LEFT INSIDE: Promotional Post Card from 1938

Today for a change we have a legitimate "Left Inside" find.  I was sort of cheating for the past couple of months using inscriptions and bookplates (and there are more of those to come in case you were suffering from withdrawal) due to a lack of ephemera left inside my books. A plethora of bookplates and POIs  began turning up as well as autographs so I started taking photos and have quite a file to choose from now.  This post card, on the other hand, was a delightful and long overdue find.

And the book itself is an even better find!  One of the best purchases I've made in years. It's an incredibly rare copy of Death Walks Softly (1938) --a Nigel Morland book, one of the Inspector Tandy detective novels he wrote using his "Neal Shepherd " pseudonym. At a mere $35 it was a steal. The description promised the exceptionally scarce dust jacket though based on the price clearly the seller had no idea about that. Overall, the description noted minimal damage and a book in good condition. A bare bones description to be sure and leaving a lot of room for my usually cynical imagination to fill in with all sorts of expected flaws. It could mean anything from genuinely good to battered and worn because "good" in the book trade does not mean good at all. Usually "good" translates to barely good. In truth the rating can be used to cover a condition that ranges from usual wear to beaten to hell.  This counterintuitive grading system that's been in place for centuries frankly still baffles me. 

Imagine my surprise when I opened the package to discover a review copy in Very Good condition!  Minor wear, faint foxing to the foredges, some tanning to the edges of the dust jacket, but absolutely much better than a mere "good."

Laid inside I found a bonus not mentioned in the seller's description. A promotional post card from Constable & Co., the publisher, intended to be sent to professionals in the chemistry world. This makes me think that the book was a review copy and that the recipient was to send the card out to help promote sales. It also alludes to the fact that the book is the first in a new series although that fact is never mentioned outright. The front of the card has a miniature of the dust jacket illustration, but in black and white. The actual dust jacket is in three colors (blue, green and black). Click to enlarge for full enjoyment. You'll most likely have to enlarge the second one in order to read the message.

I own three of the four Neal Shepard books and have been promising to write about them for years now.  I think I've mentioned in passing the plot of Death Flies Low in a couple of comments over the past ten years, but still have not written up reviews of any of the books. They are all scientific detective novels with bizarre murder methods and unusual motives. Along with another brief series featuring Sgt Johnny Lamb that Morland wrote as "John Donavan" they are the best of his detective novels. Expect reviews of all the Neal Shepherd books starting in March and continuing through April. You'll have to wait for the photos of the beautiful copy of Death Walks Softly in the first review in the coming weeks.

LEFT INSIDE: Review Copy Publicity Slips

Let me take you back to those days of old when people actually read books made of paper with words of printed ink.  Book reviewers didn't check their email for publicity inundated with hyperlinks to the digital world of NetGalley and other sites with intangible review copies.  They had to go to their mailboxes and check for packages of real books of paper and ink.

Well, people like me and other quasi-Luddites who are still reluctant to succumb to the ubiquity of digital books and electronic publishing still insist of these physical advance reader copies (ARCs) and love going to the mailbox to pick up packages loaded with books. It's a losing battle, however, these days when publishers who still do print these physical copies have very few to offer to us outliers.

My collection includes several copies of these old-timey ARCs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Much more exciting than boring and easily deleted electronic galleys.  Below are two slips of paper I found in a copy of Dead Ringer by Roger Ormerod to be reviewed in the coming months.  The papers are self-explanatory.  You can click on the first one to enlarge it and read the content.

 

Scribner's seems to be the cheap kind of publisher who sent limited PR with the book.  Other publishers included a lengthy cover letter announcing the book's publication date and instructions not to review the book prior to its release -- apparently no longer a stringent rule in this age of blogging and Instagram.

Sometimes photographs of the author and the book were also included. The reviewer would submit those with the copy to the layout crew at the magazine or newspaper.  I had a few books with author photographs but I have no idea what I did with those photos. Maybe this copy also had such additional material and it was submitted with the review.  But when I bought the book these two slips were the only items inside.

