Prudes Won't Think This Book Is Funny!

This book really jumped out at me because the spine was multicolored and looked old. So I pulled it out of the shelf and read the cover: Over Sexteen: Prudes Won't Think It Funny!
That's just not a book you can put back and the illustrations show why.
Love the cover and some of the cartoons inside are hilarious.

©1951 by Grayson Publishing Corp.
original price: $3.00

The inside flap explains the gist of the book:

This book is dedicated to merriment. It's so chock-full of anecdotes and cartoons that an overflow appears on the flaps of this book jacket, which makes the book gay from cover to cover and flap-happy besides.


A couple of limericks for you...

Mary had an aeroplane
In it she loved to frisk
Wasn't she a silly girl
Her little *

There was a young lady from France
Who thought that she'd just "take a chance."
For an hour or so, she just "let herself go."
And now all her sisters are aunts!

And a joke...

He met his ex-wife at a party and after a few drinks suggested that they have another try at marriage.
She sneered: "Over my dead body."
He sneered: "I see you haven't changed a bit."

And the goods...

Diving book and illustrations

Over the past few days I have come across a few interesting books that I found attractive due to their illustrations and covers.
Here are some that I found since this past weekend.

First up is
Diving For Fun
by Joe Strykowski
©1974
published by Dacor Corporation
LCCN 74-31233

Illustrations are by Ernie Duerksen

The cover isn't what really attracted me although it looked a bit vintage and hinted that there might be some great illustrations inside.

These were among the best.

and the funniest one of all is the inflatable diving suit!

Alice In Wonderland and Film Cartoons Saturday

Late this Saturday afternoon I took a quick peep at a local thrift store to check out their book section. I found one book that I could probably swap at Paperback Swap. I walked over to the electronics section and forgot to go peek at the children's books. I ended up finding a couple of old ones - interesting artwork to say the least - the book Best In Children's Books and also a collectible gem How To Animate Film Cartoons. The oversized how-to book is filled with illustrations on how to make your own animated cartoons in color and black and white. This was a rare find and nice to boot.








Here are some illustrations by John Tenniel (best known for illustrating cartoons and caricatures in Punch, a satirical and comedic magazine that began publishing in the late 19th century) from the short story version of Alice in Wonderland in Best In Children's Books:

The precious prize - or things found in old books

On a short book hunting jaunt this afternoon, I came upon a red book with a very worn spine sitting on the shelf. The spine was so worn it was unreadable and little dried pieces of cloth chipped off its edge. The title, Johnson's Lives of the Poets Volume II ©1900 edited by Mrs. Alexander Napier with an introduction by J.W. Hales, M.A. Published by George Bell and Sons, London. When I arrived home I flipped through it and found this nice little piece of ephemera: Johnson Vanity of Human Wishes ©1896, edited with notes by E.J. Payne, M.A.. Original price of this booklet was 4 pence. The piece was tucked inside the book and appears to have been there long enough to protect it from the elements. I love finding things like this. One never knows what will be discovered in an old book.

Vanity of Human Wishes

Front and back covers

and below is the book where the little booklet was housed.

Ephemera - Soneeta Nylon Hairnet Envelope

Here's a nice piece of advertising ephemera I found today at an antique store for a mere pittance. There was just no matching the beauty of yesteryear's ladies. Glamourous, stylish and demure with sensibility - that's what I admire about those women. Just candidly beautiful. No photoshopping, no botox, silicone, pierced body parts, heavy makeup or pouty porn looks were the trends of those days, rather the women of the past emanated class and vogue long lost with the cookie cutter gals of the present. Call me prejudiced if you will and I won't mind a bit.

Soneeta Nylon Net

Hairnet

The back reads:

Guaranteed Perfect

Upon Examination, when purchased, should this net be found unsatisfactory it will be gladly replaced.

The L. Mayer Co., Chicago 5, IL 

original price was 10 cents

I'm not sure the date of manufacture.

The hairnet is still inside.

Straight out of Compton

Found these 2 nice yearbooks, The Compton Yearbook - An illustrated, factual record of outstanding events in 1963 complete with dust covers still intact. Although the insides of these two yearbooks aren't that spectacular, the dust covers are fantastically sci-fi.

1964 Edition




Special Feature Articles of Topical Interest:
The Olympic Games
Trends in Modern American Literature
Training of an Astronaut
The New Math

A Summary and Interpretation of the Year's Events to Supplement 

COMPTON'S PICTURED ENCYCLOPEDIA  © 1963 F.E. Compton, Co.

Division of Encyclopedia Brittanica, Inc.

                                                1963 Edition below

                                                                                                                                                                               

Special feature articles of topical interest:  
The Social Impact of Communications Satellites
The Too, Too Common Cold
Today's Teenagers
The Revolution in Recreation

Paperback scores by accident

There was a time when I did not know what I was doing when it came to book searching and buying. I still don't -- much. I find myself buying books just for the wonderful covers particularly if they had anything to do with astronomy or astronauts. These books just had to come home with me.
About two years ago I found this book entitled Starhaven. For a long period of time this book sat on a bookshelf and I forgot all about it. Somehow it ended up on the floor months ago. I finally picked it up a couple of days ago and looked it up online to see what info was available for it. It was only then that I saw it was an Ace Double Novel paperback. All this time I didn't notice the spine or that there was another book cover on the back known as Sunsmasher. And all this time I didn't even know that Ace Double Novel paperbacks existed. According to Wikipedia, some rare titles in mint condition can fetch up to $1,000. From Wikipedia: "Ace Books' first series of paperbacks, the D/G/S series, began in 1952 and ran until 1965, by which time other series from Ace had begun. The D/G/S series used a serial number from 1-599, and a letter code to indicate price. D-series books cost 35 cents; S-series titles were 25 cents; and later there were several G-series books, priced at 50 cents." You can also find a complete list of Ace Doubles here.
My slightly battered and nicely foxed copy could probably fetch about $3 but that's fine with me - it's a keeper.
Starhaven/ The Sunsmasher sold at the original price of 35 cents.


Reference is D-351 SF Edmond Hamilton The Sun Smasher / Robert Silverberg (as Ivar Jorgenson) Starhaven (1959)















Here is the spine