A 340-year-old manual for dealing with people, and much of it is still relevant.

This is the first English edition of Baltasar Gracián’s The Courtiers Manual Oracle, or, The Art of Prudence, published in London in 1685.

Gracián was a Spanish Jesuit whose original Oráculo manual appeared in 1647: 300 short maxims about judgement, reputation, self-control, ambition and how to navigate other people without making a complete mess of things.

Some of it reads less like seventeenth-century moral philosophy than slightly ruthless modern career advice.

“Have a special care not to make ostentation of every thing, for you’ll soon come to want admirers.”

“Some new thing is to be kept in store, that we may appear with to morrow.”

And, under “Not to die the death of a Fool”:
“Some die, because they feel, and others live because they feel not.”

Even the first maxim starts with the proposition that it now takes more to make one wise man than it did seven in ancient times. Apparently everyone has always thought they were living through an unusually difficult age.

The book later acquired some formidable admirers — Schopenhauer actually translated it into German.

The binding on this copy has had a fairly hard three centuries, but somehow that seems appropriate for a book about surviving the world.

I started collecting this English translated series about 2 months ago. Excited by how many I’ve found in that time! All of these come from either book stores, thrift stores, one book fair, one major FB marketplace score, and one free little library (which I frequently donate to). The three I’ve highlighted here are recent acquisitions.

Still looking for my grail: a collection of short stories called “Eye of the Heart”, edited by Barbara Howes.

Really excited to read this after I finish The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

Found in small mountain town in Idaho!

Hey, all.

During the pandemic, I started collecting the books of Frans Masereel, the Belgian woodcut artist. It started with a couple of his wordless novels in 2020 and kept growing until, this September, I had what I believe is comprehensive coverage of his work from 1918 to 1930. That came to 73 pieces in total: his own woodcut novels, French and German novels he illustrated, almanacs, exhibition catalogues, pamphlets, and a good number of periodicals. Most of them came from European rare book dealers, and most are in German or French.

The periodicals were the most interesting part to collect. A single issue of a 1920s literary magazine is easy to overlook, but Masereel’s woodcuts are scattered all through them, so I ended up chasing runs. I have issues 1 through 6 of Das Inselschiff (Volume 1, 1919–1920), Nos. 2 through 7 of Les Cahiers d’Aujourd’hui (1921), eight issues of Junge Menschen from 1926, and all five volumes of the Masereel-illustrated Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland.

A lot of the pages had yellowed over the last century, so after scanning (some at 600 DPI) I cleaned and rebalanced them so they read clearly. Everything here was published in 1930 or earlier, so it’s all public domain in the US now, and I’ve put every scan on archive.org for anyone to read for free.

A few highlights:

The Sun (1919): https://archive.org/details/img010_202309

25 Images of a Man’s Passion (1918): https://archive.org/details/img018_202310

Story Without Words (1920): https://archive.org/details/Story_Without_Words_by_Frans_Masereel_1920

The City (1925): https://archive.org/details/img046_202310

The Idea (1927): https://archive.org/details/The_Idea_Frans_Masereel

Calamus, Walt Whitman’s poems in Léon Bazalgette’s French version, with 10 woodcut plates: https://archive.org/details/calamus-walt-whitman-frans-masereel

The Work of Frans Masereel (Het werk van Frans Masereel), 1930: https://archive.org/details/het-werk-van-frans-masereel-just-havelaar-1930

The full collection, all 73 pieces: https://archive.org/details/@holdoffhunger

And if you’d rather just flip through the art, here’s a PDF with all 2,089 images, one per page (789mb): https://archive.org/details/frans-masereel-career-1918-1930_pdf

Please enjoy!

It's nice when the complete set shows up all at once in the bargain bin! This is Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet in charming matching Dutton paperbacks. Doubly lucky because paperbacks that the Strand Bookstore is buying now and setting out are being priced at $3, while these came from their warehouse and were acquired long enough ago that they were priced $1 each.

I only see it listed for $500 and up but maybe I just don’t know where to buy books (I’m not a book person)

Is this a natural discoloration of the page or are they spores?

Recently picked John Browne’s A Compleat Treatise of the Muscles, first edition published in London in 1681.

It was written for working surgeons at a time when anatomy was learned through dissection, demonstration and books like this rather than anything resembling a modern medical textbook.

Several of the surviving plates have old repairs and the book has clearly had a fairly hard life, which somehow feels appropriate for something that may well have been used by generations of working surgeons.

Browne himself was a practising surgeon and later worked at St Thomas’ Hospital and for the royal household (Charles II). His book was successful enough to go through numerous later editions, although its history is slightly messy — both the text and illustrations owe rather more to earlier anatomists than Browne was always willing to admit.

Still, there’s something extraordinary about handling a book that was teaching human anatomy nearly 350 years ago. The engravings are equal parts beautiful and unsettling.

I like to find books that stay identical or exactly the same as the first edition. That makes older books harder to find as revisions and edits take place. I've seen the PDFs that say they have the complete set but I like physical books and they have to be hardcover. Paperbacks are disgusting to me as they can easily be damaged (would love perfect binding). I've seen some sites say the total page count was around 4,100 pages or so for all 7 volumes and when I look on everyman's library, they only list 4 volumes. I want to read these books.

Edit: Page count is 4,215

I have a few books I'm planning to listing for purchase and some of them are signed but that are personalized. If you were buying would how would you feel about it? Should I mention they are signed but personalized as a disclosure, or just not mention that it's signed.

