AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Our latest video is a short celebration of used books, which are at the heart of the AbeBooks world. If you love vintage Penguin paperbacks, discovering a long forgotten out-of-print gem, or just receiving amazing value for money when book-buying, then this video is for you.

The Tour de France remains one of the world’s most significant and most grueling sporting events. The world’s most famous bicycle race was first staged in 1903 and its long history mirrors the development of the bicycle as a method of transport for leisure and work. Advertising posters for bikes have been around for even longer, stretching across art movements such as Belle Epoche and Art Deco. Enjoy these 10 original bicycle advertising posters, all offered for sale by the AntikBar poster gallery in London.

A striking French Art Deco poster from 1928, designed by Maurice Lauro. Automoto was a French bicycle and motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1902. It became part of Peugeot in 1930. $4,585.

A 1930 poster. The boy is saying “I also have a Peugeot” as a blue Peugeot car drives by. $850.

This 1908 Peugeot poster reflects the militaristic sentiments felt across Europe at this time as nations armed themselves for war. One soldier hands a message to a mounted colleague. Cycles Peugeot was founded in 1882 in France. $1,572

A very British poster from 1930. Phillips was formed in 1908 and later became part of Raleigh. The Birmingham-based manufacturer was Britain’s second-largest bicycle producer for many years after Raleigh. $580

The French also liked lions. This 1900 poster pitches Rochet cycles for customers around the world. $1,570.

Terrot was a manufacturer in Dijon, France. It began by building both bicycles and motorbikes before focusing solely on motorcycles. This 1920 poster combines their product lines. $1,040.

Boy meets girl. Royal Enfield was a brand name of the Enfield Cycle Company which manufactured motorcycles, bicycles, lawnmowers and stationary engines. $450

A Spanish poster from 1929. “Pulphi, the queen of the bicycles,” reads the tagline. The poster’s text at the bottom reads ‘champion of Spain’, but the Vuelta a España (Spain’s equivalent of the Tour de France) did not start until the 1930s. $710.

A Belle Epoque-style poster from 1890, advertising Humber cycles, a premium British manufacturer of bicycles founded by Thomas Humber, who expanded into various overseas markets. Humber eventually moved into making cars. Is the lady going to ride the bike that dress? $1,240

Riders using Automoto bicycles won the Tour de France in 1923, 1924 and 1925 – a fact that the company used in their advertising in 1925. Oddly, the winning riders suffered tragic ends. Frenchman Henri Pélissier won in 1923 but was shot by his lover in 1935. Italian Ottavio Bottecchia won in 1924 and 1925, but was found badly injured by a roadside in 1927. He died 12 days later. His death remains a mystery. $980

Marilyn Monroe was an avid reader. Books were a huge part of her life. In 1999, Christie’s staged an auction of her belongings, including her books. The list of the books from her shelves, published by the Booktryst blog several years ago, reveals the actress had an epic personal library, stretching across numerous genres.

There are more than 400 titles on the list. Some are famous and still read today, some are now forgotten. The books appear to show a well-rounded person interested in fiction and non-fiction, and a deep appreciation of fine writing and books that challenge the reader to understand people and the world around them.

The list came to our attention after we heard about the Pinup Book Club, a community dedicated to reading the books from Monroe’s personal library, and also appreciating pinup culture.

Each month, members read a different book from Marilyn’s library, which includes art, biographies, classical works, gardening and pets, literature, plays, religion, and much more.

Carly Maris is the founder of the Pinup Book Club, which operates mostly via Instagram. Carly joined us for an AbeBooks podcast interview to discuss the origins of the club, and the challenges and joys of reading a library from the 1950s. Obviously, Marilyn, who was photographed reading on numerous occasions, featured heavily in our discussion.

Monroe was just 36 when she died in 1962. For reference, here’s the list.

