publishing

As you know by now, I’m a lover of both books and ephemera; so when I found this vintage copy of The Tattler, “News and gossip about books,” which was “Issued once in a while by The Putnam Book Store,” I was in heaven.

So here are thirteen fabulous things found/discovered inside the Spring, 1930 issue of The Tatler.

1 The cover, with a cute illustration of “grandpa” in a bookstore with his grandkids:

2 Inside the front cover, a quote on the joys of ready from Richard De Bury in 1344 — 100 years before the invention of printing (later published in 1474).

3 A funny quote from Fresh Schoolboy Howlers, by H. Cecil Hunt: “Mussolini is a sort of material used for ladies’ stockings.”

4 The Care of Books, which begins with this fabulous sentiment: “Why is it that so few people treat books with the proper respect and care? That ubiquitous person, the average man, keeps his car in the best of shape, has his watch overhauled regularly, protects his paintings and etchings, but both mishandles and “mishouses” his fine books.”

5 Books versus Battleships, from a speech in the House of Representatives by Ross A. Collins, delivered on February 7, 1930, with the classic line about the government’s investments: “It is not unreasonable to assume that there is a direct automatic ratio between the two; that the more books there are, the fewer the battleships will be needed and built.”

6 A wonderful illustration, titled The Edition De Luxe:

7 This is fascinating… A photo of a box from the Champion Coated Paper Company, Hamilton, Ohio, which was delivered to the manufacturing department of G.P. Putnam’s Sons (no relation to The Putnam Book Store which published The Tatler, see #13). Read the scan; enjoy the photo — and discuss.

8 The Suppression Of Books — part of a speech given by John Milton in 1644.

9 An article on critics — written by “a certain Mr. Addison” which appeared in an earlier edition of The Tatler (Saturday, April 29, 1710).

10 The Puzzle Page, which has a crossword puzzle and 20 questions you should “try on some erudite friend.” (Here are the answers.)

11 A Word About Prints, an article by Edmond De Luce, curator of prints in the Putnam Bookstore.

12 In Fine Old English Books, the Putnam Bookstore defends its business practice of placing their collection of old books on the mezzanine — absolutely a must read!

13 The back cover, which, as mentioned, makes the clear distinction that The Tatler came from The Putnam Bookstore — not G.P. Putnam’s Sons, book publishers. (Tomato/tomatoe?)

Now, along with the individual goodies, please consider why bookstores today don’t offer more like this… The Tatler is far more about the love of books — and worth saving, in my opinion — than what’s found in those two-sheet fliers in bookstores today.

Whether you love old books or ephemera (and why choose?), collectors will love old issues of The Tatler; just don’t bid against me on them. *wink*

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True Confessions (originally published by Fawcett Publications in 1922; currently published by Dorchester Media) is a magazine of ‘true confessions’ — still today one of the largest markets for short fiction stories — aimed at a young female readership between the ages of 20 and 35.

The magazines are highly collectible, in no small part due to the gorgeous illustrated covers of movie stars of the age. What’s not to love?

Vintage True Confession Magazine

Even when they used photographs of models, the vintage style hooks me.

True Confessions Magazine From 1942

But I, as usual, like to study these vintage magazines for the articles & the ads; the over-all message of the magazine.

What I’ve found in the vintage issues of True Confessions is a masterful combination of effective manipulation. Here the publishers combine the salacious lure of gossip magazines and tabloids with the traditional women’s publications fare of subtle (ish) & simultaneous pitches for products & lifestyle — a lifestyle which says, literally, that a “a girl’s main function is to charm” in order to “please a male”.

I should be offended — and part of me is! — but I just can’t help falling in love with the grand illustration, the vintage glamour…

Miriam Hopkins On True Confessions

It’s seductive.

Perhaps the publishers win… But not for the reasons they/you think. While I find the issues intoxicating, I’m not (completely?) sold on the beauty & charm in product or lifestyle. What I want to buy is the recipe for such success — and that’s not something they’re selling. So I keep paging through them, looking at each ‘ingredient,’ hoping I can figure it out. And that’s my confession. A real confession, not the short fiction variety.

Founded 85 years ago, The Magazine Antiques is a monthly publication for connoisseurs of fine arts and antiques. I subscribed to the magazine a little over a year ago based on the topics and articles covered by the magazine, and my only disappointment has been the shortness of the articles. I have, however, found the articles to be thorough and well-researched — the writers tend to do a good enough job that I’d like to read more about the various topics, ranging from Masonic collectibles to colonial primitives to fine oil paintings. Because I tend to collect more epehemera and fewer decorative items, I often learn something new in every magazine. I must admit, I’m not exactly the magazine’s target audience. Primarily based on the advertisements, I’d wager the magazine isn’t focusing on a generalist readership consisting of antique dealers, casual collectors, or obsessives like me. The Magazine Antique is for the collector of high end antiques, those who decorate their walls with fine art and furnish their various rooms with fine furniture from past eras. Although I live a bit off the beaten path, I still appreciate The Magazines Antique’s calendars and travel recommendations, just in case they happen to reference something within driving distance of my home. These informational sections aren’t purely purchase-related — the calendar includes museum events as well, lending more towards their intended readers to be true enjoyers of antiques, rather than price-focused collectible investors.

As with all modern magazines, advertisements do dominate the content of each issue. The advertising content, however, is more reminiscent of that in a fashion magazine: the ads are full color and place all their weight on the photograph and one or two lines of text, rather than a hard sell. Nearly every page is full of photos, complimenting text when appropriate. Flipping through an issue is like browsing a museum catalog or paging through the plates from an old art book. The amount of advertising can make it difficult to casually flip to the articles, but I must admit the ads are not boring.

