The history of a book.....Part II

[Jay H]

Greetings All,
A fine suggestion was given to me to start a new thread on the same subject, since the first thread is already full of images and comments. (All very much appreciated, BTW) Of course, anyone wanting to comment on any of the images in the first thread, please do so...! There have been some wonderful contributions, again, appreciated very much !!!

So here goes,
Another from Earl Hangen's collection.
Pictured is the inside front cover of a bound copy of Canadian Checker Player, an excellent periodical , published by Manson Teetzel during the earlier years of the last century.
This is part of a bound set that includes volumes 1-3 in one binding, and volumes 4-6 in a second binding, for a total of two books. This two volume set was seperated after the sale of Earl's books, as, during the sale of Earl's books , the auctioneer, who did not know a checker book from a fish hook, was grabbing stacks of books and auctioning them off at random...(!)


He literally broke complete sets..... I got one part, and the other went to an antiques dealer/seller who purchased several books, for the sole purpose of re-selling them on Ebay.
I had spent every penny that I had, but it was not enough to get everything.....but, I kept my eyes on Ebay, and lo and behold, after 4 1/2 months, there it was.
So, these books were "re-united" after a several months seperation, and they couldn't be happier, as they sit snuggling in my bookcase.....




I do see a sig....possibly " W. Swope"..(?), I am not sure if that is correct. Even if it is, it is a name I am unfamiliar with.
The thing that makes me wonder is the stamping
"J J SHEA PRIVATE LIBRARY"
This rings no bells to me, I wonder if this was a Checker Library from the past, or a general library of one individuals...?
Mr. Checkers, do you have any info on this...? Or anybody else...?

As always,

Comments welcomed, encouraged and appreciated !!!!!
Regards,
Jay H

[Jay H]

Greetings All,
Here is another interesting one that perhaps someone could help me out with....
First,
A scan of the front cover of "The Draughts World" ...


This is from a complete set that belonged to Earl Hangen. I believe Earl purchased this set from Tom Wiswell, as I found a letter from Tom to Earl, quoting price and availability on a complete set. See scan below..




The fact that this set is, indeed, a "beauty" , leads me to believe that this is, indeed, referring to the same set of books. I have asked Earl about this,but, sadly, he does not remember.
I have searched throughtout the entire set, and I can find no sigs, inscriptions, markings, etc. (it is, indeed, a beauty) that would lend identity to it's whereabouts prior to it being in Mr. Wiswell's inventory.
But, on the cover is printed the name L.A.STEFFENS.

And I wondered, was this the name of the binder, or the name of a Checkerist from the past who commisioned a personalized binding. Does this name ring any bells to anybody here ???

BTW, the "darkest hour" in the history of this book (or books) is the day it was two hours removed from being tossed into a dumpster...!!!


I went to Earl's home to retrieve some things for him, and to retrieve the ACF mail Play records which he kept, and there, in the "trash heap" in the middle of the room, was a box containing this set of books.
Had I not shown up at that time, this treasure would be gone forever......and I shudder to think what was already tossed into the trash.

Anyway, the story ends up with a happy ending, as the books are saved, and preserved for future Checker generations .
But, I am curious to the name on the cover.....any help with this..??

As always,

Comments welcomed, encouraged and appreciated !!!!!

Regards,
Jay H

[Jay H]

Greetings All...!!!!

Here is another interesting book, ( or booklet to be more precise) with a history.
It is an original copy of the Hellman V Oldbury WCM games .




This was published by " THE DRAUGHTS PLAYERS GUILD" , in 1965. As can be seen, this particular copy is # 157, of a Limited edition of 478 copies.

But, the "History of this book..." itself is on an inscription on the inside back cover



A Baltimore vs. Penna Team match, from 1966......
Mr. Ottey played alot of crossboard in his day,as this, and some of my other postings on these "history" threads will attest. And I know later on he played quite a bit of mail play. In fact, I know he was directing " Wood's Ladder" for a time, and he may have been ACF mail play director for a short period. ( Of this, I am not sure, would have to go double check)



As always,

Comments and contributions to this thread are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated !!!!!


