The Book Department Returns

Devoted Readers are, by now, acustomed to numerous and lengthy posts concerning the latest acquisitions in the Thomas B. Mosher books and being the sharp people that they are, they have noticed a lack of Mosher related posts of substantial length.

There are a few reasons for this lack: first, my recent dentistry expenses has enforced a sense of monetary moderation and secondly, I have wanted to expand my book collecting horizons a bit while not getting burned out on Mosher.

Here are the latest acquisitions in the book department:

Sartor Resartus, by Thomas Carlyle, published by George M. Hill Company, Chicago, 1898.
Thomas Carlyle was a giant of Victorian Thought, one who, along with John Ruskin, set the style which later generations would either follow or rebel against. Devoted Readers who are also Devoted Holmesians will remember that Sherlock Holmes knew nothing of Carlyle or his works to the atonishment of Doctor Watson. Even in a work of popular detective fiction, this will give you some idea of the stature of Thomas Carlyle. Sartor Resartus is a pillar of Victorian philosophy, being a meditation upon clothing, but encompassing vastly more and at the same instant, a parody of German philosophical hairsplitting. Absolutely amazing.

The Barbary Coast, by Herbert Asbury, Alfred A. Knopf, 1933, first edition.
The name of Herbert Asbury may be familiar to many as the fellow who wrote The Gangs of New York upon which Martin Scorsese based his epynomous film. Asbury was fascinated by criminality and its influence upon the major cities of the United States. The Barbary Coast is about the early and utterly amoral days of San Francisco. The Gold Rush of 1849 created the city and turned into a den of thieves, murders, prostitutes and conniving politicians who would have made the Sachems of Tammany Hall blush for shame and envy. Every vice imaginable was vailable for a price in San Francisco. Well researched and extremely fascinating.

The Monkey and The Tiger, by Robert Van Gulik, published by Charles Scribner, 1965.

The Red Pavilion, by Robert Van Gulik, published by Charles Scribner, 1968.

Devoted Readers will remember that I received a copy of Van Gulik's Murder In Canton, a first American edition and that I speculated that I would no doubt be seeking out the rest of Van Gulik's Judge Dee series in American first editions. As you can see, I've begun another collection! I should post more fully on Robert Van Gulik's excellent mysteries featuring Judge Dee as the books are well worth reading.