The Library of a Former Bookseller

Sharing my library one book at a time The Library of Paranormal Experience: https://www.tumblr.com/archivist-crow

[archivist-dragonfly]

Recently, I decided to cull my book collection. After spending nearly 20 years as a bookseller at a new, used, and antiquarian bookstore and then following that up with a 10 year stint working at a small independent publisher, it was time to clear up some space in my small apartment and some books had to go.

When I was finished going through my books, I was left with mostly illustrated books. My collection is focused on art, design, typography, natural history illustration, and unusual reference books. They’re not all first editions or antiquarian or anything. They just speak to some aspect of my personality.

I’ve always wanted a list of my books, and this seems as good a way to document them as any.

[archivist-dragonfly]

The Library of a Former Bookseller, in summation:

So, there it is. My illustrated book library—659 volumes. Now I know. My first post on this blog was on November 30th, 2022 and my last three years and three weeks later. And nearly half of them are large-format art books, so here’s to hoping I don’t have to move anytime soon.

At this point, I only have a few other categories of books, but they’re not terribly interesting visually. One of them is a small collection of text-only books on the paranormal and other esoterica. However, I do have a collection of graphic novels, but they’re not all that interesting either. Just your standard trade paperbacks, mostly. But there are one or two rarities in there I might pull out. I think I will post my small collection of vintage mass markets though. Some of them are gorgeous.

Also, I don’t know if anyone noticed these things:

I’ve been using them as weights to hold the books open. I kept hoping someone would ask about them, but no one did. Well, they’re metal punches used in hydraulic units to punch holes in various materials. They are satisfyingly heavy for their size and kinda lovely to look at, like large modernist chess pieces. But they’re just two of the weird objects I’ve collected in my years of going through other people’s stuff. So maybe I’ll do a things-I’ve-collected-while-looking-through-used-books section.

But that will have to wait.

Now, I’m taking a short break and unplugging for the holidays and the new year. If I’m being honest, I’m not terribly optimistic about 2026, but I wish you all the best for the new year anyway. There’s always hope.

Best, your archivist-dragonfly

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 659

75 Years of Marvel: from the Golden Age to the Silver Screen

Roy Thomas

Taschen 2014

The last one.

Published to celebrate Marvel’s 75th anniversary, this book, while very well done, is not really in the same league as the future Marvel Comics Library editions. Not that it needs to be. The Library editions are for archival editions of original comics, whereas this is an illustrated compendium and history of the biggest and most-successful comic publisher in the Western world. While it does not contain any complete comics and concentrates mainly on Marvel history pre-1990, it does have pretty much every iconic image of every Marvel hero by every iconic creator who has ever worked for them. And clocking in at a whopping 712 pages, that’s a lot of images. Add to that creator bios, sketches, character designs, and even a loose gatefold timeline of comic book history, and you have a superb reference. And if the reference to the “silver screen” in the subtitle worries you, it needn’t. The book only pays the barest minimum attention to the MCU, almost in passing. Remember, it was published in 2014, so the MCU wasn’t quite yet what it would end up becoming.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 658

The Avengers, Vol. 1 - 1963-1965 (Marvel Comics Library)

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, et al. / foreword by Kevin Feige / introduction by Kurt Busiek

Taschen 2022

I do love my Avengers. I like the whole idea of how—instead of deciding to form a team—the Avengers are the heroes that show up when needed. When I was about 10, one of my older sister’s friends gave me a copy of Avengers #4, the one where they found Cap, and it was a prized possession for a long time. My favorite single issue of any comic is Avengers Annual #10 (1981) by Chris Claremont and Michael Golden. I like the movies, too. But I keep having the same weird thought that it’s a good thing comic book characters aren’t real people. (Can you imagine how pissed Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne would be to find out that, not only are they not Avengers, they’ve been relegated to bit characters?) The Kree-Skrull War. Kang. Contest of Champions. Ultron. Secret Wars (all of them). Disassembled. The New Avengers. Secret Invasion. I remember them all very fondly.

So, this? This is the birth of all of it—all of those stories, characters, and relationships. And I couldn’t ask for a better presentation.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 657

X-Men, Vol. 1 - 1963-1966 (Marvel Comics Library)

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby / Foreword by Chris Claremont / Introduction by Fabian Nicieza

Taschen 2023

Growing up, my favorite superhero was Peter Parker, the amazing Spider-Man. He was a science nerd, bullied, never had any money, terrible with girls, and had just the worst luck. I could relate. Now, I didn’t understand at the time how revolutionary an idea this was—a superhero with normal people problems—but it had an enormous impact on me though I wouldn’t realize this for many years.

