Mary Grant Bruce

Billabong Gold by Mary Grant Bruce.

Son of Billabong by Mary Grant Bruce.

Bill of Billabong by Mary Grant Bruce.

Back to Billabong by Mary Grant Bruce.

Billabong's Daughter by Mary Grant Bruce.

Hardcover books published by Ward, Lock & Co. 1950s and 1960s.

You can’t get much more Aussie than Mary Grant Bruce.  No, she never participated in the Olympics and no she never openly slipped a shrimp on the barby.  Mary was one of those special people who helped in “forming concepts of Australian national identity, especially in relation to visions of the Bush”* by writing books.  Granted, these concepts were formed quite a while ago, but it was with Mary’s skill as an author that she was able to push some of these boundaries.  Yes, there are a few issues regarding some dodgy portrayals of Aborigines, Chinese and the Irish, but nothing that a quick editing of later editions didn't fix.

Her books were and still are eagerly sought out and collected here in Australia, probably due to the whole nostalgia thingy (… unless of course your Aboriginal, Chinese or Irish).  From my experience, Mary Grant Bruce is no longer the desired reading of the younger generations.  It’s a rare thing when a collector of Mary Grant Bruce doesn’t have at least a few grey hairs.

These five books were found all together along with a few other MGB titles that were without dust jackets.  The books all have some wear and age… probably because they are aged and worn.  The biggest issue is the condition of the dust jackets, which are all VERY worn and aged.  Recently I have started covering some of my books in PVC.  There are a few reasons for this, but the main reason is to protect and enhance worn and aged dust jackets.  My good friends at Fully Booked (High Street, Thornbury), often comment on the way that PVC tends to bring out the colours of a dust jacket whilst protecting and securing what are often fragile pieces of paper.  I agree totally.  These five books look much better with the PVC and will be easier to sell because of it.  This whole PVC thing is something I have avoided over the years and it is only recently that I have begun to embrace the concept.  I won’t be going crazy and covering everything, but those titles that need that little bit of lift such as these titles, will be getting it.

C.T.C. Gazette: January 1939 – December 1939

C.T.C. Gazette: January 1939 – December 1939 (12 issues) (The Cyclists Touring Club). 12 Magazines in green folder with “C.T.C. Gazette” on the spine published by The Cyclists Touring Club 1939, 360 pages (with extra pages of advertising) with black and white photographs and illustrations.

I recently picked up this folder with a whole pile of WWII military map folders, thinking it was more of the same.  It was only when I got home and started looking a little more closely at my treasure that I realized what an amazing item it was that I had picked up.  I had to do a bit of research to figure out what it actually was, as I had no idea about C.T.C. and once again the trusty interwebs peddled into action.  

I guess it’s not that unusual that I wouldn’t know that CTC is the largest cycling membership organization in Britain and has been around since 1878, as I was born and grew up in Australia. The fact that they produced a Gazette is evidence enough of the size of this club which in 1939 was quite large… at least I think it was.  The Gazette contains various articles including: riding tips, travel, news, correspondence, advertising (fantastic) but interestingly, as far as I can tell, no maintenance or repair articles.  Maybe in 1939 it wasn’t the done thing to repair one’s own pushy*.

So I’ve listed this book on eBay without much interest from any of the punters out there in eBay world… When I write eBay world, I’m actually referring to eBay Australia.  I no longer list items worldwide as to be blunt and honest about it, I got sick of the grief that buyers would give me regarding the high cost of postage and the length of delivery times.  Yes, from Australia to the United States postage will take at least 10 working days, sometimes more, sometimes less… and yes, postage is incredibly expensive on heavy items.  Both of these selling factors are beyond my control, so if I list books within Australia only, postage isn’t as expensive and it’s usually pretty quick, to the point that my life becomes a lot easier and hassle free.  Since I’ve started doing this, selling books via eBay has become easier and the lack of foreign sales hasn’t really impacted on my overall business performance.

Now here’s the problem.  A collection of magazines/gazettes such as C.T.C. Gazette is bound to be more popular in the country of origin than here in Australia.  In this case Great Britain is also a larger market, therefore you would assume there was a slightly better chance of a sale if I offered the book for sale in Great Britain.  Yet despite all of this, I haven’t listed this collection for sale in the best place to sell it.  Now here’s my thinking/theory on the whole thing.  Firstly I offer it to Australia only via eBay as this may prove to be successful, therefore hassle free, quick and easy.  If there is no interest (as is the case at this point in time), then list it on Books & Collectibles as this is international (therefore UK as well), and very interestingly, there seems to be less hassle regarding postage cost and delivery times from international buyers through Books & Collectibles.  I’m not sure why this is.