Just got it Friday, looks pretty complete to me.

Holy grail book for me, if anyone has one and is willing to part with it let me know!

I’ve been living in my current house 5 years, and for some reason I decided to keep some of my books in a cardboard box in my garage since I can only fit so many on my bookshelf. I think I was so focused on moving in at the time that I didn’t think of the long term and forgot about my books being there. I just opened the box because one of the books I want to read is in there, and all the books appear to be in the same condition as they were 5 years ago, so I see no reason to toss them. That said, I’d like to protect them going forward.

📚 Can anyone help me identify this edition of an old book?

I have a copy of The Summer of the Red Wolf by Morris L. West, and I would like to learn more about its edition, possible rarity, and history.

Here is the information I found in the book:

- Original publisher mentioned: Editorial Noguer S.A., 1972.

- Published for Círculo de Lectores.

- Ediciones Nacionales, Edinal Ltda., Bogotá, Colombia.

- Printed and bound by Printer Colombiana in Bogotá.

- Year of printing: 1980.

- 302 pages of text, with the final written page unnumbered.

- Brown hardcover with no illustrations, featuring gold lettering on the spine.

- The book states “Unabridged Edition.”

I have had trouble finding photographs of another copy with the same cover.

Could anyone familiar with rare books, book collecting, or bibliographic research help me identify the exact edition? I would especially like to know whether there are different variants of this edition and whether it has any particular historical or collectible significance.

Any information or bibliographic references would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

📚 Can anyone help me identify this edition of an old book?

I have a copy of The Summer of the Red Wolf by Morris L. West, and I would like to learn more about its edition, possible rarity, and history.

Here is the information I found in the book:

- Original publisher mentioned: Editorial Noguer S.A., 1972.

- Published for Círculo de Lectores.

- Ediciones Nacionales, Edinal Ltda., Bogotá, Colombia.

- Printed and bound by Printer Colombiana in Bogotá.

- Year of printing: 1980.

- 302 pages of text, with the final written page unnumbered.

- Brown hardcover with no illustrations, featuring gold lettering on the spine.

- The book states “Unabridged Edition.”

I have had trouble finding photographs of another copy with the same cover.

Could anyone familiar with rare books, book collecting, or bibliographic research help me identify the exact edition? I would especially like to know whether there are different variants of this edition and whether it has any particular historical or collectible significance.

Any information or bibliographic references would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

📚 ¿Alguien puede ayudarme a identificar esta edición de un libro?

Tengo un ejemplar de El verano del lobo rojo, de Morris L. West, y me gustaría conocer más sobre su edición, su posible rareza y su historia.

Estos son los datos que pude encontrar:

- Editorial original mencionada: Noguer S. A., 1972.

- Edición de Círculo de Lectores.

- Ediciones Nacionales, Edinal Ltda., Bogotá, Colombia.

- Impreso y encuadernado por Printer Colombiana en Bogotá.

- Año de impresión: 1980.

- 302 páginas numeradas o escritas, con la última hoja sin número.

- Tapa dura marrón, sin ilustraciones, con el título en letras doradas en el lomo.

- El libro indica «edición no abreviada».

Me cuesta encontrar fotografías de otro ejemplar con esta misma cubierta.

¿Alguien especializado en libros antiguos o bibliografía podría ayudarme a identificar la edición exacta? Me interesa saber si existen variantes de esta edición y si tiene alguna particularidad histórica o coleccionable.

¡Cualquier información o referencia bibliográfica será bienvenida!

Hello! Is there anywhere I can check what kind of binding the books have? I imagine that the vast majority of paperbacks are perfect-bound, which is fine, but the problem is that many hardcovers are also glued, even those considered collector’s items. For some popular books, there are videos online, but the people who make them focus on the cover, they don’t mention any details about the quality of the pages or the binding, nor do they film the book well enough for you to get a good idea. Is there anywhere where owners confirm the type of binding on their books? I haven’t found anything online, and AI isn’t helpful either, most of the time it contradicts itself within a few seconds.

For example, I recently purchased the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Collector’s Edition, the original pr1ce was pretty high for a book with ~300 pages. I expected it to have a sewn binding, but it doesn’t. A few weeks ago, I actually sent an email to the publisher asking for clarification, but they didn't reply. And not only it is glued, but it’s glued very poorly, the book barely opens to 90 degrees, and I’m afraid to try any harder because it feels like the pages might tear. It seems absurd to me. I also have the paperback version, which I bought for a fraction of the pr1ce, and it opens very well.

How could I avoid these kinds of problems? How do you guys do it? Where do you get your information about the type of binding?

PS: I had to censor the word "p r i c e", otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to create the post.

hi! i'm a huge ryan gosling fan and have been desperately searching for the nice guys the official movie novelization by charles ardai. i've looked everywhere and still can't find it :C it's on ebay for $200+, but uh yk i don't have that kind of money. if anyone knows where it is available/has a chance to be available, please lmk!! i've signed up for so many websites and searched through so many out of print book websites but i just can't find it. thank you!!

Are these hard to come by? I want to get my daughter a first edition (signed would be a bonus). She is a super fan. She has read everything. Made her own characters and the works. Really loves the Warriors world.

I am trying to find a good Christmas gift for her and I thought a first printing would be meaningful. I have been digging around for a bit, but have not seen anything on eBay or Abebooks.

If you have one or know of someone I would appreciate it.
Thank you

They were also having a $1 book sale outside. I may have gone a bit ham.