The Bunburyist

Mostly modest prices at Bloomsbury's June 30th bibliophile auction.

2009-07-13T05:11:00.051-04:00

Among the items sold during Bloomsbury's June 30th No-Reserve Bibliophile Sale:

Jane Annie, a comic opera penned by J. M. Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) and Arthur Conan Doyle: $75

Hand-corrected typescripts by James M. Cain, which include an outline of The Slim Girl (later published as Galatea, 1953), 28 pages of The Lady Is a Pirate (later published as Mignon, 1962), and an outline for The Pie Rat (another version of Mignon): $600

Group of first-edition spy novels, which includes works by Jack Higgins and James Graham (who are both Harry Patterson) and Jeffery Hudson (aka Michael Crichton): $1200

Proof copy of Hammond Innes's first novel The Doppelganger (1936): $75

Signed copies of Richard Matheson's The Twilight Zone Scripts (1998) and Collected Stories (1989): $375

Group of mysteries, which includes Lady Cynthia Asquith's The Black Cap (1928), Edward Acheson's Murder to Hounds (1939), Carter Dickson [John Dickson Carr]'s Death in Five Boxes (1938), Ellery Queen's The Dragon's Teeth (1939), Eric Shepherd's Murder in a Nunnery (1940), and R. A. J. Walling's The Corpse with the Red-Headed Friend (1939) and Marooned with Murder (1937): $200

Group of screenplays, which includes Robert Towne's Chinatown (1973): $450

The burial club: One organization that even Groucho would avoid.

2009-07-10T05:03:00.028-04:00

In this interesting podcast from the National Archives-UK, Audrey Collins explores nineteenth-century burial clubs or "friendly societies"—sort of like a Christmas Club for poor people to pay for the funerals and burials of themselves and their nearest and dearest. Except these friendly societies were not so friendly; rather, they were hotbeds of fraud (e.g., people dying several times, people reported dead who were alive, imaginary people reported dead) and murder (family members disinclined to wait for the death benefit).

About the image: "Death found an author writing his life. Author protests the intrusion of Death before writing is complete." Edward Hull, Dec. 1827. National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Division.

Captain Ahab's fine seafood?

2009-07-09T05:04:00.004-04:00

Jessamyn West of librarian.net highlights (with photos) the clever advertising campaign (via trucks) by Kansas's Johnson County Library System.

Fond of Freddy and friends.

2009-07-08T05:05:00.009-04:00

The Overlook Press blog notes that Nick Kristof, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist, has selected the Best Kids Books Ever, including Freddy the Detective (1932) by Walter R. Brooks, the Hardy Boys by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and the Alex Rider series by Foyle's War creator Anthony Horowitz ("things keep exploding in a very satisfying way").

The way we live now—and then.

2009-07-07T05:04:00.064-04:00

Mr. Wrenn was disturbed by the fact that the swindler heroes robbed quite all the others, but he was stirred by the brisk romance of money-making. The swindlers were supermen—blonde beasts with card indices and options instead of clubs. —Sinclair Lewis, Our Mr. Wrenn (1914)

The Likely Stories blog is delighted that Newsweek selected seemingly fusty Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now (1874) as its top "What to Read Now" pick.

Why? TWWLN features "a swindling financier" and is "scathing in its examination of greed."

Sound familiar, Bernard Madoff and Samuel Israel III?

The prescience and acuity of our predecessors can be quite striking. Look at Trollope's He Knew He Was Right (1868)—obsession, jealousy, and stalking (which Trollope based on Othello), not to mention an early appearance by a private detective. More obsession, jealousy, and stalking in Dickens's Our Mutual Friend (1864),as well as, in the words of Henry James, "a couple of elegant swindlers." Dickens's Little Dorrit (1855–57) also outlines a Ponzi scheme, long before the birth of Charles Ponzi.

For more on the subject, see Erin Wells's "Swindlers and Society in Dickens and Carlyle."

About the photo: Anthony Trollope. New York Public Library.

Flashman this week on BBC Radio 7.

2009-07-06T05:07:00.009-04:00

Fans of the late George MacDonald Fraser, rejoice: This week BBC Radio 7 features the 19th-century adventurer Harry Flashman in Flashman at the Charge and Flash for Freedom. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

Product of the day.

