1. What was the first book you remember?

I have vague memories of my grandmother reading “Good Night Moon” to me. The first “real” book I remember reading for myself, I think, was The Pushcart War, or possibly The Phantom Tollbooth. The first more or less adult book that I remember reading was 1984, which gave me nightmares (and still does, but for different reasons now).

2. What was the first book you bought for yourself?

It was a cheap paperback Scholastic edition of selections from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. (We had some kind of book fair where we could order from a list of these very inexpensive and poorly produced paperbacks.) At that time, I mostly knew Poe’s writings from the Cadmaeon records by Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone. I still have it somewhere. In the same order, I also bought a paperback of ghost stories and poetry collected by Red Skelton. As he was a well-know comedian, the collection was mostly playing on the idea of his last name, although several of the selections are quite humorous. (Many years later, I bought a hard-bound version of the same book, which had one or two more items in it than the paperback. That was mostly for old times’ sake.)

3. What was a book you thought of as a discovery that nobody else seemed to know about?

John Romer’s Testament (1988), which was also a documentary multi-part series. At the time, no one I knew seemed to have seen the series or heard of the book. I am sure that I grew very tiresome in telling people about it. It was a blessing when the DVD finally came out and I could retire my poor videotape of the series.

4. Name a book that changed you.

I think the effect on me of books I have read is too subtle and inter-related to meaningfully answer this question. I vaguely remember Animal Farm awakening a strong sense of cynicism in me that remains to this day.

5. Name a book recommended by a friend that turned out to be really good.

Probably The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, when I was in High School. I tried a long list of fantasy books after that, but they all just seemed like such poor attempts at imitation that I eventually move away from the genre.

6. Name the weirdest book you’ve ever read.

Maybe Feature Film: A Book by Douglas Gordon, 1999. Perhaps “read” is a bad word here since the entire book is photographs. (I only bought it for the accompanying CD recording of Bernard Hermann’s score to Vertigo, which is brilliant.)

7. Name a classic work that everyone tells you is a work of genius that you utterly detest.

Anything by James Joyce. I have a similar response to most of Hemmingway’s writings.

8. What is the book you own that you treasure most?

This can be read many ways, and value can mean financial or personal. And even personal value can mean different things as it can be as an object or for the contents. I was lucky that when the H. Bradley Martin sale occurred there was briefly a surplus of copies of Poe’s 1840 collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. I needed a copy since there has never been a facsimile edition and I have to read my online texts against at least a reliable facsimile. I splurged and bought one, which I certainly could not afford today. Even copies in marginal condition go for 10 times what I paid.

I still have the copy of Where the Wild Things are that my mother read to me when I was a child. It is a first edition, but not a first issue, and like so many children’s books, it is not in very good condition and thus not terribly valuable. It was once almost signed by Maurice Sendak. He came to town to speak at my alma mater, and afterwards, at the reception, I asked him a question about something he had said in the presentation. Although they had said in the introduction that he would not sign books at the event, there I was holding my clearly much-worn copy and he almost reached for it, but I suggested that if he broke the announcement to sign my book he would start an avalanche. He said that he would be doing a book signing at a local bookstore in the next few months, and that seemed to be a good option — but when that date arrived he had to cancel due to poor health, and he died not that long afterwards, so it was not to be . . . but my copy was in his presence.

I have a book of poetry given to my great-grandfather as a birthday present when he was just a child. (I am told that when my great-great-grandmother came over from Ireland just before the American Civil War, one of the few possessions she brought with her was a cabinet edition of Shakespeare. Sadly, that set has long vanished and no one seems to know where it went. It may very well have been loved to death.)

I have a number of books signed by Thomas Ollive Mabbott, the great Poe scholar of the 20th century. He died when I was just 8, so I never met him (although I did know his widow, who completed some of his work). I have always thought of him as a kind of spiritual mentor for my Poe pursuits, and having signed copies makes them special to me even though few people outside of Poe studies would know his name or work. I particularly like to have scholarly works on Poe that are signed by the authors. There was a landmark edition of Poe’s works produced in 1894-95, of which I have several copies; but I also own a couple of books that were used by the editors in preparing the edition.

CEJ said

CEJ said

Robert said

CEJ, who’s the author? Title? 

  

** you do not have permission to see this link **

  

Is that link viewable to others?

  

It is!

I was mostly just trying to confirm that we could see the image. That name was the first part that was easily readable. That gothic German font is really hard to read unless one is accustomed to it.