Allan Milkerit, 1945-2007

John Updike, Couples

Knopf, 1968.

Updike's first, and maybe last, great commercial success. A book that was actually read, so fine copies are not ubiquitous. I always wondered why this one never sold--Allan seems to have had it since 1985, according to his code--despite the pricey $45 tag. Okay, Updike is an East Coast writer who rarely toured in California, but this was still a key book. 

I removed the somewhat tattered brodart, and replaced it with an new one. Uh-oh, the price tag was clipped. Somewhat more dismaying was a small abrasion on the endpaper, perhaps from a previous price. Then, for the first time, I gazed at the top of the boards, where there should be a rich blue Knopfian stain. Instead, it was unevenly faded, with signs of water damage.

Sigh. With Allan's books, it's always something. I'll keep the jacket in the hopes of stumbling on another fine copy in a poor jacket, and recycle the book.

Edmund Wilson, Apologies to the Iroquois

Vintage, 1966.

Review copy of the first paperback edition of this minor classic, which includes Joseph Mitchell's long introduction, "The Mohawks in High Steel." To my mind, this is more a Mitchell item than a Wilson item, but it's still minor as either. The book itself is rubbed. The review material includes a photo of Wilson promoting an earlier book, and a slip giving the date of publication as "February 1966." Allan's price: $15. Underwhelming, but it goes on the Mitchell shelf.

William F. Nolan, ed., The Pseudo-People: Androids in Science Fiction

Sherbourne Press, 1965.

Introduction by A.E. van Vogt. Stories by Asimov, Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, etc. This is a mint copy, the purple and black on the jacket still sharp. Unfortunately, despite being over four decades old, there are way too many copies of this book around. An equivalent copy goes for $15 online. Allan priced this at $25, and seems to have had it since 1997, although I can't imagine he paid more than a dollar or two. Not quite inviting enough to keep, this is destined for McMurtry's.

Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End

Sidgwick and Jackson, 1954.

First UK, lacking the jacket, with heavily sunned spine, what looks like some white paint on front boards. Not nearly as valuable, even when fine, as the American. This is a reading copy, marked by Allan at $75, which seems generous. Still, a great classic, probably Clarke's best novel, whose ending I still remember after 40 years.

Tennessee Williams, You Touched Me!

Samuel French, 1946.

According to Allan's note, which i have no reason to doubt, this was one of 500 copies in gray wraps. (There were also 500 clothbound.) He notes that this play is scarce in either format, which seems also to be true. This copy is priced at 85 cents, later raised to 90 cents. The play, as noted in the cast list, starred the young Montgomery Clift, which didn't stop it from being forgotten. We'll sell this and see what we can raise, which I somehow doubt is the $250 Allan was asking.

Philip Jose Farmer, The Day of Timestop

Lancer, 1968.

Reissue of "A Woman a Day," and perhaps for that reason not much in demand. This copy is inscribed by Farmer, and scarce thus, but he's published so many books he's underappreciated. Lovely Freas cover but not as nice as the art on the original Beacon edition, which had a man ripping the shirt off a comely redhead. Clunky writing, as far as a brief scan indicates. Allan priced this at $40, which explains why it sat around for years.

Charles M. Schulz, Go Fly a Kite, Charlie Brown

Holt, 1960.

The ninth Peanuts book. No one seems to be flogging these early books, which is a mystery, considering how influential they were. Hard even to tell if this really is a first from the paucity of material online, but it seems to be. At least, it's contemporary.

What's eerie is that I remember many of the panels, so deeply imprinted are they on my consciousness. There's Charlie Brown reacting to the prospect of living his life over again (he screams), his battles with the kite (always a loss), Linus worshipping his teacher, Miss Othmar. What was that Graham Greene line about how only in childhood do books really affect us? Allan's price: $12.50. Seems cheap to me.

Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station

Harcourt, 1940.

In all his stores over the years, Allan had a bookcase or two of books waiting jackets. (He also had stacks of jackets awaiting books.) I took some of them, including this. A great work, which I remember reading in Paris when I lived there in 1980, in a paperback edition from, I think, Fontana. This copy is heavily sunned on the spine and irregularly so on the front cover, but after 69 years is still a sturdy reading copy. There aren't many copies online of this edition, only 27. One, for $1,500, is inscribed in jacket. The Captain's Bookshop in Asheville, where I was a week ago, has a very good copy in a very good jacket for $125. This one might fetch $25, but it makes more sense to keep it. Wilson is out of fashion now, and god knows Marxism is out of fashion, but readers will some day regard this as a living classic of intellectual thought, not merely a dead one.

P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

Reynal & Hitchcock, 1934.

This is a classic Allan book: interesting, uncommon (for a guy who invented the term "hypermodern," he didn't like to deal in them much) but a less than great copy. Maybe that goes without saying. If it were a great copy, it would have sold instantly and I wouldn't have it here in front of me to dispose of.

Actually, it's hard to tell exactly what this is. Reynal and Hitchcock only listed later printings at this time, and none are referenced here, which would indicate a first; but all the firsts online seem in be in blue boards, and this one is pale yellow cloth. In any case, there is staining on both the front and back of the boards. The jacket, meanwhile, is much later: It's a Harcourt Brace jacket, which Reynal morphed into, and references sequels up to 1952.

Still, a nice copy for someone to whom Mary Poppins meant something, which would be--I found out tonight--The Wife. 

Allan's price: $75.