2011: A Good Year For Used Book Hunting
Whenever I travel, I like to seek out used bookstores and hit the history section for old volumes to add to my collection of Presidential biographies. It's a dorky habit, I'll admit, and one I've gotten quite obsessive about. The collection is up to 288 books, plus another 52 on related subjects such as various historical figures who ran for President (like Henry Clay, William Jennings Bryan, Charles Evans Hughes, etc.) or about the Civil War.
2011 was a good year for fishing for books. I was lucky enough to find some old volumes. Behind the cut are some examples of what I was lucky enough to find this year.
In a used bookstore in Tampa in October, I found this handsome leatherbound volume of Martin Buren: The Romantic Age of Politics by John Niven. It is a nice addition to a copy of the Autobiography of Martin Van Buren, published in 1918 that I found in a New Orleans bookstore a couple of years ago.
This year, the most popular book written about James Garfield was Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic. But I managed to find a couple of Garfield gems in my travels. In McLeod Books in Vancouver, I found this old copy of "The Life and Public Service of General James A. Garfield by William Ralston Balch, published in 1881, the year of Garfield's death. The dedication reads "to the memory of James A. Garfield, this volume which does but scant justice to a noble theme, is inscribed in full admiration of its hero by the author."
In a bookstore in Bellingham, Washington, I was able to find this edition, published in 1882, of Volume 1 of the Works of James Abram Garfield, edited by Burke A. Hinsdale.
Across the street, an another used bookstore in Bellingham, I was able to find this edition of Warren G. Harding: Our After-War President by Joe Mitchell Chapple, published in 1924.
At Centennial Books in Regina, Saskatchewan of all places, I found this copy of Theodore Roosevelt by William Roscoe Thayer. (The pretty model with the book is our dog Abby.)
Finally, I think I picked up this volume of The Life of Ulysses S. Grant by J. T. Headley at a used bookstore in San Diego in August. The book's opening reads "comprising his early training, military career, Presidential administrations, travels round the world, sufferings and death."
In 2012, I expect to travel to New Orleans, Montreal, Toronto, and probably someplace with a beach in the summer. I'll keep on the lookout for great finds like these.
2011 was a good year for fishing for books. I was lucky enough to find some old volumes. Behind the cut are some examples of what I was lucky enough to find this year.
In a used bookstore in Tampa in October, I found this handsome leatherbound volume of Martin Buren: The Romantic Age of Politics by John Niven. It is a nice addition to a copy of the Autobiography of Martin Van Buren, published in 1918 that I found in a New Orleans bookstore a couple of years ago.
This year, the most popular book written about James Garfield was Candice Millard's Destiny of the Republic. But I managed to find a couple of Garfield gems in my travels. In McLeod Books in Vancouver, I found this old copy of "The Life and Public Service of General James A. Garfield by William Ralston Balch, published in 1881, the year of Garfield's death. The dedication reads "to the memory of James A. Garfield, this volume which does but scant justice to a noble theme, is inscribed in full admiration of its hero by the author."
In a bookstore in Bellingham, Washington, I was able to find this edition, published in 1882, of Volume 1 of the Works of James Abram Garfield, edited by Burke A. Hinsdale.
Across the street, an another used bookstore in Bellingham, I was able to find this edition of Warren G. Harding: Our After-War President by Joe Mitchell Chapple, published in 1924.
At Centennial Books in Regina, Saskatchewan of all places, I found this copy of Theodore Roosevelt by William Roscoe Thayer. (The pretty model with the book is our dog Abby.)
Finally, I think I picked up this volume of The Life of Ulysses S. Grant by J. T. Headley at a used bookstore in San Diego in August. The book's opening reads "comprising his early training, military career, Presidential administrations, travels round the world, sufferings and death."
In 2012, I expect to travel to New Orleans, Montreal, Toronto, and probably someplace with a beach in the summer. I'll keep on the lookout for great finds like these.