LEFT INSIDE: A Variety of Bookplates

Pandemic boredom led me to amassing about three boxes of books (most of them still not read) and I noticed in reorganizing them and cataloging them that many had some intriguing bookplates.  And here they are for your viewing pleasure...

This woman was married to an optometrist in Ohio. There are various Scudder family trees found on various genealogy sites. But when I stumbled across a medical association book I found online I found out the entire family history of this particular Scudder family. She was born in Iowa in 1870, lived in Chicago and settled in Ohio. Her first husband died in 1900 and apparently she married the guy's younger brother, also a doctor, in 1909 when she was 39.

Over ten years ago I bought several books from this man's library when they were initally offered on eBay.  Apparently many of them are still floating out there among the many used booksellers because I bought this one only a few months ago.

 

One of the many popular bookplates from the famed Antioch Bookplate Company in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  I've seen multiple copies of this bookplate in dozens of books (from obviously various owners) I've either owned or perused over the past twenty years. 

Over the years I've owned several books form Oscar's library also. Quite a reader of mystery and adventure fiction.  This is also a popular bookplate design as I've seen it many time in various books.

I wish I knew who this artist was.  I see the initials LCD at the edge of the book.

This is a mystery to me.  George M.R. Holmes' name appears in a small banner beneath this ornate heraldry symbol, but I'm completely at a loss to understand what was granted by the Queen.

 Another coat of arms, but rather simple compared to the Holmes one.

 

LEFT INSIDE: Pall Mall Building Society card, ca. 1938

This was left inside my copy of One Man's Muddle by E. Baker Quinn, a 1938 reprint of a book originally published in 1936.  The card itself is undated so I can only guess it comes from no earlier than 1938 and probably no later than 1940 prior to the Blitz.  I can't imagine there would be too many solicitations for building societies offering such a high interest rate after London was bombed.

Building societies seem to be peculiar to Europe. From what I gather they are analogous to credit unions in the United States as they are owned by all its members. They also sound like a savings and loan institution which used to be prevalent in the US prior to the scandals that rocked the financial world back in the 1990s. All three types of financial organizations used the members money to make mortgage, car and other personal loans to its membership.

The British building societies date back to the late 19th century. On this Pall Mall Building Society solicitation card they remind you of that with the statement: "Incorporated under the Building Societies Ats, 1874 to 1894."  Pall Mall apparently did not have a long life.  I can find nothing about the group on the various historical financial websites I visited. A Wikipedia article on building societies only lists current histories dating back to the 1990s and does not track anything that went out of business or was acquired by another banking institution prior to 1944.

The Honorable Ralph Roper-Curzon (1899-1979), the Secretary of the building society to whom the card is addressed, was the second son of Henry John Philip Sidney Roper-Curzon (1837-1936), the 18th Baron Teynman. Ralph served in both World Wars, was wounded during WW1 and achieved the rank of Captain and Acting Lieutenant-Colonel in the Scots Guards. Two photographs of Ralph are part of the extensive collection in the National Portrait Gallery but they have not bothered to digitize either. Darn! However, his father and older brother who were both listed in Burke's Peerage had their photos taken by Bassano Ltd have been digitized and can be viewed online. You can see Henry here, and Christopher John (1896-1972), his brother,  here.

LEFT INSIDE: North Western Road Car Company Bus Ticket, 1934

I was pleasantly surprised when this bit of pasteboard appeared in the final pages of a 1934 murder mystery I recently finished reading. Because coming across it told me that this book most likely has not been read or opened since this bus ride!

On the left is a photo of both sides of a bus ticket printed by the North Western Road Car Company, a transportation company started in 1923 and originally based in Stockport, England. In its final three decades the company had moved headquarters to Liverpool. From 1923 to 1986 NWRC operated bus services in the counties of Cheshire, Lancashire, West Riding of Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. The bus company’s entire history including its many mergers and acquisitions of other transportation services over its 60+ years is outlined – where else? – on a Wikipedia page here.

In comparing this ticket against dozens of images of similar bus tickets from the North Western Road Co. I discovered that this was the earliest of them all. All I had to do was look at the cheapest fare price (1 penny). On other tickets the lowest fare one could pay was no less than 3 pence. So I’m certain that this ticket dates to the mid-1930s (no earlier than 1934 the book’s publication year) The other tickets I looked at had years on from the World War 2 era.

