(Jackson Street) Books on 7th is around the corner and on the internet tubes. We strive to be your full-service new and used bookstore, emphasizing good literature, progressive politics, and, of course, books about baseball. Opened in Hoquiam October 1, 2010

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Department of Book Reports: This Old Book

We had a huge estate of books come in this week so I thought I'd show some of the treasures we've found in the 42 cartons we are sorting through. This lady never met a cookbook she didn't buy. I think there is probably a full run of those little sideways format Nitty Gritty cookbooks. There are hundreds of the 9x12 Sunset/Better Homes & gardens/HP titles. And she collected cookbooks from foreign cuisines.
Here are Norway's Delight, by Elise Sverdrup, HT Cook Like a Jewish Mother, by June Roth, and Elena's Famous Mexican and Spanish Recipes by Elena Zelayeta.
Tasty Thai Cuisine (the recipes are in English & Thai), Tempura and Sukiyaki, The Pleasures of Japanese Cooking by Heihachi Tanaka, and The Pleasures of Chinese Cooking by Grace Zia Chu.

The Galloping Gourmet, Vol 1 Favorite Dishes: Deep South Pacific. This has a spot in my heart from my childhood watching this (now) local chef on teevee.

There are a couple dozen of various "community" cookbooks, from organizations across the country. Favorite Recipes of Home Ec Teachers, and perhaps my favorite title: Favorite Recipes of Methodist Women: MEATS. I'll let you make up your own jokes.

Now, here's an interesting volume from an author Dano has discussed last year. It's a first printing of the 1963 Pullitzer Prize winner Anti-intellectualism in American Life, by Richard Hofstadter. The delicate dust jacket has some small chips and tears, but it still quite bright considering the age of the book.

Here's a sweet one from the many Home Repair titles, The Handywoman's Guide to Repairing Small Appliances. The interior line drawings all show nicely manicured fingers fixing various household machines.


We have both volumes 1 & 2 of these technicolor beauties, Flower Arranging A Fascinating Hobby. Printed in 1940 and 1941, they have lovely bright photos of mid-century modern floral sculptures, and it isn't apparent until the final chapter that these booklets were produced by the Coca Cola company. Next time you need to decorate in Coca Cola, you'll wish you had these volumes.




This 1974 edition, Exotic Plant Manual is chock full of photographs, 3,600 in fact.

I apologize for the quality of my pictures, but this slim volume quite surprised me. Draw Horses It's Fun and Easy by Paul Brown in 1949.


There's many more Craft books (the Seventies are coming back, right? We'll have any macrame book you could ever need) Pet Care, mostly fish & cats, (some bird books), Gardening, Natural Healing, Fiction and Non Fiction, and oh, did I mention cookbooks?
Today's selections are from approximately 10 cartons. We'll be getting the database updated as soon as we possibly can. The range of books span Great Grandma's books from 1902 and onwards. I'll be posting more pictures on our blogspot throughout the next couple weeks.

3 comments:

Admin said...

Oh what fun it must be to go thru those boxes!

Mark MacKay said...

Radcliffe College Schlesinger Library has an amazing cookbook collection. Some of those community cookbooks may be useful research tools for women's studies/food studies/culture studies, etc.

You may want to query the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) or the curator of the Schlesinger Cookbook Collection for info about scholars or groups with a particular interest in this area.

Tammy said...

Good point, Mark! and, yes, that is why I love reading old cookbooks.

I even have a 1950s cookbook from the Greek Orthodox just down the hill from you.

Paddy (or Laffy) I am just like a pig in mud! ;)