Inspiration Overload!

It's been an emotional few weeks. I have a private, handwritten journal for such matters and that tome has seen a lot of action since the last Rambles entry. Now that the gloomy weather has taken a break, I notice the days getting a little longer, a couple of little green finches building a nest in the over-grown myrtle outside my kitchen and I got to attend the 43rd Annual California Antiquarian Book Fair last weekend.

These exhibits interest me because of the quantity and variety of bibliophilic treasure that one can experience at one time, in one place. I maintain that there is no single library - however great - that can offer so much stimuli for a collector, or a maker of books. And that's what it boils down to: now more than ever before in living history, a rare book is valued most on the persistence of its existence and how well it has held up.

Up until now, I've hesitated to think and write about the place of the printed codex in the First World, anno 2010. No more. I suspect fetishism in today's bookworld. To support/explain/excuse this P.O.V., I offer the following short list of discoveries:

• First edition The Sun Also Rises (Near Fine in VG DJ - not signed by the author) is available from at least two dealers for the price of a new Lexus sedan.
• A copy of Spengler's Decline of the West by William Burroughs to Jack Kerouac, with K's copious annotations and (presumeably original ) black electrical tape repairs is also on the market.
• Victor Hugo painted when he needed a break from writing. Miniature landscapes that are very good!
• Miniature landscapes cleverly disguised as books in the form of fore-edge paintings are among the best values today (my personal pick!)
• Prophetic booksellers now exhibit Artist's Books. Even contemporary works.

Maybe being treated as an object is not so bad, after all these years.