Close study shows the date this particular ticket was purchased and the fare paid. We know that the ticket was purchased on August 7 (see right side of photo) and I think the 4 punched at the very top indicates 1934. The rider also paid a "Workman" fare meaning, I assume, that he was a daily commuter going to or coming from his place of employment. Reading the fine print instructions reveals that the number above the cut off portion was the fare paid.  This "Workman" fare was 1/2 or 1 shilling, 2 pence.

This particular ticketing system was developed by the Willebrew company. I found several websites devoted to the history of transportation in the UK and the best designed and most informative was Bob Mockford’s site which includes loads of fascinating info in his “Bus Museum” section.

Here is a verbatim section taken from that site describing how the Willebrew ticketing system worked:

The Willebrew machine used pre-printed tickets. Unlike the earlier punches, these tickets had a large number of fare options on each ticket. This meant fewer tickets for the conductor to carry.

Willebrew model #10288
photo from Bob-Mockford.co.uk

The conductor selected the ticket, inserted it into the machine and cut off a section up to the fare paid. This section was retained inside the machine and the remainder handed to the passenger.

The conductor did not know the value of tickets issued. This would be calculated later in the office, preventing the conductor from taking any surplus cash.

The Willebrew is opened by inserting a small screwdriver into a hole in the bottom of the machine, pressing the spring-loaded catch inside and pulling the cover downwards. It is not necessary to completely remove the cover as shown in the photo, in fact it is better not to as holding down the catch while re-inserting the cover is difficult.

Once opened, a clerk in the office would remove the pieces of ticket to calculate the takings.

A review of the book -- The Sealed Room Mystery -- in which I discovered this bit of paper is coming up soon

LEFT INSIDE: Business Card Bookmarks

A quick "Left Inside" post here. I found a few business cards in the books I've been reading lately. The card below seems to have been inserted as a method of advertising. Made me laugh. I found it in a library book I started to read but disliked intensely and never finished. But I kept the card, of course! Next time I'm overcome with disgust for my current job and indulge in the temptation of a "get rich quick" scheme I'll have a handy phone number to call, I'm not so keen on driving these days, but I really do want to travel the world. And some nifty tailor made clothes? Who wouldn't want those? I wonder what this "dream job" entails? Someone call and fill me in. I'm not quite ready.

DEPARTMENT OF IRONY: The name of the book I found it in? End of the Line.

The second card turned up while I was reading The Medbury Fort Murder I apparently bought this book from a local seller though I can't remember who. The business card comes from a Quincy, IL stove salesman. I loved what I read when I turned it over. Such an odd book for someone to give as a present. Guess this gift giving father never bothered to read what the book is about and figured, "Another mystery for my detective fiction obsessed son. He'll love it, I'm sure." But more odd is the fact that Dad uses his business cards as gift tags. Frugal or self-absorbed? I'm guessing it's the father who is J. W. Egan. It would be even more odd if it turned out that Dad just pulled any scrap of paper of out of his wallet or off his desk, scrawled his birthday greeting on it, then suck it in the book.

LEFT INSIDE: Post-Christmas in Tennessee, 1963

"All of us had a delightful time and hope that cleaning up the wreckage wasn't too much for you."

It's rare that I come across anything for this one time regular feature where I write about things I've found in books. But when I do I'm excited to share it with the world. This letter was discovered in the pages of a copy of Medusa's Head by Josephine Daskam Bacon. I'll be writing about Bacon's supernatural stories later this year, probably in the fall.

The letter was written by Arthur Bushing, a Midwestern American academic, to his parents who lived somewhere near Knoxville, Tennessee. It's an interesting slice of life from 1960 written by a seriously minded man who cares for his parents and family.  His concern for a plumbing problem in their bathroom made me smile.

Click to enlarge in order to read the full letter. I just tested it and it enlarges to a huge, very legible photo.

