Books from the Serendipity Bookstore Auction

[samsloan]

I bought 177 lots from the Serendipity Bookstore Auction at Bonhams in
June. As there were 30 to 40 books in each lot, altogether I bought
about six thousand books. One lot I bought was lot 149 which had books
about chess and other games.

I have selected six of these books for scanning and reprinting. Most
of these books are not presently available on Amazon. The books are:

Backgammon Tactics

The Delights of Chess

Petrosian's Legacy

Games of Patience, or Solitaire with Cards

Alekhine My Struggle Чащихин В.Д. - "Алехин: Моя борьба" English and
Russian dual language book

И. бондаревский атака на короля
И. З. Бондаревский Комбинации в миттельшпиле

These titles translated into English are: I. Bondarevsky Attack on
King and I. Z. Bondarevsky Combinations in the Middlegame

The last two I am considering to be one book even though at present
they are two books.

In this batch are also ten old Soviet Union chess books in Russian.
These have low quality paper and printing yet some authors are famous.
I am trying to figure out if I can batch them together and print them
as one book or two books. I do not know how much market there is for
old Russian Language chess books.

Your opinions on this subject is welcomed

Sam Sloan

[Offramp]

On Jul 24, 8:46 am, samsloan <samhsl...@gmail.com> wrote:


> Alekhine My Struggle þÁÝÉÈÉÎ ÷.ä. - "áÌÅÈÉÎ: íÏÑ ÂÏÒØÂÁ" English and
> Russian dual language book#

That sounds like a good one - apart from the aiyeees.

Also did you know that in winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for
his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus, Peter Ustinov is the only actor to
win an Oscar for a Stanley Kubrick film. Peter Sellers is the only
other actor to receive so much as a nomination.

[samsloan]

Right. Delights of Chess by Assiac which is Caissa spelled backwards.
The actual author is Fraenkel who had a column in New Statesman

It has been reprinted by Dover and by Hardinge Simpole. However, I
have the original first edition published in about 1951. I know that
Dover only reprints public domain works so if they have reprinted a
book I can safely reprint it too as long as I do not use their reprint
They always re-type a book and make changes in it and if somebody
copies their reprint they will sue.

Petrosian's Legacy is basically by Petrosian's widow with an
introduction by Kasparov. I amazed that this book and "My Struggle" by
Alekhine with lots of games by Alekhine is not known in the West.

The main bulk of these 6,000 books is being delivered to my house
today. I have no idea what I will do with them.

Sam

[samsloan]

Here is one example of the books I have

Ю́рий Льво́вич Аверба́х Как решать шахматные этюды (1957)

Yuri L. Auerbach How to solve chess problems (1957) 52 pages

This I think was Averbach's first chess book.

Sam

[raylopez99]

On Tuesday, July 24, 2012 4:36:11 AM UTC-4, Offramp wrote:

> Also did you know that in winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for
> his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus, Peter Ustinov is the only actor to
> win an Oscar for a Stanley Kubrick film. Peter Sellers is the only
> other actor to receive so much as a nomination.

Peter Ustinov was also the Olympic organizer for the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games.

RL

[Taylor Kingston]

On Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:16:38 AM UTC-7, samsloan wrote:
> Right. Delights of Chess by Assiac which is Caissa spelled backwards.

No, the palindrome of Bolton is Ipswich.

> I amazed that this book and "My Struggle" by
> Alekhine with lots of games by Alekhine is not known in the West.

What year did that come out? It may not have helped that its title in German was "Mein Kampf."

> The main bulk of these 6,000 books is being delivered to my house
> today. I have no idea what I will do with them.

Don't stand under the tailgate of the truck as they are delivered.

[Taylor Kingston]

On Tuesday, July 24, 2012 1:36:11 AM UTC-7, Offramp wrote:
> On Jul 24, 8:46 am, samsloan &lt;samhsl...@gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>
>
> &gt; Alekhine My Struggle þÁÝÉÈÉÎ ÷.ä. - &quot;áÌÅÈÉÎ: íÏÑ ÂÏÒØÂÁ&quot; English and
> &gt; Russian dual language book#

>
> That sounds like a good one - apart from the aiyeees.
>
> Also did you know that in winning a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for
> his portrayal of Lentulus Batiatus, Peter Ustinov is the only actor to
> win an Oscar for a Stanley Kubrick film. Peter Sellers is the only
> other actor to receive so much as a nomination.

