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My Year if the Book - Day 150: Today’s WPA Wednesday entries are the two American Guide Series state volumes published by Duell, Sloan & Pearce for Missouri and Wisconsin. DS&P is the only other house to print at least two WPA state guides (I’ve listed all other multi-volume publishers on previous WPA Wednesdays, and have also offered a good deal of background detail on the series as well if you are interested). DS&P did a nice job, and even though the DJs are not as colorful or striking as those from Oxford, Houghton Mifflin, Hastings House or Viking, they feature all of the best series elements inside (an intro letter from a state official, excellent B&W photographs, etc.) and the state seal on each cover is a nice add. Both appeared in 1941, the final year the guides were published (although the Oklahoma guide - the last of the 48 to hit shelves - was released in January 1942, it carries a 1941 copyright date). All in all, both are fine additions to the series, and tip the scales at 650 pages apiece. #wpa #americanguideseries #book #rarebooks #firstedition #dustjacket #wisconsin #missouri #travelguide #1940s #oldphotos #bibliophile #bookish #booklover #booklove #booknerd #bookaddict #booknerd #bookworm #bookstagram #americana #ushistory #history #oldbooks #antiquarianbooks #yearofthebook #mylibrary

My Year of the Book - Day 149: Wait, you ask...isn’t Tuesday George R. Stewart day at Hacienda Hodgkins? Ah ha! Although Irving Stone (“The Agony and the Ecstasy,” et al) edited “There Was Light” (1970) for UC Berkeley’s centennial, GRS was actively involved in the book’s creation. In fact, I have some correspondence from 1945 between he and writer (and Cal grad) Edwin Corle (Day 77) discussing a potential book for the school’s 75th. Anyway, this is much more than a school history. It boasts essays by 39 Cal alums, and this copy carries the signatures of 16 of those fine people from various disciplines, including Stone, GRS, Edwin Pauley (namesake of UCLA’s pavilion), Bob Haas (White House fellow and future CEO of Levi Strauss) and Horace Albright, director of the US Forest Service under FDR. There are too many to list here, so check out the photos to see if you recognize the names others. Many of these first editions were signed at an on campus event attended by many of the essayists, and the other copies I’ve seen often feature different signatures. Most are signed on the FFEP like this one, but others carry autographs on the opening pages of the essays themselves. A marvelous slice of history. #georgerstewart #berkeley #irvingstone #bibliophile #book #bookish #booklover #books #bookstagram #bookworm #booknerd #mylibrary #bookshelf #mybookshelf #yearofthebook #bookgeek #universityofcalifornia #americana #history #memoir #firstedition #rarebooks #signedbooks

My Year of the Book - Day 148: Today, I offer a heartfelt and humble “thank you” to the brave men and women who have sacrificed their lives to keep us free. “Climb to Conquer” (2003) tells the story of some of those who lost their lives in war, as part of an elite U.S. WWII fighting unit: the 10th Mountain Division. Inspired by the success Finnish ski troops had in 1939 against the Nazis, the 10th became the only U.S. force trained on snow and rock, and — because many of the members were recruited directly from ski teams at major eastern universities as well as from the professional ski racing ranks — it remains the only division to grow out of a sport. The 10th trained at Camp Hale high in the Colorado Rockies, and later fought bravely in the Italian Campaign; first at the Battle of Riva Ridge in early 1945, where the men scaled the sheer rock face of the ridge and surprised the German forces up top. As the last U.S. unit to enter the war, the 10th also suffered the highest number of casualties per combat day. Among the troops were several men who would go on to inspire people to enjoy the outdoors in various ways: David Brower, who wrote the Army’s field manual for mountain operations field, would eventually lead the Sierra Club; Friedl Pfeifer and Pete Seibert, created ski resorts at (respectively) Aspen and Vail; and Bill Browerman co-founded Nike. It is a fascinating (and little-known) story, especially if you love the outdoors as I do. #book #10thmountaindivision #wwii #war #usarmy #bibliophile #bookish #yearofthebook #mylibrary #reading #memorialday #booklover #booknerd #bookaddict #bookworm #bookstagram #bookshelf #rockclimbing #davidbrower #sierraclub #vail #aspen #nike #firstedition #outdoors #mountaineering #skitroops

