Thread Name: On Mismatched DJs and Transitional Bindings From: j b krygier <jbkrygie@removed> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 10:16:40 -0500 I found a very cheap flex copy of ML 101.2 "American Poetry 1671-1928" (confusingly called "A Comprehensive Anthology of American Poetry" on the DJ). There are a few odd things about this book: 1) It is a stated "First Modern Library Edition 1929." Unfortunately, the DJ notes 210 titles - which would be 1933. I have a few MLs with mismatched DJs, but none that are this far off - four years! Is this common? The conventional wisdom is that mismatched DJs were the result of 'freshining up' unsold MLs. But I can't imagine that this particular title - probably used extensively in college courses - would have been such a poor seller as to have been setting around for four years. Any ideas about how this mismatch came about? 2) The book has a transitional binding like those shown on Scot's WWW site - between Toledano bindings 4 and 5: http://www.dogeared.com/Identifiers/transBind.html Like my one other 1928/29 transitional binding (Schriener's "Story of an African Farm" - with 150 titles on the DJ) the endpapers are the earlier Bernhard design, markings on the binding are like binding 4, but bound in balloon cloth. The Schriener is blue, the Poetry anthology purple. Are all 1st editions of ML 101.2 "American Poetry" in this transitional binding? Also: how common were the transitional bindings? Scot's site shows three titles, and I have two more...curious how common this peculiar binding was. ------------------------------------- From: GOODBOOKS@removed> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 09:00:24 -0800 (PST) Going back to the "dark ages"of ML collecting, a dust jacket was better then no dust jacket a all The very idea that one could tell, or even had interest if a DJ matched a book...hardly In those days, I was more then eager to jazz-up a dj, and I am sure this is quite true of other book dealers. The great thing about understanding history is, if you were there at the time of the event(s). ------------------------------------- From: Dave Menkin <dmenkin119@removed> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 17:22:05 EST Let me add a little of my experience as an old timer. In the nineteen twenties I remember people would buy a MLB and immediatly throw away the D/J and put the book in their jacket pocket. There were no such things as "paper back books" This is why D/Js for leatherette editions are so scarce, and for Balloon clothe editions are almost as scarce . If you are collector of only books with D/Js, and have any unwanted leatherette and Balloon clothe editions without D/Js please let me know if I can send youa copy of my want list of those editions. This is an example of how we can help each other improve their collections and everybody in better off. ------------------------------------- From: Scot Kamins <kamins@removed> Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 14:31:30 -0800 A resounding BRAVO to David's suggestion. This can also promote the "trading" aspect among non-dealers (or even including dealers wearing their "collector" hats). -------------------------------------