Post Category → Book of the Week

Little Women

by Louisa May Alcott

First Thus | The John C. Winston Company | 1926

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A classic of American children’s literature, Little Women is a semi-autobiographical novel by Lousia May Alcott that follows the coming-of-age adventures of the four March sisters during the Civil War. Originally published in two volumes by Roberts Brothers in 1868 and 1869, it was later combined into a single, two-part novel in 1880.

This particular edition, published in 1926 by The John C. Winston Company, features watercolor illustrations by Clara Miller Burd. Trained in both New York and Paris, Burd worked as a stained glass designer for J&R Lamb Studios; the Church Glass and Decorating Company; and, notably, the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. Her glasswork can be seen in churches and cemeteries across New York and the Midwest.

As already noted, Burd also illustrated numerous books and magazines throughout her artistic career. Included in her list of work are all three books in the “Little Women Series”–Little Women, Little Men, and Jo’s Boys. This is great news for collector’s who would like to immerse themselves in the vibrant world of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy as seen through Burd’s imaginative eyes.

The Metamorphosis

by Franz Kafka and Peter Kuper

SIGNED | Crown Publishers | 2003

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This graphic novel version of the classic horror novella by Franz Kafka is a must for collectors. Peter Kuper, of Spy vs Spy and Mad Magazine fame, has a unique, bold art style that brings Kafka’s story into bold reality. 

Rendered primarily in black and white, with bright red accents, we see the story of Gregor Samsa unfold page by page. And like many illustrators before him, Kuper depicts the insect as a cockroach, though he departs by giving it a human-esque face, reminding us that there is a man locked inside the insect and showcasing Kafka’s existential absurdism. 

This particular edition is signed by the author via a hand-drawn illustration of Gregor, rendered in sharpie, on the first free endpage.  

You’re in Love, Charlie Brown

by Charles M. Schultz

First Edition | The World Publishing Company | 1968

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This book is the “novelization” of the prime-time animated TV special, “You’re in Love, Charlie Brown” that aired on June 16th, 1967. Based on the Peanuts comic strip that ran from 1950-2000 by Charles M. Schultz. 

Our beloved anti-hero Charlie Brown is having an existential crisis over his crush on “the pretty little red-haired girl.” He wants to meet her, be friends, maybe have lunch together. But as he fumbles through the last couple days of school, his mind on impressing his classmate, we (as the audience) quickly see that Charlie is at no loss for friends. 

Linus walks to school with Charlie as well as sits with him at lunch, though Charlie’s too busy fretting to notice. Peppermint Patty calls him up (her first appearance in the franchise) to invite him to play baseball over the summer. She even affectionately calls him “Chuck” and offers to help him try and meet the Little Red-Haired Girl. 

Lucy is the most antagonistic, teasing him about his crush, but that has more to do with her own melodramatic, soap-opera adjacent fantasies of a life with Schroeder, than anything to do with Charlie himself. And it is also the kind of underlyingly fond 8-year-old teasing that comes from being close friends and neighbors. 

The point is that Charlie does have a group of friends. He is not alone. The Little Red-Haired Girl, though obviously a real person in the Charlie Brown universe, is never shown in-person or referred to by her given name. And that’s because she’s actually a metaphor. A projection of Charlie’s own insecurities about his place in his community and how he will fit, now that summer is arriving and school will be out. 

But as we have already seen, that problem is solved by Peppermint Patty’s arrival and invitation to play baseball. And he already had his sister Sally, his dog Snoopy, and his best friend Linus–they would not have disappeared over the summer break.

What Charlie really needed to find was his own confidence. So when a note signed “The Little Red-Haired Girl” mysteriously finds its way into his hand as the final busses depart the schoolyard, Charlie is elated. He was noticed! Even if, I suspect, it was by Linus or Lucy or Peppermint Patty slipping him the note. It doesn’t matter, the result is the same, Charlie runs home feeling on top of the world. And we do too, because *we* love you, Charlie Brown.

If Beale Street Could Talk

by James Baldwin

First Edition | The Dial Press | 1974

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James Baldwin’s fifth novel is, in many ways, emblematic of his work. A love story set amidst the racial injustices of midcentury America, If Beale Street Could Talk irrevocably intertwines suffering and passion, family and society, and how our human bonds shape our lives. 

This is the main thesis of much of Baldwin’s oeuvre. The main characters, Tish and Fonny, are engaged, pregnant, and trying their best to get by. But life, in the form of a false criminal accusation, derails their plans. Social and economic prejudices shape the accusation leading to Fonny’s arrest. 