My Year of the Book - Day 147: Yes; I am a bit late to the Tom Wolfe party, but by way of RIP, here’s one of my favorites, “From Bauhaus to Our House” (1981). As I wrote to @giliondumas the other day, I believe that Wolfe’s snide cynicism works best in critique, especially of the arts, because all judgements are subjective and people expect you to be a bit of a drama queen. “Bauhaus” is brisk and breezy (which is good, as a little Wolfe goes a long way, IMO), and TW skewers several structural saints and busts a bundle of building balloons as he marches like Sherman through an overview of 20th Century modern architecture. And whether you agree with Wolfe or not, the book is delightfully refreshing. #tomwolfe #bauhaus #architecture #criticism #bookish #bibliophile #booklover #yearofthebook #bookworm #bookstagram #bookaddict #booknerd #bookshelf #mylibrary #firstedition #bookgeek

#firstedition #booknerd #bookworm #booklover #bookish #yearofthebook #tomwolfe #mylibrary #architecture #bibliophile #bookshelf #bookgeek #bookaddict #bauhaus #bookstagram #criticism

My Year of the Book - Day 146: Here’s something for you weekend mall shoppers out there...a first edition of Victor Gruen’s “The Heart of Our Cities” (1964). In case the author’s name doesn’t ring a bell, the “Gruen Effect,” which describes the practice of creating tantalizing window and shelf displays in retail environments to drive impulse purchases, was named for him. His company designed the first indoor, climate-controlled shopping mall; Southdale Center in Edina, Minnesota, in 1952. Dozens of mall commissions followed. Gruen eventually turned his attention to city planning, applying many of his traffic flow and design theories to a much larger scale. Walt Disney was a fan of Gruen’s work, and kept a copy of “Heart” on his office desk (Photo 2). It is fairly easy to see Gruen’s probable influence on EPCOT’s early circular design. If you are interested in urban planning or architecture or the relationship between space and place, this fascinating book should be on your shelves, or better yet, open on your desk. :) #waltdisney #yearofthebook #waltdisneyworld #epcot #cityplanning #shoppingmall #victorgruen #bibliophile #book #bookish #booknerd #booklover #booklove #rarebook #firstedition #architecture #design #bookworm #bookaddict #bookshelf #mylibrary #urbanplanning

My Year of the Book - Day 145: For #firsteditionfriday today, here’s a nice surprise: a first printing of T. C. Boyle’s bawdy and rollicking (and quite elusive) first novel “Water Music” (1981). Boyle, who had only one published short story collection to his name when WM hit the shelves, has gone on to become one of our most prolific modern literary writers, with several best-sellers on a broad range of topics to his credit. Boyle is a master of characters based loosely on and/or surrounded by real people (Frank Lloyd Wright, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, the Kinseys, etc.), but WM came first. It was based on real-life Scottish explorer Mungo Park, who at the turn of the 19th Century charted the course of the Niger River, where no white man had ever set foot. As with all of Boyle’s work, unpredictability, craziness and marvelously descriptive paragraphs abound. #book #tcboyle #bookish #watermusic #firstedition #mylibrary #rarebooks #yearofthebook #reading #firstnovel #bibliophile #booklover #bookaddict #bookworm #bookshelf #booknerd #bookstagram #literature #bookgeek #booksofinstagram

My Year of the Book - Day 144: I realized yesterday that I haven’t posted anything from my Disney library lately, so hopefully today’s entry featuring my former boss will mollify my fellow Disnoids. This is the true first edition of Christopher Finch’s “The Art of Walt Disney: From Mickey Mouse to the Magic Kingdoms” (1973), with the original glassine dust jacket and mounted images of Mickey and his paint bucket. It is chock full of wonderful artwork (763 illustrations; 351 in color), some on single or double fold-out spreads. It is rare in the original printed wrapper, which became brittle in certain climates. The book was later reissued in the same size with a standard DJ and without the mounted images, and again in a reduced size (shown). Both later editions are lovely because of the content, but the first edition is simply stunning. #disney #disneyart #featureanimation #mylibrary #disneythemeparks #magickingdom #rarebooks #firstedition #artbook #bibliophile #bookish #bookstagram #booklover #bookaddict #reading #animation #bookworm #artwork #yearofthebook #cartoons #mickeymouse #bookshelf