What sets apart The Magazine Antiques from a more rote antiques magazine is that this magazine tends to focus on collecting from the artistic lifestyle viewpoint. The readers of TMA include their love of antiques throughout their days, using antiques to decorate their walls, hold them up when they sit down, feature prominently in the design of their homes, and influence how they plan their vacations. The magazine balances this well with the historical and cultural values of the antiques, rolling the collection value and the aesthetic value into one. You can subscribe to The Magazine Antiques at their website and read some of the magazine’s columns. The website also has more calendar information than appears in the magazine, along with some other informational sections.

Walking around downtown Fargo with me is sometimes a pain. That parking lot next to the men’s fashion shop? I can talk for a good twenty minutes about its history — the hotel that was there before, the businesses that occupied the building, the mysterious circumstances regarding its destruction, and the politics that resulted in the parking lot instead of a fresh, new building. Want to know where the library used to be? How about the buildings that were razed to expand the hospital or build an ultra-modern (now mostly vacant) strip mall? I’m a local history buff — the happiest purchase I made recently were two garbage bags full of locally-published magazines.

I may be a little crazy.

However, collecting comes with a side-order of crazy, and I have to come to terms with it. Collecting remnants of your hometown history is a common one. The reason I don’t buy postcards on eBay anymore is that there are so many other Fargo collectors out there that the prices go crazy-high, and that’s a middling-sized city in the upper midwest. I also tend to stay away from items, too: the root of my encyclopedic knowledge of Fargo comes from my main collection — books. The Department of Local Studies in my personal library is still rather small, but I’m discovering what to look for. See, quite often the books about your hometown don’t always come with a huge title bearing the town’s name. What follows is a list of the types of books I’ve found by accident, and now search out more directly:

Books By Local Newspaper Columnists: These tend to have the most esoteric and ephemeral knowledge in them. The local-flavor columnist generally doesn’t write the news-worthiest of topics, but they can be the most engaging and memorable stories (which is why newspapers still keep them around). The local history is seen through the filter of their eyes, which sets their stories quite apart from the drier historical pieces put out by scholars. Because every newspaper columnist secretly — or not-so-secretly — wants to be a best-selling author, they nearly always put out a book or two during their career. The guy at the right, Jim Baccus, wrote for the Fargo Forum for many years and I wouldn’t have looked twice at the book if I hadn’t recognized the illustration on the cover that had been used in the newspaper to title his column.

Books And Publications From The Local Newspaper: As I’ve noted before, old city guides are an amazing telescope for viewing a city’s times and culture in the past. Old newspapers, while they rarely hold together enough to last very long and tend to be too bulky to store in any large amount, do turn up in other formats. Microfilm archives of a newspaper sometimes turns up if you know where to look, but newspapers are often ready to produce books using existing articles to commemorate an event. The anniversary of statehood, of the city’s founding, of the newspaper’s founding, of the cathedral’s cornerstone being set — all sorts of events may turn out to have been bookworthy.

Books By Your Local University Press: Even small colleges produce books of local content for various reasons. Students are, by nature, content producers — sure, a lot put as little effort into writing as possible, but the grad students and talented educators often have books printed in small runs. All sorts of books come out of local universities. History majors study intricate details of local history and produce 500 pages through their fine-toothed comb. Art and photography students document a day in the life of the town, which may seem unremarkable this morning but will be invaluable to the history collector twenty years from now. Also, much as the columnist/authors above, English departments, tiring of generic textbooks, will compile their own textbooks of locally-written stories by regional authors. While a columnist-author will probably have a good-sized print run on their books, these university press books (unless they’re from Yale or USC) will most likely have a very limited release. I’ve found these are more common at thrift-shops than the used book stores, because they’re seen more as textbooks than “real” books, so they get dumped for a tax writeoff.

Books By/For The Local Government: Tourism information is, of course, one of the quickest way to find out interesting tidbits about the area. While it’s usually the most colorful and has the best pictures, tourist info can also be some of the least-informative pieces, interested in drawing in bored tourists with quick blurbs rather than readable information. For real, meaty knowledge find the books that include local politics, published regarding studies for the passage of law or information on legislative sessions. No, I’m not trying to give you naptime-causing reading: when it comes to the genuine information on what makes the community tick, the boring details of legislation can be the most informative.

These three sources aren’t completely cut and dried; the book West Fargo: A Work In Progress was produced by the University of Minnesota Moorhead, but sponsored by the City of West Fargo; newspapers may publish compilations of their columnists, columnists may write a textbook for their local college. Starting at one point but running into another isn’t a bad thing, though — it’s all part of the fun.

Once in a while, someone comes along and writes something for the mainstream. Chuck Klosterman was once an arts writer for the Fargo Forum, but moved up through the rings of U.S. arts and culture until he broke onto the scene with his book Fargo Rock City. Sadly, I haven’t read it. From what I understand, it’s less weighty on the Fargo part, more on Klosterman and his experiences in other parts of the Dakotas. I, in particular, have to be careful: the name “Fargo” is a marketable commodity, and even locals were strangely disappointed that the Coen brothers’ movie Fargo spent all its time making fun of Minnesotans and left us Fargoans out. Thankfully, I’ve got some help in figuring things out — Read North Dakota is a local organization that tracks and catalogs books by and for locals. Even if your area doesn’t have something as well organized, many libraries have a “local interest” section for starting a ‘want list’ of books. If your area even lacks that asset, the librarians are usually well versed in local authors and books, if only because they’ve helped the author in their research, or have directed a billion high-school students in the right direction for various papers. My biggest asset was the ‘book guy’ at a local thrift store. We met him stocking books, a job he volunteers to do once a week, and asked him if he could point me in the right direction…and, of course, I went home with a stack of books I never heard of before. Sometimes, being a know-it-all is easier to come by than you expect.