I also loved the X-Men but that developed a bit later—sometime during Chris Claremont’s run. And, again, I had no idea at the time how revolutionary the X-Men were. A superhero team as metaphor for racism in America? All I knew was that people hated them for being different and they had cool powers and costumes and stuff. At the time, that was enough. But, now, knowing better, I can see how important these comics are and why we are so fortunate to have them.

These good books—while maybe not “holy” per se—are the basis for the most popular modern mythology in recent memory, and Taschen’s Marvel Comics Library respects that weight and gives them their due.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 656

Spider-Man, Vol. 1 - 1962-1964 (Marvel Comics Library)

Stan Lee and Steve Ditko / introduction by Ralph Macchio

Taschen 2021

I didn’t intend to end this blog with the Taschen Marvel Comics Library, but it is a good place to finish. Because my books are organized by height, it just happened that way. But these books are a good place to finish up on because these are, without a hint of hyperbole, some of the finest books I have ever seen. And if anyone were to ever ask me why they are my favorite publisher (which no one ever does), these are the books I would hold up. The first thing is the attention to detail. Wherever possible the design team tried to recreate the experience of the originals, which means not only super high quality photos of pristine graded comics but also using two kinds of paper—slick and glossy for covers and pulpy for pages—even going so far as to work with the printer on a specially formulated paper type that mimics toothy comic pulp but is sturdy and grabs color well. They reprint the original ads, house ads, and letter pages. Rather than completely recolor, they corrected for era printing techniques by fixing unbalanced ink densities, color matching, line density, and smudges.

The second thing is that (with the exception of the Basic Art Series, which is all canonical artists), Taschen makes no real distinction between high and low art. Every book whether tattoo art or a Flemish master gets essentially the same treatment.

These last four books all measure about 11.5” x 15.5” and weigh about 12 lbs., and at this size it’s like owning enormous idealized copies of some of the greatest comics ever made.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 655

The Fantastic Worlds of Frank Frazetta

Dian Hanson

Taschen 2023

There was a time when I young and stupid that I thought Frazetta was cheesy and trite. So, I was surprised when years later an artist friend I admired told me she loved Frazetta. When I told her why I didn’t like it, she patiently explained to me that I was likely reacting, not to Frazetta, but to the scores of imitators that came after him. She said I needed to really look at his work, past the imitators and cliches—the mastery of anatomy, the feeling of movement, and the sense of drama and action. She explained the relationship between Frazetta and the work of Robert Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and how important he was in informing the vocabulary of fantasy art. So I really looked, and she was, of course, completely correct. Frazetta was a master, and this enormous Taschen XXL edition is proof of that. Short of going to the Frazetta museum, it is the best way to see his work and shows off his mastery in the clearest, most undeniable terms.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 654

Japanese Woodblock Prints

Andreas Marks

Taschen 2019

Another XXL Tachen, this one is a gorgeous beast at over 600 pages. Covering a period of nearly 300 years (1680-1938), this book not only features nearly every Japanese woodblock print masterwork but also provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of Japanese art, both technical and aesthetic. With hundreds of reproductions and featuring works from renowned masters (Bunchō, Eisen, Hiroshige 1 and 2, Kuniyoshi, Utamaro, Yoshitoshi, etc.) to lesser-known masters (Toyokuni, Shunshō, Kunimasa, Kunisada, et al.), this book is a stunning collection. If I’m being honest, I probably should have saved myself a little money and waited to get a smaller edition because a fair amount of it is duplicated in other books and these XXL Taschens are a bit of a hassle. But then I look at it and see these works reproduced at this size and quality, and I think to myself, “Totally worth it.”

