Description
Collecting William Kennedy: The Bard of Albany
For most people the capitol of New York State is anything but a magical place. Set on the Hudson River, it appears to be attractive, but its population has diminished gradually over the last 50 years. But for William Kennedy, Albany is a luminous place filled with the history of gangsters, the powerful Democratic political machine and ethnic immigrants lingering as unseen shadows on every street.
Mordecai Richler: St. Urbain’s Proudest Son
The compact grid of streets known today as Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood gave rise to Mordecai Richler. If not for Richler, this little urban patch—which he called “the Jewish ghetto”—would be unknown to most people. It fired Richler’s imagination. Now Richler is one the most vibrant voices in Canadian letters, the enfant terrible to the snake-oil peddlers of narrow-mindedness and hypocrisy.
All Marked Up: Another Avenue for Book Collecting
“Always buy your books in the best possible condition.” Every collector has heard this advice. Obviously, a book doesn’t look new if it has anything written in it, and marked-up books generally are avoided by collectors. But some books containing written notations can be quite collectable.
Previously in Firsts
1993 – Cormac McCarthy, Thorne Smith
2003 – Mabel Seeley, Ed McBain