New Arrivals in the Bookshop

Despite my entreaties over the phone and cyberspace to the many who contact us each day about wanting to donate or sell us books, ("We're REALLY quite full right now, so we're not buying all that much" is my usual refrain), there are boxes of books that arrive daily at Old Saratoga Books and Dan and I find that we can't resist a fresh batch of interesting books.

Sometimes it's a pile of orphaned books left on our doorstep when we open up and often it's a mound of garage sale leftovers, festooned with colorful price stickers. Most of these volumes end up in our to-be-donated-to-whatever-library-is-next-in-line-for-a-fundraiser-book-sale. Then there are those folks who show up with really lovely, unusual books that we've never seen before, and though the shelves are groaning from all the New Year declutterers that have brought us books, we simply pull out the check book and sigh.

In recent weeks we've bought many, many baking cookbooks from a former culinary student, boatloads of fishing and gardening books, a spate of books about film history and biographies about Hollywood's Golden Age, interesting pop-ups and books about paper art and origami, some antiquarian art and history titles, scads of classic science fiction paperbacks, and quite a nice pile of literary biographies. I've only put a handful of these titles online, so if you are interested in any of these areas, feel free to inquire about what's on the shelves.

Here's a little sampling of what these new collections contain:

 Ritz, Charles; Piper, John A Fly Fisher's Life NY Crown Publishers 1973. Reprint Hardcover Very Good in Very Good dust jacket.Foreword by Ernest Hemingway, introduction by Arnold Gingrich. Large octavo. Green cloth binding. Many photos and illustrations. Jacket lightly tattered. In jacket protector. ; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall; 285 pages.

 Lewis, C. S.; Como, James T. C. S. Lewis at the Breakfast Table and Other Reminiscences
NY Macmillan Company 1979. First Printing Hardcover Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. n jacket protector. Index, alphabetical index to the writings of C. S. Lewis, bibliography. A compilation of memories about C. S. Lewis from 22 of his friends. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 299 pages.

Reichert, Mickey Zucker; Nye, Jody Lynn Nye; Ranieri, Roman A. Anne Mccaffrey's the Unicorn Girl: The Illustrated Adventures. NY HarperPrism 1997. First Printing Hardcover Very Good in Very Good dust jacket.  collection of short stories based on McCaffrey's character by Jody Nye, Mickey Zucker Reichert and Roman A. Ranieri and illustrated by various artists. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 136 pages.

 Mesnier, Roland; Malard, Christian All the Presidents' Pastries: Twenty-Five Years in the White House. Paris Flammarion 2004.First English Language Edition Hardcover Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. irst printing of first English Language edition. Several pages of photographs. "This extraordinary success story-told by the hero himself-of a young French pastry chef who climbed his way to the top, embodies the great American dream. After working at the Savoy in London, the George V in Paris, the Princess in Bermuda, and the Homestead in Virginia, Roland Mesnier took on the job of a lifetime as pastry chef to the White House. He provides behind-the-scenes insight into the characters, tastes, and obsessions of the five presidents and first ladies he served during his 25 years in Washington. Seventeen easy-to-follow recipes include the favorite desserts of all five presidents and their families. " (rear cover blurb) ; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; 344 pages

 
 Haddon, Kathleen Cat's Cradles from Many Lands Longmans, Green and Company 1911 First Edition Hardcover Very Good.live green cloth binding with cat's cradle figure and lettering stamped in white on front boards. Index, bibliography, many illustrations. Gift inscription penciled on front free endpaper, boards lightly rubbed. Many examples of string figures, or cat's cradles from cultures around the world, including Alaskan Inuit, the Torres Straits, Andaman Islands, Yoruba tribes, Navaho Indian tribes and others. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 95 pages.

Palestrant, S. Practical Papercraft: Over 400 Useful and Decorative Projects for Fun and Profit
NY Homecrafts 1950 Hardcover Good in Good dust jacket. any photos and illustrations. Jacket flaps glued to endpapers and endpapers darkened from the adhesive, usual library stamps and markings. Learn how to make toys, costumes, flowers, lampshades, masks, boxes, stage scenery, puppets and party decorations out of paper. ; Ex-Library; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 119 pages.

Kendall, Elizabeth The Runaway Bride: Hollywood Romantic Comedy of the 1930s
NY Knopf 1990. First Edition Hardcover Very Good in Good dust jacket
Jacket price-clipped and curled at edges, foxing to page tops and bottoms. Index, bibliography, notes, photos. A look at the changing role of women, romantic love and how films mirrored these changes. ; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 285 pages.

Gorling, A. ; Meyer, Bl; Woltmann, A. Art Treasures of Germany: A Collection of the Most Important Pictures of the Galleries of Dresden, Cassel, Brunswick, Berlin, Munich and Vienna. with Portraits of the Most Celebrated Masters and Explanatory and Biographical Notices
Boston Samuel Walker and Company 1873 Hardcover Good. Half-bound in morocco with title and owner name stamped in gilt on spine. Contains 120 engravings after paintings by various European masters, including Velasquez, Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Murillo, Holbein, Caravaggio and many, many lesser known Dutch and German artists.

 
 Stevens, C. F. ; Ryskind, Morrie; Englander, James The Home Movie Scenario Book
NY Richard Manson 1927 First Edition Hardcover Very Good in Fair dust jacket
Gray boards with black cloth backstrip. Pages toned, jacket soiled and tattered. In jacket protector. Several pages of advertisements for camera stores and movie theatres. A collection of twenty plots for home movies in a silent film format, as well as chapters on how to produce, direct, act in, provide makeup, sets, lighting, and editing these home productions. Ryskind was wrote and helped produce Broadway musicals (he got a Pulitzer for "Of Thee I Sing", written in collaboration with George Gershwin) , an award-winning Hollywood screenplay author and "friendly witness" for the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 169 pages.

 Thomas, Graham Stuart The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book:
Sagaponack, NY Sagapress 2004 0711223971 / 9780711223974 Revised Edition Hardcover Very Good in Very Good dust jacket.  revised, one volume edition of Thomas' trilogy of rose reference books: The Old Shrub Roses, Shrub Roses of Today and Climbing Roses Old and New. 158 color plates. Index, bibliography, line illustrations. ; 4to 11" - 13" tall; 359 pages.