2009-07-03T05:06:00.002-04:00

At left, a magnet from The Onion's online store.

Vol 2 of Johnson's The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir.

2009-07-02T05:04:00.019-04:00

July's Fine Books and Collections looks at Kevin Johnson's The Dark Page: Books That Inspired American Film Noir, vol. 2 (covering the 1950s). Works mentioned in the piece include Frederic Brown's The Screaming Mimi (1949); Niven Busch's The Furies (1948); Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925); Dorothy B. Hughes's In a Lonely Place (1947); Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me, Deadly (1952); and Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts (1933).

About the image: Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun, dir. George Stevens, 1951; adaptation of Dreiser's An American Tragedy.

Greene makes some green, and other book auction results.

2009-07-01T05:03:00.012-04:00

At Bloomsbury's June 23rd auction of books and manuscripts, a signed first edition of Graham Greene's This Gun for Hire (1936; reissued as A Gun for Sale) sold for $1500; and a hodgepodge lot of first-edition mysteries went for $600. They included Nigel Morland's A Rope for the Hanging (1939), Joanna Cannan's No Walls of Jasper (1931), Manning Coles's A Toast to Tomorrow (1941), and Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Girl Who Had to Die (1940). One note on Cannan: She was the sister of World War I poet May Wedderburn Cannan; mother of children's authors Josephine, Diana, and Christine Pullein-Thompson; and a friend of Georgette Heyer.

Happy birthday, Winston Graham.

2009-06-30T05:04:00.027-04:00

Winston Graham, perhaps best known for his historical novels featuring ex-Revolutionary War soldier Ross Poldark (adapted by the BBC and starring Robin Ellis) and suspense novel Marnie (1961; adapted by Hitchcock), was born today in Manchester in 1908. His many works include Night Journey: An Adventure (1941), Take My Life (1947), Fortune Is a Woman (1953), and After the Act (1965). He died in 2003.

About the image: Tippi Hedren and Sean Connery in Marnie (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1964)

Conan Doyle-as-writer exhibition, Westminster Libraries.

2009-06-29T05:05:00.008-04:00

The Westminster Libraries in London offers the online exhibition "Arthur Conan Doyle: The Prolific Writer," which seeks to highlight Conan Doyle's work outside of the Sherlock Holmes canon, such as fiction works featuring Professor Challenger, nonfiction on spiritualism and the Boer War, and accounts of his investigations into real-life crimes.

About the photo: Arthur Conan Doyle, date unknown. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

More John Buchan this week on BBC Radio 7.

2009-06-28T07:25:00.002-04:00

BBC Radio 7 follows up last week's broadcast of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps with another Richard Hannay adventure, The Three Hostages, as well as Sick Heart River, which was the farewell appearance of Buchan's other series character, lawyer Edward Leithen. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

Fangs for the memories.

2009-06-26T05:02:00.023-04:00

Valancourt Books has just reissued Florence Marryat's Blood of the Vampire (1897, published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula). It features Harriet Brandt, "daughter of a mad scientist and a voodoo priestess," who seems to have a curiously lethal effect on those around her.

Actress, operatic singer, playwright, and spiritualist Marryat (1837–99) produced more than 50 books over the course of her lifetime.

Also new from Valancourt: Marie Corelli's Ziska (1897), "a supernatural tale of reincarnation, seduction, and revenge"; Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1871–72); and Richard Marsh's rare short story collection Both Sides of the Veil (1901). (BTW, Marsh' s grandson, the late horror writer Robert Aickman, celebrates a birthday tomorrow.)

About the image: A rendering of Florence Marryat from her acting days. New York Public Library.

Amelia Peabody's inspiration.

2009-06-25T05:06:00.001-04:00

The Victorian Women Explorers exhibition at UK's National Portrait Gallery includes an image of novelist and Egypt Exploration Fund cofounder Amelia B. Edwards, who was one inspiration for Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody Emerson. Edwards also wrote ghost stories; for some examples, go here.

Happy birthday, Ambrose Bierce.

2009-06-24T05:04:00.014-04:00

Professional cynic, Civil War veteran, and prolific writer Ambrose Bierce—best known for the Devil's Dictionary with its unique definitions ("SENATE, n. A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors") and the famous twist ending of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890)—was born today in Ohio in 1842. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1913 while attempting to locate Mexican bandit Pancho Villa. Gregory Peck played Bierce in Old Gringo (1989).

