As you were.

Know what these are? I found them tucked into a couple of books that were part of a larger archive I’ve been cataloging. Go ahead, click on them. I’ll wait.

Back? Any guesses?

They’re stamped, postmarked and mailed envelopes from Paul Bowles.

Only problem? They’re empty.

And no sign of the letters they once contained anywhere. I’ve looked three times.

*sigh*

For seventy years, Paul Elder’s bookstores were a fixture in downtown San Francisco. There was not a single bookstore but a series of six, plus short-lived forays to New York City and Santa Barbara. The early shops were the most memorable, small momuments to the Arts & Crafts aesthetic. They were known as much for their ambience and array of art objects as for the books themselves.

Seems if this bit of ephemera is any indication those last two sentences are certainly true.

Junk is a major problem, it tends to creep in. The taste of the bookseller is important. We sell only our kind of books, a general humanities selection, all in very good condition.”

$100,000 in cash, a getaway car and a copy of The Widow’s Son, a 1985 novel about secret societies in an 18th century Parisian prison.

From Time.

And the flier stars…monkeys, apes, and other primates.

?!

As pharmacists.

!?!?

With “funny” captions.

Only, more often than not, the captions are just creepy. Or strange. Or unintelligible. It’s almost Dada-esque in its sheer weirdness.

To appreciate in all its glory, I’ve created a Flickr set of the complete book for your enjoyment. I especially recommend page eight.

Don’t know if he’ll grow up to be a druggist, but I’ll bet he’ll take some…

Tom Waits Interviews Tom Waits:

Q: You’ve always enjoyed the connection between fashion and history…talk to us about that.
A: Ok let’s take the two piece bathing suit, produced in 1947 by a French fashion designer. The sight of the first woman in the minimal two piece was as explosive as the detonation of the atomic bomb by the U.S. at Bikini Island in the Marshall Isles, hence the naming of the bikini.

Also, Foo Fighters’ friggin’ brilliant 2008 Concert Rider:

Also, here are some cool things to do with meat and meat examples.
Fried turkey, fried chicken, fried anything, really.
Sausages, veggie sausages. Big ass kielbasas that make men self conscious. Any sort of tubed meat. Maybe a night of “Fair Foods.”
Cornish game hens.
Meat - in loaf form. Turkey meatloaf.
Bacon. I call it “god’s currency.” Hell, if it could be breathed, I would.
Bacon in any form is great. No as an entree, just in general.

…Which is itself a revision of this almost-as-funny earlier incarnation, which in turn was inspired by the legendary Iggy Pop.

Carry on.

I’ve never seen a bookplate that so prominently included a portrait of the owner before. The good (hirsute) doctor even stamped the title page of the book: “Private Library / O.V. Lawson M.D. / Seattle, Wash.” Guess he REALLY wanted people to know it was HIS book.

Found in THE NEW CENTURY READS BY GRADES: Book 3 (Rand McNally, 1901).

Well, he is:

John might look like a man possessed when he is watching football but, in reality, he is yet another Portsmouth curiosity. It is rather bewildering to find him going about his day job - he is an antiquarian book dealer in the pretty market town of Petersfield.

“People look at me and think I must be some madman off a building site, but books are my life,” he whispers as we meet in the family bookshop.

His late father was a well-known book dealer, his brother is the Queen’s paper conservator at Windsor Castle and John has written a book himself.

And in other news, fellow bookseller Michael Lieberman of Wessel and Lieberman has invited me to be a regular contributor on his blog, Book Patrol. So now you’ll find me there and here.

Advancements in book technology include binding, glue and typography, an artistic/technical undertaking that computer manufacturers are just beginning to glimpse. Page and type sizes have subtleties most makers of digital counterparts have yet to imagine. Everything in a book, from its type and layout to the thickness of its pages, has been carefully orchestrated to deliver the optimal reading experience for its intended audience.

From: 7 Reasons Why Scifi Book Series Outstay Their Welcomes.

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