1) Let’s Make Love by Matthew Andrews
2) How To Travel Incognito by Ludwig Bemelmans
3) To The One I Love Best by Ludwig Bemelmans
4) Thurber Country by James Thurber
5) The Fall by Albert Camus
6) Marilyn Monroe by George Carpozi
7) Camille by Alexander Dumas
8) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
9) The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt-Farmer
10) The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
11) From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming
12) The Art Of Loving by Erich Fromm
13) The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
14) Ulysses by James Joyce
15) Stoned Like A Statue: A Complete Survey Of Drinking Cliches, Primitive, Classical & Modern by Howard Kandel & Don Safran
16) The Last Temptation Of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
17) On The Road by Jack Kerouac
18) Selected Poems by DH Lawrence
19 and 20) Sons And Lovers by DH Lawrence (2 editions)
21) The Portable by DH Lawrence
22) Etruscan Places by DH Lawrence
23) DH Lawrence: A Basic Study Of His Ideas by Mary Freeman
24) The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
25) The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
26) Death In Venice & Seven Other Stories by Thomas Mann
27) Last Essays by Thomas Mann
28) The Thomas Mann Reader
29) Hawaii by James Michener
30) Red Roses For Me by Sean O’Casey
31) I Knock At The Door by Sean O’Casey
32) Selected Plays by Sean O’Casey
33) The Green Crow by Sean O’Casey
34) Golden Boy by Clifford Odets
35) Clash By Night by Clifford Odets
36) The Country Girl by Clifford Odets
37) 6 Plays Of Clifford Odets
38) The Cat With 2 Faces by Gordon Young
39) Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill
40) Part Of A Long Story: Eugene O’Neill As A Young Man In Love by Agnes Boulton
41) The Little Engine That Could by Piper Watty
42) The New Joy Of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer & Marion Rombauer-Becker
43) Selected Plays Of George Bernard Shaw
44) Ellen Terry And Bernard Shaw: A Correspondence
45) Bernard Shaw & Mrs Patrick Campbell: Their Correspondence
46) The Short Reign Of Pippin IV by John Steinbeck
47) Once There Was A War by John Steinbeck
48) Set This House On Fire by William Styron
49) Lie Down In Darkness by William Styron
50) The Roman Spring Of Mrs Stone by Tennessee Williams
51) Camino Real by Tennessee Williams
52) A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
53) The Flower In Drama And Glamour by Stark Young

American Literature
54) Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
55) The Story Of A Novel by Thomas Wolfe
56) Look Homeward Angel by Thomas Wolfe
57) A Stone, A Leaf, A Door by Thomas Wolfe
58) Thomas Wolfe’s Letters To His Mother edited by John Skally Terry
59) A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
60) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
61) Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
62) Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
63) Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
64) The American Claimant & Other Stories & Sketches by Mark Twain
65) In Defense of Harriet Shelley & Other Essays by Mark Twain
66) The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
67) Roughing It by Mark Twain
68) The Magic Christian by Terry Southern
69) A Death In The Family by James Agee
70) The War Lover by John Hersey
71) Don’t Call Me By My Right Name & Other Stories by James Purdy
72) Malcolm by James Purdy

Anthologies
73) The Portable Irish Reader (pub. Viking)
74) The Portable Edgar Allan Poe
75) The Portable Walt Whitman
76) This Week’s Short Stories (New York, 1953)
77) Bedside Book Of Famous Short Stories
78) Short Novels Of Colette
79) Short Story Masterpieces (New York, 1960)
80) The Passionate Playgoer by George Oppenheimer
81) Fancies And Goodnights by John Collier
82) Evergreen Review, Vol 2, No. 6
83) The Medal & Other Stories by Luigi Pirandello

Art
84) Max Weber
85) Renoir by Albert Skira
86) Max by Giovannetti Pericle
87) The Family Of Man by Carl Sandburg
88-90) Horizon, A Magazine Of The Arts (Nov 1959, Jan 1960, Mar 1960.)
91) The Drawings of Jean Dubuffet by Daniel Cordier

Biography
92) The Summing Up by W. Somerset Maugham
93) Close To Colette by Maurice Goudeket
94) This Demi-Paradise by Margaret Halsey
95) God Protect Me From My Friends by Gavin Maxwell
96) Minister Of Death: The Adolf Eichmann Story by Quentin Reynolds, Ephraim Katz and Zwy Aldouby
97) Dance To The Piper by Agnes DeMille
98) Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It by Mae West
99) Act One by Moss Hart

Christian Science
100) Science And Health With Key To The Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
101) Poems, Including Christ And Christmas by Mary Baker Eddy

Classical Works
102) Peace And Lysistrata: Two Plays by Aristophanes
103) The Nature Of Things by Lucretius
104) The Philosophy Of Plato
105) Mythology by Edith Hamilton
106) Theory Of Poetry And Fine Art by Aristotle
107) Metaphysics by Aristotle
108-111) Plutarch’s Lives, Vols 3-6 only (of 6) by William and John Langhorne

