The Evolution of a Book Collector
Focusing on collecting a single author has advantages and disadvantages, which are related. When you decide to collect one author most obviously you have limited the vast universe of book collecting to a manageable subsection. On the other hand, have you chosen too circumscribed an area for it to be fun?
Even within the scope of a single author collection there are additional choices. Do you collect only “high spots,” or the most well-known books? Even for a well-regarded author that would probably be a small collection. Another common choice would be to collect all their books in first editions or perhaps signed first editions. Either of these choices can make for a satisfying, if smaller, collection.
From there the choices or perhaps I should say temptations grow as you visit booksellers and build your collection. Short stories? Foreign editions? Magazine appearances? Photographs of your author? Letters? Manuscripts? As I say the temptations abound to expand your collecting universe.
In my case, Dobie was a good choice for a single author collection. First, he was prolific, so there was lots to choose from. Second, he was popular, so book sellers regularly carried his books and you had lots of opportunities to find things. Also, importantly, there were bibliographies of his works for a novice collector to consult.
An aside about bibliographies. Jeff Dykes once said that he only went from a book accumulator to a book collector when he acquired a bibliography of his subject (in that case Texas Rangers books). If there is a bibliography then you know the general scope of what you are collecting and can create another important book collecting tool, a want list. I once asked a well-known figure in the rare book universe what he collected, and he named a rather esoteric (to me) subject, where he hoped to plow new ground and his collection would eventually serve as the bibliography of that subject. I admit I was impressed with the ambition, but for a new collector, having an existing bibliography is a big help in getting started.
As I mentioned previously, Jeff Dykes was a big influence on me as a young book collector, both because he was a friend of Dobie and described his fun collecting adventures hunting down rare Dobie items, which he complied into lists of the hardest to find items. He was a “completest” collector, meaning he sought everything by and about Dobie. So it was perhaps foreordained that I would also follow this path.
Pre-Internet Book Collecting
When I started collecting in the 1980s there were only certain sources for finding collectable books. The main ones were book stores, book seller’s printed catalogs and book fairs. There was no internet, no Amazon, no online book hunting on your personal computer – indeed no personal computers to speak of. To put those past days into perspective, if the Back to the Future movie were made today they would travel back to the 1990s rather than to the 1950s.
The good news was that Houston and other cities had a number of used book shops. In Houston the ones I most often frequented included (among at least 10 or more others):
Detering Book Gallery
Colleen’s Books
A Book Buyers Shop
Booked Up
Half Price Books
Of these only the chain Half Price has survived until today. I will perhaps have more to say about each of these very different shops in future installments. Suffice it to say that there were good open shops for hunting collectable books. I spent many enjoyable hours perusing the shelves of these stores. One big advantage for a new collector ws you could see and even hold in your hands the books, the better to appreciate them as objects and understand condition, among other things that are harder to do online.
Today there are still a few book dealers who issue printed catalogs. Back in the day these were a necessity for serious collectors, giving you access to out-of-town dealers or dealers without open shops. They ranged from a few stapled pages of text to elaborate catalogs with color illustrations. Once a catalog appeared in your mailbox the race was on to scan the list for treasures, cross check your want list and phone in your order, hoping to hear that the item was still available.
The 1980s and 1990s were also great times for book fairs. I still recall regularly going to the Houston and Austin fairs where numerous specialist dealers gathered. Dobie books were often featured in the stands of Texas dealers, so there was much to see and learn for a collector just starting out. After a hiatus there are again some good Texas book fairs in Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, although they are perhaps not as big as they once were (at least in my admittedly flawed memory!) I still recall telling my wife that I would be gone all day at a book fair, since I would need time to look at each of the dealers, so it was a totally reasonable amount of time to devote to book hunting.
In many ways the time I began collecting Dobie was fortunate, because there were earlier collections that were coming back on the market. For example, I had told the good folks at a San Antonio book store that I was a Dobie collector. One day I got a call that they had bought a big Dobie collection, which turned out to be that of John C. Meyers, who contributed several stories Dobie used in his newspaper column. In those pre-cell phone days, I called them back so the long distance charges would be on my account, as they went over the list of items and I bought heavily, including these association copies:
A Vaquero of the Brush Country. Boston: Little, Brown. 1943. Seventh printing. Dust jacket. Inscribed: “For John C. Meyers of the Brush Country as thanks for some brush rattlesnakes. Austin, Texas 14 February 1961.” Meyers contributed tales to Dobie that were used in his newspaper column and later appeared in Rattlesnakes.
On the Open Range. Inscribed: “Presented to John C. Meyers in appreciation of his presentations to me – with good will and good wishes – Austin, Texas October 12, 1962.”
Cow People. Laid in are a letter from Little, Brown and a presentation card to John C. Meyers. One of the rare “Posthumous presentation copies” that Dobie had the publisher send out to a select number of recipients.
Rattlesnakes. With Bertha Dobie’s Christmas card tipped in: “I hope you have seen in Frank’s Rattlesnake’s, got out by the publishers and me, how large was your contribution. Bertha Dobie.”
Also included in this haul were several ephemeral items from Dykes list of 50 Dobie Rarities, including Divided We Stand a 1943 pamphlet from the Detroit UAW-CIO. It was also inscribed by Frank’s cousin and Texas book seller Dudley Dobie. “This issue is textually very important because it is the only one which reprints substantial additions made by JFD after the original newspaper appearance.” – Dorothy Sloan.
The gem of the Meyers collection was this group:
Lots of Snakes In Corn Patch. Six page typescript from John Myers, edited and rewritten by Dobie with over 200 words in Dobie’s hand, along with numerous editing marks. June 1959.
This rattlesnake story was published as Dobie’s Sunday column on June 21, 1959. Starting with the meat of a tale by Myers, it was extensively edited and rewritten in the Dobie style. An important example of Dobie’s ability to collect a folk tale and make it his own in the retelling. Republished at p. 67 in Rattlesnakes. With a carbon of the original Myers version and a clipping of the newspaper column autographed by Dobie. McVicker E975.
A Wild Ride That Wasn’t Glorious. A three page typescript from John Myers, edited by Dobie with 83 words in his hand, along with a number of editing marks and deletions. Marked “Stage I.” July 1960.
A Wild Ride That Wasn’t Glorious. A three page typescript, based on the Myers story, with further editing including 88 words in Dobie’s hand. Marked “Stage II.” July 1960.
These two successive versions of a wild horse tale illustrate Dobie’s dedication to the craft of writing, as he edited and rewrote the story, giving the Dobie touch to Myers’ original version. Published as Dobie’s Sunday Newspaper column for July 24, 1960. With a clipping of the column from the San Antonio Light, re-titled “A Wild Ride Without Glory.” McVicker E1029.
He moral of this story is that book dealers are your friends and you should always engage them in conversation about your collecting interests when you visit them. So many of the best items in my collection came from dealers who knew my interests and found wonderful items for me.