Reading all the bargain stories made me realize that the
bargains purchased do not stick in my memory like the
bargains lost. I still have nightmares about the first four
Brett Halliday Mike Shayne hardbacks, mint in dustjackets and
no library stamps for less than $10 each. I passed,
reconsidered and returned, only to find them gone.
That was in an Atlanta store run by a guy named Cliff who
knew nothing of books when he opened. His real ambition was
to become a social force in the Atlanta arts world, an
ambition he eventually achieved. He loved having Pat Conroy
and others hanging out at his store. Before price guides, one
could find fantastic bargains on his shelves. Cliff's biggest
boner was reported in a newspaper profile I remember. An
odd-looking book came in with a garish dust jacket (a big eye
on a billboard) and the jacket copy talked about an
upwardly-mobile sinister guy and so on. So Cliff marked it at
$10 (his favorite price) and put it on the mystery shelves.
It was a first edition of THE GREAT GATSBY.
Once he learned more about the business (and price guides
appeared), bargains were harder to find. Now and then
something would still fall through the cracks, such as the
issues of Magic Carpet with R.E. Howard stories I bought from
him for a very good price.
Other odds & ends: Pinkney Benedict is a very good
writer. I discovered him when I picked up a proof of his
first book TOWN SMOKES for a couple of bucks in DC. His Dad
served a term or two in Congress and both his dad and his
grand dad once ran against Sen. Robert Byrd of West (By God)
Virginia. As Bryd still serves, Pinkney could carry on the
tradition but shows little inclination towards
politics.
THE MAN OF COLD RAGES by Jordan Park (C.M. Kornbluth) is an
excellent novel. I forget what I paid for that old (1958)
Pyramid PBO but it was a bargain. Has it ever been
republished? I also found a bargain when I bought the Perma
Book PB of Fred Brown's MOSTLY MURDER. It was on the two for
a quarter shelf. Forget what the other one was. Of course
that was too long ago to count.
Goodwill Stores can be good hunting grounds, as are Salvation
Army stores. One of my great joys was finding more than a
hundred Ellery Queen Mystery Magazines from the mid-40s to
mid-50s for about 10 cents each in a SA store near Capitol
Hill in DC.
And to Mr. Tribe's movie list: where can one buy a copy of
"Unwanted," directed by Ida Lupino?
Thanks to our leader for stopping the chest-thumping thread.
It saved you all from hearing about my last near fistfight.
It was at a Malice Domestic convention a few years ago,
proving I guess that if a man is born to trouble, he can find
it anywhere.
Richard Moore
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