Counter-Culture
112) Bound For Glory by Woody Guthrie
113) The Support Of The Mysteries by Paul Breslow
114) Paris Blues by Harold Flender
115) The Shook-Up Generation by Harrison E. Salisbury

Foreign-Language Texts And Translations
116) An Mands Ansigt by Arthur Miller
117) Independent People by Halldor Laxness
118) Mujer by Lina Rolan
119) The Havamal, ed. D.E. Martin Clarke
120) Yuan Mei: 18th Century Chinese Poet by Arthur Waley
121) Almanach: Das 73 Jahr by S. Fischer Verlag

French Literature
122) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
123) The Works Of Rabelais
124) The Guermantes Way by Marcel Proust
125) Cities Of The Plain by Marcel Proust
126) Within A Budding Grove by Marcel Proust
127) The Sweet Cheat Gone by Marcel Proust
128) The Captive by Marcel Proust
129) Nana by Emile Zola
130) Plays by Moliere

Freud
131) The Life And Work of Sigmund Freud by Ernest Jones
132) Letters Of Sigmund Freud edited by Ernst L. Freud
133) Glory Reflected by Martin Freud
134) Moses And Monotheism by Sigmund Freud
135) Conditioned Reflex Therapy by Andrew Salter


Gardening and Pets
136-137) The Wise Garden Encyclopedia edited by E.L.D. Seymour (2 editions)
138) Landscaping Your Own Home by Alice Dustan
139) Outpost Nurseries – publicity brochure
140) The Forest And The Sea by Marston Bates
141) Pet Turtles by Julien Bronson
142) The Golden Throng: A Book About Bees by Edwin Way Teale
143) Codfish, Cats & Civilization by Gary Webster

Humor
144) How To Do It, Or, The Art Of Lively Entertaining by Elsa Maxwell
145) Wake Up, Stupid by Mark Harris
146) Merry Christmas, Happy New Year by Phyllis McGinley
147) The Hero Maker by Akbar Del Piombo & Norman Rubington
148) How To Talk At Gin by Ernie Kovacs
149) VIP Tosses A Party by Virgil Partch
150) Who Blowed Up The Church House & Other Ozark Folk Tales edited Randolph Vance
151) Snobs by Russell Lynes

Judaica
152) The Form of Daily Prayers
153) Sephath Emeth (Speech Of Truth): Order Of Prayers For The Wholes Year In Jewish and English
154) The Holy Scriptures According To The Masoretic Text

Literature
155) The Law by Roger Vailland
156) The Building by Peter Martin
157) The Mermaids by Boros
158) They Came To Cordura by Glendon Swarthout
159) The 7th Cross by Anna Seghers
160) A European Education by Romain Gary
161) Strike For A Kingdom by Menna Gallie
162) The Slide Area by Gavin Lambert
163) The Woman Who Was Poor by Leon Bloy
164) Green Mansions by W.H. Hudson
165) The Contenders by John Wain
166) The Best Of All Worlds, Or, What Voltaire Never Knew by Hans Jorgen Lembourn
167) The Story Of Esther Costello by Nicholas Montsarrat
168) Oh Careless Love by Maurice Zolotow
169) Add A Dash Of Pity by Peter Ustinov
170) An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
171) The Mark Of The Warrior by Paul Scott
172) The Dancing Bear by Edzard Schaper
173) Miracle In The Rain by Ben Hecht
174) The Guide by R.K. Narayan
175) Blow Up A Storm by Garson Kanin
176) Jonathan by Russell O’Neil
177) Fowlers End by Gerald Kersh
178) Hurricane Season by Ralph Winnett
179) The un-Americans by Alvah Bessie
180) The Devil’s Advocate by Morris L. West
181) On Such A Night by Anthony Quayle
182) Say You Never Saw Me by Arthur Nesbitt
183) All The Naked Heroes by Alan Kapelner
184) Jeremy Todd by Hamilton Maule
185) Miss America by Daniel Stern
186) Fever In The Blood by William Pearson
187) Spartacus by Howard Fast
188) Venetian Red by P.M. Pasinetti
189) A Cup Of Tea For Mr Thorgill by Storm Jameson
190) Six O’Clock Casual by Henry W. Cune
191) Mischief by Charlotte Armstrong
192) The Ginkgo Tree by Sheelagh Burns
193) The Mountain Road by Theodore H. White
194) Three Circles Of Light by Pietro Di Donato
195) The Day The Money Stopped by Brendan Gill
196) The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins
197-198) Justine by Lawrence Durrell (2 editions)
199) Balthazar by Larence Durrell
200) Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
201) The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
202) The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett
203) Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog by Dylan Thomas
204) Hear Us O Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place by Malcolm Lowry

