Allan Milkerit, 1945-2007

Talbot Mundy, King of the Khyber Rifles

A.L. Burt, 1916.

Hard to tell when this really came out. Bobbs-Merrill did the original edition in 1916. This is copyright the same year, but was doubtless issued later. Mundy was born William Lancaster Gribbon in 1879. This is his best-known tale. To quote Wikipedia's stub: "Athelstan King is a secret agent for the British Raj at the beginning of the First World War. Heavily influenced both by Mundy's own unsuccessful career in India and by his interest in theosophy, it describes his adventures among the (mostly Muslim) tribes of the north with the mystical woman adventurer Yasmini and the Turkishmullah Muhammed Anim." The jacket is flawless. Allan  was asking $175, which seems reasonable.

Joyce Carol Oates, The Goddess and Other Women

Vanguard, 1974.

My theory about selling Joyce Carol Oates' books is they have to be in perfect condition. Otherwise, why bother? She is, I would guess, only lightly collected, and there are many copies of her many, many books around -- even signed, like this one. The Goddess came out more than 30 years ago, and there are dozens of copies online.

This copy really isn't too bad -- there's a tiny tear on the rear jacket, a tiny spot on the page edges, a little dustiness on the top edges. Allan was asking $40, although he would have let it go for a small fraction of that. 

This is the sort of book that merely filled the shelves of Allan's shop but which no one ever looked at. They were wallpaper. Friends encouraged him to get rid of 99 percent of his stock and deal from his apartment, to work as a scout, which he was so good at, for other dealers. He refused, even though it broke him to keep the shop open. He loved the hive aspect -- you never could tell who would walk in or what they might want, although on most days toward the end no one showed up and if they did they wanted something cheaper and better than what they could find on the net. 

Leonard Michaels, Sylvia

Mercury House, 1992.

Lenny Michaels is getting a posthumous round of applause that is much more sustained than anything he received in his life. Weirdly, this doesn't seem to be transferring over to the rare book market. This brief paperback memoir of his crazy girlfriend/crazy wife is his longest work, and one of his most celebrated, but Allan's price of $25 for a briefly inscribed ("to Barbara, with best wishes") copy was on target. "It would have been easy to leave Sylvia. Had it been difficult, I might have done it." I know the feeling. She killed herself, which might have been a shock but was also a release.

Since there's little to be gained from trying to sell this, i might as well keep it, despite the fact that I have a signed copy somewhere already.

Tennessee Williams, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton (part 2)

New Directions, 1947.

Here's a tangled tale. I bought a copy of this book online so I would have a dustjacket to put on the copy in the previous item. Then I came across this among my Milkerit material: an unsigned copy in a jacket that was better than the jacket I bought. Why Allan didn't put this jacket onto his inscribed copy and sell it for $700, I don't know. Because he was never going to sell this copy, which despite the nice jacket is clipped on the front free endpaper and on the title page. Nevertheless, he put $35 on it. In essence, he ended up with two unsalable books. 

And so perhaps have I. I took the inscribed copy, put on it the jacket I bought, and put it up for sale. Then I gave the book I bought, now without jacket, to McMurtry. When I found this copy, I retrieved the inscribed copy, and put this jacket on it because it was better. I thought I could use this jacket and put it on the McMurtry copy and end up with a $50 book. But I looked for it this weekend on his endless shelves, and couldn't find it. I might as well let this one go too.

Collectors: We're obsessive-compulsives.

Tennessee Williams, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton

New Directions, 1947.

This is the second edition of Williams' second book, which has an added introduction, "Something Wild." (The third edition, a few years later, added two new plays.) Yellow cloth without jacket. Inscribed, "For Ruth Dutton, who has the happy distinction of being the sister of Lois," and signed simply "Tennessee." Apparently bought by a friend of Allan's for $200 and consigned to Allan, who priced it at $300. Typical: If the book sold to a dealer, he would have made, at best, $40. Knowing Allan, he would have somehow lost money. In his last years, making his rent at home ($1,200) and the store ($1,500?) was an ordeal. I always wondered why it wasn't impossible.

