OT-Anyone have a particular fondness for Darwin & old Books? Free to a good home

[Peter Pallotta]

I was in a used bookstore last week, and found a first edition of Bernard Darwin's "British Golf". It seems in very fine condition, in its original dust jacket. (It doesn't even seem to have been 'cracked open', if you know what I mean.)

This is not to be confused with his "Golf Courses of the British Isles". This one is a slim book, maybe 45 pages or so, with his long historical and architectural essay broken up by photos and 'colour prints' of the people and places named. It is part of the "Britain in Pictures" series --London: Collins, 1946.

It only cost me $5 -- and truth be told I bought it simply because I thought someone here might be a fervent fan of such books. I don't need it or have the space for it, but I thought one of you might like it for an already extensive collection.

If so, feel free to IM me your mailing address and I'll put it in the mail. On the chance that more than one of you wants it, first IM or post here gets it.

Peter

*SOLD*

[Tim_Cronin]

Where is this bookstore? Both my golf and jazz collections need upgrading!

[Greg Hohman]

What Tim said.

[Peter Pallotta]

Gents -
the good news and 'bad news' about the bookstore
The good news: it's called MacLeod's Books, in downtown Vancouver (on West Pender), and it really is a lovely place to wander around -- especially because, while 20-30 years ago I seem to remember at least a half dozen such stores in a place like downtown Toronto, nowadays most all of them are gone. Anyway, two-and-a-half hours literally flew by browsing through floor to ceiling stacks of philosophy and history and religion and 'literature', with that old book smell and plenty of those great 12 volume leather bound collections/sets (on various subjects) from 1890 or 1924 that always look like they'd provide you Knowledge of the Definitive and/or Seminal and or Comprehensive kind. Which is to say: if you enjoy that and are in Vancouver, do go visit.

The 'bad news': I realized (from the several folks who asked about the bookstore itself) that, in writing my PS quickly, I probably left many with the wrong impression. On jazz/old music books, they had NONE at all, i.e. since such books don't sell very well, the owner simply boxed them up and took them to be stored off site; but re: golf-sports books, ALL the books they had were right there, on a single bookshelf, and because those don't sell very well either they were marked down 50% percent. But the Darwin first edition (which I bought as a gift), and an old hard-copy edition of Tommy Armour's "How to Play your Best Golf all the Time" (which I bought for myself, because I want to play my best golf all the time) were the only two they had that struck me as interesting/noteworthy; almost all the others were just used/paperback versions of sports books and golf how to books from the last couple of decades.
Anyway, just wanted to clear that up.

[Tommy Williamsen]

There were two used book store in Annapolis, MD, where I lived for 34 years. I'd drop in half a dozen times a year and just wander. I loved it and found some out of print books that I still have. When I was in Baltimore (1970-1973) I frequented the Peabody Book Store. It was just two blocks away from the Peabody School of Music and was a front for a speakeasy back in prohibition days. In the evenings the speakeasy was turned into a coffee house with folks singers. It was a grand place to buy a book and hear some music.


Alas, the vast majority os used book stores are closed. I for one miss them.

[Niall C]

Wigtown in the very south west of Scotland has an annual book festival usually attracting some well known names nationally and occasionally internationally, and has about a dozen bookshops mainly dealing in second hand books. How a town (village ?) with a population of about 1,000 and that is relatively so remote can support so many bookshops is a wonder. You probably need the best part of a day to do them justice and I'd certainly recommend a visit. Bookshops aside, it's a charming little town in a lovely and often overlooked corner of Scotland.


On my visit a couple of months ago I found in one of the shops the very Darwin book Peter mentions available for £6. I managed to resist the temptation as I have two copies already, so in the spirit of this thread if anyone wants a copy please let me know as I have one spare.


Likewise if anyone wishes a copy of Robert Price's "Scotland's Golf Courses" let me know.


Niall     

[Greg Hohman]

Long shot, Peter, but I called MacLeod’s about jazz books in storage, owner will contact me. My interest, fwiw, is the Pittsburgh jazz scene in 1946.

[Peter Pallotta]

Greg - am I remembering wrong or was your father a musician? A sax player? Big band jazz? If so, I’m doubly glad now that I posted and that I added the clarification — and of course wish you much luck with the search
Peter

ps - I don’t know what the ‘scene’ was like there back then, but there were a striking number of jazz greats who came out of Pittsburgh, including Earl Hines, Roy Eldridge, Art Blakey and — for a golf angle — the elegant Billy Eckstine, who Charlie Sifford taught to play and worked for (as a valet).

[Greg Hohman]

Peter, my father was a doctor. He played sax in his youth but gave it up afterward. It was touching to me, a rare sensation for me as a boy and teen in connection with him, to learn after his death in '85 that he had held on to the instrument. Alas, he did not impart a love of jazz to me. "Time Out" was on the turntable occasionally, that's all I remember about jazz back then. My youngest brother gets the credit for introducing me to jazz later in life.

Add to your list Turrentine, Marmarosa, etc. All due respect for Eckstine, but I have been unable to get into his music.

