Back To The Books: Still More Additions to My Book Collection

If you've been following along with my bibliomania, you may ask yourself "Where does he put all these books?" This is a question I often ask myself.

Their Hearts' Desire, by Frances Foster Perry, illustrated by Harrison Fisher, published by Dodd, Mead & Company, 1909.
A thoroughly charming romance from a bygone day when ladies were ladies, gentlemen were gentlemen and flirtations were deftly carried out. This novel features six gorgeous illustrations by Harrison Fisher and the text of each page is set within a floral border decoration of Theodore Hapgood. The cover is a light mauve with gold stamped floral and geometric decorations surrounding one of Fisher's illustrations. A visually stunning book, the like of which is no longer made.

Come Into My Parlor, by Charles Washburn, published by Knickerbocker Publishing Co., 1934
I'm really looking forward to reading this book: "A Biography of the Aristocratic Everleigh Sisters of Chicago." Who were the Everleigh sisters and what made them so special? They ran a high-class brothel in Chicago, a sporting house that rivalled anything in New Orleans or San Francisco, and retired into obscurity.

Make It New, by Ezra Pound, publsihed by Yale University Press, 1935.
This is the third Ezra Pound first edition I have so I can now safely say that I collect Ezra Pound firsts. Pound's brilliant erudition, depth (he is not one of those inch deep and a mile wide literary critics) and insight is amazing. If only modern writers bothered to read him. This volume, a colection of lengthy essays, is on poetry: the troubadours, translators of Greek, Elizabethan classicists among other topics.

Thank You, Mr. Moto, by John P. Marquand, publsihed by Little, Brown & Company, 1936.
I like all the books in Marquand's Mister Moto series, but there are two that stand out well beyond the others. I should explain that in the late 20's and early 30's the idea of an Asian character as the protagonist was very radical. Before Charlie Chan and Mister Moto, Asians were diabolical, devious and generally up to no good. Chan and Moto brought a depth and a personality that were shockingly lacking to Asian characters in detective fiction. Not that Chan and Moto didn't have rocky beginnings: Charlie Chan disappears after his introduction in The House Without a Key only to turn up with the solution at the end. Mister Moto spends his time in Your Turn, Mr. Moto turning up at the critical moment with a pistol. Both characters improved as their respective series progressed. In this second book of the Mister Moto series, we find two Americans stumbling into the Japanese expansionist plans for northern China. They're playing a dangerous game: can or will Mister Moto extricate them?