Somewhat surprising that his actors did not win more. His pictures got many Oscar nominations, though only one win: 2001 A Space Odyssey, for best special effects in 1968. Offhand I can't remember what competition Spartacus (1960), Dr. Strangelove (1964) and A Clockwork Orange (1971) were up against, but they would have been deserving winners. Paths of Glory (1957) is also very good. On the other hand, Barry Lyndon (1975) is a cure for insomnia, and I didn't much care for The Shining (1980).

OK, I just checked Wikipedia. Spartacus didn't even get nominated in 1960; a miscarriage of justice, especially when you consider that The Alamo, a bloated John Wayne vehicle, was nominated. In 1964 Dr. Strangelove lost to My Fair Lady; ridiculous. In 1971 Clockwork Orange lost to The French Connection — fair enough. I've seen all the nominees for 1957 except Sayonara; I'd say Paths of Glory was definitely better than Petyon Place and Witness for the Prosecution, and on a par with 12 Angry Men and the winner, Bridge on the River Kwai. Just my two cents' worth.

[Offramp]

On Jul 24, 3:16 pm, samsloan <samhsl...@gmail.com> wrote:

> It has been reprinted by Dover and by Hardinge Simpole. However, I
> have the original first edition published in about 1951. I know that
> Dover only reprints public domain works so if they have reprinted a
> book I can safely reprint it too as long as I do not use their reprint
> They always re-type a book and make changes in it and if somebody
> copies their reprint they will sue.

Are you sure? The Dover books I have seen look like copies - not
retypes - of the originals. Same with Hardinge Simpole.

[samsloan]

Could you please provide a few examples?

[raylopez99]

On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:35:07 AM UTC-4, Taylor Kingston wrote:
> Bridge on the River Kwai.

The French author who wrote this book also wrote "Planet of the Apes". A bit of movie trivia that you may have not known.

RL

[Taylor Kingston]

On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:00:13 PM UTC-7, raylopez99 wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:35:07 AM UTC-4, Taylor Kingston wrote:

> &gt; Bridge on the River Kwai.
>
> The French author who wrote this book also wrote &quot;Planet of the Apes&quot;. A bit of movie trivia that you may have not known.
>
> RL

Ah yes, Pierre Boulle. I dimly recall reading that somewhere, now that you mention it. Thank you.

[Chvsanchez]

El miércoles, 25 de julio de 2012 16:00:13 UTC-3, raylopez99 escribió:
> On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:35:07 AM UTC-4, Taylor Kingston wrote:

> &gt; Bridge on the River Kwai.
>
The bridge didn't explode. A bit of movie trivia that you may have not known.

[micky]

Huh!.. that's nothing, the 2012 Olympic games wouldn't be happening if
Mitt Romney hadn't organised everything beforehand...

Should be fun when he's elected President..

.

[micky]

Chvsanchez wrote:
>
> El mi�rcoles, 25 de julio de 2012 16:00:13 UTC-3, raylopez99 escribi�:

> > On Wednesday, July 25, 2012 12:35:07 AM UTC-4, Taylor Kingston wrote:
> > &gt; Bridge on the River Kwai.
> >
> The bridge didn't explode. A bit of movie trivia that you may have not known.
>

In the movie, the stiffupperlip Brit officer tries to prevent the
special forces from blowing the bridge (because he's an idiot) but he
gets shot & flops down dead on the plunger anyway & the bridge very
definitely gets blown up along with a train full of nips which
dramatically cascades into the river far below killing & maiming as much
as possible...

If you mean, in real life the bridge was not destroyed & is in use to
this day - I think that's right..

.

[raylopez99]

On Thursday, July 26, 2012 8:44:18 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:

>
> Huh!.. that&#39;s nothing, the 2012 Olympic games wouldn&#39;t be happening if
> Mitt Romney hadn&#39;t organised everything beforehand...
>
> Should be fun when he&#39;s elected President..
>
> .

You voting for him? He's in your red neck of the woods right now.

Trivia: why did they invent 'fish and chips' in the UK about 100 years ago? To cover up the inferior fish to haddock and cod and other real whitefish that were going extinct due to overfishing in the Dogger Banks. With the fish buried in a deep batter and lots of peas, patrons did not realize they were eating a cheaper fish. Read that somewhere on the internet and it must be true.

RL

[micky]

raylopez99 wrote:
.
> Trivia: why did they invent 'fish and chips' in the UK about 100 years ago? To cover up the inferior fish to haddock and cod and other real whitefish that were going extinct due to overfishing in the Dogger Banks. With the fish buried in a deep batter and lots of peas, patrons did not realize they were eating a cheaper fish. Read that somewhere on the internet and it must be true.

