Saturday, April 16, 2005

book sale finds!

Just finished fighting my way through the IU Library book sale. Boy, I found some good stuff. There was more I could have bought -- a few hardcover poetry books -- but I kept reminding myself that these books are actually IN the library and I can check them out ANYTIME and even for cheap, I should only buy the ones I actually want to *ahem* OWN.

But I did spend eight bucks. Here's what I got:

Hardcover ($3.00)
The Writings of John Lennon (combined edition of In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works)

Paperback ($1.00 each)
Wallace Stevens - The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination
May Sarton - The House by the Sea
Frank O'Hara - Lunch Poems (Pocket Poets edition)
Dylan Thomas - Under Milk Wood

Journal Issues (25 cents each!)
Poetry - June 1933, June 1966, October 1967, August 1974

The August 1974 Poetry has perhaps the worst cover ever seen on a Poetry. It is, ah, very much a product of its times. It's pink and has two stylized naked people seen from behind, a man and a woman, with a serpent sneaking up behind them. I can't describe it adequately except to say it is very 1970's. Maybe I'll try to scan it.

From the "News Notes" section of the June 1933 issue:
We apologize to Robert Tallman and our readers for a mistake, due to editorial carelessness, of a kind which never occurred before in POETRY's history -- the inclusion in the May number of a poem which had already appeared in February. The editor's Mexican trip must have cleared her mind of other matters, and Mr. Tallman, because of a change of residence, received his May proof just one day too late to correct the error.

This issue also includes the winner ("America Remembers" by Paul Engle) and honorable mentions from the "Century of Progress" contest. The "News Notes" section includes bionotes for the poets included, and mentions that
The editor's own poem, on a Century of Progress subject but not contributed to the contest, took her by surprise on the train in January.

I am highly amused. :)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome finds! That Stevens book of essays is really good. Let me know what you think of it. And thos eold issues of Poetry! 1933!! That's really cool. We have some very old books, but we didn't get the kind of deal you did. Ok I'm jealous, yea.

early hours of sky said...

Okay I want to know the books you didnt get b/c well I'm that kind of girl:)

Anne Haines said...

Jenni, see, if only you'd come a week later! I didn't mention the book dealer who very nearly got violent when someone (accidentally?) picked up a stack of books he'd set aside while he was looking at other stuff. The guy was out of control.

Teresa, I don't remember all of them -- there was a Pinsky, and ... dang, I don't remember. There were three or four I picked up and then decided I didn't really need to own. I didn't resist too much temptation though.