ephemera Archives - Black Mask

LEFT INSIDE: A Cry for Help

Dorothy Cameron Disney, ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

May 052013

This is the perhaps the strangest bit of writing I've ever found inside a book. I recently bought an old paperback edition of The Balcony by Dorothy Cameron Disney and in flipping through the pages (as I always do looking for something hidden inside) I discovered the last blank page was filled with bizarre writing.

I thought it especially ironic that something this desperate and fearful would appear in a book that has a fair amount of "Had I But Known" type narrative. At first I thought it may have something to so with Disney's story, but there are no characters in the book with any of the names in this scrawled message.

Transcription for those who have difficulty with script writing:

Why did Lynn call me to ask how are you doing[?] very odd
Why Linda not call or talk to me[?] its Sunday
Why did Ralph call me[?] very strange and it seems as if my time & Ebbys here is running out
I feel very scared
They get me a nice place he said
I am so sad never been so scared if only Don were here
Eban is very restless for the past 3 days too
I pray to join Don every night

LEFT INSIDE: A Secret Store

Bookplates, ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

Mar 172013

Another unusual handmade bookplate. Can't remember the name of the book I found it in. It's hand drawn in ink. I see initials in the lower corners: H.G. Haven't a clue what they stand for. For some reason this reminds me of Pennsylvania Dutch or Amish artwork.

LEFT INSIDE: Assurance Guaranteed from Prudential (circa 1936)

book collecting, E. Phillips Oppenheim, ephemera, J. S. Fletcher, Left Inside, publishing history Comments Off

Mar 032013

I was going to bend the rules this week for "Left Inside" and include something Joe and I found in a parking lot while on our weekend vacation in San Jose/Santa Cruz and the surrounding redwood forest state parks. But when I came home and discovered I had seven packages of books waiting for me to be opened that plan changed.

In the very last package was a beautiful copy of a very scarce book -- The Mystery at Stowe by Vernon Loder -- soon to be reviewed here. Check out the condition of the dust wrapper seen at right. It's nearly flawless! Only one crease on the spine and tiny chip on the rear panel (not pictured). When I flipped through the stunningly white unstained pages I found the assurance offer card -- or insurance as we call it in North America -- pictured below. One of the few times I've found something inside a book I purchased via the internet. And so direct from a Toronto bookseller and Vernon Loder's debut mystery novel comes today's legitimate "Left Inside" object.

That's only nine pennies a day, by the way. I don't think they use pennies as a form of currency in the U.K. anymore. I don't even know why d. is used as an abbreviation for pennies. But my curiosity had to be satisfied so I went a-Googling. Here is the arcane reason taken from a website on the history of British currency.

A penny was expressed as the letter 'd' - an abbreviation for denarius which was a silver Roman coin.

Who knew? Probably some astute numismatist.

It appears the previous owner may have taken advantage of the offer since the attached coupon is no longer attached and the perforated edge (not easily seen in the photo) proves the coupon was torn off.

When I flipped over the card I learned that advertisement was intended as a bookmark! Also, the owner of this book -- or the owner of the card -- had a shared interest of mine. He or she was very interested in old crime fiction. The list revealed titles that were originally published long before 1936 when this reprint of Loder's book was reissued. With a little bit of verifying the titles, authors and dates of publication I learned something about the reading tastes of the previous owner.

I am sure that The Secret is not that new age rip-off of Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking that was all the rage about three or four years ago thanks mostly due to Oprah Winfrey's cultish book club. Instead, it is most likely a thriller by E. Phillips Oppenheim published in 1907 (known as The Great Secret in the US) but still available in reprint editions in the 1930s. The Secret Cargo (1913) is by the ridiculously prolific and inexplicably popular J. S. Fletcher, a writer whose work I find exceptionally formulaic and mediocre. The last title, after looking up possibilities in Hubin, turns out to be yet another Oppenheim book called The World's Great Snare (1896).