Sneak preview of where I am starting/going with this:

newmonumentsgc.com/portfolio/preview-the-open

[Peter Pallotta]

That’s a fascinating site, Greg — I had to leave or risk getting lost in it for hours. I’ll check in again.
All the best
P

[JMEvensky]

Peter, my father was a doctor. He played sax in his youth but gave it up afterward. It was touching to me, a rare sensation for me as a boy and teen in connection with him, to learn after his death in '85 that he had held on to the instrument. Alas, he did not impart a love of jazz to me. "Time Out" was on the turntable occasionally, that's all I remember about jazz back then. My youngest brother gets the credit for introducing me to jazz later in life.

Add to your list Turrentine, Marmarosa, etc. All due respect for Eckstine, but I have been unable to get into his music.

Sneak preview of where I am starting/going with this:

newmonumentsgc.com/portfolio/preview-the-open

I only looked at it for a minute but that site is fascinating. Is it all your creation?


And you found the right guy to get involved with something like that in Peter.

[John Kirk]

Peter, my father was a doctor. He played sax in his youth but gave it up afterward. It was touching to me, a rare sensation for me as a boy and teen in connection with him, to learn after his death in '85 that he had held on to the instrument. Alas, he did not impart a love of jazz to me. "Time Out" was on the turntable occasionally, that's all I remember about jazz back then. My youngest brother gets the credit for introducing me to jazz later in life.

Add to your list Turrentine, Marmarosa, etc. All due respect for Eckstine, but I have been unable to get into his music.

Sneak preview of where I am starting/going with this:

newmonumentsgc.com/portfolio/preview-the-open

Let's add George Benson to the list.

[Greg Hohman]

Yes, New Monuments is my monster, begun in August 2011 after admitting defeat as a playwright (see the Old Man’s history). I respect Peter and read every post by him, but we are, “I daresay,” not literary “soulmates.” I have read most of the “major” works in English and German (in the original) and very few outside the post WWII period still “grab” me. I am a “post modernist,” arguably “post humanist.” (One of my few readers commented: “You say you like golf!?”) NMGC’s “genre” is “metafiction.” I have not taken the traditional/easy route of appealing to a “captive audience.” Instead I have tried to appeal to “high brow” AND “average” readers in a multi-media electronic format that is more “natural” than words words words, though my editor, the Golf Widow, who studied under Derrida himself, among other luminaries, keeps me faithful to the Text. My success so far is hardly encouraging. Although I made the short list in a 2017 UK electronic fiction competition, my success measured in dollars is $125 since 2011.

[Peter Pallotta]

 
It’s true, Greg — some of my best friends (including my wife) are post-modern semiotician-types who love linguistics and Lacan and discourse analysis, but I can’t understand a single word they’re saying!

I try, and I have the distinct impression that they’re onto something very important, but I can’t make heads or tails of it!

A long time ago I used to think I was a fairly intelligent fellow, but nowadays I usually feel like a slug, a dullard. (The giveaway should’ve been when I dropped my Wittgenstein course at school.)

At some point between Aquinas and Derrida, or between Melville and DeLillo, or between Eliot and Corso the world passed me by! My only claim to ‘modernity’ is that I loved Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum” — and that’s probably only because I understand Italians and have a fondness for the Rosicrucians!

So you’re right, we’re probably not soulmates in that regard; but all that said, your site really was immediately appealing to me — maybe because it was so daunting. I mean, if we don’t try to go beyond what we know/are comfortable with, how do we ever grow?
I’m gonna keep checking in.
Best
P

[Tim_Cronin]

Gents -
the good news and 'bad news' about the bookstore
The good news: it's called MacLeod's Books, in downtown Vancouver (on West Pender), and it really is a lovely place to wander around -- especially because, while 20-30 years ago I seem to remember at least a half dozen such stores in a place like downtown Toronto, nowadays most all of them are gone. Anyway, two-and-a-half hours literally flew by browsing through floor to ceiling stacks of philosophy and history and religion and 'literature', with that old book smell and plenty of those great 12 volume leather bound collections/sets (on various subjects) from 1890 or 1924 that always look like they'd provide you Knowledge of the Definitive and/or Seminal and or Comprehensive kind. Which is to say: if you enjoy that and are in Vancouver, do go visit.

The 'bad news': I realized (from the several folks who asked about the bookstore itself) that, in writing my PS quickly, I probably left many with the wrong impression. On jazz/old music books, they had NONE at all, i.e. since such books don't sell very well, the owner simply boxed them up and took them to be stored off site; but re: golf-sports books, ALL the books they had were right there, on a single bookshelf, and because those don't sell very well either they were marked down 50% percent. But the Darwin first edition (which I bought as a gift), and an old hard-copy edition of Tommy Armour's "How to Play your Best Golf all the Time" (which I bought for myself, because I want to play my best golf all the time) were the only two they had that struck me as interesting/noteworthy; almost all the others were just used/paperback versions of sports books and golf how to books from the last couple of decades.
Anyway, just wanted to clear that up.

Peter, thanks. Used book stores are wonderful to prowl.