I have no idea who Ruth or Lois were, whch is perhaps why this copy will never fetch as much as the one that Williams inscribed to Marian Davies, the lover of William Randolph Hearst. It's currently online for $1,500. But we'll give this one, now with a dustjacket purchased separately, a shot.

G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday

Arrowsmith, 1908.

After Allan died, it was sort of a free-for-all with his books. His friends came in and more or less took what they wanted, paying minimal prices (to his relatives, who did not seem sympathetic) if anything. I took this out of L's stack while he was toting his first round of treasures downstairs after, figuring I deserved it more.

True first of this classic, missing the period after "K" on the spine and with the publisher's full name. In red cloth with some wear, and with front hinge in need of repair and the rear hinge in need of even more repair, but outwardly quite nice. I should have it fixed.

I wish I knew where Allan had gotten this. He might have spent a bit for it, because he did not price it to move. His official price was $1250, which was a little rich; a half-dozen copies are online, with $1250 the top. The market value of this one is about $500. In a custom slipcase.

 

Update: I've now had it professionally repaired, and it sits nicely on my shelf. I think of Allan whenever I look at it.

Eudora Welty, The Golden Apples

Bodley Head, 1950.

First English edition. This is what I think of as a typical Allan book: somewhat rare or at least uncommon, but not in the best shape. These were once highly sought after books; the term of art was "place-holder." Until and unless you could come up with that inscribed copy in perfect condition, a VG place-holder would suffice. Books were geographically scarce then. It might be years until you saw something better.

Now you can see at a glance that there is something better, and as a result the temptation is great not to bother with the weaker copy. In this case, Alibris is selling a just about fine copy signed by the author, and with a review slip to boot, for $420. How can Allan's copy compete? Its sheets are foxed on the top, there is a serious tear on the rear panel of the jacket and two smaller tears on front, etc. If the book were heavily in demand, this copy might find a buyer, but Welty is in decline.

This was her fifth book, comprising seven stories. Reese, selling a copy for $200, notes that "this printing has a somewhat complex history, involving secondary binding lots, variations in paper, copies cased with and without end sheets, and a substantial remaindering of bound and unbound copies." Allan's copy has no topstain and is bound in red boards. The Reese copy is bound in brown, and has a red topstain. In other words, this might be a later state. Another strike against it.

Allan priced this copy at $150 many years ago, and it didn't sell. It didn't help that San Francisco was not a place where one went to buy Welty books. It would have had a better chance in Mississippi. Now, with its chances diminished further, I might as well keep it.

(Entry revised 1/14/2111)

 

 

Edward Milward-Oliver, Len Deighton: An Annotated Bibliography

Sammler Press, 1985.

This is the limited signed issue of 375 copies with not one but two copies of the bonus: an uncorrected proof page from London Match, published simultaneously. I will take one of the proof pages and add it to my specially signed copy of the trade edition of this book. This will really confuse someone eventually. Deighton is in decline, perhaps terminally, so any copies of this bibliography have minimal value. From Allan's reference shelf.

Edward J. O'Brien, ed., The Best Short Stories of 1925

Small, Maynard, 1925.

The best-known story in here is Ring Lardner's "Haircut" -- this must be from Allan's Lardner collection. There's no price, so he wasn't selling it. This was the 11th annual issue, and is very uncommon in jacket. Royal Books lists a copy in jacket for $500, and it's not even a first printing. Hard to know what that's about. The only other authors that cast a shadow nearly a century later are Sherwood Anderson and, to a much lesser extent, Evelyn Scott and Glenway Westcott. Bella Cohen, Barry Benefield and the others long ago passed into the mists of history, deservedly or not.This copy is very good, with some chips and wear.

Nabokov, Lolita (in Russian)

Phaedra, 1967.

Various searches on the book search engines have failed to turn up any copies of this, which somehow I don't believe. It's not that uncommon -- Allan had two copies when he died. This is the better one, with some rubbing on the top half of the jacket but otherwise near fine. It is Nabokov's own translation, and significant thus. Allan priced this at $45, and I suspect it had been waiting a long time for a buyer. Well, I'll retire it from service.