Word To The Wise


Bookmark, small illustration at the top, text reads:

This card is meant to keep your place in this book. Please use it.

The true book-lover does not turn down leaves, nor bend them and does not leave a book lying open on its face, nor break its back in opening it.

I love my books. "A word to the wise is sufficient." 

Found in "Nancy Drew Mystery Stories: The Hidden Staircase" by Carolyn Keene. Published by Grosset and Dunlap, 1930.



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Giveaway winner

This week's winner was Julie Laughlin, who entered on Facebook.

Thanks to all who entered, see you here next week.

Friday Giveaway: Signed copies of my two books FORGOTTEN BOOKMARKS and HANDWRITTEN RECIPES - contest closed


Contest now closed, winner will be announced shortly.

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Christmas Cheer


I've been saving up all the Christmas and New Year's cards I've found over the last year, here's the first of the batch.

Found in "Castle Craneycrow" by George Barr McCutcheon. Published by Grosset and Dunlap, 1902.

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The Future's So Bright


Pair of thin plastic "drop in" sunglasses.

Found in "Walks and Rambles in Dutchess and Putnam Counties" by Peggy Turco. Published by Backcountry, 1990.

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Giveaway winner

This week's book giveaway winner was @buttoncounter, who entered on Instagram.

Thanks to all who all who entered, see you here next week.

Friday Giveaway: Eight Vintage Books - contest closed

Contest now closed, winner will be announced shortly.


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Deva Victrix

Bookmark featuring East Gate (and the Eastgate Clock), Chester, Cheshire. Looks like it was hand painted.

Found in "The Religion of Evelyn Hastings" by Victoria Cross. Published by Mitchell Kennerley, 1905.

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The Greatest Story

Dried and pressed flower.

Found in "Even Unto Bethlehem: The Story of Christmas" by Henry Van Dyke. Published by Scribners, 1928.


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Giveaway winner

This week's winner was Michelle Morgan, who entered on Facebook.

Thanks so much to all of you who entered, and thanks for your support over the last ten years.

See you here next week.

Friday Giveaway: Signed Copy of FORGOTTEN BOOKMARKS - contest closed

Contest closed, winner will be announced shortly.

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Ten Years Gone

It's hard for me to believe it, but ten years have gone by since I first started blogging about the random things left behind in books. Two books and more than 2,500 posts later, the blog is still going strong. I thought I would take today to remember some of my favorite finds from the last ten years.


Original illustration by Albert B. Borland, dated 1907. Looks to be a mixture of ink and pencil.

Written on the reverse side:

Albert B. Borland
Norwich, N.Y.

With the annotations:

Adv. for design

Reduce to 5 in wide

copper half tone

This may indicate it was an illustration for some advertisement.

Found in "Physical Culture Magazine" from February, 1937.






Found this money bag at the bottom of a box of books.

SIZE - E

OPEN CAREFULLY

DO NOT CUT

PLEASE RETURN BAG TO THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK

NA-1004/8419





Photograph.

Found in "I'll Never Go There Any More" by Jerome Weidman. Published by Simon and Schuster, 1941.




Found this one today (9/15/11) couldn't wait to post it.

Looks like the front panel of the original "The Legend of Zelda" box. The empty space is where you could see the gold NES cartridge inside.

Found in "History of the DC Universe: Book One" published by DC Comics, 1986.




Sensation brand hair net, made from natural medium brown human hair.
Yeah.

Found in "Elements of Mechanics and Machine Design" by Erik Oberg. Published by The Industrial Press, 1923.




I've posted a lot of photos here on Forgotten Bookmarks, but this one is my favorite.

Found in "Gumpy - Son of Spunk" by Arthur C. Bartlett. Puvlished by Cupples & Leon, 1930.




Today's (7/3/12) post is a special one. This is the most interesting (and most valuable) thing I've found in a book. I had been saving it in hopes of including it in one of my books, but I doubt I'll ever get permission to publish it. I originally posted it on Forbes' Booked blog a few years back, here's the description I wrote:

As a general rule, I don’t buy books unseen. I made an exception this weekend and purchased 3,000 books from the estate of a college professor who had passed away. He was a English professor, so I was fairly certain there would be some good titles in the lot. The third book I picked up was a common paperback copy of The Stranger by Albert Camus. There was a folded paper stuck inside, and I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t have a look:

Here is the picture:



Albert Camus
Paris, France
December 18, 1959

Dear Prof. Ullmann: A number of American and European friends have formed a committee to help Spanish refugees. I write simply to ask you to help us.

For us, the Spanish Civil War is long since ended; not so for the thousands who now live in France with their families. For them the war continues, in suffering and privation. They endure poverty and illness with pride. 