I like that he signed the letter Son. So old fashioned. Reminds me of my mother and uncle who were never called by their real names in their home by their parents. My grandmother always called them Sis and Sonny. Odd, but folksy and revealing of their backgrounds.
I learned a lot about Bushing from his obituary published on the website for Maryville College.  His father was also named Arthur S. Bushing and this book was owned by his father who stamped his name on the endpapers and wrote his name in pencil on the flyleaf. Both Bushing Senior and Bushing Junior were English professors.  Bushing the son attended Maryville College, graduated in 1943, was hired as a physics instructor (his minor in his degree), then changed to teaching English which was his major field of study. He also served in World War 2 earning some military medals for his active duty in two European battles. He worked his way up the ivy-covered ladder from professor to department chair to Dean of Men and retired in 1996 after fifty-three years at the same institution. Remarkable. This kind of dedication in a career and loyalty to one employer is rare these days.

LEFT INSIDE: A Soldier's Tale

It's been a very long time since I've found anything inside one of my books.  This one was one of those rare instances that I came across while I was actually reading the book.  Tucked into page 79 of my copy of Murder by Request by Beverley Nichols was this:

Transcription:  "Dear Major Steeves,  Thank you for you order and hope the book is to your satisfaction.  I would also like to thank you for your service to the country.  Yours sincerely, B Storey

Send cheque (in another handwriting) -- I'm guessing Major Steeves wrote that.

Remember the days when a bookseller would you send a book prior to your paying for it?  I met only one person in my lifetime who would agree to searching for a book and send it to a customer trusting that payment would follow.

There is nothing noteworthy on page 79 of the book where I found the note.

LEFT INSIDE: Celmer's Books Envelope

Another odd item I've found inside a book is this business reply envelope for a defunct used bookstore in Chicago. Celmer's was run out of a private home in the Buena Park neighborhood throughout the 60s and 70s.  When the store folded John Chandler, owner of the spectacularly messy and utterly awesome Bookman's Corner bought most of Celmer's stock. I own many vintage books from Celmer's (all purchased in John's store) and periodically I'd find one of these envelopes tucked in the back of the book.

I have no idea the purpose of the envelopes. I guess you could use them to request books from Celmer. I never asked about the use of the envelopes though John Chandler did tell me numerous stories about the woman who owned Celmer's. I've since forgotten her first name. 

The biggest mystery, however, is the Astro-Slide trademark on the envelope.

A search of the US trademark registry database reveals that Astro-Slide is a typeset trademark (basically a registered logo design) for a brand of electronically operated door mechanism. It was created and registered in 1971 and owned by a local company called Dor-o-Matic based in Harwood Heights, Illinois.  The trademark has since expired and all Dor-o-Matic products are now distributed under the brand name Falcon, a subsidiary of Allegion which is one of the largest companies involved in safety and security products (door hardware, locks of all types, burglar alarms, security systems, etc.) in the world.

But why is a used book store advertising a door mechanism on their business envelopes?

The illustration by the way is a direct copy of this famous Albrecht Dürer etching. It wasn't part of the trademark, only the font and wording was.

I don't understand the link between electronic doors and a medieval astronomer either.  Maybe I need to take more lecithin in my diet.  My brain just can't perform the kind of overtime work needed to figure out these riddles.

LEFT INSIDE: Chicago Stadium Club Menu

This was left inside a book Joe picked up at one of our many book sale visits. The book, Single Family Home Plans, is a collection of architectural floor plans. The menu inside indicates that the owner of the book probably had a lot of money to throw around.

The menu below is from the Chicago Stadium Club, a perk for "Club Level" subscribers for Bulls and Blackhawks games. Club Level was formerly known as 200 Level, a specific area of the United Center stadium. A visit to the United Center website tells me that this is an older menu because the Chicago Stadium Club is now located on Lexus Club Level. Nearly everything in the United Center is sponsored and named for the sponsoring corporation these days.

Click to enlarge so you can read the menu.

LEFT INSIDE: Hotel Elysée Postcard

Here's a postcard advertising a boutique hotel located in Manhattan's posh East Side that was left inside one of the many vintage paperbacks I recently purchased. Didn't make a note of the title of the book, though.

When I first saw this I thought perhaps it was an ad for a European hotel. It seemed too quaint an idea for a luxury Midtown Manhattan place.

Click to enlarge

On the reverse side is a brief blurb about the hotel.