Regards,
Jay H

[Jay H]

Greetings All,

Here is the inside front cover of a copy of " THE SAFE CHECKER PLAYER, THE BLACK SIDE" by W T CALL, copyrighted in 1906.
This is not a well preserved copy, as can be seen from the tanning, and the tape, but it is complete


I can tell the history on this one to " John D Cook", after that , this book was owned by "E. Strayer" ,he then sold this book, ( along with many others, as this is in several other of his books) to Paul Ottey in 1966. Upon Ottey's death, Earl Hangen obtained this from Mr. Ottey's wife.
It is now mine, so I am at least a fifth generation owner of this particular copy.....

Prior to Ottey's death, he told Earl that he wanted him to have his books, with the understanding that he ( Earl) would give away any duplicate that he had.
Earl did this by giving away a book to any new mail player who joined a ladder he was running, or entering a tourney he was directing. This was back during the very early nineties......With that in mind, I know that some of Ottey's library has been disbursed throughout the entire world. So, if any body out there finds a book with "purchased from hayes", "purchased from peterson", or from "E.Strayer" with a year, as can be seen in this, and others I have posted, you know that this book was once a part of Paul Ottey's impressive library. Ottey also would stamp his name in his some of his books.....

As always,

Comments and contributions to this thread are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated !!!!!


Regards,
Jay H

[liam stephens]

Hello Jay,

Re your earlier post mentioning L A STEFFENS, the person referred to is none other than Dr L A Steffens a regular contributor to Elam

[Jay H]

[Jay H]

Greetings All,

OK, I am going to "de-rail" this thread myself a little bit here....please forgive me.....

I have posted an image of a book ( see scan) called
S.D.A. SCRAPBOOK
WALED FRAE A' THE AIRTS
Wise and Otherwise



I do not know too much of the history of this particular copy of this book, other than that it once belonged to Earl Hangen, it was once sold for $1.75, and somebody ( not me!!) during the life of this book placed a piece of tape with the # 414 6 on the lower spine, as can be seen in the scan. ( Seems like it may have been a part of somebody's inventory system... ...? )

But,anyway, it is such an "odd" book that I was wondering if anyone could help me out with any info on the history of the publication of this book itself...?

Seriously, I do not even know what "Waled Frae A' The Airts" even means...


The book is 31 pages long, and probably 75 % of it is text, in the form of poems, and stories....
Liam Stephans, or Mr. Checkers, or anyone else, any info would be greatly appreciated......
AND, Once Again.....


As always,

Comments and contributions to this thread are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated !!!!!


Regards,

Jay H

[liam stephens]

Hi Jay,

The S D A Scrapbook was published in 1946, to raise funds for the Scottish Draughts Association. A review of it was published in Issue No 3 of Oldbury's A Game of Draughts (Jan - Feb 1947).

The word 'waled' means 'chosen', frae = from, a' = all.

So, broadly translated it reads - " Chosen from all the arts"

Regards - Liam.

[Jay H]

Hi Jay,

The S D A Scrapbook was published in 1946, to raise funds for the Scottish Draughts Association. A review of it was published in Issue No 3 of Oldbury's A Game of Draughts (Jan - Feb 1947).

The word 'waled' means 'chosen', frae = from, a' = all.

So, broadly translated it reads - " Chosen from all the arts"

Regards - Liam.

Greetings Liam,

MOST IMPRESSIVE !!!!! Your knowledge ASTOUNDS me !!!!
It is an interesting publication......I just had no "inside" info on it......but, I do now !!!

Thanx again !!!!


And, once again,
With all of my SINCEREST regards,

Jay H

BTW, I do not own a copy of Issue No 3 of Oldbury's A Game of Draughts (Jan - Feb 1947). ....How was Oldbury's review, if you don't mind me asking...?

[Jay H]

And Liam,
I wanted to throw you another thanx for your ALL of your contributions to these " History of a book..." threads.

You, along with Mr. Bob Murr, and a few others, have made these threads a treasure and a treat for anyone who takes the time to read them.......or, at least for ME anyway !!!!

Anybody else, jump on in


Regards

Jay H

[tommyc]

My God our Liam is a checker historian...can you believe it pADDY??

[liam stephens]

Well Tommy, a little paddywhackery is good for you as they say.