Modern Library
205) The Sound And The Fury/As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
206) God’s Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell
207) Anna Christie/The Emperor Jones/The Hairy Ape by Eugene O’Neill
208) The Philosophy Of Schopenhauer by Irwin Edman
209) The Philosophy Of Spinoza by Joseph Ratner
210) The Dubliners by James Joyce
211) Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson
212) The Collected Short Stories by Dorothy Parker
213) Selected Works by Alexander Pope
214) The Red And The Black by Stendhal
215) The Life Of Michelangelo Buonarroti by John Addington
216) Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
217) Three Famous French Romances
218) Napoleon by Emil Ludwig
219) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (second copy)
220) The Poems And Fairy-Tales by Oscar Wilde
221) Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass/The Hunting Of The Snark by Lewis Carroll
222) A High Wind In Jamaica by Richard Hughes
223) An Anthology Of American Negro Literature edited by Sylvestre C. Watkins

Music
224) Beethoven: His Spiritual Development by J.W.N. Sullivan
225) Music For The Millions by David Ewen
226) Schubert by Ralph Bates
227) Men Of Music by Wallace Brockway and Herbert Weinstock

Plays
228) The Potting Shed by Graham Greene
229) Politics In The American Drama by Caspar Nannes
230) Sons Of Men by Herschel Steinhardt
231) Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin
232) Untitled & Other Radio Dramas by Norman Corwin
233) Thirteen By Corwin by Norman Corwin
234) More By Corwin by Norman Corwin
235) Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill (second copy)
236) Best American Plays: Third Series 1945-1951
237) Theatre ’52 by John Chapman
238) 16 Famous European Plays by Bennett Cerf and Van H. Cartmell
239) The Complete Plays Of Henry James
240) 20 Best Plays Of The Modern American Theatre by John Gassner
241) Elizabethan Plays by Hazelton Spencer
242) Critics’ Choice by Jack Gaver
243) Modern American Dramas by Harlan Hatcher
244) The Album Of The Cambridge Garrick Club

European Poetry
245) A Shropshire Lad by A.E. Houseman
246) The Poetry & Prose Of Heinrich Heine by Frederich Ewen
247) The Poetical Works Of John Milton by H.C. Beeching
248) The Poetical Works Of Robert Browning
249) Wordsworth by Richard Wilbur
250) The Poetical Works Of Shelley
251) The Portable Blake by William Blake
252) William Shakespeare: Sonnets edited by Mary Jane Gorton
253) Poems Of Robert Burns edited by Henry Meikle & William Beattie
254) The Penguin Book Of English Verse edited by John Hayward
255) Aragon: Poet Of The French Resistance by Hannah Josephson & Malcolm Cowley
256) Star Crossed by MarjorieTilden

American Poetry
257 and 258) Collected Sonnets by Edna St Vincent Millay (2 editions)
259) Robert Frost’s Poems by Louis Untermeyer
260) Poe: Complete Poems
261) The Life And Times Of Archy And Mehitabel by Don Marquis
262) Pocket Book Of Modern Verse by Oscar Williams
263) Poems by John Tagliabue
264) Selected Poems by Rafael Alberti
265) Selected Poetry by Robinson Jeffers
266) The American Puritans: Their Prose & Poetry by Perry Miller
267) Selected Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke
268) Poet In New York by Federico Garcia Lorca
269) The Vapor Trail by Ivan Lawrence Becker
270) Love Poems & Love Letters For All The Year
271) 100 Modern Poems edited by Selden Rodman
272) The Sweeniad by Myra Buttle
273) Poetry: A Magazine Of Verse, Vol.70, no. 6

