November 2020: Bibliomystery, Bibliofiction, and Bibliononfiction

Book collectors and bibliophiles tend to enjoy books about books, and not just bibliographies.  Nonfiction books about books may also include booksellers’ memoirs, collectors’ acquisition adventures, or librarians’ funny or cringe-worthy encounters, for example; bibliononfiction covers a spectrum of books about books.  Bibliofiction might encompass even more genres.  If a story takes place in a bookshop or a library, it likely counts.  If the central character is a bookseller, librarian, book collector, or even a publisher or editor, the story is likely bibliofiction.  And if a purloined manuscript or a rare first edition is a MacGuffin—an object, device, or event which serves as a trigger for the plot—then the story is definitely bibliofiction.  These stories, more often than not, tend to be mysteries; writers seem to enjoy making readers squirm when a book is stolen or a manuscript is believed to be destroyed in a fire.  Bibliomysteries range from gumshoe whodunits to decades- or centuries-old origin stories.

With all these options for bibliomystery, bibliofiction, and bibliononfiction—terms not found in any dictionary but perfectly recognizable by bibliophiles (which is in the dictionary)—they were a fun subject for the November 2020 meeting.

 

Bibliomystery

Ex-Libris

King, Ross.  Ex-Libris.  New York: Walker & Company, 2001.  Best known for his historical fiction, King takes the reader back to the turmoil of Seventeenth Century Europe, when an English bookseller is hired to track down a rare, missing manuscript in order to restore a great library disassembled during the war.  The story is told in two parallel narratives: the bookseller’s quest in the late 1600’s to recover the manuscript, and the destruction of Prague earlier in the century when books were taken from the library of a castle in an effort to preserve them.  The story traverses both time and geography as it weaves together the bookseller’s present and the manuscript’s past, and as it moves throughout Europe from Prague to London.  This copy is a first edition, signed and dated in the year of publication on the title page.

The Bookman's Promise

Dunning, John.  The Bookman’s Promise: A Cliff Janeway Novel.  New York: Scribner, 2004.  The third of the Cliff Janeway series, The Bookman’s Promise finds Janeway, a retired detective turned bookseller, the center of attention after he purchases a rare first edition of a book by the explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton.  The publicity from the sale at auction attracts an elder woman who claims the book was part of a collection scammed from her family by an unprincipled bookseller.  The old woman recounts her family’s connection to Burton and the book, going back to the pre-Civil War United States, where Burton and her grandfather explored the southern US.  Janeway promises the woman, now on her deathbed, he will find the rest of the family collection, missing now for eighty years.  This copy is a first edition, signed by the author on the title page.

 

The Bookman's Tale and First Impressions

Lovett, Charlie.  The Bookman’s Tale.  New York: Viking, 2013.  While reading up on Shakespeare forgeries, an antiquarian bookseller discovers a Victoria watercolor of a woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to his recently deceased wife.  His obsession with the portrait leads him on a search for the origin of the picture.  The clues lead him all the way back to Shakespeare’s time and information which may reveal the true identity of the Bard himself.

Lovett, Charlie.  First Impressions.  New York: Viking, 2014.  While working at a rare books shop in London, a Jane Austen enthusiast becomes intrigued when two customers in quick succession seek the same rare edition of a book.  Her curiosity leads her to the life of the author of the book and his connection to Jane Austen; and what she learns could ruin the reputation of her favorite writer.

 

Magpie Murders

Horowitz, Anthony.  Magpie Murders.  New York: Harper, 2017.  Editor Susan Ryland curls up with a glass of wine to read the latest manuscript of her bestselling author Alan Conway.  She gets engrossed in Conway’s detective Atticus Pünd mystery—which the reader gets to read along with her—only to discover it is incomplete.  When she is unable to contact Conway, she goes to his house to retrieve the remaining chapters only to discover Conway’s dead body.  Conway’s death is suspicious, and Ryland must solve the mystery of his murder in order to locate the missing ending of Conway’s manuscript.  Ryland must become her own detective and solve a murder so that the fictional detective Atticus Pünd can do the same.

 

Bibliofiction

Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop

Morley, Christopher.  Parnassus on Wheels.  New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1955.  Illustrated by Douglas Gorsline.  First published in 1917.  Morley’s first novel follows a travelling bookstore-wagon, the Parnassus on Wheels.  The Parnassus, named after Mount Parnassus, the home of the Muses in Greek mythology, is pulled by a horse named Pegasus and owned by bookseller Roger Mifflin.  In his travels, Mifflin meets brother and sister Andrew and Helen.  Helen buys the travelling bookstore not only to treat herself to what she believes to be an adventure but also to prevent her novice author brother from buying it first.

Morley, Christopher.  The Haunted Bookshop.  New York: J. B. Lippincott, 1955.  Illustrated by Douglas Gorsline.  First published in 1919.  Bookstore proprietor Roger Mifflin returns, now owning The Haunted Bookshop, a brick-and-mortar bookstore where strange—though not supernatural—events begin to take place, such as the disappearance and reappearance of a copy of Thomas Carlyle’s Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell.  Aubrey Gilbert, an acquaintance, becomes suspicious of Mifflin and the unusual events taking place in and near the bookstore.  Gilbert confronts Mifflin and the two men become convinced that someone else is behind the increasingly dangerous happenings and, together, they uncover an espionage ring and assassination plot against President Woodrow Wilson.  The story is full of allusions and references to well-known authors at the time—including Emerson, Thoreau, Shaw, Chesterton, Barrie, Conrad, Keats, and Dickinson—and their works.  Humorously, among the many book titles named by Morley in The Haunted Bookshop is his own Parnassus on Wheels.

