Sarah's Books - Used & Rare

In a word, slow. I didn't sell any books today, although I had a few browsers stop in. I did sell a book on Amazon, however. That's the way it goes! And here I sit shuffling papers and thinking about paying my taxes. In the spirit of the season, here's a reading suggestion: Herbert Faulkner West's Modern Book Collecting for the Impecunious Amateur, Little, Brown, 1936. I've read this before, but was browsing in it again before Christmas. The author keeps going on and on about one of his favorite authors, one R. B. Cunninghame Graham. I mean on and on to the point where you as a reader (me, that is) says "Ok, ok, just who the heck is this Cunninghame Graham, anyway?" Then Dan, one of the three regular readers of this blog, comments below after a best-of-the-year post that one of his bests is a Cunninghame Graham book. Now I'm really interested. After all, Dan shares a love of Christopher Morley with me, so I am apt to view his other reading interests with favor.

My well-worn copy of Benet's The Reader's Encyclopedia tells us that C.G. was a close friend of Conrad, W.H. Hudson (who I have a shelf of at home), and G.B. Shaw. "He was rover and an eccentric, a great horseman, and always a fine writer." High praise from Benet, who incidentally was one of Christopher Morley's dearest friends. So I am off on the trail, bookhunting again. Herbert Faulkner West, as is evident from reading his fine book, was a personal friend of C.G., as well as a collector of his books. Dan, seek it out - in the introduction he quotes from Dreamthorp at length. Good books always lead to other good books, one of West's points in his book.