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 653

The Complete Little Nemo

Windsor McCay / Essay book by Alexander Braun

Taschen 2014

A two-volume set that comes with its own carrying case, Taschen’s Complete Little Nemo, measuring approximately 17.5” x 14” and weighing close to 18 lbs., is a dream. Now, I could go on about McKay’s exquisite and delicate line work or the surreal beauty of Slumberland or the unfortunate vein of racism that runs through it, but I think that’s probably best left to others. Now, I have another Little Nemo collection, and it’s a pretty good one and I’m going to keep it, too. But in a side-by-side comparison, there’s no contest. The line work of this volume is clearer, the colors deeper, the quality more even, and there is just no substitute for seeing Nemo at full newspaper size, the way it was intended. Because at the size of the smaller McCay (10” x 13”), the lettering is difficult to read.

It’s the care and attention to detail that makes this book so impressive. I mean, look at the box it comes in! I know more-than-a-little about book production, so I know how difficult this was to produce. Even at its full list price of $200, it still seems like a bargain.

In the companion volume to this book, there’s an interesting fact I hadn’t known. It reads, “There is no one institution, library, or collection in the world that possesses all episodes of Little Nemo in Slumberland or the newspapers in which McCay's comics appeared in their entirety.” Given that, the Taschen Complete Little Nemo is, indeed, a dream made real.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 652

Hiroshige & Eisen: The Sixty-Nine Stations along the Kisokaidō

Utagawa Hiroshige and Keisai Eisen / essay by Andreas Marks

Taschen 2017

This book is constructed exactly like the last one—a silk-covered folding slipcase over a stab-bound oblong book. Gorgeous.

Sometimes known as Sixty-nine Stations of the Nakasendō, another name for the Kisokaidō, the famed road that connected Edo (now Tokyo) with the then-capital of Kyoto (a journey of approximately 332 mi.), the work captures all of the life, beauty, travails, and activity through the 69 stations where travelers could eat and rest. An immediate follow-up to Hiroshige’s The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833-1834), Kisokaidō was published between c. 1834-1842. In total, there are 71 prints in the series—one for 68 stations, plus two for the 45th station of Nakatsugawa-juku, and one of the business district of Nihonbashi. Of those 71, Eisen produced the first 11 prints of the series, plus another scattered 13, with Hiroshige responsible for the remaining 47. Reproducing an absolutely stunning complete set held by a private collector, Taschen’s Kisokaidō is a treasure so beautifully accomplished that the journey along one of 19th c. Japan’s main routes almost seems to come alive.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 651

Hokusai: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji

Katsushika Hokusai / essay by Andreas Marks

Taschen 2022

Truly, book production doesn’t get much finer than this. From the silk-covered pictorial boards of the bone-clasped folding slipcase that opens to a stunning image of Mount Fuji to the Japanese-style stab-bound book inside, this is a stunning production of one of the world’s greatest and most revered large-scale works of art. Produced from c. 1830 to 1832, when Hokusai was in his seventies and at the height of his career, the work contains at least three of Hokusai's most famous: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Fine Wind, Clear Morning, and Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit. Not to mention that The Great Wave is likely one of the most recognizable images in the world and likely the most identifiably Japanese work of art ever produced. (Hello Kitty notwithstanding.)

However, since the book measures 12” x 17.5” and is soft bound, it’s just too floppy and wide for a lap read. You need a table. Or a nice space on the floor. So, yes, it may be a bit unruly, but this production just feels exactly right, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 650

Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Works

Stefan Fischer

Taschen 2013

Currently, there are only about 25 paintings and eight drawings attributed to Bosch, and that’s it. There are another six or so works thought to come out of his workshop, but as for the artist himself, the total output we know about is roughly 33 pieces. This book, released in a deluxe edition in 2013, represents all of it. Measuring roughly 16” x 12” and housed in its own printed carrying case, this is an outstanding production. It’s printed using two different kinds of paper (matte and glossy), has a glorious extended dust jacket, a silk place marker, a couple of incredible gatefolds (one of which—The Garden of Earthly Delights—is so large that I can only unfold it on the floor), pink endpapers, and hundreds of detail images. Yes, it is large, heavy, and cumbersome, but the reproductions at this size are so worth it. I’m sure visiting the Prado and standing before The Garden is quite an experience, but the scale of the detail images in this volume are their own experience—one that grants the reader all the time in the world to study and marvel at a singular imagination.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 649

Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Art of Storytelling

Hans Werner Holzwarth, ed.

Taschen 2021

I’m not sure why it took so long for me to get a copy of this book. I’ve been tempted by it many times in the past, but I guess there was always something I wanted a little bit more. But I’m really glad I finally have one. A smaller, less expensive hardcover, this edition measures 6.5” x 8.75”, and if I had known how comprehensive it was regarding Basquiat’s work I probably would have gotten one a long time ago. It’s an excellent book.