So Books & Collectibles this volume goes… unless it sells beforehand.  I think it’s an amazing collection/item and I can’t imagine it will be on my shelves for very long.

* Push bike

The Inventor’s Handbook of Patent Law and Practice by Francis Ernest Bradley and Frederic Hungerford Bowman.

The Inventor’s Handbook of Patent Law and Practice by Francis Ernest Bradley and Frederic Hungerford Bowman.  Hardcover book (no dust jacket) published by Ewart, Seymour & Co. (no date, approx 1914), 185 pages with a few black and white illustrations.

I personally haven’t invented anything recently, so I don’t really have a use for a title such as this.  Indeed, I doubt very much whether the good people at Apple Inc. have much use for a title like this one, although their lawyers would probably have a good giggle at some of the stuff in this vintage guide to Patent Law. 

“PREFACE: It is hoped that this Handbook may be found useful not only by inventors but also by solicitors and patent agents. Its object is to present in a small compass a comprehensive summary of PATENT LAW AND PRACTICE.  The book does not consist of a mere digest of the Acts and Rules, or of excerpts from decisions of the Courts. It is an attempt to deal scientifically, but without excess of technicality, with the considerations that influence the Comptroller in making or refusing a grant and the principles by which the Court is guided in its decisions as to the validity of a patent.”

A book like this, is another one of those problem books that I find irresistible.  It’s a problem because I see a book such as this one and I think about how great it is (?) and then immediately think that no one would be interested in it.  So then I stand there going back and forth between the two thoughts (in this particular instance I even put the book down… and then quickly picked it up again) and then figure that if I’m debating about it this much, then I should just get it.  Now, with the distance of distance (and time), I realize that possibly my choice was a little ill advised as somehow, without being an expert on the subject matter, I think that maybe Patent Laws have changed a little in the last hundred years.  Still it’s a nice book and you never know someone at Samsung may want a giggle as well. 

Gunners in Borneo: Artillery During Confrontation 1962-1966 by Alan H. Smith.

Gunners in Borneo: Artillery During Confrontation 1962-1966 by Alan H. Smith.  Hardcover book with pictorial boards (no dust jacket) published by Alan H. Smith 2008, 184 pages with black and white photographs as well as some black and white maps and some colour maps.

“This is an appreciation of the use of artillery in Borneo during the ‘confrontation’ with Indonesia. It is a little known story.... a war with extraordinary physical and political complexities.... During my services with Australian Force FARELF, the high reputation of our gunners, infantry and sappers in Borneo operations was well known and acknowledged. This work will fill a void in our Army history.” Major General John Whitelaw

Australia has a long tradition of becoming involved in many of the worlds military conflicts.  This book is about a ‘confrontation’ that Australia was involved in with Indonesia.  To be honest, I had absolutely no idea that this ‘confrontation’ had ever taken place until I found this book.  Which I guess is why my inquisitive attention became focused on it.  I like the use of the word ‘confrontation’.  To me it implies that the powers that be were desperate to avoid the ‘w’ word and figured that ‘confrontation’ was a more user friendly term.  From what I can gather this whole thing was kept fairly quiet at the time “Because of the sensitivity of the cross-border operations…” (see link above), in other words, probably because it was all a little bit dodgy.  But don’t trust what I write about this stuff.  What do I know?  Nothing.  That’s why people like Alan H. Smith write books about it and I don’t.  I just sell the book.

Military books are an interesting bunch.  There are so many out there that at times it seems as if everyone who came home from a war (as well as many who never went) either wrote a memoir or a history.  Where this all gets interesting from a booksellers point of view, is that some of these books are worth $$$, and most aren’t, some are very desirable, and most aren’t which means that some I pick up and most I don’t.  There was something about this book that breathed a certain authenticity, which is why my attention was drawn to it.  Firstly it’s a book on a very specific subject that I have never seen before, and even better than that, it’s not a repackaging of the usual images and stories… which in this particular case there are very little… if any… of.  This book is something different to the run of the mill military history.   Self published by somebody who is obviously enthusiastic about the subject matter, is also a good sign and some great recommendations by authoritive people like Major General John Whitelaw is another indicator as to the quality of this book.  This is serious military history for anyone seriously interested in interesting serious military history.

