the case, often not. Pitfalls abound. Not only are there many methods of indicating edition, many of them cryptic, but publishers often switch from one method to another, apply them inconsistently or otherwise complicate matters to confound collectors.

Bill McBride's A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions - the seventh, revised edition of a booklet first published in 1979 - is the remedy. This handy "cheat sheet" has been a mainstay of booksellers for three decades now. I've recommended the Pocket Guide to countless bibliophiles or wannabe bibliophiles. A hideous specimen held together with packing tape and good will has been within arm's reach for more than twenty years, and I keep a copy in every car's glove compartment.

McBride's Pocket Guide is an A to Z listing of 5,835 English-language publishers current and former, from A & B Publishing through Zone Books. (According to McBride, that's 2,193 more publishers listed than the 3,642 that appeared in the sixth edition - up 38% -- plus an additional 2,342 pieces of data.) A clever abbreviation system then shows each publisher's method of noting edition. The abbreviation that follow every publisher's name is explained in the key. Baylor University Press, for instance, uses "NAP," meaning "no additional printings are indicated in the book." Ross & Haines employ a straightforward "FE," meaning "words FIRST EDITION must appear on back of title page with no additional printings indicated." Rand, Avery & Co. favor "SD" - "same date must appear on title page and back of title page with no additional printings indicated." A dozen other abbreviations are used, including the popular "N" ("a sequence of numbers... must appear on the back of the title page with the '1' present") and "L" ("a sequence of letters... must appear on the back of the title page with the 'a' present") and the unfortunate "No designation" - yes, there are publishers for whom "no consistent way to determine one printing from another exists." But despite these general rules, exceptions do abound, and the Pocket Guide spells out many of them. For instance, a new collector might know the number sequence system noted above, but not be aware that Random House employed it incorrectly. Their first editions always begin with the number "2," which would usually indicate a second printing - so anyone not knowing this will misidentify a true Random House first edition as a second printing. Amateur Hour mistake. 

This listing is prefaced by an eight-page introduction that crams in lots of condensed bookseller gems. Neophyte collectors overlook this at their own peril. There are thumbnail discussions on the distinction between edition, printing and impression, another on the often-misunderstood distinction between issue, state and point, a must-read section on identifying book club editions, and other tidbits of wisdom to shorten the learning curve. Read, study, and repeat.

As Bill McBride notes in his introduction, "The most useful tool in determining a first edition is an acute mind. This guide can take you only so far." Oh so true, but without books such as the Pocket Guide providing concrete data that acute mind can really be stymied. And dealers need it just as much as collectors - more so, since they need to access this information far more frequently. Sure, any good dealer can normally identify most first editions without it, but this is a massive number of publishers, many of them obscure mom-and-pop presses rarely encountered. No one can memorize this mountain of minutiae.

A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions is certain to be the smallest reference book on your reference shelf and probably the one you'll use the most. Any reference work that helps make better collectors gets a big thumbs up in my book!

--Bill Butts runs Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts in Galena, IL. 

McBride, Bill. A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions. Hartford: McBride/Publisher, 2012. 16mo. Softbound. 142pp. $18.95.

Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Ed Lake of Jarndyce Booksellers in London.  Ed's father, Brian, is the proprietor of Jarndyce Booksellers, which was founded in 1969.  Our Bright Young Things series is migrating across the pond for a few weeks in celebration of the upcoming Olympia Antiquarian Book Fair, from May 24th - May 26th in London.


NP: What is your role at Jarndyce?

EL: The privilege of working at Jarndyce is that no one day is ever the same as the next.  I do everything from cataloguing to packing books, designing our website, and organizing our first forays into the world of American book fairs.  I have designed catalogues and calendars, overseen photography, created a greeting card business, cleaned drains, cooked lunches, and occasionally sold a few books .

NP: How did you get started in rare books?

EL: Jarndyce is a family business and, although there was no pressure to join, I started work in 2007 having previously been a chef for 4 years.

NP: Favorite or most interesting book you've handled?

EL: Items stick in my memory for different reasons - mainly for beauty, scarcity or historical importance.   For sheer beauty I remember a stunning folio Baskerville Bible; a scarce regional Newspaper, Creswell's Nottingham Journal, has stayed in my mind because of its elaborate masthead. We currently have Dickens's own reading copy of Mrs Gamp, annotated by Dickens, signed and presented to his Boston publisher - the copy from which Dickens read on his final American reading tour.  To think of where that book was, what it was a part of, and whose hands it passed through is incredible.  

NP: What do you love about the book trade?

EL: Having studied history at University I love the academic aspect of bookselling, the challenge that you face when opening a book or looking at a manuscript, of making every item into a story, whatever it is worth.