My Year of the Book - Day 142: George R. Stewart was a thorough man, and he wasn’t afraid to question the status quo or what is regularly referred to as “common wisdom.” While visiting Gettysburg, Stewart formed the idea of writing a micro-history of one specific action of that battle, and “Pickett’s Charge” was born. GRS was not prone to hyperbole, so I love his intro to the book: “(If) the Civil War furnishes the great dramatic episode of the history of the United States, and that Gettysburg provides the climax of the war, then the climax of the climax, the central moment of our history, must be Pickett’s Charge.” Well argued, GRS. The book was first published in 1959, and remains in print today. #civilwar #history #americana #pickettscharge #book #georgerstewart #bibliophile #bookish #booknerd #booknut #yearofthebook #mylibrary #reading #oldbooks #firstedition #signedbook #bookaddict #bookstagram #bookworm #booklover #historybuff

My Year of the Book - Day 143: This week, WPA Wednesday brings the first volumes from a few regional publishers into play. Binfords & Mort was based in Portland, Oregon, so it made sense for them to publish American Guide Series volumes for Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. What this trio of books may have lacked in design uniformity or flair (although the cover art of the Oregon guide is pretty cool), they made up in volume, as the Oregon and Washington books were two of the longest in the series. Still, the content is quite informative and solid, and they are each a worthy (and especially in the case of Nevada, somewhat rare in a first printing), additions to the series. #book #wpa #americanguideseries #bookish #rarebooks #firstedition #travelguide #1930s #1940s #yearofthebook #bibliophile #bookish #booklover #booknerd #bookgeek #americana #mylibrary

#rarebooks #americanguideseries #1930s #bibliophile #travelguide #bookgeek #yearofthebook #mylibrary #bookish #firstedition #booklover #americana #booknerd #wpa #1940s #book

My Year of the Book - Day 141: You’ve probably read or heard William Goodman’s ubiquitous (and truncated) quote about Hollywood, the town where “Nobody knows anything.” He first offered that hard-earned experiential life lesson in his deliciously candid “Adventures in the Screen Trade” (1983). And while the filmic examples he uses are dated (the book came out 35 years ago), the vast majority of his musings and conclusions remain spot on. And, athough his novels and screenplays play leading roles in his narrative, the book isn’t a memoir; it is more of a, well...it’s sort of indescribable...in an awesome way, because it is freaking William Goldman. He writes insightfully about stars, studios, executives, the process from page to screen, and much, much more. I can read (and watch) his stuff all day, so if you don’t know who he is, you are dead to me. :) #williamgoldman #movies #screenwriting #scripts #films #favoriteauthor #bookstagram #booknut #bibliophile #bookish #novelist #hollywood #bookgeek #bookworm #booknerd #firstedition #rarebooks #nonfiction #bookaddict #greatreads #nobodyknowsanything

My Year of the Book - Day 140: Before he wrote intimately about Katherine Hepburn and voluminously about Charles Lindberg, A. Scott Berg wrote “Goldwyn” (1989), one of the best “show biz bios” I’ve come across. Good biographies tell you about a person, great ones take you inside the place and time where the subject lived out their life. David McCullough’s statement that history doesn’t happen in a vacuum applies to Berg’s work. As with Otto Friedrich’s excellent “City of Nets” (1986) and a few others, I learned just as much about the early decades of Hollywood as I did about the man who came to be known as Samuel Goldwyn. The book also has a great opening line; one which sets the reader up for a finely-woven tale of an uneducated but driven myth-maker in a town full of dream factories. I’ll let you discover it, and Berg, for yourself. #samuelgoldwyn #hollywood #ascottberg #bookish #showbusiness #movies #booknut #yearofthebook #mylibrary #bookworm #bibliophile #reading #showbiz #history #losangeles #firstedition #biography #booklover #bookaddict #bookshelf #booknut #bookstagram

My Year of the Book - Day 139: We book people need an occasional reminder that books are like our fellow humans; it’s what’s inside that really counts. That’s especially true of this volume, which looks a bit bland on the shelf due to a lack of a dust jacket, but “Best Film Plays of 1943-44 contains some delightful screenplays, including the first appearance in print of “Casablanca,” a film you may have heard of at some point. But it also has such diverse works as “Going My Way,” “The Ox Bow Incident,” “Watch on the Rhine,” and TWO Preston Sturges gems; “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek” and “Hail the Conquering Hero” among the ten entries. It is a different sort of joy to “read” a film, especially one you’ve seen often. But as time goes by, we learn that every new book can be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. #casablanca #screenplay #book #1940s #classicfilms #movies #book #bookish #yearofthebook #mylibrary #bibliophile #bookish #booknut #booknerd #firstedition #rarebooks #oldbooks #bookgeek #bookaddict #humphreybogart #movielines #film #prestonsturges #anthology #booklover #bookshelf