As for that third title: Sweet Life is not a crime novel nor thriller. The title does not appear in my most recent update of Hubin's Crime Fiction: A Comprehensive Bibliography. I did however find Sweet Poison, Sweet Death, Sweet and Low, and of course Sweet Revenge, multiple times among many other sweet and deadly titles. Turns out the only book published between 1900 and 1936 with that title is by Kathlyn Rhodes. It was her debut novel according to some publicity by her publisher Hutchinson & Company:

Vivid descriptions of the entrancing scenery of the East, incident crowding upon incident, romantic situations, exciting intrigues, unexpected dénouements hold and absorb the interest from start to finish.

KATHLYN RHODES
is the assured success of 1918,
as GERTRUDE PAGE was the success of 1916
and MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY of 1917.

Fired with enthusiasm to win fame as a novelist, Kathlyn Rhodes began her career before her school days were ended. Sweet Life followed shortly afterwards; and the appreciation which this won encouraged the authoress to follow quickly with other stories. Choice of subject she holds to be of primary importance. With the war depressing us all around, she believes that many readers prefer stories that permit them for the time to forget it; and this she achieves by her delightful flights of fancy through the realms of many lands.

Interestingly, Rhodes is listed in Hubin as having written two crime novels in the 1930s and four other books with marginal crime content. I think, however, based on the title and the publicity above that Sweet Life is the only romance "Previous Owner" was looking forward to reading.

LEFT INSIDE: Ann’s Library Card

ephemera, Left Inside, libraries Comments Off

Feb 102013

I was very good about keeping track of my library card when I was growing up. Losing it would've been a very big deal and I'm sure I would've been extremely upset. When I moved to Chicago getting a library card was as important to me as getting a phone or setting up my electricity account. To this day I carry my library card with me in my wallet at all times. Never know when I need to make a spur of the moment visit.

Apparently Ann Felton of Lenox lost her library card sometime in May 1943. I found it in a book I bought two or three years ago -- appropriately, an ex-library book. That's all I noted. Foolishly I forgot to copy down the title.

Our Ann was a fairly voracious reader. Most of her books were returned within days. Maybe she was just fickle. I like to think she enjoyed most of what she read and couldn't get enough of books. Though in one case it appears the librarian mixed up the spots. Remember library stamps? Taken out on May 1 and returned on April 26? Was that the day she read H.G. Wells? I wonder how she felt when she lost her card. She must've been using it as a bookmark.

Lenox is Lenox, Massachusetts. Cliffwood Street still exists. As does the Lenox Library Association which is still housed in a historic building that has served as the library's home since 1874. Below is a photo of the reading room. Swank library!

LEFT INSIDE: A Bright Idea

book collecting, ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

Jan 272013

Below you will see a Commonwealth Edison utility receipt found inside my treasured 1st edition of Raise the Titanic! I bought it for $2 at a library sale in Glen Ellyn, Illinois several years ago. I had the sense to mark on the item itself when I found the book. Sometimes I remembered to do this, other times I used a Post-It note if the item seemed to me it might have a resale value.

The interesting thing here, apart from comparing the price of electricity in 1980 to what it is now, is the section marked BULB SERVICE. This is a bonus service I'm not sure many utility companies offered in addition to providing electricity. We never had it in Connecticut or Pennsylvania when I lived in those states that I remember. For a fee of less than a dollar per month you could subscribe to the "bulb service" which allowed you to pick up two free light bulbs each month at any ComEd payment center. This was ended sometime in the 1990s, I think. I tried to find out the exact date, but my Internet searches failed me.

When incandescent lights were attacked for using up too much energy and the federal government enacted a law forcing the bulb industry to make the now ubiquitous CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) bulb and LED bulbs, ComED discontinued the bulb service. By 2014 incandescent bulbs will become obsolete. Already the 100 watt and the 75 watt bulb are no longer made.

40 cents a month and you get two free light bulbs. Such a deal!

This customer has a very unusual last name, but I had to blur it out.
He still lives in Illinois, though in a completely different town now

To encourage customers in the transition from the old to the new bulbs ComEd replaced the old "bulb service" with one that allowed people to purchase at a 60% discount CFL bulbs in more than 350 stores throughout northern Illinois. It was the largest such program in the entire Midwest. In Chicago free CFL bulbs were given out to the first 500 customers to take advantage of the program. Overall, one million bulbs were purchased or given out free through this program.