ANARE: Australia's Antarctic Outposts by Phillip Law and John Bechervaise.

ANARE: Australia's Antarctic Outposts by Phillip Law and John Bechervaise.  Hardcover book published by Oxford University Press 1957, 152 pages with black and white photographs throughout as well as some colour photographs and a few black and white maps.

ANARE is the acronym for Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions.  This should give you a good idea of what this book is about.  And if you haven’t figured it out, it’s about freezing your butt off a long way from home… and about the work/research being done in Australia’s Antarctic outposts, before the invention of Polypropylene Thermals

It’s long been a dream of mine to one day visit Antarctica.  I’m not sure why this is, other than a fondness for H.P. Lovecraft’s novella, At the Mountains of Madness and for Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s, The Worst Journey in the World, both of which I can highly recommend if you haven’t read them.  This particular book is a little lighter than either Lovecraft or Cherry-Garrard in that there are no Aliens and as far as I can tell, no one dies.  I would even go so far as to say it’s quite a cheery book with some great photographs mostly in black and white but a few are in colour.

 I particularly like this fire breathing seal. 

Business Card Psycho.

I’ve been searching around the interwebs for the last few days, looking for some Patrick Bateman quotes re business cards and have drawn a complete blank.  I even dug out my copy of American Psycho and had no luck with the quick flick through.  But I was able to find this clip on youtube:

 

When I think of business cards, I think of Patrick Bateman and his obsession with them (…he has a few other obsessions as well, but for the sake of keeping this reference relevant, I only wish to dwell on business cards).  Maybe I’m the only person who remembers this thing about fonts, paper stock, raised lettering etc... although, whilst searching the interwebs, I did find this.  It’s good to know that I’m not the only person who references business cards with fictional crazed serial killers.      

Recently I was in a situation where I needed to pass my bookselling details on to someone.  This was quite important as the someone concerned was another bookseller with whom I was conducting business with for the first and hopefully not the last time.  Without a business card I felt a little inadequate and to be honest, a little unprofessional, but I managed to not dwell on my inadequacy for too long which is what I have done ever since I began this crazy book selling business.  A week later and another bookseller shows me his brand new card.  I was a little envious… a bit like Patrick Bateman, but with less killing.  And still I didn’t think too much about my own card needs until a few days after that, when I was talking to another bookseller* about branding and signage and of course business cards became part of the conversation.  It then dawned on me that realistically if I want to be taken seriously as a bookseller, I need a business card.  I went home remembered the nice paper stock, the overall professional look and the cheap cheap price that my friends card had and finally took the plunge.  Yep, Vista Print.  So, after way too many years of scribbling my details on scraps of paper, I finally have a card.  No longer will I be the scrap of paper guy scribbling away in my difficult scrawl, now it’s serious…                                                                         

     

*Yes. I talk to a lot of booksellers.

Pussycat Fever by Kathy Acker.

Pussycat Fever by Kathy Acker.  Paperback book published by AK Press 1995, 75 pages with black and white illustrations.  

In my younger, impressionable and adventurous years, I read a number of Kathy Acker books.  Starting with Blood and Guts in High School and finishing with In Memoriam to Identity, I remember these books as being difficult and somehow a little unfulfilling, which is why I ended my relationship with the works of Kathy Acker.  In other words, my reading of experimental punk post modern sex positive feminist writing, is no more. 

A few years back I bumped into an old acquaintance that I hadn’t bumped into for a number of years.  For some very strange reason in our brief 5 minute conversation outside a supermarket, he began excitedly telling me how reading Kathy Acker had changed his life.  I found the conversation a little uncomfortable as all I could think about was my current lack of enthusiasm for her works and how could I politely change the conversation… which I was unable to do.  Most importantly though, this confession of his reminded me of Kathy and her oeuvre which was something that I hadn’t thought about since Kathy and I parted ways.  She died in 1997 and this encounter with my old acquaintance was at least 10 years after the fact, leading me to the conclusion that despite my personal lack of enthusiasm, Kathy still has a fanatical fan base… of at least one fan… probably more.

This book was published a few years before she died, which was also the year that she toured Australia.  I know she toured Australia as this book has a ticket stub for the show, which at a guess was probably her reading from her works and talking about all sorts of stuff.  The original owner probably bought this book at the show as this copy is signed which was as good a place as any to buy a signed copy of Pussycat Fever particularly here in Australia.  Whenever I find a Kathy Acker title I always think of my acquaintance, which I guess is why I pick them up… also, they seem to sell.