About the photo: Ambrose Bierce, date unknown. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Donna Leon on WABE's Between the Lines.

2009-06-23T05:07:00.004-04:00

On the June 12th program of WABE's Between the Lines, Donna Leon talked about her new novel About Face with Commissario Guido Brunetti.

John Buchan, Walter Mosley this week on BBC Radio 7.

2009-06-22T05:02:00.017-04:00

This week on BBC Radio 7, mining engineer Richard Hannay attempts to thwart enemy spies in John Buchan's classic The Thirty-Nine Steps; also featured is Buchan's Huntingtower and Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress. Go here for the schedule or to listen.

About the image: Kenneth More as Richard Hannay in The 39 Steps (dir. Ralph Thomas, 1959).

Judy Bolton returns.

2009-06-19T05:12:00.004-04:00

Following up its reprints of the original Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles, Applewood Books has reissued several novels in the Judy Bolton series by Margaret Sutton (aka Rachel Irene Beebe, 1903–2001). These include The Vanishing Shadow (orig. publ. 1932), The Haunted Attic (orig. publ. 1932), The Invisible Chimes (orig. publ. 1932), Seven Strange Clues (orig. publ. 1932), The Ghost Parade (orig. publ. 1933), and Clue of the Stone Lantern (orig. publ. 1950).

A discussion of the work of Richard Peck.

2009-06-18T05:11:00.001-04:00

On Radio New Zealand, Kate De Goldi discusses the novels of Edgar winner Richard Peck.

Parisian commemorations for Oscar Wilde.

2009-06-17T05:12:00.003-04:00

The Bunburyist must note what D. C. Rose, president of the Societe Oscar Wilde en France, has advised: The Paris City Council will soon be naming a street or square after Wilde in response to a poll. Rose also notes that the society is organizing a ceremony on July 19 to mark the centenary of the transfer of Wilde's remains to Pere Lachaise Cemetery.

About the photo: Oscar Wilde, ca. 1882. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

CBC features Howard Engel's The Memory Book

2009-06-16T05:05:00.001-04:00

CBC's Between the Covers features readings of Howard Engel's mystery The Memory Book with PI Benny Cooperman (based on Engel's real-life experience with stroke, when he found he could write but not read).

Tribute to Stanley Baker.

2009-06-15T05:05:00.002-04:00

There was a fine tribute to the Welsh-born actor-producer Sir Stanley Baker (1928–76) on the BBC's Film Programme, including his roles in Zulu (1964), The Cruel Sea (1953), and The Guns of Navarone (1961), as well as in crime films such as The Criminal (1960), Robbery (dir. Peter Yates, 1967), and early police proceduralist Maurice Procter's Hell Is a City (book 1954; film 1960).

About the image: Stanley Baker as Inspector Martineau in Hell Is a City (dir. Val Guest, 1960)

Nicolas Freeling, Edgar Wallace this week on BBC Radio 7.

2009-06-14T05:02:00.001-04:00

This week on BBC Radio 7, Nicolas Freeling's Inspector Van der Valk appears in Love in Amsterdam; also featured are short stories by thriller master Edgar Wallace, including "The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder." Go here for the schedule.

Red Harvest reaps at auction.

2009-06-13T05:03:00.011-04:00

At the Bonhams June 10th auction of fine books and manuscripts, a 1929 first edition of Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op book Red Harvest—estimated at $5000—went for $27,450.

BTW, at this panel with Hammett biographer Richard Layman and others, you can learn why there is no film version of Red Harvest.

(Hat tip to PhiloBiblos)

Brian Garfield at Alaska Book Festival.

2009-06-12T05:06:00.011-04:00

Brian Garfield, best known for novels such as Death Wish and Hopscotch, appears at this weekend's Alaska Book Festival in Fairbanks to discuss screenwriting (today) and The Thousand-Mile War, his book on the Aleutian campaign during World War II (tomorrow). Go here for the festival schedule.

I'm a big fan of the collection Garfield edited for MWA—I, Witness—which recounts personal encounters of MWA members with crime.