Politics
274) The Wall Between by Anne Braden
275) The Roots Of American Communism by Theodore Draper
276) A View Of The Nation – An Anthology: 1955-1959 edited by Henry Christaman
277) A Socialist’s Faith by Norman Thomas
278-279) Rededication To Freedom by Benjamin Ginzburg (2 copies)
280) The Ignorant Armies by E.M. Halliday
281) Commonwealth Vs Sacco & Vanzetti by Robert P. Weeks
282) Journey To The Beginning by Edgar Snow
283) Das Kapital by Karl Marx
284) Lidice by Eleanor Wheeler
285) The Study Of History by Arnold Toynbee
286) America The Vincible by Emmet John Hughes
287) The Unfinished Country by Max Lerner
288) Red Mirage by John O’Kearney
289) Background & Foreground – The New York Times Magazine: An Anthology edited by Lester Markel
290) The Failure Of Success by Esther Milner
291) A Piece Of My Mind by Edmund Wilson
292) The Truth About The Munich Crisis by Viscount Maugham
293) The Alienation Of Modern Man by Fritz Pappenheim
294) A Train Of Powder by Rebecca West
295) Report From Palermo by Danilo Dolci
296) The Devil In Massachusetts by Marion Starkey
297) American Rights: The Constitution In Action by Walter Gellhorn
298) Night by Francis Pollini
299) The Right Of The People by William Douglas
300) The Jury Is Still Out by Irwin Davidson and Richard Gehman
301) First Degree by William Kunstler
302) Democracy In America by Alexis De Tocqueville
303) World Underworld by Andrew Varna

Prayer
304) Catechism For Young Children
305) Prayer Changes Things
306) The Prophet by Kahlil Bibran (a second copy)
307) The Magic Word by Robert Collier
308) The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (a third copy)
309) His Brother’s Keeper by Milton Gross (3-page extract from Readers’ Digest, Dec 1961)
310) Christliches Vergissmeinnicht by K. Ehmann
311) And It Was Told Of A Certain Potter by Walter C. Lanyon
312) Bahai Prayers

Psychology
313) Man Against Himself by Karl A. Menninger
314) The Tower And The Abyss by Erich Kahler
315) Something To Live By by Dorothea S. Kopplin
316) Man’s Supreme Inheritance by Alexander F. Matthias
317) The Miracles Of Your Mind by Joseph Murphy
318) The Wisdom Of The Sands by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
319) A Prison, A Paradise by Loran Hurnscot
320) The Magic Of Believing by Claude M. Bristol
321) Peace Of Mind by Joshua Loth Liebman
322) The Use Of The Self by Alexander F. Matthias
323) The Power Within You by Claude M. Bristol
324) The Call Girl by Harold Greenwald
325) Troubled Women by Lucy Freeman
326) Relax And Live by Joseph A. Kennedy
327) Forever Young, Forever Healthy by Indra Devi
328) The Open Self by Charles Morris
329) Hypnotism Today by Leslie Lecron & Jean Bordeaux
330) The Masks Of God: Primitive Mythology by Joseph Campbell
331) Some Characteristics Of To-day by Rudolph Steiner

Reference
332) Baby & Child Care by Dr Benjamin Spock
333) Flower Arranging For Fun by Hazel Peckinpaugh Dunlop
334) Hugo’s Pocket Dictionary: French-English And English-French
335) Spoken French For Travellers And Tourists by Charles Kany & Mathurin Dondo
336) Roget’s Pocket Thesaurus by C.O. Mawson & K.A. Whiting

Religion
337) What Is A Jew? by Morris Kertzer
338) A Partisan Guide To The Jewish Problem by Milton Steinberg
339) The Tales Of Rabbi Nachman by Martin Buber
340) The Saviors Of God: Spiritual Exercises by Nikos Kazantzakis
341) The Prophet by Kahlil Gilbran (4th copy)
342) The Dead Sea Scrolls by Millar Burrows
343) The Secret Books Of The Egyptian Gnostics by Jean Doresse
344) Jesus by Kahlil Gilbran
345) Memories Of A Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy
346) Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell

Russian Literature
347) Redemption & Two Other Plays by Leo Tolstoy
348) The Portable Chekhov
349) The House Of The Dead by Fyodor Dostoevsky
350) Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
351) Best Russian Stories: An Anthology edited by Thomas Seltzer
352) The Plays Of Anton Chekhov
353) Smoke by Ivan Turgenev
354) The Poems, Prose & Plays Of Alexander Pushkin
355) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Science
356) Our Knowledge Of The External World by Bertrand Russell
357) Common Sense And Nuclear Warfare by Bertrand Russell
358) Out Of My Later Years by Albert Einstein
359) Men And Atoms by William Laurence
360) Man Alive: You’re Half Dead by Daniel Colin Munro
361) Doctor Pygmalion by Maxwell Maltz
362) Panorama: A New Review edited by R.F. Tannenbaum
363) Everyman’s Search by Rebecca Beard
364) Of Stars And Men by Harlow Shapley
365) From Hiroshima To The Moon by Daniel Lang
366) The Open Mind by J. Robert Oppenheimer
367) Sexual Impotence In The Male by Leonard Paul Wershub