Where my dad loves the thrill of buying - I am slowly gaining the confidence to follow my instincts in that department - I enjoy selling; building relationships with our customers, learning from them and developing a greater understanding of what it is they are searching for.  It sounds corny to say but seeing someone walk away delighted with the book they have just bought, whether it costs £10 or £10,000 is why we do what we do.  Or at least it should be.

NP: What do you personally collect?

EL: I am running out of wall space but I collect original posters - I've thought of just buying food related designs and original artwork but I'm failing miserably and just buy what my eyes like.  

NP: If you could live inside the pages of any rare book, which would it be?

EL: Rather than being inside the pages of any book I'd like to be the pages on which letters and documents were written; to see Thomas Clarkson pen his letters to Wilberforce or Dickens writing to his mistress Ellen Ternen or settling down at his desk to write another chapter of Great Expectations.

NP: Do you plan to take over the family business one day?

EL: Who knows what the future holds but at this point in time, yes, I see myself working here for a long time to come.

NP: Thoughts on the future of the trade?

EL: There are a lot of talented booksellers doing things their own way and with a great deal of style in their presentation.  For those setting out on their own, a small stock of scarce and unusual books seems to be the way things are heading.  In general, manuscript material and one-off items are certainly where the interest is; universities and collectors who have everything are now searching for background material to supplement existing collections.  I recently attended an excellent seminar on bookselling and the internet.  Although it has altered the way in which we can sell books and to whom, the fundamental relationship between collector and bookseller remains the most important part of our business.

NP: I understand your father will be chairman of the Olympia Book Fair in May.  Could you tell us about the fair and what you will be exhibiting there?

EL: Brian and his Committee - and ABA Events Organizer, Marianne Harwood - have worked hard to attract a record number of exhibitors in this time of financial austerity.  We look set for an exciting fair with a lecture programme, live demonstrations and activities including bookbinding and calligraphy, guided tours of the fair (for new collectors) and an ABA Roadshow valuing the hidden treasures among visitors' books.  In the year of Charles Dickens's bicentenary, we will be exhibiting items from our catalogue, The Library of a Dickensian, including the reading copy mentioned above and numerous other presentation copies and manuscripts.  We try to bring a wide variety of items to reflect our 18th and 19th c. stock - anything from Penny Dreadfuls to fine three-decker novels, political pamphlets to satirical prints.

[Be sure to check out the website for the Olympia Book Fair for further details on the programmes and events mentioned by Ed].

The Albert H. Small Collection goes on the block this Friday at Christie's New York. The collection of high spots from a man who has been collecting for sixty years is dazzling -- we have Audubon, Shakespeare (as in second, third, and fourth folios), a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, and a Kelmscott Chaucer, plus a large selection of presidential autographs, various Declaration of Independence editions, and a hand-colored engraving of Paul Revere's Bloody Massacre.

The selection of Humphry Repton manuscript books (one seen above) and other material are among the most "personal" items in the sale. In a special feature we ran on Mr. Small last autumn, he told us about his infatuation with the eighteenth-century British landscape artist:

He came across Repton's work at the antiquarian book fair in New York in the early days of his collecting. Tired from walking up and down the aisles, he asked a bookseller if he could rest a moment on a seat in her booth. "I was sitting there looking at landscape and gardening materials and was struck by this gorgeous book unlike anything I had ever seen before," he said. Small had in his hands a reproduction of one of Repton's famed "red books," one-of-a-kind volumes the designer presented to clients with descriptions and renderings of his proposed designs. "It was one of the most fascinating things I've ever see in my life," Small said. He bought the book and now proudly claims ownership of the second largest collection of original Repton volumes in the United States. He admitted with a laugh that the leading collector only has four; Small has three.

 As of Friday, perhaps the leading collector will have seven.

Josh Niesse, (second from left), who we profiled recently for our Bright Young Things series, runs Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia.  His bookshop, where he also hosts events such as documentary screenings, is part of a larger building that went up for sale earlier this month.  Josh's landlord offered him a deal: if he could raise $8,000 in a narrow window for a down payment, he could stay in his space.  Instead of pursuing a traditional loan, Josh turned to "crowdfunding," a new and creative way to finance projects.  He launched a funding campaign with Indigogo and has so far received almost $3,500 for his bookshop.

Crowdfunding is accurately (and cumbersomely) described on Wikipedia as "the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations."  The most prominent sites to facilitate crowdfunding are Kickstarter and Indiegogo, where a host of creative projects await your cash.  (It's difficult to browse either site without contributing to a project -- so have your credit card ready before clicking on those links).