I subscribed to the light bulb service for the first five or six years I lived in Chicago (from 1986-1992) but stopped when I realized that I hardly ever remembered to pick up my bulbs before the month was out. I was living in tiny studio apartments and only used them for my two lamps and ceiling lights in the kitchen. I didn't need many then, though I got my fair share.

Anyone else have a "bulb service" program they remember back in the day?

LEFT INSIDE: Grow Your Own Sprouts!

ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

Jan 122013

This is a 1970s era greeting card with a newsy letter that includes a helpful hint about growing alfalfa sprouts. It was left inside a copy of The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes, a short story collection of Holmesian pastiches and parodies that at one time aroused the ire of the Conan Doyle Estate.

Click to Enlarge

Transcription of the message for those of you unable to read script writing (I hear there are many people under the age of 25 who can't!):

Dearest Micah,

Do hope you are O.K. Not hearing from you am concerned.

After your phone call to me, sent you the little book, enclosed in my letter, re arthritis, and the literature in same about Zarumin. Did you get the book?

I am just taking the alfalfa tablets and eating alfalfa sprouts. Bought the seed in the health store.

In a small cake tin I sprinkle the bottom with water to hold seed. Cover with aluminum paper and each morning, with a salt cellar filled with water, sprinkle the seed. In five days it's fully sprouted & I eat it. Delicious in salad.

If I buy it, I can't eat it fast enough, goes bad. This way it[']s always fresh.

Have a nice day.

Love,
Mildred

Oh yes, I had to Google Zarumin. I'll spare you the trouble. It was an old rheumatism and arthritis drug marketed from the 1950s through the late 1970s. My guess it's a defunct drug as its trademark has expired. It was developed by a company called Pharmaceuticals, Inc based in Newark NJ that also brought us such miracle drugs as Niron (appetite stimulant), Viragex (geriatric dietary supplement) and Chlorofem (relief of menstrual pain). The most bizarre thing I discovered is that each of these drug trademark registrations was filed under "Leather goods (non-clothing)". What? Were these drugs derived from leather? Or was it a huge error in the trademark filing process? Who knows.

Poor Mildred. At least she was eating fresh sprouts. And you ought to do the same! Sounds very easy to start your own sprout garden. What are you waiting for? Get those seeds now.

LEFT INSIDE: Wisconsin Boating Pamphlet

ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

Nov 182012

This is may be the largest item I've ever found in a book. Sorry I can't tell you which book though. It's a 12 page pamphlet measuring 7 1/4" by 3 1/2", that folds out like a map. The first four pages (no photos show in this post) describe how to get a boat registered, where to place the registration info on the boat, a list of what craft are allowed and during what hours, a list of the types of fire extinguishers, and lifesaving and safety info. I chose to take photos only of the actual boating laws and rules. Though not dated I would guess this comes from between 1950 and 1969 based on the design, front illustration and the fonts used.

You'll have to click on each image to enlarge it in order to read anything. Enjoy!

My favorite suggestion for safety -- whether you are a boater or not -- "Keep an alert lookout!"

LEFT INSIDE: Vehicle Registration 1958

book collecting, ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

Nov 112012

I think this is the first piece of ephemera that led me to start my collection. I thought it incredible that someone would put their car registration in a book and completely forget about it. I wonder what happened when ol' William got pulled over for speeding. Wasn't the car registration supposed to be affixed to the steering column of the steering wheel way back then? Of course I'm too young to know this, but I've seen characters look for it there in old movies.

Can't remember what book it came out of. The scans are at full size already. I have obliterated address information for obvious reasons.

The weight of the car is on the registration! Why? Does it change over time? Who weighed the car initially? The manufacturer?

There is a lot of information on this, isn't there? They even had to print instructions along the edges both front and back.