U are so gullible trOlive; 100 years ago there were no 'factory' ships
which is the main cause of overfishing (cod are so juicy, btw)...

Fish farms are all the go nowadays but they don't taste the same as the
wild variety, also, I note the enterprising Americans have found a use
for the Asian carp nuisance - they're making hotdogs from 'em!..

.

[raylopez99]

On Friday, July 27, 2012 9:31:38 PM UTC-4, micky wrote:

> raylopez99 wrote:

> > Trivia: why did they invent 'fish and chips' in the UK about 100 years
> > ago? To cover up the inferior fish to haddock and cod and other real
> > whitefish that were going extinct due to overfishing in the Dogger Banks.
>

> U are so gullible trOlive; 100 years ago there were no 'factory' ships
>
> which is the main cause of overfishing (cod are so juicy, btw)...

No you are quite wrong. They had nets and trawls 100 years ago and as the biologist Huxley, your countryman thought, these trawls were wrongly believed not to have any harmful effect on fishing. So there was overfishing well over 100 years ago.

>
>
>
> Fish farms are all the go nowadays but they don't taste the same as the
>
> wild variety, also, I note the enterprising Americans have found a use
>
> for the Asian carp nuisance - they're making hotdogs from 'em!..
>
>

You are quite wrong, again. In fact fish farms for total fish catches only are about 15% of the total catch. For certain species it is higher but that is the average.

BTW your country is not doing as well as expected in the Olympic games. Why is that? Too many fish, chips and ales ailing them? Nice Opening Ceremony though.

RL

[samsloan]

I bought 177 lots from the Serendipity Bookstore Auction at Bonhams in
June. As there were 30 to 40 books in each lot, altogether I bought

about six thousand to seven thousand books. One lot I bought was lot

149 which had books about chess and other games.

Serendipity Bookstore in Berkeley went out of business after the two
owners both died last year. As they had never kept a list of what they
had, they did not know and now I do not know what is in these 177
lots. All I know is I have lots of books.

Most of these books are not presently available on Amazon except that
I am in the process of reprinting them. The books include:

Backgammon Tactics ISBN 4871874621

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871874621

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871874621

The Delights of Chess by Assiac ISBN 4871874761

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871874761

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871874761

Petrosian's Legacy ISBN 4871874222

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871874222

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871874222

Games of Patience, or Solitaire with Cards ISBN 4871874281

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871874281

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871874281

Alekhine My Struggle English and Russian dual language book ISBN
4871874206

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871874206

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871874206

Titles translated into English: I. Bondarevsky Attack on King and I.
Z. Bondarevsky Combinations in the Middlegame. 4871874214

http://www.amazon.com/dp/4871874214

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?ISBN=4871874216

The last two I have published as one book even though originally they
were two books.

In this batch are also ten old Soviet Union chess books in Russian.
These have low quality paper and printing yet some authors are famous.
I am trying to figure out if I can batch them together and print them
as one book or two books. I do not know how much market there is for
old Russian Language chess books.

I now have left these ten Russian language booklets or pamphlets.
Everybody seems to agree that they are not worth reprinting but I am
interested in any contrary opinions here. Here is the list:

Нимцович А.И. Как я стал гросмейстером 64 pages

Ю́ Аверба́х Как решать шахматные этюды 56 pages

И Кан – Защита 80 pages

А Суэтин Как играть дебют 80 pages

А С Волчок. Методы шахматной борьбы "Библиотечка шахматиста"
112 pages

Э Гуфельд, Е Лазарев Сицилианская защита 104 pages

А. Мацукевич Сицилианская защита 88 pages

А. А. Мацукевич - Принцип ограничения 72 pages

П. Е. Кондратьев - Позиционная жертва 96 pages

Г. Е. Несис - Искусство размена 80 pages

Total 832 pages

[samsloan]

The Serendipity Books auction sale took place on June 26, 2012. I won
177 lots of books in the auction for which I paid $3,300 plus I paid
$865 to Box Brothers to bring the six thousand to seven thousand books
to the Goodall Mansion, for a total of $4200 expended.

I have so far reprinted 8 books I bought at this auction plus I have
listed 25 books I won in this auction on my Ishi Press seller account
on Amazon. Among the books I am offering for sale on Amazon is an
original first edition of Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse by Sigmond
Freud.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X9UPK8

I am offering it for the low, low, bargain basement price of only
$149.95

Sam Sloan

[samsloan]

I bought this book at The Serendipity Bookstore auction that took
place in Berkeley California on June 26, 2012. I won 177 lots of books
in the auction for which I paid $3,385.58 plus I paid $865 to Box

Brothers to bring the six thousand to seven thousand books to the

Goodall Mansion, for a total of $4250.58 expended.

