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[<eureka AT hctc.net>]

In my early life, during grad school, I worked for a rare 
books library for a couple of years. It was a surreal 
experience. During that time I helped catalog shaped note 
hymnals, make archival copies of early jazz recordings, 
and oddly, proofread LOC cards for the multitude versions 
of Steinbeck books translated into Turkish. In those days, 
as an insider, one was allowed to roam the stacks and 
check out anything for perusal at one's desk. I saw a lot 
of the medieval books with original bindings as you 
describe. I read the handwritten notes in Houdini's 
personal collection, held Ravel scores, touched Poe's 
armchair, etc. I understand the stacks are now closed to 
the librarians. What a pity, the adventure made up for the 
exceedingly low wages.

--Sage

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:15:04 -0400
 "Don  Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net> wrote:
> > I do love the beauty in old volumes, the leather,the rag 
> > paper, the copper
> > engravings and chromolithograths.  But, the ideas -- I 
> > can find , most ,
> > now, on the internet .  The computer is cheap, and takes 
> > little space.
>
> I have several old books, mostly on the early design of 
> the reaper and the
> resulting fights over patents and estates.  They are 
> great to read and the
> information is often available only in those books.  I 
> have an 1892 reprint
> of an 1860s pamphlet that was used to show the inverter 
> of the reaper was
> Robert McCormick in the court case against Cyrus 
> McCormick's estate.  I also
> have an 1850s book on the Obed Hussey and Bell reapers. 
>
>
> I also have some very early copies of both the "ABC and 
> XYZ of beekeeping"
> and "The hive and the Honey Bee".  Fascinating reading 
> of the knowledge and
> problems of beekeeping around WWI.  The sections on the 
> legal problems of
> bees and horses makes you realize that they had a 
> different set of
> challenges then.
>
> I bought them many years ago and some have astounded me 
> in their increase in
> value.
>
> Here in the trailer I have an 1897 copy of Ropp's 
> Commercial Calculator.
> http://www.nzeldes.com/HOC/RoppCalc.htm
>
> While looking for information on the above book I 
> discovered that Google has
> copies of the American Bee Journal online.  This 1894 
> issue gives away the
> Ropp's as a premium and has an article on stingless bees 
> from Costa Rica.
> Interesting in light of the Africanized Honeybees from 
> Brazil.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=1WZaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA578&lpg=PA578&dq=%22ropp%
> 27s+commercial+calculator%22&source=bl&ots=7EPxJjpCl0&sig=wARkNQDr5g4T_AXRvP
> _RI0rqWhA&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA29,M1
>
> I have a friend who does high end book binding and 
> restoration.  Every time
> I go visit he digs out something for me to see.  One 
> time he had a medieval
> chained book.  Another time he had the complete set of 
> photographs of the
> front line in October of 1918.  He makes storage boxes 
> for rare books and
> one time he showed me a complete set of signed books by 
> Ted Geisel.  Mr
> Geisel rarely signed his books, these came from a 
> neighbor of his in La
> Jolla.
>
> Don Bowen  KI6DIU
> http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
>
>
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