"With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home"

or "Whack folda toora loora laddie"
(You might meet a Spanish Lady in Vegas)

For Jay,

Below is a copy of the review:

BOOK REVIEW
“ S. D. A. Scrapbook. . Waled frae a' the airts." by "St.
Ringnans. “ A. Learmouth & Son. 32 p.p. Price 2/8 post free.
In introducing this work the author states " There is no pretence
nor attempt to arrange the items quoted here in any order. The
sole object of publication is, as stated, to raise funds for the Scottish
Draughts Association ….”
The booklet comprises a collection of poems, anecdotes, and odd
reflections on the game ; largely tinged with a Scottish flavour, and
interspersed with a number of selected problems and games. The collection makes its appeal on two grounds: its poems, and its object.

Therefore if such lines as :-
“ E’ en the beasts o’ the field, sae free i' their joy,
Cam an’ watched as they played at their auld fashioned ploy."
strike a responsive chord in your heart; and furthermore, the aims
and object of the S. D. A. meet with your approval, then we cordially recommend this latest addition to Draughts literature.
Whether better poetry may be found elsewhere, or whether the
Scottish Draughts Association mav be supported in a more effective manner, are questions, the answers to which we will leave others
to decide .

=====================================

Then there follows a review of a Single Corner game from the booklet.

Regards - Liam.

[Jay H]

Greetings Liam,
Thanx for that
And THANX AGAIN for all of your excellent contributions to these threads !!!


Regards

Jay H

[Jay H]

Greetings All....
Here is an interesting packet I found.....
I found a copy of the souvenir booklet from the 21st American Tourney, held in Bethlehem, PA 1958...See Scan




I also found with this the games sheets, which were pulled from the ACF Bulletin, that have Paul Ottey's signature stamp, and noted on the top right, "Keene 1/65".See Scan




For newcomers to checkers who might be reading this post, it used to be quite common for subscribers to pull from their ACF Bulletins all of the game sheets, and store them separately from the news sections. And, obviously, sometimes they were sold that way also, as it would indicate here, since Ottey would always write the name of the person he purchased his books from, along with the date, somewhere on his books.
Anyway, I checked the score sheets from that tourney, and it does not appear that Ottey was at that tournemant, or, if he was, he did not compete.But he definitely purchased these game sheets from Jim Keene in 1965, and he probably purchased this souvenir booklet from him at the same time, as Keene probably had a few extra, since he paid for an advertisement in it to promote his book selling enterprize......
Just another interesting little "history of a book..." that I own.

And just to complete this post.....
The Winner and Runner-up...two of the GREATEST EVER !!!!


Hellman and Banks !!!!

As always,

Comments and contributions to this thread are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated !!!!!


Regards,
Jay H

[Jay H]

Greetings All,
I haven't posted anything here in awhile, but I just came across another interesting book from the Earl Hangen Library.
This is another that he got from Paul Ottey, as the history of the book itself is revealed on the inside , first page.
The book is The Scottish Open Draughts Championship 1965




Inside is a note, written by Ottey, and taped is a written note from R.J. "Jack" Elliott, Yorkshire England.




I am sure my fellow checkerists on the eastern side of the pond know of Jack Elliott.....Ottey has a note of him being a publisher, however, this particular book has him listed as the "Editor".
Also, there is an intro written by Martin Firth, praising Mr. Elliott's efforts for "compiling a record of these 1965 scottish games".

Ottey mentions in his notation playing "many games by mail" with Elliott. Ottey was a director of Woods Ladder, and had a short stint as ACF Mail Play Director, so he did indeed meet many players, and did also play many international matches........
So, with this book coming directly from Elliott to Ottey, from Ottey to Hangen ,and from Hangen to me....I have a complete history of this book !!
A true rarity in this modern day and age of Ebay trading !! The browning tape does not help when establishing the grade/condition status of the book....., but, what the heck, ya' can't have it all....!!! I, personally, would rather have the complete history of a lower grade book, than a partial history of a gem-mint condition book.


Just one of my wierd quirks as a collector......

As always,

Comments and contributions to this thread are welcomed, encouraged and appreciated !!!!!

Regards

Jay H