Though perhaps it’s too comprehensive. There is an interesting note on the title page that reads, “The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat does not warrant or represent that all of the works in this book were created by Jean-Michel Basquiat.”

Now, I do know that Basquiat paintings are among the most forged in the world, but since this book was first published in 2018, I assume it was made with the Basquiat Estate’s cooperation. So, I’m not sure why there’s a need for the note, unless they’re just trying to protect themselves against future forgery discoveries. But it seems like there’s a story in there somewhere.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 648

Hiroshige: One Hundred Famous Views of Edo - The Complete Plates

Text by Melanie Trede and Lorenz Bichler

Taschen 2023

The next two books are new arrivals, then I finish up with the really big books. This one, I was complaining about a little while ago that I had lost it and bought a cheaper smaller replacement. Well, this is the third copy. It was on sale, so why not? And it’s about as nice as I remember my original copy, although I think it’s a bit smaller. Nice clasps to hold the hardcover sleeve closed, and the book itself is bound in the traditional Japanese stab method. The printing, made from scans of a copy from the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Tokyo, is exceptional. The colors are fresh and bright, and the line work is distinct, clear, and sharp. So if I’m going to buy the same book three times, this is a good one.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 647

Magic: 1400s - 1950s

Edited by Noel Daniel / Essays by Mike Caveney and Jim Steinmeyer / introduction by Ricky Jay

Taschen 2013

If I’m being honest, I don’t really have much interest in stage magic. What I do have, however, is an interest in historical graphic design and the sometimes odd intersection of stage magic and the paranormal and unusual. This book satisfies both of those interests. In eight chapters covering its humble origins to the great golden age of magic, this book gives a truly inspiring graphic history of magic. With hundreds of illustrations ranging from tour posters and handbills to diagrams of illusions and rare photos of notable performers and an illuminating text, Magic provides such a comprehensive overview that it’s difficult to imagine needing another book on the subject. Beautifully designed and opulently produced, this book is worthy of its subject and the fascination we have in its personalities, ingenuity, and mystery.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 646

Cabinet of Natural Curiosities: The Complete Plates in Colour 1734-1765

Albertus Seba

Taschen 2005

Born in Etzel, Ostfriesland, Germany, in 1665, Seba moved to Amsterdam as a young apprentice, then opened a pharmacy near the harbor around 1700. While there, Seba often asked sailors and ship’s surgeons to bring him exotic flora and fauna for medicinal purposes, beginning his lifelong passion for collecting and assembling cabinets of curiosities. In 1734, Seba published the first volume of engravings of animal specimens, titled Locupletissimi Rerum Naturalium Thesauri Accurata Descriptio et Iconibus Artificiosissimus Expressio per Universam Physices Historiam ("A Careful Description and Exceedingly Artistic Expression in Pictures of the Exceedingly Rich Treasury of Nature Throughout the Entire History of Natural Science"), now better known as the Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. Though the last two volumes were published posthumously, the work would have an enormous impact on natural science, but it is perhaps the astonishing visual balance and dynamic composition of the specimens on the page that lingers longest in the mind.

[archivist-dragonfly]

Book 645

Apocalypse: Visions from the Book of Revelation in Western Art

Frederick van der Meer

Alpine Fine Arts Collection, Ltd. 1978

It doesn’t happen often, but I do love when I find a book that seems written specifically for me. Like this book, for example, a survey of western art depicting the apocalypse and biblical visions. Yes, please. Sometimes I start thinking about how many small, seemingly insignificant, things that needed to happen in order for this book to find just the right reader. It was published by a small press in 1978, and I very much doubt it was ever reprinted. I probably first stumbled across it around maybe 2002, and there can’t be that many copies still floating around. So, some 45 years after it was published, we finally found each other—the weird apocalyptic art book and the weird little book seller with odd interests.

The other thing about this book I want to mention is that it is in mint condition. Flawless. Still looks brand new thanks to the slipcase. The burgundy linen binding under the jacket practically beams. Another big win for slipcases and dust jackets—they really do work.

With any luck, it’ll stay in this condition until Judgement Day, which I’m fairly certain will not be nearly as pretty as any of the art about it.