While formerly the exclusive haunt of artists, crowdfunding sites have lately found themselves hosting a wide variety of projects, including citizen journalism drives, political campaigns, and small business launches.  And the sites have been increasingly used by bookshop proprietors to start their businesses, expand their activities, or to simply stay in operation.

Here are a few recent bookshop campaigns, both successful and not:

La Casa Azul, a bookshop in East Harlem.

Atlantis Books, on a Grecian island.

Boneshaker Books, a radical bookshop in Minneapolis.

The Bluebird Books Bus, a mobile bookshop in Florida.

And here's the link to Josh's campaign, in case you would like to help him purchase his bookshop space.

What do you think of crowdfunding and bookstores?  Is this the future of bookshop financing?

I'm always glad to have my attention drawn to novels with bookish themes (and here). Recently, another from this genre landed on my desk, The Best-Read Man in France, written by Peter Briscoe, a former academic library administrator at the University of California, Riverside. The main character is Michael Ashe, a Los Angeles-based rare bookseller and a bit of a Casanova, who travels the world buying and selling books, mainly in the area of Mexican-American history. When business begins to dry up, he faces his misgivings about the trade and finds solace in the story of French librarian and scholar, Gabriel Naude.  

Briscoe's fiction debut plays with the contemporary themes of the decline of reading, the death of the book, and increasing digitization in lieu of acquisition at research libraries. It is a breezy read for a summer afternoon, and for those of us in the trade -- librarians, booksellers, collectors -- you may well recognize yourself here, and smile. 

Catalogue Review: ZH Books, #2

Zhenya Dzhavgova, recently featured on our blog as a 'Bright Young Thing,' specializes in Eastern European literature and Slavic language material. She is based in California and released this second catalogue last month; it has been well received in the trade both for its content and its minimalist black-and-white design (appropriately evocative of the material).

ZH offers a fine selection of books on drama, linguistics, and literature, including the first Russian edition of Lolita ($2,800), as well as books of political interest. A 1949 history of the anti-Imperialism struggles of Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma, and the Philippines, published in Moscow, is a particularly interesting find ($80).

There is a first edition of Bulgarian dissident writer Georgi Markov's Muzhe ($3,000). Because Markov was banned and then assassinated in 1978, "first editions of his writings are virtually impossible to find."

In children's books, an edition of Hamlet translated by Boris Pasternak from 1956 and illustrated with in-line engravings ($90) is but one of several places where the Russian poet and novelist pops up in this catalogue. The "Reputed Feltrinelli First Russian Edition" of Doctor Zhivago from 1958 is here, too, with a description of its "exceedingly complicated" publishing history ($780).

If this area of collecting is of interest, request a catalogue directly from ZH via email: zhenya.dzhavgova@gmail.com.
 
Related articles

• Guest Blog: Book Scouting in Bulgaria (finebooksmagazine.com)

Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Amir Naghib, proprietor of Captain Ahab's Rare Books in Miami.


NP: How did you get started in rare books?

AN: I think the first time I realized that books were special and had value was in my grandfather's study as a child.  There were floor-to-ceiling shelves, all of them filled with books on every imaginable subject, and my grandfather was very specific about how important those books were.  I made my first rare book purchase while in college (an early jacketed set of The Lord of the Rings trilogy), and I was more or less hooked after that.  Regardless of where I lived around the country, I'd haunt bookshops, library sales, and just about anywhere else I could scout for books.  I became a collector and a periodic seller of books, selling off books I scouted up in order to purchase volumes I really cared about.  Most of my education took place in large open shops, the types of places you could easily spend a day getting lost in.  Thankfully I was fortunate enough to establish good relationships with several dealers who offered sound advice regarding condition, scarcity and the like, and a number of these people had a hand in shaping the bookseller I am today.

NP: When did you open Captain Ahab's and what do you specialize in?

AN: Between 2009 and 2010 I was working at a job I absolutely hated, and decided that working 60-70 hours a week and being miserable wasn't for me.  I left my job, and a few months later I found myself at the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, courtesy of a scholarship by Bibliopolis.  I figured setting up shop as "Amir Naghib Rare Books" would sound too self-involved, so in September of 2010 I started Captain Ahab's Rare Books.  My first year was successful in many ways, and this year has exceeded my expectations thus far.  I focus on offering the things that interest me: literature, the Beats and counterculture material, crime fiction, important pulps, and science fiction.  I find myself buying more and more literature in Spanish and French.  Mostly, an item has to interest me for me to buy it, so I will often purchase material outside my focus area if I find it engaging or significant in some way.   

NP: Favorite or most interesting book (or etc) that you've handled?

