A Touching Inscription

This post is from November 13, 2010 and was never published.
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Sometimes I read an inscription inside an old book, and I stop to reflect about the original owner and her life. The book is a circa 1942 copy of the Nancy Drew book, The Mystery at Lilac Inn. It has a glossy frontispiece illustration and poor quality paper that has deeply yellowed. The dust jacket is missing.


The inscription reads, "To Dolores (7) Carolyn Keene mystery's given to her on 12th Birthday by Mother." Dolores would have been born in around 1930, so she would now be around 80 years old, if she is still alive.

On that 12th birthday, Dolores received seven Nancy Drew books with dust jackets. The books would have been nice and new with white paper and shiny clean brand-new dust jackets. What a splendid birthday present!

The books cost $0.50 at that time, so Dolores' present cost her mother $3.50. I used an online inflation calculator to compute that $3.50 in 1942 would be close to $50.00 today.

I'm sure Dolores had lots of fun reading those books.

Items Found in Books

I have found a variety of interesting items in books.  One time I found a $20 bill.  That was like finding a treasure.  Another time I was extremely grossed out to unexpectedly find a large clump of hair inside a book as I was reading it.  Yuck!  There is something about hair from an unknown person that is unnerving.  I immediately took the book over to the trash can and tipped the hair into the trash without touching it.  Double yuck!

In just the last week, I was startled as I turned a page and unexpectedly spotted an object.  I was probably thinking of that clump of hair.  I was relieved when the item turned out to be a small dried flower, which I didn't mind leaving in the book.  I just can't deal with someone's hair.

I have also found some interesting vintage items.  Late last year, I found this birth announcement inside a Grace Harlowe book that is a first printing from 1914.

 

  

The birth announcement is approximately 3 inches by 2 inches, so it is very small.  Ardis Wetzel was born on December 27, 1919.  Ardis would be 91 years old if still alive.  It is kind of haunting to find a birth announcement that must have been tucked inside the book ever since Ardis was born and most likely remained inside that book for Ardis' entire life.

I found this ultra-neat bookmark inside an Outdoor Girls book that is nearly 100 years old.  The bookmark might not be quite that old, but it must be more than 80 years old at the very least. 

 

The Paul Jones Middy is exactly the type of outfit that the Outdoor Girls wear on the covers of all of the books.  Visit this website for some information about middies.  I especially like seeing the photographs of actual articles of clothing.

Inscriptions and Bookplates

There are some collectors who seek pristine copies of books for their collections, and one of their most important stipulations is that their old books have no writing inside. I have never minded inscriptions; in fact, I tend to like books that contain inscriptions. The inscriptions give the current owner a glimpse into the past history of the book.

Sometimes I will keep a book in my collection solely because of a certain inscription or bookplate that I rather like. Pictured at the right is one such bookplate. It is pasted to the inside front cover of a solid blue Nancy Drew book from the late 1940s that has the blue silhouette endpapers. The book has no dust jacket and is worn. Since I own many nice, dust-jacketed Nancy Drew books, I have no use for the book. I have kept it only because of the delightful bookplate. The bookplate reads:

The errant cat,
though oft astray
Comes back to home
at last one day,
Ah, may this book
when lent be feline
Enough to make
a homeward beeline!

My copy of The Curious Quest by Virginia Fairfax has a message inside it from the original owner, and I have kept this particular book instead of another one that I later acquired that was in slightly better condition. On the reverse side of the front free endpaper, the original owner, Elaine Fredrick, wrote her name and address. Underneath her address, Elaine wrote, "Better look at page 89 if you find this book—"

The message sounded rather ominous, so of course my reaction when I first read the message was to do exactly what Elaine wanted me to do. I turned to page 89. On page 89, Elaine had written "turn over a leaf" and so I turned to the next page. On page 90, Elaine had written, "You are a thief."

Ouch! While the message is kind of rude, actually, it delights me each time that I read it. I didn't steal the book, Elaine! I bought it on eBay, fair and square! It was probably sold at your estate sale to a dealer who in turn sold it to me.

I love reading messages such as Elaine's which reveal exactly how much the original owner cherished his or her books.

I also love reading inscriptions which reveal how much a mother or father loved their son or daughter. I bought a book that had an inscription from a mother to her daughter. The mother wrote, "For 'our Janie.' " The quotes around "our Janie" said it all.