The Sunday Haul (on 07-01-2018)

2018 promises to be a great year, book wise, if what I found at Abids last Sunday is any indication. I found only three books, including two wonderful titles. I got one of them very, very cheap more out of luck than by my bargaining. Long ago I had come across a much damaged copy of William Styron’s ‘Darkness Visible’ his memoir of his depression. It was a hard cover copy that I found but the pages were all damaged and discoloured by moisture. Some years later I found a copy of ‘This Quiet Dust’, a collection of his essays. Last Sunday I found a wonderful hardcover copy of ‘Havanas in Camelot’ his famous collection of personal essays.

There’s a seller in Abids who knows the value of the books he sells and never sells them cheap. I have to pay more than a hundred rupees to him to buy books from him. It was at his stall that I spotted ‘Havanas in Camelot’ but he wasn’t around. A lanky kid stood there and when I asked him the price he quoted a price I found hard to believe. I asked him once again and he said twenty five rupees. I took out the money and grabbed the book. It had the jacket intact and later when I looked inside I was thrilled to discover that it was a first edition. There are fourteen essays in this book: Havanas in Camelot; A Case of the Great Pox; “I’ll Have to Ask Indianapolis—“; Les Amis du President; Celebrating Capote; Himmy in the House; Transcontinental with Tex; A Literary Forefather; Slavery’s Pain, Disney’s Gain; Too Late for Conversion or Prayer; Moviegoer; Fessing Up; Walking with Aquinnah; “In Vineyard Haven.”

The second find of the day was in a pile of books that were hardcovers and seemed to be from someone’s collection. Someone was already going through the pile in which I spotted an author’s name that seemed familiar. I found a nice copy of ‘From Fear Set Free’ by Nayantara Sahgal a beautiful hardcover copy with the jacket enclosed in a plastic sleeve. The most interesting thing about this copy was that it seemed to have belonged to the Kansas City public library as there is a stamp inside and also the issue card. Nobody seemed to have borrowed this book even once. Published by WW Norton & Company Inc., New York ‘From Fear Set Free’ is described as ‘A delightful mixture of autobiography and thoughtful comment on the new India…’ on the cover. It has 20 chapters in 240 pages with closely packed text. I managed to get this book for a hundred rupees after a long spell of bargaining with the seller who asked for two hundred and fifty rupees for it.
The third and last find at Abids was in a pile of books selling for twenty rupees only. I spotted ‘A Harvest of Light’ by Suma Josson in the pile and picked it up. It is a collection of poetry by Disha. There are fifty four poems in this slim collection.