I got a notice from the National Book Critics Circle, which states that NY Magazine is asking for the most overlooked book or author from the last ten years. Deadline is the end of the day today. Address: bookpoll@nymag.com.
Hmmmm... I'll have to think about that one, since most of my choices would be from the last 50 years. Even Chelsea Cain's Dharma Girl doesn't fit the stipulation. It was published in 1996.
Who would get your vote?
Horribly sad. What a loss for the rest of us.
As I've mentioned before, I've used his book The Fifties as a resource guide for my book collection. I took issue with his view of The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, but that didn't stop me from respecting the sheer brilliance of his work.
His genius was his ability to take an enormous amount of material and siphon it down to understandable essentials.
I used The Best and the Brightest as a secondary source before writing War. It was an astonishing book, perfect as a primer for my research at the LBJ.
His contributions will be missed. But books, like children, live on...
As I open my collection for discussion on Gasp, please note that you will occasionally be able to find versions of my books on the net. This is a good thing.
I learned through researching presidential documents that history has often been misrepresented. The truth is out there. Don't take someone else's word for it. If more people read old books, they'd stop being some damn gullible about the past.
When possible, I'll provide a link to the book or journal I'm discussing. Then, you could buy a version of the book for yourself. Imagine how cool that would be.
Collecting books is a responsibility. When I first started, it was a cool and very personal hobby. But as I began my research into the causes of the riots at the ’68 Democratic Convention, I realized that a number of scholarly institutions would be more than happy for me to donate my collection. I’ve seen editions of my books under glass at The Book Depository Museum, or in the stacks of the LBJ Presidential Research Library.
As I noticed this more and more, I began to see myself as a “Keeper of the Canon.” Book collections protect books from destruction. We live in a disposable society that sees no value in history. The only other “Keepers” are libraries, and as I mentioned earlier, they’re imprisoned by “Community Standards.”
Collecting books is a form of literary activism. History is taken out of the hands of those in authority and brought down to a very personal level. Reading an old and rare book brings life to a voice that would otherwise go unheard.
When I’m old and grey, maybe I’ll donate my collection to library or museum. In the meantime, I think I’m going to use Gasp as a form of literary activism.
My book collection goes something like this:
Books on the 60s. I used a number of books from my collection as secondary sources for War is Kind: the 1968 Democratic Convention. These books have the most sentimental value to me, since you can’t find any of them in your local library. Odd, isn’t it? Not really.
Beat Criticism. This section was due to my obsession with 1950s in the early 90s. I read through the New York Public Library’s Beat criticism and had to look elsewhere. My interest in the Beats waned over the past few years, so I don’t jump at these collectibles as much anymore.
Mass-Market Paperbacks. My collection includes both pulp fiction and regular paperbacks from the 1930s to the 1970s. These are the most fun to collect, but they are also a ton of work. The artwork on the covers are amazing, but tracking down the artists are difficult. As well, publishers were necessarily honest about date of publication and a whole host of other issues.
Literary Journals. There is nothing like finding an old literary journal filled with articles by Jack London, Jean Stafford, Charles Baudelaire, Sinclair Lewis or J.B. Priestley. The ads are awesome. This part of my collection also holds controversial journals as well. Occasionally I’ve allowed magazines to find their way into this section – as long as they meet certain criteria.
Presidential History. I’m deeply into presidential history, from Roosevelt to Carter. Actually, I should probably say Ford since I don’t have Carter in my book collection. Along with books, I also collect campaign buttons.
Those are the major parts of my collection. I have subsections of all this – Feminism is a part of the 60s section, for instance. I also keep a collection on Soviet-American relations as part of Presidential History.
My collection doesn’t include every book I own. Again, this is an actual book collection – not a library. There is a big difference.
I began collecting books in the early 90s, when I became aware that public libraries only kept certain books on the shelves. I noticed that it was a rather curious selection process. Traveling the country, I visited other libraries to see what they had on their shelves. What kinds of books were important to people in South Carolina, New York, San Francisco, or Austin?
Each city’s library specialized in something different. I noticed that the main branch of the NY Public Library had an enormous amount of conservative talk show host books. These were brand new and prominently displayed. They didn’t appear to have as much Beat Literature as I would have expected.
San Francisco didn’t have as much Beat Literature either, but I was told that Kerouac books often went missing, or were stolen. The Myrtle Beach library had more classics and less controversial 20th century books. Austin had Beat Literature, a slew of books on the 60s, but damned if I could find Peyton Place anywhere.
You get the idea. Books chosen for canonization in a library reflect community standards. An avant-garde bibliophile is out of luck in a conservative township.
Having lived a nomadic life for over a decade, I experienced this difficulty firsthand. So I guess you could say that I became a book collector out of necessity.
As I grew older, my interests solidified. My collection is now largely shaped by my obsession with 20th century Americana, specifically from 1920 to 1979. I don’t limit myself to first editions, though I have a fair amount of them. A few books have been signed by the author, such as Allen Tate. I know parts of my collection are valuable, but it doesn’t matter. I only collect books I’ll read. If I have no interest in reading it, I won’t buy it.
For my fiance's birthday, I pre-ordered Tales from the Clerks by Kevin Smith. He's a huge Kevin Smith fan, and blah, blah, blah... It arrived yesterday from Amazon. Upon taking it out of the box, I noticed a mistake on the back cover.
I circled the error. Two people are listed on the credits twice. Since I'm not a big Kevin Smith fan, I asked my fiance if there was any possibility it was done on purpose. He didn't think so. I can't figure out why they'd do it either.
Maybe they'll fix it for later editions.
