Bookseller's Log - Antiquarian Bookseller Reference Guides

Antiquarian Bookseller Reference Guides

Reference material is an important part of the booksellers repartee. Recently while researching the brief recommendation for, Two Years Before the Mast, I came across a seller’s listing with multiple references cited. In order to advance my own knowledge I researched every reference noted.

I have been a minor bookseller for a number of years. There are reference books around, here and there, but I don’t think I ever cited one to boost the status of a volume I was offering. There are also shelves of obsolete price guides.

A few of the affluent booksellers reference books follow:

　

Bibliography of American Literature

Sighted as BAL

Compiled by Jacob Blanck and completed by Michael Winship and Virginia L. Smyers.

Reference information for more than 37,000 records of literary works. Covering 281 American writers. Published in nine volumes from 1955-1971.

Addresses authors who in their own time were ‘known and read’.

The works covers literature from the Revolution to 1930. And is reported to be a thorough representation of the covered authors first editions.

Bibliography of American Literature can be accessed online.

Two Years Before the Mast, BAL 4434

-----------------------------

Howes

Howes: U.S. Iana (1650-1950)

A Selective Bibliography in Which Are Described 11’620 Uncommon and Significant Books Relating to the Continental Portion of the United States.

Uncommon books and pamphlets relating to the development of that section of the North American continent now known as the United States of America

Wright Howes

Two Years Before the Mast, HOWES D-49.

-----------------------------

Grolier American 100

　

There must be a procession to the history of the Grolier Club. I see them referred to as the Grolier Club, Grolier Society, Grolier Limited and Grolier Enterprises. It appears there are subsidiaries known as Grolier Academic Reference and Grolier Educational Corporation.

Grolier 100 American Books. Their list is prefaced the ‘most influential books printed in America before 1900". This covers both literature and American history which makes it a useful guide.

Two Years Before the Mast, Grolier American 100, 46.

-----------------------------

Six Score

William S. Reese is the author of Six Score: The 120 Best Books on the Cattle Industry.

New Haven: William Reese Co., 1989

Two Years Before the Mast, Six Score 28

-----------------------------

Johnson "Highspot."

　

In 1929, Merle Johnson defined "high spots" as being "those literary landmarks that rise above mediocrity." Ahearn

Modern Book Collecting

mentions Johnson ‘High Spots in American Literature" published in 1929.

Two Years Before the Mast, Johnson "Highspot."

-----------------------------

Adams Herd　

Ramon F. Adams author of The Rampaging Herd. A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets on Men and Events in the Cattle Industry Published by John T. Zubal, 1982

Cropped for reference purposes;

Two Years Before the Mast, Adams Herd 442

-----------------------------

Sabin

Joseph Sabin, et al. A Dictionary of Books Relating to America from its Discovery to the Present Time. Twenty-nine volumes. Begun by Joseph Sabin, continued by Wilberforce Eames, and Completed by R.W.G. Vail for the Bibliographical Society of America.

Two Years Before the Mast, Sabin 18448

-----------------------------

Cowan

Robert Cowan, the great bibliographer of the history of California’s contribution:

A Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West, 1510-1906. Together with the text of John W. Dwinelle's Address on the acquisition of California by the United States of America. Long's College Book Co., Columbus, Ohio, 1952

Book Club of California, 1914.

Two Years Before the Mast, Cowan, p. 156.

-----------------------------

　

Zamorano 80

The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club. Los Angeles: Zamorano Club, 1945.

Perhaps the most interesting reference.

A Club formed by collectors and distinguished author/historians, the 80 titles were selected over a number of years with painstaking care. (Hence not the usual 100 titles.) The Zamorano titles became the ‘Collectors’ Holy Grail of Western Americana book collecting.

Only four collectors have been able to assemble all eighty titles in the first edition. One of the four had to buy another collection at auction to obtain his missing titles. Daniel Volkman’s completed collection of the Zamorano 80 sold at auction in 2003 with a hammer price above $880,000.

　

Two Years Before the Mast, Zamorano 80, 26.

-----------------------------