And for those interested in seeing photos of the rooms and learning more visit the Hotel Elysée website.

ODDITIES: Department of Uncollectable Collectibles

I get a lot of book catalogs in my email and I peruse them mostly for my select interests: Victorian sensation fiction and obscure detective, supernatural and adventure fiction. Every now and then pulp magazines strike my fancy. While looking over the pulps offered by Michael John Thompson, a bookseller in British Columbia, I came across one of the most absurd catalog listings ever. It's reproduced below (with some typos fixed) along with the illustration that accompanies the listing.

I'd file this under "Why Bother?" Seems it was included in the catalog only for the amusement of the bookseller and his customers. He's right about that artwork. It's a real nightmare.


"THE NIGHT LAND" by WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON - CLASSICS OF SCIENCE - FANTASY FICTION. The cover artwork for CANADIAN FANDOM 17. September, 1951 issue.

HODGSON, William Hope [marginal interest].
$30.00 CAD

First edition. Quarto, original pictorial wrappers, stapled at spine. A fanzine, issued in an edition of 104 numbered copies, this being copy #56. 17 pp. Contains Editorials and Convention reports, no fiction. Most notably, it bears perhaps the singularly worst drawing ever to illustrate a Hodgson story, the cover artwork, which is by Bill Grant. The editor prints a long report on the convention, an SF con; and reproduces the signatures of the likes of Bok, Leiber, Williamson et al., but it is of little interest. In fact, there really is nothing of interest in this fanzine at all except for the atrocious cover artwork. It's not like anybody needs to buy this thing - it's hideous. A very good copy in original wrappers, if that matters.

You can click to enlarge this, but be prepared for a real horror show.

LEFT INSIDE: Smith & Wesson Advertisement

Not really left inside, but found inside a 1915 magazine while I was doing some research for an article. Thought it a timely example of how some things haven't changed in over a century.

LEFT INSIDE: Ox Yoke Inn post card, circa 1950s

We were in the Des Moines/Ames, Iowa area for Fourth of July weekend. At one of the many rest stops where Joe likes to gather brochures and flyers on intriguing restaurants that serve up regional cuisine he found a flyer for the Ox Yoke Restaurant in Amana. I said, "That place still exists?" I was a bit surprised because I have a post card advertising that eatery in my ephemera collection. We tried to get down to the home of the Ox Yoke Inn, but the bike trails kept us very busy. Next time...

The post card was left inside one of my many vintage mystery books (title long forgotten). The restaurant was started in 1940 and is now owned by an organization that owns three different OxYoke Restaurants.

More about the Ox Yoke Inn for those interested can be found at their website here.

LEFT INSIDE: Book of the Month Club Advert, 1929.

This was found inside one of the many copies of The Omnibus of Crime I have purchased over the years.  The Omnibus of Crime was the Book of the Month Club selection for August 1929. Inside the copy I bought was the ad seen below for the September BOMC selection, Ultima Thule by Henry Handel Richardson, a book and author I knew nothing about until I did my research for this post.

The Book of the Month Club was only three years old in 1929.  Weren't they polite in their requests? And that deadline date in giant red letters is very helpful.  I remember being a member of one of their offshoots, Quality Paperback Book Club, in the 1980s and the reminders were not anything like the one above. I usually lost the dumb postcard or forgot to mail it back by the deadline and ended up with books I had no desire to read let alone own.

"Henry Handel Richardson" turns out to be the pseudonym for Australian writer Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson who you can read about at the website for the Henry Handel Richardson Society.  (Is there a society for every forgotten author of the past?). Ultima Thule is the final novel in a trilogy about an Australian physician named Richard Mahony and is based in part of Richardson's own father and her upbringing. The three novels that make up the trilogy are Australia Felix (1917), The Way Home (1925) and Ultima Thule (1929). All three were later published in an omnibus edition and titled The Fortunes of Richard Mahony in 1930.  For a synopsis of Ultima Thule click here. Interestingly, it was only with the publication of the final volume that the entire trilogy, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, was suddenly recognized as a great work of fiction.