Scripts And Readings
368) Medea by Robinson Jeffers
369) Antigone by Jean Anouilh
370) Bell, Book And Candle by John Van Druten
371) The Women by Clare Boothe
372) Joan Of Lorraine by Maxwell Anderson

Travel
373) The Sawbwa And His Secretary by C.Y. Lee
374) The Twain Shall Meet by Christopher Rand
375) Kingdom Of The Rocks by Consuelo De Saint-Exupery
376) The Heart Of India by Alexander Campbell
377) Man-Eaters Of India by Jim Corbett
378) Jungle Lore by Jim Corbett
379) My India by Jim Corbett
380) A Time In Rome by Elizabeth Bowen
381) London by Jacques Boussard
382) New York State Vacationlands
383) Russian Journey by William O. Douglas
384) The Golden Bough by James G. Frazer

Women Authors
385) The Portable Dorothy Parker
386) My Antonia by Willa Cather
387) Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather
388) The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe by Carson McCullers
389) The Short Novels Of Colette (A second copy)
390) The Little Disturbances Of Man by Grace Paley

There are other books which weren’t included in the auction that Monroe was reported either to have read or owned.

391) The Autobiography Of Lincoln Steffens
392-403) Abraham Lincoln (multiple volumes) by Carl Sandburg
404) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
405) Poems Of W.B. Yeats
406) Mister Johnson by Joyce Cary
407) The Thinking Body by Mabel Elsworth Todd
408) The Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavsky
409) The Bible
410) The Biography Of Eleanora Duse by William Weaver
411) De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Andreas Vesalius
412) Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
413) Gertrude Lawrence As Mrs A by Richard Aldrich
414) Goodnight Sweet Prince by Gene Fowler
415) Mythology by Edith Hamilton
416) Stanislavsky Directs by Nikolai Mikhailovich Gorchakov
417) I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson
418) The Importance Of Living by Lin Yutang
419) Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
420) Psychopathology Of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud
421) The Rains Came by Louis Broomfield
422) The Rights Of Man by Thomas Paine
423) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
424) To The Actor by Michael Chekhov
425) Captain Newman, M.D. by Leo Calvin Rosten
426) Songs For Patricia by Norman Rosten
427) A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
428) Lust For Life by Irving Stone
429) The Deer Park by Norman Mailer
430) The Rebel by Albert Camus

This is Nicole Kilburn, who is an anthropologist at Camosun College in Victoria, BC – just a few kilometers from the AbeBooks office. Nicole is the author of a book called The Future has an Ancient Heart: Southern Italian Food Traditions in a Modern World.

We interviewed Nicole for the latest AbeBooks podcast, discussing a variety of topics from the origins of pizza and pasta to the numerous challenges faced by traditional food producers in Southern Italy.

Nicole’s book addresses staples of Italian dining such as olives, lemons, bread, and almonds. She recounts time spent in Italy with farmers and shepherds, learning about their dedication to traditional food production in a modern age. There are recipes too. Enjoy the interview.

Anthony Casillo – who goes by Tony and is interviewed in the latest AbeBooks podcast – is the author of Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing. Tony repairs typewriters, collects typewriters and sells typewriters. His book features 80 of his own typewriters, manufactured between 1874, the very early days of typewriters, and 1969, when offices across the world rang to the rhythmic sound of typewriters.

Tony’s book is a visual homage to the golden age of the typewriter, covering the development of the QWERTY keyboard to mass produced portable machines. His descriptions explain the history and significance of each machine, and the companies behind them. The photography charts the development of the technology into machines we now recognize.

Bruce Curtis supplied the photography and Tom Hanks (yes, that Tom Hanks, an avid typewriter collector) provided a foreword, featuring 11 reasons to use a typewriter and he does mention the words “chick magnet”.

Our podcast interview covers Ian Fleming’s gold typewriter, the problems of carrying typewriters home on the subway, how antique machines are repaired, and the fascination that young people have with typewriter technology.

Find copies of Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing.

Tony’s website offers a wealth of information about his career. He has been in the typewriter industry for more than 40 years and describes how it all began.

My first experience with an antique typewriter, or any antique for that matter, took place in the late 1970s.  While employed as a repairman for a typewriter company in New York City, I discovered an old, dusty Oliver typewriter.  It was sitting on a shelf in a back storage room where neglected and unwanted typewriters were kept.  With a dark green painted body, three rows of keys and its type sitting high above the carriage, it was unlike any typewriter I had ever seen.

