Missing Gissing (cont'd)

[french frank]

Re The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, Constable pocket edition

Am51

Yours must be the reprint of February 1912. Mine is September 1926. These are all the same edition but, as at Sept 1926, there had been 17 reprints after the original publication in January 1903.

It just shows what a cultured reading public there once was. Given that if a passenger had picked up my book, they only had to hand it to the driver on their way off the bus, I really had very high hopes that it would have ended up in the lost property office - as it did. Now, if it had been a Stieg Larsson ...

TPPoHR is a wonderful volume to have in your pocket to dip into when waiting - and that's exactly why I took it to the pub yesterday (I always have to wait for my friend because I live much further away). My friend was once in the secondhand book trade and we discussed it, the paper, the clarity of the printing, the sturdiness of the binding, the sheer pleasure of holding it and turning over the pages ... and that for what was, at the time, quite obviously an everyman's edition. Imagine! seventeen reprints in little over 20 years (none between March 1914 and October 1918)!

[vinteuil]

Re The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft, Constable pocket edition

Am51

Yours must be the reprint of February 1912. Mine is September 1926. These are all the same edition but, as at Sept 1926, there had been 17 reprints after the original publication in January 1903.

oh, I'm a Johnny-come-lately - mine is the 1928 edn...

[french frank]

oh, I'm a Johnny-come-lately - mine is the 1928 edn...

You can pip us both with a 1910 reprint for a mere trifle. My edition only has 271/272 pages. Am's has the gilt signature too, which mine hasn't.

Or not quite in the same condition - the 1906 reprint.

Or 1904.

Personally, I'd go for one in very good condition rather than an earlier one.

[vinteuil]

You can pip us both with a 1910 reprint for a mere trifle. My edition only has 271/272 pages. Am's has the gilt signature too, which mine doesn't.

Or not quite in the same condition - the 1906 reprint.

... interesting - me too, 271 pp (incl Index); no bling signature...

[french frank]

Isn't the index wonderful! I've never really looked at it, but spotted: 'hawkweeds'.

p 143. "I am busy with the hawkweeds; that is to say, I am learning to distinguish and to name as many as I can."

I'VE DONE THAT TOO!

[amateur51]

My copy has 298 pages inc index.

On the flyleaf in brown ink is the original owner's name & 'Christmas 1914'

On the other hand I recently took delivery by post of The Novels of Thomas Love Peacock, nice compact edition, similar paper to the Gissing, no date, and when I came to examine it, the spine and both covers came away in one piece from the body of the text! Rather disappointing!

I'm not interested in the book's financial value - the value lies in its content, for me - but would what sort of glue/fixative would you/anyone recommend to join the spine back to the text?

[amateur51]

I visited a very good remaindered bookshop on Euston Road last Friday and bought for £2 George Gissing: A Life by Paul Delany (Orion Books) a 440pp paperback.

[vinteuil]

I visited a very good remaindered bookshop on Euston Road last Friday ....

... any chance of details? (name, location... ) - I'm always questin' for good second-hand and remainder book-shops

[amateur51]

... any chance of details? (name, location... ) - I'm always questin' for good second-hand and remainder book-shops

This is a remainder shop, vints, all objects therein £2.

Think of Euston Road, going towards Euston station direction from King's Cross, left hand side of road,you'll come across two remainder shops in quick succession after Pizza Express, tis the second, i.e., the further, shop that you want.

A strange and motley collection

Do you know this one? Worth getting to know and more convenient for you, I suspect

http://www.foxedbooks.com/

Happy hunting

[hackneyvi]

The man I take to be the owner is a right misery by the looks of him but for quality fiction and non-fiction remainders (with a good turnover), I think Judd Books are excellent:

http://www.juddbooks.com/