LEFT INSIDE: The Pepsi Generation

We have, in addition to my insanely large collection of vintage crime, adventure & supernatural fiction, a modest collection of vintage cookbooks thanks to Joe's interest in regional American cooking. The item below was found in a cookbook that appropriately enough focuses on low calorie dishes.

Who knew gardening burns more calories than a game of tennis? That seems wrong to me. I know I sweat a lot more gardening than I do bicycling, but that's mainly due to the unshaded place where we are growing our vegetables and sunflowers.

Pepsi-Cola was invented in 1893 by a druggist in New Bern, North Carolina and first was known as Brad's Drink. Five years later it was christened Pepsi-Cola, mostly to compete with the older Coca-Cola. Diet Pepsi didn't come along until 1963 and was the first diet soda sold in the United States. Originally it was called Patio, but I found that at Wikipedia so it may be dubious. It was primarily competing with Tab. Remember Tab? I think I saw a can of it somewhere recently. Who is making it again?

Pepsi has undergone a variety of changes in the formula, logo and its marketing jingle. I know the earliest tune was "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot/Twelve full ounces that's a lot/Twice as much for a nickel too/Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you." I sang it in a goofy little musical comedy called The 1940s Radio Hour back in my theater days and I managed through the miracle of YouTube to find a medley of the earliest Pepsi jingles in the clip below.


And for those of you of my generation or older (and perhaps a little younger) you may recall being part of "The Pepsi Generation." I thought this was the name of a long running jingle for Pepsi's ad campaign in the 60s and 70s, but the actual title is "You've Got a Lot to Live." It was on TV all the time throughout all of my teen years in the 1970s. "It's the Pepsi Generation/Comin' at ya, goin' strong" still pops into my head nearly every time I see a can of Pepsi Throwback -- the new name for the very old, original formula which is made with sugar and not the evil high fructose corn syrup that has ruined the taste of everything from soda to fruit juice to cereal. And I will dismount my nutritional soap box before I go off on a tirade.

Here's the full length 1970s version in a tempo I remember celebrating a variety of multi-cultural, multi-racial people in a typically upbeat and Utopian version of the turbulent 1970s:

LEFT INSIDE: A Cry for Help

This is the perhaps the strangest bit of writing I've ever found inside a book. I recently bought an old paperback edition of The Balcony by Dorothy Cameron Disney and in flipping through the pages (as I always do looking for something hidden inside) I discovered the last blank page was filled with bizarre writing.

I thought it especially ironic that something this desperate and fearful would appear in a book that has a fair amount of "Had I But Known" type narrative. At first I thought it may have something to so with Disney's story, but there are no characters in the book with any of the names in this scrawled message.

Transcription for those who have difficulty with script writing:

Why did Lynn call me to ask how are you doing[?] very odd
Why Linda not call or talk to me[?] its Sunday
Why did Ralph call me[?] very strange and it seems as if my time & Ebbys here is running out
I feel very scared
They get me a nice place he said
I am so sad never been so scared if only Don were here
Eban is very restless for the past 3 days too
I pray to join Don every night

LEFT INSIDE: A Secret Store

Another unusual handmade bookplate.  Can't remember the name of the book I found it in.  It's hand drawn in ink.  I see initials in the lower corners: H.G.  Haven't a clue what they stand for. For some reason this reminds me of Pennsylvania Dutch or Amish artwork.

LEFT INSIDE: Assurance Guaranteed from Prudential (circa 1936)

I was going to bend the rules this week for "Left Inside" and include something Joe and I found in a parking lot while on our weekend vacation in San Jose/Santa Cruz and the surrounding redwood forest state parks.  But when I came home and discovered I had seven packages of books waiting for me to be opened that plan changed.

In the very last package was a beautiful copy of a very scarce book -- The Mystery at Stowe by Vernon Loder -- soon to be reviewed here. Check out the condition of the dust wrapper seen at right. It's nearly flawless! Only one crease on the spine and tiny chip on the rear panel (not pictured). When I flipped through the stunningly white unstained pages I found the assurance offer card -- or insurance as we call it in North America -- pictured below. One of the few times I've found something inside a book I purchased via the internet. And so direct from a Toronto bookseller and Vernon Loder's debut mystery novel comes today's legitimate "Left Inside" object.