The auction took place because the owners, Peter B. Howard and his
wife, died within a few months of each other. Peter Brigham Howard was
born on 1 July 1938 and died in March 31, 2011 in Alameda, California
at age 73. His wife Alison Seelye Howard was born on 30 January 1939
and died on 16 August 2010 in Alameda California at age 71. Their
deputy, Nancy Kosenka, continued the bookstore for another six months.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/serendipity-books-r-i-p/

After that, the contents of the store were put up for auction. I
bought 28% of the books being auctioned, including this book.

I have so far reprinted 8 books I bought at this auction plus I have
listed 25 books I won in this auction on my Ishi Press seller account
on Amazon.

I believe that the Jonathan Cape edition was published before the
Scribner edition, for several reasons. The Scribner edition was
published in September 1929. Several other editions by different
publishers were published that same year, including the Jonathan Cape
edition. A Farewell to Arms was serialized in Scribner's Magazine from
May 1929 to October 1929. There was little exchange of commerce
between the USA and Europe in 1929 so it seems likely that the book
published by Jonathan Cape came before the book published by
Scribner's.

Hemingway was living in Paris at the time and since Paris is closer to
London that is another reason why is seems likely that the London
edition came first.

Jonathan Cape had been Hemingway's publisher previously. On the page
entitled “By the Same Author”, three books are listed: In Our Time,
Fiesta (published in America with the title The Sun Also Rises), and
Men without Women.

In Our Time was first published in Paris in 1924.

Fiesta was the original title of the work. It was published in London
under that title. It was published in America by Scribner's as The Sun
Also Rises. Wikipedia states that Hemingway broke a contract with
another publisher to publish it with Scribner's.

Men Without Women is a collection of short stories published by
Scribner's in October 1927. It was also published by Jonathan Cape in
London at about the same time.

These were not cooperative arrangements. These two publishers were
bitter rivals.

One needs to remember that back in 1929, commercian trans-Atlantic Air
Traffic did not exist. Charles Lindbergh made his historic flight from
New York to Paris on May 20–21, 1927. Regular passenger service to
Europe did not start until 1946. Thus, if Hemingway came to America
and then returned to Paris all in 1929 it had to be by boat. If you
have been reason about the Titanic you will know that a trip across
the Atlantic took weeks. Strange that this remarkable journey from
Paris to New York and back taking a month of his time is not mentioned
in any biography of Hemingway.

They also did not have photocopy machines back them. Probably there
was only one typed manuscript to A Farewell to Arms plus at best one
carbon copy. They did have radio and telegraph back then, however. So,
what must have happened is first Johathan Cape published it in London
and then it was transferred to New York later.

What I find remarkable is the Jonathan Cape Edition does not have a
copyright notice. I have never seen another work by an author as
famous as Hemingway that did not have a copyright notice. Under the
copyright law of 1929 or at any time prior to 1978, a work published
without a copyright notice is public domain and can be reprinted by
anybody. Thus, I can safely and legally reprint the Jonathan Cape
Edition of A Farewell to Arms.

Another issue concerns the use of expletives by Hemingway. In early
editions of A Farewell to Arms, the words "shit", "fuck", and
"cocksucker" in A Farewell to Arms were replaced with dashes ("----").
There are at least five copies of a first edition in which Hemingway
re-inserted the censored text by hand, so as to provide a corrected
text. Hemingway's corrected text has not been incorporated into modern
published editions of the novel.

The only place in the Jonathan Cape Edition that I can find with
dashes or dots comes on page 76 here where he writes, “Wop. You are a
frozen faced . . . wop.” It is possible that one of these dirty words
was originally inserted into these spaces.

I have searched as thoroughly as I can and I cannot find any further
information about where these dirty words are or are supposed to be.

[raylopez99]

On Tuesday, August 7, 2012 2:33:18 PM UTC-4, samsloan wrote:

> The auction took place because the owners, Peter B. Howard and his
>
> wife, died within a few months of each other. Peter Brigham Howard was
>
> born on 1 July 1938 and died in March 31, 2011 in Alameda, California
>
> at age 73. His wife Alison Seelye Howard was born on 30 January 1939
>
> and died on 16 August 2010 in Alameda California at age 71. Their
>
> deputy, Nancy Kosenka, continued the bookstore for another six months.
>

That's suspicious. Why did 72 yr olds, relatively healthy, die so close to one another? Were you around? I don't know much about you Sam but it seems to me every time you're near somebody they expire. I hope we never met if so...stay away.

RL