Giuliano Bugialli, one of the great champions of Italian cooking, has died at the age of 88. The writer and culinary historian wrote numerous cookbooks on Italian cuisine.

Dedicated to food history, Florence-born Bugialli helped popularize traditional Italian dishes in the United States through his writing, TV appearances and cooking classes.

He published his first book, The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, in 1977 and went on to write 11 more books, and win three James Beard Awards.

He began his working life in Italy as an Italian language teacher for visiting American students.

In 1972, he founded a cooking school in Florence and then moved to New York.

His cookbooks include Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking, Foods of Italy, Bugialli on Pasta, Taste of Italy and Foods of Sicily & Sardinia and the Smaller Islands.

This seemingly unremarkable 17th century German theology book could actually be straight off a Harry Potter movie set.

The book is supposed to contain the works of Sebastião Barradas, a Portuguese theologian, who died in 1615. But there is nothing godly about this object. The book has a hollowed out interior, which contains a secret compartment designed to hold poisons.

The pages have been pasted together and the cavity contains 10 small drawers, and a mirror-lined compartment holding four glass bottles.

Just like something that might be found in Professor Snape’s potions classroom, each drawer is labelled in German with the name of a poisonous plant – Banewort (Tollkirsche), Devil’s Snare (Stechäpfel), Hemlock (Schierling), Opium (Schlafmohn), Wormwood (Wermut), Henbane (Bilsenkraut), Wolfsbane (Eisenhut), Daphne (Seidelbast) and Foxglove (Fingerhut).

Banewort and Devil’s snare are both part of the deadly nightshade family. Hemlock is highly toxic and was used to execute prisoners in Ancient Greece (Socrates took it to kill himself). Wormwood is a bitter herb and found in absinthe. Henbane is a poisonous plant with hallucinogenic properties that was associated with witchcraft in the Middle Ages. Foxgloves, famous for its purple flowers, are toxic but rarely deadly. Wolfsbane was used to tip poisoned arrows in some cultures. Daphne is a toxic shrub with berries that will make you very ill if eaten.

The cabinet also features a pastedown with a grim Latin quote from Hebrews (9:27): “Statutum est hominibus semel mori” which means ‘All men are destined to die once’.

The book was almost certainly a prank and owned by someone with a very dark sense of humor. Or was it?

This book is for sale from a bookseller in Vienna called Antiquariat INLIBRIS, priced at $10,940.

A novel banned by the Nazis has been published in English for the first time after being translated by rare bookseller Simon Beattie.

At the Edge of the Night (Am Rande der Nacht in German) by Friedo Lampe was published in 1933, but it immediately infuriated the Nazis for its homoerotic content and depiction of an interracial liaison between a black man and a white German woman.

The Nazis removed all copies from sale and placed the book on their list of “damaging and undesirable writings”

Beattie’s English translation has been published by Hesperus Press. He told The Guardian:

“Lampe’s a very interesting author: a disabled, gay writer during the Third Reich … who somehow survived only to be shot by a Red Army patrol days before the end of the war. Although he gets an entry in The Oxford Companion to German Literature, nothing by him has ever appeared in English before.”

Simon Beattie

Beattie’s introduction to the novel reveals Lampe’s grave is marked with a wooden cross, carved with the words “Du bist nicht einsam”, or “you are not alone”.

The novel is set in Bremen and is an early example of magical realism.

Beattie has run his own bookselling business since 2010. Before that, he spent 10 years working for Bernard Quaritch’s antiquarian bookselling firm.

The archives of America’s leading ufologist, Wendelle C. Stevens, have gone on sale for $35,000 on AbeBooks.com. More than 5,000 photos of UFO sightings, and more than 300 letters, drawings, manuscripts and VHS tapes are included in the vast collection, which also features rare UFO periodicals from the golden age of flying saucer investigation.

A former colonel in the US Air Force, Stevens (1945-2010) studied and investigated UFOs for more than 50 years, and is believed to have created the world’s largest private UFO photo archive. This collection was recovered from a storage locker eight years after Stevens died. Back of Beyond Books, in Moab, Utah, is now offering the archives for sale after going through 24 boxes of materials.

Stevens’ interest in unidentified flying objects began when he was a pilot in the Arctic, where he encountered mysterious radio transmissions while working as part of a classified project to photograph and map the area.

