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unearths some literary gems.
These snippets are from a catalog of rare editions of 1920s-1930s fiction. Text outside of quotation marks (complete with typos and other mistakes) comes from the dealer (or possibleysome third-party they source from); text inside quotation marks comes from the actual blurbs found on the books.***1. Anonymously written expose of New York night-life and Broadway habitués including Lenny Parr whose "six major adventures constitute a sexagon not to be discovered in the most advanced geometry."2. Jazz Age romance novel of high society and an antique dealer thrown into the mix.3. "She loved her elderly husband the gentle, musty antique dealer whose thoughts she could never read; but she loved Ambrose too, the mad, blonde, young man who wanted the china shepherdess...."4. Jazz-Age novel of a "very modern girl" who is dissatisfied with her marriage. [Author Freeman] Tilden is best known for his writings about the National Park system.5. Two bank clerks and their wives are "left a small fortune, but on conditions not only stringent but embarrassing. Among other tasks assigned them were the theft of an Anglo-Indian colonel's false teeth, the production of half of the uncrowned King of Limehouse's mustache, and inducing a bishop to use bad language."6. An English prep school teacher moves to London, "meets the kind of Bohemians he has visualized, moves into a Chelsea flat, gaudily and theatrically decorated in ultramodern style. He grows a picturesque mustache and beard, buys a cape, a broad brimmed hat, a velvet jacket, green shirts and flowing ties. He becomes a member of the Y to the Nths, a weird, arty, frantically advanced group whose ideas he doesn't in the least understand". [Bonus: Author name is Guy Pocock.]7. Humorous novel about a young chemist from Pittsburgh with hopes of making his city the cleanest in the world.8. Humorous novel of Jazz Age Paris, "the fairly complex love affairs of Edgar Bowman among the higher brows to be found on the Left Bank. It culminates in the amazing and uproarious dialogue between James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, and in the absolute abandonment of Aunt Minnie to the gigolos and the modernists."9. "Johnny, Assistant Manager of Cosmic Films, job included applying banana oil to the over heated cylinders of temperamental stars."10. "A pedantic writer hopes that his latest novel will bring him fame and fortune."11. "Hilarious romance of a mathematical wizard actuary who jumped straight from a Hartford insurance office into the middle of a carnival troupe."***And few smaller snippets.***"a comedy of commotion"Mr. Snooks-Badajos who got into Parliament by mistakeHumpty-Dumpty's eyebrows***Next, an excerpt from a contemporary (1935) New York Times review of a book called Quick, Mr. Bunnifeel!.***'A goodly number of the words in his yarn are profane. Literally, he substitutes the word (profane) neatly enclosed in parentheses for every cuss word. This seems monotonous rather than funny. And the conscientious reader will find it tiresome deciding each time whether this particular (profane) should be a noun or an adjective, and after that, selecting the most appropriate word. "By Mencken" is the only oath that isn't expurgated.'***Some titles.***The Man Who Found Himself[which I learned was written by an author who had an earlier, apparently unrelated work called The Man Who Lost Himself]Hiss! Boom!! Blah!!!Some Nephew!Believe You Me!Murder on Alternate Tuesdays[And neither Hilary nor I knew there was an H. G. Wells book called The Bulpington of Blup!]***And some miscellaneous notes.***There was a 20th-century author who called themselves Inigo Jones; and one called Mrs. Wilson Woodrow.This one got my attention because of the discrepancy between the actual title and the stated title to the side: what a difference an "of" makes!https://www.yesterdaysgallery.com/pages/books/11322/mary-kennedy/question-of-the-nightSimilarly, the stated title here sounds like an imperative, but of course the dust jacket and description make it clear that a "stay-at-home" is a person.https://www.yesterdaysgallery.com/pages/books/15735/lawrence-nelson/stay-at-home And this looks like a precursor to Into the Woods:ERSKINE, John. Cinderella's Daughter and Other Sequels and Consequences. Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill Company. 1930.Erskine's humorous novel that adds the details and real endings not given in such fairy tales as Cinderella, Lady Godiva, Beanstalk Jack, Patient Griselda, Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty.***
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