My Year of the Book - Day 138: Some days, you go looking for one thing and then find something else. That’s the case for me with Joseph Henry Jackson’s “Continent’s End,” an unusually fine 1944 anthology of writing about (or taking place in) California. As a George R. Stewart collector, I had to pick it up because of the excerpt from GRS’ “Ordeal by Hunger,” (Day 65), but because of this book, I also picked up a new obsession; namely, tracking down a copy of Frank Fenton’s über rare 1942 novel, “A Place in the Sun.” I’ll post about Fenton soon (tease), but Jackson’s book deserves praise as well, with carefully-chosen excerpts from such heavyweights as John Steinbeck, William Saroyan, Uptown Sinclair, Gertrude Atherton, Oscar Lewis, Lincoln Steffens, Idwal Jones, Fenton, GRS and many others, making this volume a bookshelf of western Americana unto itself. #rarebooks #firstedition #josephhenryjackson #anthology #westernwriting #americana #johnsteinbeck #saroyan #bookish #georgerstewart #bookstagram #bookshelf #yearofthebook #reading #frankfenton #booklover #bookworm #booknerd #booknerd #bibliophile #oldbooks

My Year of the Book - Day 137: John McPhee has written 30 books (his publisher FS&G also issued two “John McPhee Readers” in 1976 and 1996), and it doesn’t seem enough. I want more; much more. But while I tap my foot impatiently, waiting for his next literary gem, I can re-read one of my favorites, “The Pine Barrens” (1968), which also appeared in a 1981 special edition with B&W photographs by Bill Curtsinger. A much shorter, reworked version appeared in the January 1974 edition of National Geographic, along with color photos (also by Curtsinger), giving the long-time “New Yorker” scribe his only byline in that august periodical. “The Pine Barrens” is a tale of the land lying above one of the largest natural aquifers in the continental United States, and the few people who lived there in the mid to late 1960s. Those who think of New Jersey only in terms of cities and shore will be amazed that the “Pines” cover an area nearly as large as Grand Canyon National Park. During his many visits to the area, McPhee (a New Jersey native whose father taught at nearby Princeton) interacts frequently with a lifelong resident named Fred Brown, whose small cabin had no running water or electricity. He also writes a lot about blueberries, the main cash crop in the area. But as with all of McPhee, the topic often takes a back seat to the pure pleasure of reading his prose. #firstedition #johnmcphee #pinebarrens #nationalgeographic #nature #naturewriting #bookish #yearofthebook #mylibrary #booknerd #bookstagram #bookshelf #newjersey #cranberries #bookworm #bibliophile #reading #nonfiction

#bookstagram #bibliophile #naturewriting #newjersey #nonfiction #bookshelf #mylibrary #nationalgeographic #pinebarrens #booknerd #bookworm #reading #johnmcphee #firstedition #cranberries #yearofthebook #nature #bookish

My Year of the Book - Day 136: WPA Wednesday! Hastings House was the final sizable publisher for the American Guide Series, with eight original state guides and some city guides (in addition to the 48 states, Alaska and Puerto Rico, hardcover guides were produced for many major U.S. cities, including a 2-volume set for NYC). The HH states were: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. Hastings House also acquired the rights to produce subsequent printings of other state and regional books when the original publisher(s) chose not to reprint. Many WPA guides from HH and others went into six or seven large printings in first editions, but a few others were also updated as second editions (California was updated twice; in 1954 and 1967). The Hastings House books were not as uniform as others in the series, and only California was produced with a large, folding map bound into the rear endpapers. #wpaguides #wpa #americanguideseries #travelguide #travel #guidebook #bibliophile #bookish #yearofthebook #booknut #bookstagram #bookshelf #reading #americana #mylibrary #booklover #california #arkansas #arizona #colorado #louisiana #newmexico #texas #utah #rarebooks #firstedition #oldbooks #bookworm #1930s #1940s

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