Never judge a Book by its cover, but I should try opening the covers once in a while

[baseballart]

Two recent book perusals leads me to think I should look inside my books more often.

First, I had long ago bought a signed copy of Effa Manley's book Negro Baseball Before Integration. I was disappointed when the book arrived and a number of pages were missing, along with tape stains. I kept the book however, as I got it at a reasonable price for the signature alone. A few years later, I bought a fine condition copy of the book, described as unsigned. When the book arrived, I never looked at it, and stuck it on the shelf. I opened it for the first time last week (a couple of years later) and to my surprise, the second book was signed as well.

And today, my upgrade of the Harris's Playing the Game (stokes edition) arrived:



I then went to get my old dust jacketed copy to put in the doubles pile. It had a tired but presentable jacket.



I don't recall looking in the book when I got it at least five years ago. Lightning, however, struck twice, as again to my surprise, I found Stanley Harris's signature.

[jerseygary]

As a going away present a good friend of mine gave me a copy of Nelson Algren's "Chicago: City on the Make". I thanked him profusely as Algren is one of my favorite writers. It took me 3 times reading through and 2 years to realize that he gave me a SIGNED first edition of the book! I called him up and he laughed his ass off because he had been wondering when the heck I was going to notice!

Recently I picked up a 1958 copy of Bready's "The Home Team: 100 Years of Baseball In Baltimore" in a used bookstore here in Long Beach (what it was doing here I have no idea) and when I got home discovered it was signed and inscribed by the author.

[mighty bombjack]

You have TWO Effa Manley signed books?!?

What are you gonna do with the first one?

[ChiefBenderForever]

In the early 90's a friend of mine bought a Classic Rock n Roll book on Bands of the 1960s and inbetween the back pages were four sheets of acid with 100 hits per page.

[slidekellyslide]

This is not nearly on the same level as Max's great discovery, but a few years back at the annual library book sale I picked up a Harmon Killebrew book..all hardbacks are a dollar so I usually end up with 50-100 baseball books every year from this sale. When I got home I noticed that the Killebrew book had no library markings, and when I opened it up it was signed on the inside. A nice surprise.

[barrysloate]

Johnny, is that a true story?

[mcgwirecom]

what are you gonna do with all that extra acid??? LOL

[ChiefBenderForever]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Johnny, is that a true story?

Yeah it's true, but was probably really old and was no good. He tried it one night and said nothing happend which is lucky for him because after a few hours he took four more hits. Either the sheets were never sprayed or the chemicals used only last so long, my guess is only good for so long.
Here is another true story, a friend of mine from back in the day was following the Dead one summer around 1990, one of his college friends was selling lsd at the shows to fund his trip ( no pun intended ). He had a couple of sheets folded up in his pocket and got caught in a rain storm and the sheets were not in plastic, when his pants got all wet the acid went into his leg and he collapsed and fried his brain like Syd Barrett. They were all pre law students so it wasn't like he was a burnout but ended up in a mental instituion unable to function at all. It sounds like an urban legend but I have never heard it before or since and my friend swore it was true and he wasn't the type to lie. He went on to choose between Cornell and Lewis and Clark and went to L&C since he went into environmental law and is very successful. I always felt bad for his friend and just shows how one mistake can ruin your life. Sorry to get so off topic but I had forgotten all about this until now.

[barrysloate]

That's a scary story. I guess if it liquifies it can easily get into the bloodstream. And yes, when it gets old it's no good anymore.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

And yes, when it gets old it's no good anymore.

You sound like an expert Barry.

[mr2686]

Sounds like a lot of experts here I bet you all stayed up nights dropping acid and looking at your 1972 Topps cards!

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

You sound like an expert Barry.

I was a teenager in the 1960's...what can I say?

[baseballart]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

I was a teenager in the 1960's...what can I say?

This has to be the first book thread where Barry hasn't posted about the books.

[barrysloate]

Sorry Max. I read all the posts and enjoyed hearing about the signatures. I just had nothing to contribute beyond LSD.

[baseballart]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

Sorry Max. I read all the posts and enjoyed hearing about the signatures. I just had nothing to contribute beyond LSD.

Ah.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Great book. I have a first edition that I've been thinking about sending to Wolfe to have signed. He's a very responsive signer through the mail.

Kesey signed a 3X5 for me many years ago. It was signed in two shades of day-glo: purple highlited with pink! A few years after that, I happened to be driving through Springfield, Oregon and dropped by Kesey's place; he was listed in the phone book. He actually lived in a converted barn with a big white star painted at the top. The original "Furthur" bus was rotting away in a boggy area of the wooded acreage to the immediate north of his property. What a shame that it was beyond repair.

Still trying to figure out whatever happened to Sandy after he sold all of the Pranksters' equipment and ran off with the proceeds!

A big derailment to the original intent of this thread, but nice to see the shared interest nonetheless!

[FUBAR]

I bought a first edition signed book for a friend of mine as a Christmas present. She phoned me up and thanks me for the book but added... "i hope you didn't pay very much for it, someone wrote in it"

Sometimes, you just can't win!

[doug.goodman]

I bought some bound Sporting Life volumes a couple years ago from one of the auction houses and sleeping comfortably inside one of them I found this...