Stevens formally began his UFO investigations after retiring from the US Air Force. In 1979, he published a 4-volume book called UFO… Contact from the Pleiades, which detailed the extraterrestrial experiences of Eduard “Billy” Meier, who claimed to have numerous encounters with alien lifeforms.

For decades, Stevens collected evidence of sightings, and researched and wrote articles on encounters while also speaking at UFO conferences around the world. He was the Director of Investigations for the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) and a founder of the International UFO Congress.

The UFO periodicals in the archives include Saucers Space & Science, Flying Saucers (Mysteries of the Space Age), Flying Saucer Review, Flying Saucers the Magazine of Space Conquest, Japan Flying Saucer Investigation, Flying Saucer News, and Spacecraft News.

See the archives.

Although a full bookshelf is always easy on the eye, a shelf filled with a complete set or collection can be stunning. Below are some of the most eye-catching examples of sets available on AbeBooks. There’s fiction, politics, art. children’s books, Penguins and spies.

A complete set of James Bond first editions: Published by Jonathan Cape between 1953 and 1966, Ian Fleming produced 14 Bond books. The publisher didn’t expect the first book, Casino Royale, to sell and printed less than 5,000 copies. Demand for 007 first editions is high and this set costs a whopping $100,000. They’d look stunning on anyone’s shelf – an instant talking point.

A complete set of Pan James Bond paperbacks: Don’t despair if you can’t afford the true 007 first editions, these Pan first editions are $99,000 cheaper. Completely different artwork, Bond is blonde on the front of Casino Royale.

A complete set of Swallows and Amazons books: For sheer coordinated beauty on a shelf, Arthur Ransome’s children’s books cannot be beaten. These are a mixture of editions and cost $570. Set in the Lake District, these classic stories involve a lot of messing about in boats. The first two books feature illustrations by Clifford Webb.

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell: Four novels (a tetralogy) published by Faber & Faber between 1957 and 1960. The first three books describe three different perspectives on a single set of events and characters in Egypt. Look at the hand-prints on the spines. $2,750 for these first editions.

The Dance to the Music of Time series by Anthony Powell: Imagine having these on your shelves? Twelve novels published between 1951 and 1973. These are first editions and priced at $8,700. Inspired by a painting by Nicolas Poussin, the series, often comic, depicts English culture, manners and society.

Complete set of Strand Magazines featuring Sherlock Holmes: You are looking at literary history. The 56 Holmes stories and the two novels were first published in the Strand Magazine. Fragile and scarce, this set is priced at $85,000.

The lithographs of Marc Chagall: Complete in six volumes. This is the French language edition published between 1960 and 1986. The price is $6,500.

A complete set of Narnia first editions: Look at the spines. So many old friends from Jewel the Unicorn to Mr Tumnus. Published by Geoffrey Bles between 1950 and 1956 with memorable illustrations by Pauline Baynes. Children’s books take a beating usually – these are in near fine condition. $48,500.

A set of Churchill’s wartime speeches: Yes, politics can be colorful, especially when Winston Churchill is involved. A full set of seven British first editions, containing some of the most powerful words ever uttered by the politician, whose books remain highly collectible. $3,000.

A complete set of Andrew Lang’s fairy books: All first editions. Each one was named with a color, starting with blue and ending with lilac. They contain 798 stories of folklore, which Lang collected thanks to a lifelong passion for traditional storytelling. They were immensely popular and the artistic bindings definitely helped. This stunning set is priced at $16,000.

The first 10 Penguins: These are actually facsimiles. A complete set of original editions would a decent sum. This is the 50th anniversary box set from 1985. A bargain at $100.

The works of Picasso in 33 volumes: Known simply as the Zervos after the editor, this is the most trusted reference source for Pablo Picasso’s art. More than 6,000 pages with over 16,000 black-and-white images. $22,500.

Set of 11 English classics: Published in 1982 by Knopf with bindings that coordinate to create a Union Jack on your bookshelf. Set includes 1984, Wuthering Heights, Oliver Twist, The Moonstone, and Vanity Fair. A total bargain at $180.

Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy: You only need to glance at the spines to know it’s a book by Peake – the British illustrator and author who has a cult following. These are first editions and priced at $1,765.

Works of Roosevelt: 20 volumes from 1926/1927 published, by Scribner’s, and still in the original shipping crate, addressed to a person in Massachusetts. Never read. $2,200.