The Forgers and The Forger's Daughter

Morrow, Bradford.  The Forgers.  New York: Mysterious Press, 2014.  Will, a literary forger, finds himself in an uncomfortable position following the death of a rare book collector who happens to be the brother of his girlfriend, Meghan.  After the police are unable to identify a suspect and the case goes cold, Will begins receiving mysterious and threatening letters written in the hand of deceased famous authors and containing information about the book collector’s death.  Fearing for their lives, Will and Meghan set out to make a new life for themselves, but can they escape the letter writer?  This copy is a signed limited edition of only 86 copies, signed by the author on the limitation page.

Morrow, Bradford.  The Forger’s Daughter.  New York: Mysterious Press, 2020.  Set twenty years after The Forger, Will, a now-reformed ex-forger, and his wife, Meghan, find themselves in trouble when Will is threatened and forced back into the dark world of literary forgery.  A former nemesis and fellow forger coerces Will into creating a forgery of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane, the rarest book in American literature.  To create the flawless forgery, Will must enlist the help of his oldest daughter, a talented artist.

The Forgers, signed limited edition

Autoboyography

Lauren, Christina.  Autoboyography.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.  Christina Lauren is the pen name for the writing duo Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings.  Autoboyography is a story told in first-person narration by Tanner, a high school senior who takes a writing seminar in which the sole assignment is to write a full novel by the end of the semester.  The instructor brings in Sebastian, a former student whose own seminar novel from the previous year is now being published, as a mentor.  The relationship between Tanner and Sebastian grows beyond the classroom to the romantic, while Tanner is unable to put pen to paper and begin his novel.  He ultimately writes a thinly disguised story about his relationship with Sebastian, but as the semester draws to a close decides he would rather fail the course than turn in the book because it would out Sebastian and harm his debut book tour.  He gives a copy to Sebastian, however, who in turn hands in the assignment on his behalf.  Christina Lauren breaks the first-person narrative in the final chapters to reveal the story the reader has been reading thus far is, in fact, Tanner’s seminar novel, and to conclude the boys’ post-seminar story.

 

Bibliononfiction

Dukedom Large Enough

Randall, David A.  Dukedom Large Enough: Reminiscences of a Rare Book Dealer, 1929-1956.  New York: Random House, 1969.  As a book collector, bookseller, and librarian, Randall spent most of his life surrounded by books.  From 1935 to 1956, he was the head of Scribner’s rare book department.  He then became the Lilly Librarian at Indiana University when Josiah Lilly donated his collection to the university.  Randall also served as a professor of Bibliography at the university.  In Dukedom Large Enough, Randall reflects mostly on his time at Scribner’s rare book department, chronicling some of the fantastic material which passed through his hands, including the re-discovery and sale of the Schuckburgh copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Israel, Lee.  Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Memoirs of a Literary Forger.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.  In this unapologetic memoir, Israel tells how she went from a published biographer to a forger of letters by literary giants such as Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward, and Lillian Hellman.  She describes how she “plummeted from best-sellerdom to welfare,” where she found herself selling a letter from a well-known author for much-needed cash.  The bookseller buying the letter commented that she would have paid more if the content of the letter had been better.  This prompted Israel to begin forging letters with humorous, scandalous, or consequential content.  Booksellers around the country soon grew suspicious of the Israel letters, and she was arrested by the FBI.  Israel does not defend her actions, but she does defend the quality of her forgeries, claiming they were the best writing she ever created.

Sample forged letters by Lee Israel

Somewhere between Bibliofiction and Bibliononfiction… and Bibliomystery?

Party: A Literary Nightmare

Lambeck, Frederick.  Party: A Literary Nightmare.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1936.  “This volume has been printed and bound at the Country Life Press, Garden City, New York, especially for the New York Times National Book Fair, Rockefeller Center, November, 1936.”

Party copyright and first page of story

The book opens with the narrator—presumably, Frederick Lambeck—recalling a dream in which he is invited to a party hosted by Doubleday Doran in conjunction with the 1936 New York Times National Book Fair.  The narrator attends the party and describes the guests and the goings on of the event, dropping the names of 262 authors within the 37-page short story.  During the party, the publisher’s colophon is stolen—it’s a dream so this doesn’t have to make sense—and the guests panic and then begin to whisper at who they suspect the culprit may be.  The story ends abruptly as the narrator awakens.

First pages of Doubleday Doran catalogue

The short story is immediately followed by a list of the “authors mentioned at the party and their books.”  The list is Doubleday Doran’s complete 1936 catalogue of books in print.  The volume—the short story and the catalogue—is a hardback bound book which was distributed from the Doubleday Doran booth to attendees of the 1936 New York Times National Book Fair.  The pastedown label on the front of the book is an invitation to a party, hosted by Doubleday Doran, at the Country Life Press in Garden City, Long Island, New York.  The invitation serves not only as a graphic for Lambeck’s name-dropping short story but also as an actual invitation to a real party hosted by the publisher.  It begs the question: how many attendees of the New York Times National Book Fair received the catalogue, figured it out, and attended the Doubleday Doran party?