Collecting Anais Nin

I'm a huge collector of Anais Nin's works -especially anything published by the original Swallow Press. Sadly one thing I don't own is the Swallow Press (some of the later books being published by Harcourt/Harvest) of her complete set of diaries.






First Edition/First Printing of Volume One Swallow Press

I've seen copies, but always thought they were over-priced and with so many different "versions" of Nin's diaries out there it's only my nostalgia for the Swallow Press editions of Nin's work that leans me towards this set in particular. They are the "expurgated" versions, as the unexpurgated versions weren't published until 1986 when Nin's widow Rupert Pole decided to have them republished.

Nin began her "diary" at the age of 11. The diaries I'm looking for start in 1931 and end in 1974, but there is also a 4 volumes set of Nin's earlier diaries starting in 1914 and ending in 1931. Her diaries was famously denounced when it became apparent that Nin edited her life a great deal, still it is a singular and amazing literary document nonetheless.

I have a small but proud collection of Nin's works, which recently got a little bigger. I picked up "A Photographic Supplement to The Diary of Anais Nin" for 5,00 euros. There appear to be two versions, published by Harvest/Harcourt (they are a supplement to the Harvest/Harcourt editons of the diaries), one published with the harcover volumes in 1966 and a second published in 1974 (which I have) for the tradeback editions.

While I've seen the Harvest/Harcourt First/First for about 600,00 euros - an incomplete set of the Swallow Press (buying the first volumes separately as a First/First) is slightly more affordable. In reality I'd like to have both, but for the purposes of collecting, the Swallow Press of the diaries and the Swallow Press hardcover of the Anais Nin Reader (I have a Swallow Press tradeback) would be the real coup. The Reader costs almost as much as all six of the diaries, so I better start saying my petits pieces!

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Books, Tea, Time, and The Droste Effect in Amsterdam

Day two in Amsterdam was recovery day. I did a little grocery shopping at the Albert Heijn, made sandwiches, and did a lot of napping. I blogged about finding a copy of The Olympia Reader and the famous scandal surrounding Lolita. Day three however after enough rest this wicked girl was ready to hit the town a little bit.

So I headed to Centraal Bibliotheek. It's located between Centraal Station and the NEMO Science Center in front of the massive floating Chinese pagoda restaurant. You can't miss it. It is afterall the biggest library in Europe.

Inside I managed to discreetly snap photos for the purpose of this blog. See the world's best reading/writing chairs are inside the Amsterdam central library. I tried to find online who designed them and how to get my hands on one, but so far nothing has turned up. Here are some pictures, if you know who made them or where to buy them I would be most thankful for the tip.

I headed up another level to take a look at some of the books in the Centraal Bibliotheek's "Amsterdam" collection and ended up finding a book (in Dutch, English, German, and French no less) about the pews of the Oudekerk (The Old Church, Red Light District) and learned a new word in the process.

miserichord: (sometimes named mercy seat, like the Biblical object) is a small wooden shelf on the underside of a folding seat in a church, installed to provide a degree of comfort for a person who has to stand during long periods of prayer.

I also had a seat to enjoy the view, another reason besides books to visit the Centraal Bibliotheek.

One last snap of possibly Satanist magazines in the religious magazine section, and I was back out on the street.

I wandered around and fell upon this creepy, creepy thing I had made a note in my notebook to try and pass by again for the purposes of getting a photo for my blog. Isn't it horrible and yet quite amazing in it's own way? It's in the window of a Dutch restaurant on Zeedijk.

Another random Amsterdam window, this time instead of taxidermy there's a tiny world beyond the glass.

I had lunch again at Thaise Snackbar (Zeedijk) and it was as delicious yet again. I will eventually eat at another restaurant and possibly one day vacation in a different city. Until then, the pad thai was too good for words.

The plan was to first go to the Waterlooplein market to find an old Droste Dutch coccoa tin. I saw about seven the other day and could barely find one when I went back specifically to find the damn thing. I finally found one and a cute little milk jug and sugar bowl set. Total for everything was 5,00 euros.

I wandered back up towards Nieuwmarkt towards a secondhand bookstore called The Book Exchange because I wanted to browse for some books, but I found the passage of books again (on the same street at TBE, but before Ruusland street) and bought some there first. Then I went to The Book Exchange and bought some there too.