Tish, the narrator (and Baldwin’s only female protagonist), struggles not only with Fonny’s arrest and all that entails, but with her pre-marital pregnancy. Religion, family, and social expectations both weaken and strengthen her familial bonds with both her and Fonny’s parents. Tish’s mother and Fonny’s father both go on journeys to try and save their children. In the end, Fonny is released from prison and Tish has their child, but the ending is neither a happy nor a sad one. Instead it is ambivalent and unsettled–a mirror of the world they live in. 

And as much as it is a romantic love story, If Beale Street Could Talk is also a familial love story. Extreme sacrifices are made for the love of Tish and Fonny. Their parents, with their own baggage and beliefs, clearly love their children and do their best to help them. The unity between all of them–symbolized by Tish and Fonny’s unborn child–tethers our characters together and ultimately allows them to get through their individual and combined struggles. 

In this way it is a very traditional love story. Its unconventionality lies in the social, economic, and racial commentary Baldwin so deftly weaves around his storytelling. Love, and life, cannot be separated from these outside sources. And it is this love that ultimately saves our characters from the psychological terrors of life, when others do not, or cannot, survive. Not exactly a high note to end on, but it is one of hope–that all the love in our own life, will also see us through.

Feasts for All Seasons

by Roy Andries de Groot

SIGNED by illustrator! | First Edition | Alfred A. Knopf | 1966

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It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the US and what better way to celebrate than with a really huge meal cooked for your family and friends! And what better way to do that than with Roy Andries de Groot’s seasonally-focused cookbook, A Feast for All Seasons. 

Broken into four gastronomic seasons: The Spring, Summer Harvest, Fall Holiday Season, and Winter Dog Days, this book includes numerous recipes built around the peak season for each ingredient and celebrating a wide variety of holidays stemming from many diverse cultures.

But for the Fall Holiday Season, which includes the months of October, November, and December, de Groot focuses mainly on the preparation of meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Lists of seasonal foods–wild game, fish, root vegetables, squashes, nuts, and fruits–are included alongside a lengthy discussion of hot beverages, a quick aside on kumquats, and a meditation on honey. 

Holidays included in the season: 

  • October 10th – the Double Ten holiday, celebrating the China’s freedom from the Manchu Dynasty in 1910
  • October 29th – The Foundation of the Republic Day, celebrated in Turkey
  • October 31st – Halloween!
  • November 1st – The Independence Day of Algeria
  • Late November – Thanksgiving
  • November 30th – St Andrew’s Day, a Scottish holiday
  • December 13th – St Lucia’s Day, celebrated in Sweden
  • December 24th – Christmas Eve
  • December 31st – New Year’s Eve celebrated in German style

And yet, despite the traditional nature of all holiday celebrations, de Groot proclaims that “We refuse to be hidebound traditionalists about our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts” and suggests suckling pig, venison, or turkey for either meal. He urges you to be creative, to break away from the same old standard fare and to try the vast gastromic delights of autumn.

Now onto the feast! The remaining 13 pages of the chapter are recipes for cream of pumpkin soup, roast turkey with fruit and chestnut stuffing, apples molded in a scarlet overcoat, yams with apricots and sunflower seeds, Brillat-Savarin’s spinach, and a demitasse selection of drinks. When to start preparation of each dish, ideas for finger-foods and relishes, best ways to serve each item, and last minute garnishes are all included in de Groots recipes. 

But perhaps the most useful information de Groot includes in all his timetables on when and how to prepare each portion of each dish, is actually included in the Acknowledgements at the front of the cookbook, “This book began as an idea within our family. It became the shared project of many of our friends.” That is the heart of any feast–and it is reflected in the language used throughout the book. “We” cooked the food. De Groot, his family and friends, you the reader, your family and friends, and everyone else who ever tested out one of these recipes. Feasts are communal and–over a lovingly prepared meal–we give thanks that we’re all together. Which when it’s all boiled down, is the heart of all holidays. 

P.S. – This particular edition of Feasts for All Seasons is inscribed by the illustrator, Tom Funk “My Best Wishes at Christmas” and dated 1966. And since the recipient is unknown, we can imagine that he’s reaching through time and wishing us all a happy holiday season.

Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Poems and Songs, 1949-1993

by Allen Ginsberg

SIGNED | Rhino Records | 1994

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Released on September 6th 1994, Holy Soul Jelly Roll is a 4-disc box set of Allen Ginsberg’s (1926-1997) spoken poetry, including a 64-page booklet of notes, read by the author at various events over the years. 

I sat down with the five hour long tracklist and spent a really chill afternoon listening. I’ve listened to many audiobooks in my day, but never one of poetry and it made for a really immersive experience. There’s light jazz playing in the background, faint static behind the tracks, and Ginsberg’s soft-spoken voice reading. Intermittently, he sings–the very first track “Walking at Night in Key West” is set to the tune of “The Saints Come Marching Home”–or gives a little introduction to his poetry, imbuing the whole album with a feeling like you’re sitting there with him. We’re at an open mic, it’s vaguely 1960-something, and Allen Ginsberg has just started reading to a hushed crowd. 

And then there’s something to be said for the album to be on CDs. It’s very mid-90s (vintage now) and tangible in a way that digital media is not. There’s ritual to listening: first of all, you will need a CD-player, then gently remove the CDs from their cases, place them in the play, and sit down to listen. Oh, I suppose you could get a portable CD player and listen while out and about. But something about Ginsberg’s calm reciting lends itself to remaining still and letting the words wash over you. 

To make this particular album more substantial, it has been signed by Ginsberg on the inside of the box. On November 13th 1994 he held this box and signed it for a fan. They’d probably just bought it and then went home to listen, forever linking mid-autumn with the sound of Ginsberg’s voice. It’s kinda lovely, to think you can extend that experience nearly twenty years later. 

Ginsberg died a few short years after the release of this album. He was a core member of the Beat Generation and a lasting voice in counterculture America. He once said, in a Face to Face interview with the BBC, that “a poem is like a radio that can broadcast continually, for thousands of years,” and though he may be gone, we are still here and we are still listening.

The Bachman Books: Four Early Novels by Stephen King

by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King)

Book Club Edition | New American Library | 1985

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Many authors write under pen names, for various reasons, but none may be as famously known as Richard Bachman–the king of horror himself, Stephen King.

Though he’d been writing professionally since 1967, King’s big break came with the publication of his first novel, Carrie, in 1974. It’s important to note the original hardcover edition of Carrie sold alright, but it was the paperback version, published in 1975, that eventually became the bestseller–with sales bolstered by the film adaptation in 1976. 

The success of Carrie established King as a new voice in horror fiction and allowed him to become a full time author. With nothing to impede him, King began to write prolifically, writing the drafts for his next two novels–Salem’s Lot and The Shining–within six months. 

Afraid to oversaturate the market with a single author, publishing houses only released one novel of an author’s per year. King, however, was already writing at a breakneck speed and curious if his success was due to skill or luck, decided to publish his fourth novel, Rage, under a pseudonym. 

The first four Bachman novels were originally released in paperback and with little fanfare, but over time fans quickly noticed many similarities between the authors’ writing. Some even accused Bachman of copying King’s style. It wasn’t until the release of Thinner (1984), the first hardcover Bachman novel, that the secret was revealed. 

Stephen P. Brown, a bookstore clerk and horror fiction aficionado, received an advanced reading copy of the novel and, noting the similarities in the style of both authors, became convinced they were one and the same man. In a real-time act of bibliography, he tracked down copyright documentation that proved King was Bachman. And so, on February 9, 1985, Richard Bachman died suddenly of “cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia.”

After the loss of Bachman’s anonymity, Thinner sales skyrocketed. In order to introduce King’s existing fanbase to his work under his penname, the first four Bachman books, Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Roadwork (1981), and The Running Man (1982), were collected into a hardcover edition along with an introduction by King called, “Why I Was Bachman.”

And Bachman King remains, even to this day, as two more books have since been published under the penname–The Regulators (1996) and Blaze (2007). Affectionately called “trunk books” they claim to be found by the Bachman widow, Claudia, in a trunk or by King himself, in an attic among papers pre-dating Carrie. 

And so the story of Richard Bachman, worthy of its own twisting Stephen King novel, continues on, even after death.

The Compleat Practical Joker

by H. Allen Smith and illustrated by Charles Addams

First Edition | Double Day & Company, Inc. | 1953

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This post is only incidentally about the book The Compleat Practical Joker or its author, H. Allen Smith. Rather it’s about Charles Addams (1912-1988), who illustrated the dustjacket. 

