October 26, 2016

Books Are Here, There And Every Which Way But Where

Normally at this time I would succinctly state that a fresh post is up at I Are Writer! for you to peruse and enjoy. However, it would be a redundancy (much like the guv'ment) to direct you towards there, since today's post is not-quite-the-carbon-copy of that post, but it comes pretty damn close (topic, but not content).

A few weekends ago my brother, after much delicate pushing and prodding by a few residents of this household, came down to the house to start the very long and labor intensive process of reorganizing/purging of the vast amounts of schtuff he had stored here for the past several years. Most of which either came from his house, my father's two offices and my grandfather's house.

Speaking of grandfather's house, we (collectively the family) pulled out hundreds of westerns dating from the 50's thru the 80's/90's. The end result for these are to see what's what and sell them.

Anywho, during the course of the cleanup, which as a guv'ment employee I supervised (j/k) we got to discussing the amount of books that dad had. I didn't realize just how many he had until my brother thoughtfully pointed to the one dozen tubs that he had pulled out to re-store.

As you can imagine, the first reaction/words out of my mouth were not "Seriously?" but "Holy sh!t"

My second reaction was to open up one of the tubs and pull out a very old book that was in a Ziploc storage bag. The book itself looked to be in remarkably good condition, with only a little wear to the cover. I brought it inside and took it out of the baggie. I opened the over just enough to see what the publication date was and perhaps one or two pages. Sufficed to say, I was very impressed with the condition of this book.

I went back outside and told my brother I think I can find a home for this book as I know of a historical society that specializes in this content. The book was The Official Complete Guide to The Lincoln Highway 5th edition (c) 1924. A few days later, once I had the time to research this bad boy, I found that the historical society who thought would be interested, didn't cover the Lincoln Highway but covered US 40.

So back to searching I did go. A few minutes later, I found the website to The Lincoln Highway Association. I proceeded to spend next half hour or so tooling around the website, checking the links, checking a semi-defunct blog and checking a Facebook group run by the owner of the defunct blog. I started my inquiries with the FB group, but all I got out of the admin was an acknowledgment that he accepted my private message.

Note: when I'm looking for help on something I know just about zilch, I will often shoot a polite e-mail to a possible solution/contact and ask if they aren't the right person could they point me in the proper direction.

Suffice to say, I went back to the website and shot off an e-mail to the main contact addy. I got a response the next day, and long story short, they would be very appreciative of my donation. A few days later, I packed up this bad boy in triplicate (Ziploc bag, cushioned 9 x12 envelope, then a priority mail envelope). Including extra insurance ($100), the entire package cost me $10.49 to ship.

Like I stated, this was my good deed for the day. I am somewhat of a weird American history buff (having worked in a library for 8 years), and I wanted to make sure that the book would go to a place that would 1} not stash away from prying eyes and 2} allow people to view it/use it for research purposes. I know if I had donated it up here at my previous employer, it would've more than likely stay locked up in the special collection, never to be seen/used again.

For all intents and purposes, unless I find another book of historical value like this one, this will be my last donation. While I do enjoy making donations, I'm also looking to make a few extra dollars for both myself and my brother.

So we can truthfully say that we have found something mundane to occupy our time between periods of pursuing the craft of writing.

And that, my friends, is a good thing indeed.

(c) 2016 BOOKS BY G.B. MILLER. All Rights Reserved.

12 comments:

  1. That was nice you donated it rather than tried to sell it. We've found some really old items before that were of historical significance and found homes for them in museums.
    Tally up how many books your dad had - I'd be curious.

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    1. So would I. Best guesstimate at the moment is somewhere around 500 or so. I mean, he had a lot books, both fiction and non-fiction (i.e. textbooks that helped edit, civil war books).

      I'm sure I'm going to find a few more oldies but goodies in the coming months with these bins.

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  2. It was kind of you to donate the book. I have been doing some serious de-cluttering here and I have to say I try to sell my stuff on ebay. It's nice to get rid of the crap but even nicer if you can make a bit of money doing it.

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    1. Thanks.

      That is the ultimate goal of going through all of these books, making money for me and my brother. We do have quite a few and I'm sure there is a collector or two out there who collects this kind of stuff.

      Delete
  3. That was so great that you donated that book - I'm sure they will appreciate it.

    And speaking as someone who is still in recovery from going through my late parents' home and dispersing their stuff, it's good that you are doing some of this now. It's exhausting and rewarding at the same time.

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    1. Thanks. I'm pretty sure they will. I haven't received a response yet to the delivery (got there on Monday), but that's okay.

      We've been doing this piecemeal. We originally started a few months after he had passed away in '04 by cleaning out his office, and over the next 12 years my brother has done the bulk of binging/purging.

      This will give me something to do in the coming months.

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  4. Hope you checked all the Western books for money. I am told there is often money between the pages of books. That was a nice donation you made and very thought filled. Hope it is appreciated for the effort.

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    1. I don't think my grandfather was the type of person to squirrel away money in books. Perversely, he was the kind of person to spend/horde (lived through the Depression he did). But we probably will when the time comes to sort those books.

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  5. Oh, man, going through old books like that would be a bookgasm for me.

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    1. My friend, we have at least several huge 25 gallon totes and a half dozen of the small ones that are the equivalent of a small banker box full of books. And I can tell you from personal experience that my grandfather had westerns from at least three dozen different writers. He used to buy and swap all the time.

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  6. I doubt that I'd be quite as altruistic as you were as I to need money more than I need to spend it. But yours was a nice gesture nonetheless. I hope your donation serves to benefit others as you are hoping.

    Your exploration through stuff sounds somewhat fun when you discount the work involved. I have so much stuff in my closet and garage that I need to weed through and pass onward through appropriate channels, but it can be difficult to take the time to do it. I guess it's just a matter of getting it done like you did.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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    1. Thanks.

      I think I can say with a good degree of certainty that with most of the books I'll find, they'll be sold.

      This particular book, simply struck a chord because in addition to being that old, the topic was so narrowly focused that it probably would be damn near impossible to sell it.

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