LEFT INSIDE: Greetings from Snow Hill!

book collecting, ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

Aug 122012

Fittingly, this post card sent from some dreamy autumnal getaway called "Snow Hill" was found inside a copy of The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen. The message below is posted at full size. You can click on the address side to enlarge the second photo.

Here's the addressed side. You'll see that the card is postmarked Morristown, NJ. I've been there decades ago when I visited one of my college roommates. It's not exactly the kind of place I'd choose for a vacation. Poor Jean and her illness. Hope she recovered to enjoy that 1952 autumn in New Jersey. Note also the original name typed as the addressee and then the cross-out with a completely different name handwritten. I have no clue who Mary Taylor is or was, but as for Miss Ripley Mastin...

Believe it or not, she is a somewhat famous person! Better known to the literary cognoscenti as Florence Ripley Mastin, she was an award-winning poet.

Here's a brief biography I found at the Syracuse University Library website that even mentions her home, Four Gables. Though the blurb wrongly names the town as Pierpont when it should be Piermont.

Florence Ripley Mastin (1886-1968) was an award-winning American poet.

Mastin was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania but her family moved while she was still very young to "Four Gables," the Mastin family home in Pierpont, New York. Mastin graduated from Tappan Zee High School in 1903 (she wrote the class poem) and then from Barnard College

Her poetry career began at the age of 14 when the Nyack Star published her poem, "The Hudson River." Her first book, Green Leaves, was published in 1918. She taught poetry for 38 years at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where her students included Bernard Malamud and others. Many of her former students have publicly expressed their appreciation for her teaching and her influence on their work.

Ms. Mastin was a member of the Poetry Society of America and winner of many poetry awards. Her work was published in the New York Times, the Saturday Review and other national periodicals. In 1959 the New York State Commission on Historic Observances selected her poem, "Freedom's Dream" as the official "Year of History" poem for the 350th Hudson-Champlain Celebration, and this poem also won the Freedom Foundation Medal that year.

LEFT INSIDE: The Patient in Room 403

book collecting, Chicago life, ephemera, Left Inside Comments Off

Jul 082012

A couple of menus from what I believe must've been a retirement or nursing home. Though it could've been a hospital judging from the blank line at bottom "Nurse in charge." But were patients allowed to choose their own meals in US hospitals? Made no note of which book these came out of. It was most certainly an old mystery novel.

No year for these, but a handy calendar calculator I found on the interweb tells me that there were only four Monday, December 16ths to choose from: 1930, 1940, 1946 or 1957. I'm going for either 1930 or 1940 based solely on the font used on the menu, the typed food choices appear to be mimeographed, and the use of a German name brand.

Note the difference between the two meals. Supper and Dinner! Both were offered? Rather a luxurious place. And the patinet/client in Room 403 ordered both meals. Hungry or gluttonous?

Guess the patinet in Room 403 really hated cheese sauce. Violent scratching out of that ingredient. Allergies? Or just antipathy? Some of the choices are odd and telltale products of the era helping to date it even further. Milk or Postum. Postum is basically fake coffee invented by C.W. Post, the health food fanatic, who founded La Vita Inn in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was made from wheat bran, molasses and maltodextrin, one of those insidious food additives derived from corn, and was first marketed in 1896. Bleech. I'll pass on even a taste taste of something as vile sounding as that.

Kaffee Hag? Never heard of it. A little internet research reveals it is an ancient brand of decaf dating back to Bremen, Germany in 1906, and its still available from Kraft Foods. It's even spelled the German way rather than the modern brand of Cafe Hag making me think these menus date to sometime in the 1930s prior to WW2 when all things German were anathema to Americans. I see there were two choices for decaf. Sanka is the more recognized form. Plus, it's one of the first instant coffees.

Prune whip! What no chocolate? I'll skip dessert, thanks all the same.

Older Entries

KATHLYN RHODESis the assured success of 1918,as GERTRUDE PAGE was the success of 1916and MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY of 1917.

KATHLYN RHODES
is the assured success of 1918,
as GERTRUDE PAGE was the success of 1916
and MABEL BARNES-GRUNDY of 1917.