Addams, as you may well know, was a cartoonist most famous for his Addams Family series about a spooky gothic family. But what isn’t as well known is that the members of the Addams Family–Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Grandmama, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Thing, and Cousin Itt–all existed as separate characters long before The Addams Family television show aired in 1964. 

In fact, the first published Addams Family cartoon was in The New Yorker in 1938. It’s a one-panel gag that features a then-unnamed Morticia and a proto-Lurch–who looks more like Boris Karloff than Frankenstein’s monster. Morticia is the earliest of the Addams Family characters to be introduced, later followed by Gomez, the children, and Fester. In 1946, we see these core members gathered together, possibly for the first time, celebrating the holidays by scalding Christmas carolers with boiling oil. 

Which is why it’s not very unusual to see Uncle Fester peeking around the corner of The Compleat Practical Joker’s (1958) dustjacket, even though it is almost a decade before the airing of the television show. Addams often reused his favorite characters and Fester, being the most like Charles Addams himself, is the perfect character to illustrate a book on practical jokes. After all, Addams was a satirist, cartoonist, and humorist. Fester lights up the topsy-turvy room. 

The Addams Family television show only lasted two seasons, but Charles’ unique gothic sensibility has stood the test of time–with the 90s movies, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, the modern Netflix series, and even a musical–helping to ensure that Charles Addams’ art and legacy haunts us to this day. 

They’re creepy and they’re kooky
Mysterious and spooky
They’re all together ooky
The Addams family

“The Addams Family Theme”
by Andrew Gold

Tarot Corrumpe

by Marcel Ruijters

Limited Edition | Le Dernier Cri | 2007

Update: This book has been sold!

The Tarot Corrumpe (aka, Corrupt Tarot), is a limited edition deck by Dutch comic artist Marcel Ruijters. Beautifully silkscreened onto pale blue cardstock, this deck is rife with Ruijters’ typically grotesque, mock-medieval imagery. Nuns and skeletons abound. 

This particular deck is especially unique in that it lacks the Minor Arcana. Instead, this 24-card deck adds two cards–”La Verite (Truth)” and “Intuition” in their place. The remaining cards are labeled 0-21 in roman numerals. The zero being the unnumbered “La Folle” (The Fool).

Ruijters’ art is a mix of many different inspirations. The medieval imagery of biblical stories, legends of chivalry, and allegories such as the “danse macrabres” combined with Peyo’s Smurfs, the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, and Mad Max movies into nineteenth-century-esque woodcuts…well, that will get you the irreverent, neon-colored, silkscreened tarot deck. 

These cards call out to the comic book enthusiast and the tarot reader alike. They are entrenched in both modern and historical references and are a beautiful addition to your own bizarre and unique collection.

A Night in the Lonesome October

by Roger Zelazny

SIGNED | Limited Edition | Easton Press | 1993

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“To — — –. Ulalume: A Ballad”

The skies they were ashen and sober;
      The leaves they were crispéd and sere—
      The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
      Of my most immemorial year;

by Edgar Allan Poe

A Night in the Lonesome October is perhaps the best Halloween story you can read. Written by the late, great Roger Zelazny–himself a literary titan–the characters and settings are heavily borrowed from the great names of gothic, horror, mystery, and science fiction. Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the Elder Gods of the Cthulhu mythos all make appearances.

The story itself is broken into 32 chapters. One for every day of October, plus an introductory chapter that introduces our protagonist, Snuff the Watchdog. The entire story is told through his eyes. And though the story revolves around the motives of the literary characters–the action takes place with Snuff and the menagerie of animal familiars Bubo the rat, to name a few.

Without spoiling too much of the plot–since discovering how events unfold along with our characters is part of the delight in reading this story–the basic premise is that the rare blue moon on Halloween night will open a hellmouth between worlds. And what that means for Snuff, his master, and the many inhabitants of the strange community they have formed together.

In fact, it’s become somewhat of a tradition for Zelazny fans to re-read the story every year–one chapter a day over the course of October. Repeatedly coming back to it and trying to parse out all the very many literary and cinematic references he wrote in. And I’ll admit, I have a whole document of my own outlining my own thoughts as I read the story. I felt much like a literary Sherlock Holmes of my own, which added to the experience tremendously. 

The beautiful Easton Press edition of this story is bound in blood-red leather, adorned in gilt, and illustrated by Gahan Wilson. It’s also signed by Zelazny–and considering he passed only a few short years after the publication of this story–that makes it a treasure beyond imagination. A collectible edition you can pull out every Halloween until time immemorial.