The new plan was to find an art store and buy the supplies necessary to make my Tardis themed notebook while having tea and Dutch brownies. I planned to make from scratch meatballs and spaghetti sauce for dinner. I found the supplies (less than 30,00 euros and will probably be enough materials to make several Tardis themed notebooks) and then it started to rain so I popped into The Bushdoctor Coffeeshop to have a smoke and wait it out.

Once home I did have tea and brownies and homemade spaghetti and meatballs with foccacia bread and I did watch Monty Python and The Holy Grail, but didn't get to the Tardis notebooks. Tonight I suppose will be leftovers and Tardis. Will have to watch some old episodes of my favourite Doctor (I guess it's probably David Tennant).

Enjoy some random A'dam photos:

Swans and bicycles on a bridge near Waterlooplein.

Near this bridge. (See above.)

Postcard I personalised for a friend.

My moleskin pages from yesterday with my spirograph.

Another postcard (Nirvana) to send to my neighbour's son.

This might be a bad translation, but "Bread has a point"? Please help if you speak Dutch!

From under my umbrella...

Yes Pizarro, what have you done??

Odd car.

Books bought. A few Tardis supplies.

Tea, books, Droste tin, tea set, Tardis supplies.

Yummy.

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Someday I'll go to Hay(on-Wye)

One of my biggest dreams is to go on Hay-on-Wye not only as an author, but also to simply shop for books. Year after year I watch the people in the biz go and come back all tousle haired and glowy.  They've just heard about the greatest book ever written and me, well I am stuck waiting to find out what this unicorn of a book is called.  Granted I'd likely skip the chats and go for a nice book hoke, but can't someone pay me to go anyways? I'll gather up the gossip over the dinner table.  I'll gladly serve up the delicious banter for my expenses and a wee per diem allowance.... you could have me for a bargain really. Anyways enough of my bleating. I don't think the powers that be read my blog... (which may be for the best really).

There are 39 bookshops in Hay-on-Wye, many specialising in very rare editions of books. Now that the festival is on it's a perfect chance to get a look at this charming little place known as "Book Town".

The first Book Town was pioneered in 1961 by Richard Booth in Hay-on-Wye, which is a small town on the border of England and Wales. Booth's concept was to buy up property in small towns and convert the properties into bookshops.

Hay-on-Wye has long been on my list of places to visit, with a van. It's a bit tricky to get there from Paris as I'd have to take a train to London and from London change to the British Rail at Paddington Station to arrive in Herefordshire and then take a bus. Or I'll have to get over my fear of driving on the left and rent a car, one that I can pile full of books to be brought back to France via the ferry. Knowing myself as I do, and how I can buy sometimes a hundred books in one go (not ones that cost 18,000 pounds of course), I'll be taking some time this summer to practice driving on the left around the countryside of Northern Ireland where I can be fairly certain I will cause no accidents.

I'm posting a little video that's available on The Telegraph's site about looking for the most expensive book in Hay-on-Wye which turns out to be H.G. Wells' First Men in the Moon which with its original dust jacket costs 18,000 pounds! The reason why books with dust jackets tend to cost more is because people tend to throw dust jackets away, so old books with dust jackets are a major attractive for serious collector's.

But my favourite little bit of this video is the bit with Peter Harries of Boz Books in Hay-on-Wye mostly because he and I have the same philosophy. Unless you have the money to throw around, you collect what means something to you.

I collect W. Somerset Maugham books for example and have a few first editions that I would (once the humans and the hound were safe) run into a burning house to save. I feel the same about my dust jacketless first edition of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't chop off my hair and sell it to get my hands on a signed first edition of W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge, which is my favourite of all his works. Nor does it mean I don't have multiple editions of the same works.

A little search for what I'm looking for, without the issued slip cover is already about 2,300 pounds, but as a lover of Maugham if I had the money I'd consider it a justifiable purchase as it is not only written by my favourite author, but it's also my favourite book by any author.

Here's an image of the book I'd most like to own, although with its original slipcover, which means the price would most likely be around the 18,000 pound price as well.

W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge printed 18 April 1944 No. 89 of 750 copies.

