Finds From the Goodwill

Once you could find some really great things at the local Goodwill. Well, you still can if your local area has some pretty cool stuff to begin with. But since the Goodwill no longer ships stuff out to other stores and sells back to an area what is donated from the area, things have changed. Gone are the days of finding sharkskin suits and chain stitched bowling shirts, hawaiian shirts from the '40s and '50s and bakelite jewelry at the Goodwill.

As I was released rather early ... like at two o'clock, if you can dig it ... I went over to the IBB. Unfortunately I had to encounter J. being his usual blowhard self. One Earl Grey tea later and I vamoosed, exit stage left. Then I went to deposit my cheque and I still had most of the afternoon to while away. So I went to the Goodwill.

I was surprised to actually find some decent books, too!

The Pit by Frank Norris, published by Doubleday, Page & Co., 1903. The Pit is part two of Norris's trilogy The Epic of Wheat, the first part being the better known The Octopus, which is about the California farmlands being overtaken by the railroads. The Pit is set in Chicago in the commodities markets. Judging from Norris's other novels, McTeague and The Octopus, I'll bet this is an equally depressing, but wonderfully muckraking story.

Vera The Medium by Richard Harding Davis, published by Scriveners, 1908. A book collector hopes to find a book in near perfect condition. Chances are, though, that there will be a host of imperfections major or minor. Aside from a couple of gently bumped corners and mild scuffing at the spine ends, Vera The Medium is practically as it came off the bookseller's shelves. The cover embossing is still strong, the gilt ink entirely intact and the interior pages utterly clean and bright. All the illustrations are still in the book. Whoever Richard Harding Davis was, he wrote a packet of books ranging from apparent thrillers to real life adventures in the Spanish-American War and in the Boer War in South Africa. I suspect the plot will follow along these lines: Vera is a medium or, rather, a fraudlent medium who is out to get the old gent's money. The handsome District Attorney is out to stop her, but has fallen in love with her. Vera's plot revealed, we discover that she under some pernicious influence and acting against her will. The pernicious influence being removed, Vera is restored to good society and free to marry the handsome D.A. Check back later and see if I was right or not!

A Wanderer in London, by E.V. Lucas, published by The MacMillan Company, 1910. I was going to pass this one up, judging from the title, but then I glanced through it and realized that it was too good to let slip by. A Wanderer in London is a travelogue of London with an emphasis on varius art galleries and artistic sites. Judging by the list of numerous illustrations, it should turn out to be a charming vignette of Edwardian London.

Have His Carcase, by Dorothy L. Sayers, published by Brewer, Warren & Putnam, 1932. Lord Peter Wimsey! What more needs be said? I suspect this is an American first edition.