But we should ease their condition if we can. Our help can give them medical care, the tools for making a living, the hope for a life with some dignity. Whatever you do for them will make an immediate difference in their daily lives. Help them, I beg you. And, in advance, I thank you with all my heart.

- Albert Camus


Most remarkable is the date of the letter, December 18th, 1959. Camus died in a car accident just 17 days later on January 4th.



Letter, dated January 8, 1952:

happynewyear:

I'm sorry we managed to elude each other so successfully during the recent brief holiday, but life was excessively traumatic.

Permit me to announce, at this time, the termination of the Romance of the Century... (not to be confused with the Greatest Fights of the Century, which is a television show on boxing)... which after an eventful three years and half, etc., etc.,

I am working. This time for the University. I am the receptionist at the Reading Institute for Children Who don't Know the Alphabet (in sanscrit) and retarded Adults. It is very dull here except when the children do some perverted thing like stop up the toilet, or walk through windows. Then it gets very interesting. The woman I work for is a bitch, and she hates me, but then so does everybody else. Every day, all over the world, mankind observes, religiously, fifteen minutes of hate Alice.

I saw George Broadfield for the first time in about two years the other night, and he bored the hell out of me for half an hour. What is left in life for me now, if even Broadfield is boring. He has, by the way, the East via, I suspect, a Tibetan fairy or something related. Anyway, he has decided that he is a Negro, and that he's going to South Africa like Augustine or somebody.

I have been having fierce pains in the stomach for about two weeks. It's probably psychosomatic, but I prefer to think that my brother has been feeding me large doses of ground glass in my rice crispies.

I once wrote you a  letter when you first wrote to Dave Green but I think I lost it. Or maybe I handed it to Wm. Riley Parker instead of a Milton paper. I haven't been to that class since that day, anyhow.

I still do not have a thesis, or even an idea, and I don't expect to have one.

What is Chicago. Do you the like U. Are you going to the U. I met somebody who knows you whose name is Pearl Weis-something. I don't think she likes you. She is divorcing her husband.

I had a nice christmas. I got presents and I got drunk. Write to me unless you're too busy or something.

alice


Found in "Collected Poems: 1909-1935" by T.S. Eliot. Published by Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1936.









Dear Aeneas,
I cannot believe what a slime you are. What I ever saw in you in beyond me. Sarah's mind must be warped - I love her but how she managed to spend 2 years with a manipulative sadist like you is incredible (yes she told me.) You must have seen that she was sad or something and zoomed in on her like a vulture. I almost feel like that's what you did to me although it was probably my stupidity then anything else.
How could you be so CRUEL to Sarah and I as to tell her that (Michelle told me). Did you want to hurt us? What did we ever do to you, slime? Did you just forget that we made a pact not to mention this LUDICROUS flirtation? My God, WHAT did I ever see in you? You're nothing but a self-satisfying walking mass of ego, a phony!!! And the most ridiculous part of it all is that you're not even worth the trouble. You're downright ugly and you talk funny. You don't know how to dress. You have all the morality & sentiment of a JUNGLE BEAST. LESS!!! And you're a colossal snob; a boor and a boring old fart. We won't even go into your sexual perversities - you nasty voyeur!
All I can say to you now is I hate you, I hate you, I hate you and id I ever lay eyes on you again you had better hope to God that your eyes are not within scratching distance of my nails. And I want 'Avalon' back.
----> over, creep.
Not and never will be either -
Yours -
Mary.



Found in "While Waiting" by George Verrilli M.D.




Bookmark advertisement for an optometrist.
"Lydia D. Dibble" written across top.

Found in "Blood and Steel" The Rise of the House of Krupp" by Bernhard Menne. Published by Lee Furman, Inc., 1938.




One key, tied to a string. Found in a sealed envelope from the Gladstone Hotel in New York City.

The Gladstone was well-known apartment hotel off Park Avenue, home to Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, Carson McCullers and others.

Found in "Dr. Priestley Investigates" by John Rhode. Published by Dodd and Mead, 1930.






I will keep digging through the archives and will be reposting some other favorites this week.

Giveaway winner

This week's winner was Gary Lubar, who entered via email.

Thanks so much to all who entered, see you here next week.

Friday Giveaway: Eight Antique Shakespeare Books - contest closed



Contest now closed. Winner will be announced shortly.

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A-Tisket A-Tasket

Trimmed color illustration.

Found in "God Revealing His Truth Through Patriarch and Prophet" by Walter Albion Squires. Published by The Westminster Press, 1921


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Rain Or Shine


Block of four 5 cent stamps celebrating "City Mail Delivery - 1863-1963."

Found in "The First Forty Years of Washington Society in the Family Letters of Margaret Bayard Smith" published by Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1965.