That's only nine pennies a day, by the way. I don't think they use pennies as a form of currency in the U.K. anymore. I don't even know why d. is used as an abbreviation for pennies. But my curiosity had to be satisfied so I went a-Googling. Here is the arcane reason taken from a website on the history of British currency.

A penny was expressed as the letter 'd' - an abbreviation for denarius which was a silver Roman coin.

Who knew? Probably some astute numismatist.

It appears the previous owner may have taken advantage of the offer since the attached coupon is no longer attached and the perforated edge (not easily seen in the photo) proves the coupon was torn off.

When I flipped over the card I learned that advertisement was intended as a bookmark!  Also, the owner of this book -- or the owner of the card -- had a shared interest of mine. He or she was very interested in old crime fiction. The list revealed titles that were originally published long before 1936 when this reprint of Loder's book was reissued. With a little bit of verifying the titles, authors and dates of publication I learned something about the reading tastes of the previous owner.

I am sure that The Secret is not that new age rip-off of Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking that was all the rage about three or four years ago thanks mostly due to Oprah Winfrey's cultish book club. Instead, it is most likely a thriller by E. Phillips Oppenheim published in 1907 (known as The Great Secret in the US) but still available in reprint editions in the 1930s. The Secret Cargo (1913) is by the ridiculously prolific and inexplicably popular J. S. Fletcher, a writer whose work I find exceptionally formulaic and mediocre. The last title, after looking up possibilities in Hubin, turns out to be yet another Oppenheim book called The World's Great Snare (1896).

As for that third title: Sweet Life is not a crime novel nor thriller. The title does not appear in my most recent update of Hubin's Crime Fiction: A Comprehensive Bibliography.  I did however find Sweet Poison, Sweet Death, Sweet and Low, and of course Sweet Revenge, multiple times among many other sweet and deadly titles. Turns out the only book published between 1900 and 1936 with that title is by Kathlyn Rhodes. It was her debut novel according to some publicity by her publisher Hutchinson & Company:

Vivid descriptions of the entrancing scenery of the East, incident crowding upon incident, romantic situations, exciting intrigues, unexpected dénouements hold and absorb the interest from start to finish.

KATHLYN RHODES
is the assured success of 1918,
as GERTRUDE PAGE was the success of 1916
and MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY of 1917.

Fired with enthusiasm to win fame as a novelist, Kathlyn Rhodes began her career before her school days were ended. Sweet Life followed shortly afterwards; and the appreciation which this won encouraged the authoress to follow quickly with other stories. Choice of subject she holds to be of primary importance. With the war depressing us all around, she believes that many readers prefer stories that permit them for the time to forget it; and this she achieves by her delightful flights of fancy through the realms of many lands.

Interestingly, Rhodes is listed in Hubin as having written two crime novels in the 1930s and four other books with marginal crime content. I think, however, based on the title and the publicity above that Sweet Life is the only romance "Previous Owner" was looking forward to reading.

LEFT INSIDE: Ann's Library Card

I was very good about keeping track of my library card when I was growing up.  Losing it would've been a very big deal and I'm sure I would've been extremely upset.  When I moved to Chicago getting a library card was as important to me as getting a phone or setting up my electricity account.  To this day I carry my library card with me in my wallet at all times. Never know when I need to make a spur of the moment visit.

Apparently Ann Felton of Lenox lost her library card sometime in May 1943.  I found it in a book I bought two or three years ago -- appropriately, an ex-library book. That's all I noted. Foolishly I forgot to copy down the title.

Our Ann was a fairly voracious reader.  Most of her books were returned within days.  Maybe she was just fickle.  I like to think she enjoyed most of what she read and couldn't get enough of books.  Though in one case it appears the librarian mixed up the spots. Remember library stamps? Taken out on May 1 and returned on April 26?  Was that the day she read H.G. Wells? I wonder how she felt when she lost her card. She must've been using it as a bookmark.

Lenox is Lenox, Massachusetts. Cliffwood Street still exists. As does the Lenox Library Association which is still housed in a historic building that has served as the library's home since 1874. Below is a photo of the reading room. Swank library!