Hay-on-Wye isn't the only book town. There's book towns in many countries now, including the only one I've visited Montolieu in the south of France. If you'd like to see the complete list thanks to Wikipedia you can. Thanks Wiki!

Who knows maybe I'll get to Hay-on-Wye and find my first edition of The Razor's Edge and have nothing left over for anything else. Still, I'm determined to find my way there some day in the not-so-distant future!

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Recent Acquisitions

Letters from Africa - Isak Dinesen
Heaven and Hell - Emanuel Swedenborg
The Roots of Coincidence - Arthur Koestler
The Betrothed - Alessandro Manzoni
The Sailor Who Fell from the Sea - Yukio Mishima
Bored of the Rings - The Harvard Lampoon
The Counterfeiters - Andre Gide
The Unvanquished - William Faulkner
The Rainbow - D.H. Lawrence
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Innocent Libertine - Colette
The Farewell Party - Milan Kundera
Deception - Philip Roth
Fathers and Sons - Alexander Roth
Youth and the Bright Medusa - Willa Cather
The Other Woman - Colette
The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
Cosmicomics - Italo Calvino
Demain - Herman Hesse
Welcome to the Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Seven Gothic Tales - Isek Dinesen
The Other Mexico: Critique of the Pyramid - Octavio Paz
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
The Book of the Five Rings - Musashi
D.H. Lawrence - Anais Nin
Children of the Albatross - Anais Nin
A Spy in the House of Love - Anais Nin
Seduction of the Minotaur - Anais Nin
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
The Snow Leopard - Peter Matthiessen
No Name - Wilkie Collins
Anatomical Drawings - Leonardo da Vinci
Les Belles Images - Simone de Beauvoir
Gravity - George Gamow
A House is Not a Home - Polly Adler
Chanel - Edmonde Charles- Roux
Letters Summer 1926 - Pasternak, Rilke, Tsvetayeva
A Beside Nature, Genius and Eccentricity in Science 1869 - 1953 (foreword by Stephen Jay Gould)
Memories of Childhood - Marcel Pagnol
The Flounder - Gunter Grass
Losing Battles - Eudora Welty
Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs
The Green House - Maria Vargas Llosa
Group Portrait with Lady - Henrich Boll
The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe
The Mystic Masseur - V.S. Naipul
Leafstorm and Other Stories - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Delta Wedding - Eudora Welty
Creatures Great and Small - Colette
Tutankh-Amen and His Tomb - G. Elliot Smith
The Age of Fable - Thomas Bullfinch
Call It Sleep - Henry Roth
Travels with Charley - John Steinbeck
Anti-Memoirs - Andre Malraux
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and six more - Roald Dahl
Nijinsky - Nijinsky
The Search for Modern China - Jonathan D. Spence
The Best Cartoons from Punch
Histoire de Paris et des Parisiens
French Gourmet Cooking Volume I & II - Julia Child
Infinity and the Mind - Rudy Rucker
Lectures on Literature - Nabokov
Marquis de Sade - Simone de Beauvoir
Apocalypse - D.H. Lawrence
Psychology and Alchemy - C.G. Jung
Corydon - Andre Gide
Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges - Richard Burgin
The Captive Mind - Czeslaw Milosz
We - Eugene Zamiatin
American Power and the New Mandarins
Everything that Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Connor
Invitation to a Beheading - Nabokov
The Baron in the Trees - Italo Calvino
Conversations about the End of Time - Eco, Gould, etc
The Intuitionist - Colson Whitehead
The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico - Bernal Diaz del Castillo
The Writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Complete Poems - D.H. Lawrence
The Crossing - Cormac McCarthy
Memoirs - Pablo Neruda
Closing the Gap - Chandler Brossard

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The Thinker's Library

Today at Shakespeare and Co. I found the first of 140 books published between 1929 and 1951 by Watts and Co. London in the "Thinker's Library", "First and Last Things", by HG Wells.

I was amazed to find out this was a bit of collector's object, since it was just lying about not doing much of anything. I was complimented on my choice at the register, but who knew?

You can find oodles of The Thinker's Library books on www.abebooks.co.uk including one I'd really like to get my hands on by Darwin.

For the full list visit your good friend and mine, Wiki at:

I myself am going to see if they come to me. We shall see if I have the patience because usually let's face it, I don't.

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