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Lonely Tree

Photograph.

Found in "At the Foot of The Rainbow" by Gene Stratton-Porter. Published by Grosset and Dunlap, 1907.


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Giveaway winner

This week's winner was Tabitha Hubbard, who entered on Facebook.

Thanks to all who entered, see you here next week.

Friday Giveaway: Nine Vintage Children's Books - contest closed


Contest closed, winner will be announced shortly.


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Pretty Fly For A White Cake


Recipe for white cake:

1/2 c. butter or margerine
1 c. sugar
1 egg well beaten
1/2 ts salt
1 c. milk
1 c flour
4 ts powder (bkg)
1 1/2 c. huckleberries
flavoring

Cream fat and sugar
Add egg
Mix and sift dry ingredients, reserving 1/4 c. flour to dredge berries. Add alternately with milk
Fold in dredged berries

Bake in shallow pan 350 degrees 30 or 45 mins

Found in "Barnaby Rudge" by Charles Dickens. Published by Harper and Brothers, 1875.


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Three Of A Kind


Small photograph, "Three of a kind" written in pen at the lower margain.

Found in "The Corner House Girls Under Canvas" by Grace Brooks Hill. Published by Barse and Hopkins, 1915.

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Giveaway winner

This week's winner was Rebecca Sanders, who entered here on the site.

Thanks to all who entered, see you next week.

Friday Giveaway: Ten Vintage Books - contest closed

Contest now closed, winner will be announced shortly.


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Turning The Tables

 Notice from the Pennsylvania Railroad:

A General Change in the Time Tables of the Pennsylvania Railroad will be made April 19, 1934.

R.M. Flocker, General Passenger Agent

Found in "Hunting Fishing and Camping" by L.L. Bean. Published by The Dingley Press, 1942.




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The Ring

Ring; appears to be of the cheap dollar store variety.

Found in "Some Tales From Uncle Remus" by Joel Chandler Harris. Published by Valley Offset, 1971.



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Safety Dance

Lovely color illustration, reverse is blank. Could have been part of an old greeting card or advertising card.

Found in "The Calling of Dan Matthews" by Harold Bell Wright. Published by A.L. Burt, 1909.


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Giveaway winner

This week's book giveaway winner was Lauren Lippy, who entered on Facebook.

Thanks to all who entered, see you here next week.

Friday Giveaway: 12 Vintage Children's Books - contest closed


Contest now closed, winner will be announced shortly.

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SS Île de France

Postcard featuring the French ocean liner SS Île de France. No writing or postmarks on reverse.

Found in "Stories Behind the World's Great Music" by Sigmund Spaeth. Published by Garden City Publishing, 1940.



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Giveaway winner

This week's winner was Carol Rexall, who entered on Facebook.

Thanks to all who entered, see you here next week.

Friday Giveaway: 10 Vintage Classics - contest closed


Contest now closed, winner will be announced shortly.

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NKOTB

New Kids on the Block bookmark.

Found in its original home, "New Kids on the Block: Backstage Surprise" by Seth McEvoy and Laure Smith. Published by Archway, 1990.


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Portrait

Matted photograph.

No name or writing on reverse, printed studio is "Instructor Co., Dansville NY."

Found in "The World's Greatest Books: Volume XIX" edited by Lord Northcliffe. Published by McKinley, Stone and Mackenzie, 1910.

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Giveaway winner

This week's winner was @Rhetteeornot, who entered on Twitter.

Thanks to all who entered, see you next week.

Friday Giveaway: Nine Vintage Books - contest closed

Contest now closed, winner will be announced shortly.


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Pickle Me This


Recipe for tomato pickles:

1 pk. tomatoes diced
1 cup salt
Stand overnight, drain

Boil tomatoes in 2 qts water and 1 qt vinegar 15 minutes

Drain, then take
5 qts vinegar
2 lbs brown sugar
1/2 lb white mustard seed
2 tablespoons ground allspice
2 tablespoons ground cloves
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons ground mustard
2 green peppers cut in strips

Put all into a porcelain kettle and cook 15 minutes, put spices in loose.


Found in "Lowney's Cook Book" prepared by Maria Willett Howard. Published by Lowney's, 1921.


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Sweet


Coupon for seven cents off Sweet Tarts or Pixy Stix (offer expires December 31, 1974).

Found in "Billy Bathgate" by E.L. Doctorow. Published by Harper, 1989.

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Giveaway winner

This week's winner was Barbara J. Delaney-Bogosian, who entered on Facebook.

Thanks to all who entered, see you next week.

Friday Giveaway: 11 Vintage Children's Books - contest closed


Contest now closed, winner will be announced shortly.