AN: Lately it's been a lot more 'etc.' that I've been handling.  Over the last six months I've handled some wonderful pieces of illustration art related to important books.  The cover paintings for Charles Willeford's Honey Gal and High Priest of California were both stunning, and it was a real treat to have those pass through my hands.  I recently purchased the original dustjacket artwork for the U.K. edition of Calvino's The Path to the Nest of Spiders, and a recent consignment has brought us the painting for James Avati's very first paperback cover (Worth Tuttle Hedden's The Other Room).  In addition to being a stunning painting, it's historically significant, as it's also the first interracial cover painting in American publishing history.

NP: What do you personally collect?

AN: I stopped collecting when I decided to do this full-force.  There are certain books I keep for myself that were given to me as gifts, or that I have a strong emotional attachment to.  Since I largely purchase the sort of material I would want to collect anyway, I don't really feel the need to hang on to things anymore.  I've also learned to be content with nice jacketed reprints of titles I want to keep; they're a fraction of the price a First would cost me, and I'm able to justify keeping it.

NP: What do you love about the book trade?

AN: I love that on a daily basis I am able to handle some of the coolest stuff on earth.  I'm interested in nearly everything that passes through my hands, and the research that goes into cataloging is always intellectually stimulating.  There's something gratifying about connecting with a customer who has overlapping interests, and being able to place something significant in proper and appreciative hands.  Mostly though, I'd say that my colleagues are the best part of the book trade.  Unlike nearly every other field I've worked in, I've found members of the trade to be a pleasant lot.  I'm constantly amazed at their willingness to lend a hand, whether it's sharing knowledge or their experiences, or connecting you with a particular item or customer.  

NP: I see on your "About" page that you are also an avid reader.  What are some of your favorite texts?

AN: Since the first time I read it, I've always felt that The Count of Monte Cristo is more or less the most perfect novel ever written.  Some of my more contemporary favorites are Bukowski's Post Office and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.  I recently finished Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo, and am currently working through Mickey Spillane's early novels.

NP: Thoughts on the future of the rare book trade?

AN: Generally optimistic.  Judging by the growing number of younger dealers, I'd say the trade is steadily solidifying it's future.  I've also been surprised by the growing number of younger collectors, and by what they choose to collect.  I think developing relationships with customers of all ages and being able to engage them and connect them with material they care about is a large part of what will continue to help our trade thrive.

NP: If you could live inside the pages of any rare book, which would you choose?

AN: Either The Hobbit by Tolkien or Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.  I've always love the epic sense of adventure in Tolkien's books, and since I have a three year old wild thing at home, I've developed a new-found appreciation for the wild rumpus.

NP: Do you have a catalogue coming up soon?  How does one get on your mailing list?  (Will you be exhibiting at any upcoming book fairs?)

AN: The St. Petersburg Antiquarian Book Fair this past March was the first fair I exhibited at, and while we don't have any other fair appearances planned for this year (wrapping up a Masters program and baby #2 on the way) we hope to exhibit more in the future.  I hope to have our first print catalogue out before the end of this year.  We do issue an E-List periodically, and anyone interested in receiving communication from us can contact us directly at captainahabsrarebooks@hotmail.com.  For anyone interested in specific subject areas, we have a Topic Notifier they can use through our website.

Book artist Richard Minsky has just announced his latest work, Pop Delusions, a house made out of his own credit cards, Chinese and American paper money, and gold leaf. Look inside and find two editions of Charles Mackay's Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, bound in credit cards. Yes, credit cards, which sounds like quite an impossible task. Minsky used eighty of his own cards, collected over twenty-five years. "It's certainly the least replaceable material I've ever used," he told me. "It was the right material for the book, so I had to."

He added, "All the materials for this work add to the layers of meaning...some of them nobody will see. The Chinese money that backs the credit cards isn't visible when the house is assembled and the back door is shut. You can see the engravings of the U.S. Treasury on the $10 bills that border the base, but the flip side of them is pasted down, so nobody sees Alexander Hamilton's portrait, the torch of Liberty, and 'We the People' in pink....In an earlier state the portrait side was face up, but in the end I decided it looked better with the greenbacks up, and the treasury building relating to the house of cards."

Minsky began construction on March 1, when he posted this image of his materials on his Facebook page. There you can click on each of the photos and read along as the house takes shape and also peek 'inside' the back door, where, Minsky points out, you can see that the building on the back of the 100 Yuan note is similar to the treasury building on our bills.

Pop Delusions makes its institutional debut in an exhibit titled Beaten & Bound at the Lubeznick Center for the Arts in Michigan City, IN, on May 26. A reception will be held on June 1, and the exhibit will run through August 26.

Photos courtesy of Richard Minsky. Related articles

• Richard Minsky Collects Thomas Watson Ball (finebooksmagazine.com)
• Interview with Minsky (finebooksmagazine.com)