Evening star., 1924-11-09

/
! IA browsing" along the two
\ miles of open-air second
hand book stalls which pile
the old stone parapets of the river
Seine through central Paris.
He was having fun, in his own
way. He liked old books. although
he had no special collectors knowl-
edge.
So, by pure hazard (and because
IT cost 10 cents and was in English),
he picked up as souvenir a nice old
volume of the poet Wordsworth, en-
! titled descriptive Sketches in
| Verse and printed at London in
1893
BY equal hazard, a fellow tourist.
| full Of book collectors knowledge.
happened to see it lying about the
| boys hotel room.
! You lucky mutt" he cried, 81 be-
lieve you've got the famous first
edition.
| 1t was it. At London book sale.
| $401. less commission
Ever since, crowd of leisurely
Americans and English in Paris has
been "gunning" up and down the
book stalls OF the Seine, for finds
| Of similar character and value.
| If you should hear the talk, you
| would not know what to believe.
| Cultivated Frenchmen will tell you
that the parapets Of the river have
| always" been used by the second
hand book dealers-"continually buy
| ing as well as selling" This means
| that the dealers themselves are hot
seekers of rare and valuable books
| at low prices. and fully appreciate
! their advantage of getting first look
| they sell you only what they don't
want
In fact. the dealers would skim the
cream entirely, If they knew every
thing. But they don't; and they deal
with a mass of stuff. So, finds do,
really. slip through their fingers-to
be bought out of their own rubbish"
| boxes by more knowing private seek
ers, for next to nothing.
The dealers must keep the stuff
| moving. If not sure about books,
they put htem aside, to take expert
opinion. But even these get mixed
again with the "deadwood." At any
hour a barrowload or wasonload Of
old books may arrive. Families
break up. The books go to the quais
A dealer dickers, at the home, for
! the whole lot-all kinds of books.
mostly quite ordinary, but there may
be anything among them.
X X
WHEN the families are Americans
or English, the CndHCeS are iHl>
mensely greater for first editions to
slip unrecognized past dealers.
What we'll known old resident had
| kept on his shelves, perhaps for many
years, 1.-The Wrong Box" first edition,
| first issue, 1889. by Stevenson and
Lloyd Osbourne?
| 1t was picked up, for sure, in the
wrong box (the 1o-sous box, 2 cents
and a fraction) by an Alsatian-
American, who sold it to Brentano
for $13!
; Any one, you would think, might
! suspect value in no matter which Of
| those pamphlet-like first editions Of
kipling. printed in India!
Yet 'raoldiers Three (1SSs), bound at
Ailanabad, and the first Calcutta edi-
tion Of "Plain Tales from the Hills"
in its citron -colored cover, was found IN
the one e-franc rubbish boxes Of two
different French dealers, in the sport
ing search of American and English
residents, following on the tourists
boys great find!
The former sold for $50, the last time
a copy was auctioned, and the latter Is
| quoted even dearer.
| One more veritable Stevenson nugget
| was dug up by my friend stoddard
Treasure Island" dss3). in the original
blue CLOTH faded outside but clean
within, found in a two-franc box OF
worthless English fiction. 1t would sell
| today for $50. or perhaps double.
Where did these four stevenson Kip
| ling first editions come from? Notably,
they all date from the same short epoch
between 1888 and 1889. Did they belong
( to some one English speaking old resi-
dent? Had he Cor she) bought them
currently as published, and kept them
all this time, without thought Of pos
sible value? Then suddenly, some
servant, doubtless. sold them in .
bunch Of others-after . breakup.
| In vain, interminable boxes. up ana
down the river, have been paved over,