Using Reference Works Can Help Enhance Value
- By Susan Halas
Instructor Vic Zoschack, Tavistock Books, selects his references for bibliography class.
Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books (ABAA) in Alameda, CA is well known in the book world as a dealer in Dickens and a specialist in other rare and collectible authors writing in English. He also has a growing reputation as the go-to guy for bookish reference works.
His own collection of bibliographies and related works exceeds 2,000 volumes. He’s one of the few you’ll encounter to wax lyrical on the National Union Catalog (NUC) which even in microfiche takes up a vast amount of space and requires its own semi- antique reader. In keeping with his enthusiasm and hoping to pass it on to the less meticulously inclined, Zoschak hosts a once a year free informative all day workshop on using and citing bibliographic references for, as the saying goes, “fun and profit.”
This year AE was fortunate enough to be on the guest list for the event held at his East Bay shop along with eight others including dealers, would-be dealers, catalogers, Vic’s own assistant-in-training and the young son of one of the participants taking videos for the benefit of those who might find the information potentially useful in future youtube snippets.
“Time is money,” says Zochak with conviction, and indeed this premise, which might seem obvious, is not a common sentiment in the world of books. His attitude is it’s better to use your time researching and writing up descriptions of your inventory in the most attractive, convincing and authoritative manner than to hope that fortune and destiny will deliver that signed first of the Wasteland hidden beneath the stack of old AARP magazines at the neighborhood yard sale. That’s a round about way of saying you’ll make more money if you throw your lot in with the bibliographers, and if you can’t be one yourself, acquiring at least a basic familiarity with some of the terminology and techniques can add multiple 000s to the value of your offerings.
His presentation is constructed around familiarizing the participants with the elements that contribute to “value,” i.e. edition, condition, availability and desirability and urging them to avoid customers bearing the old family bibles, text books and religious tracts in favor of putting the time and energy into research and becoming knowledgeable (or preferably expert) in writing clear descriptions that inspire confidence.
Zoschak says he never cites a reference unless he has personally checked it himself and told several amusing incidents where less ethical dealers had swiped citations off the internet only to be asked to provide a Xerox of the reference that they clearly did not know, possess or consult. Conspiratorially he told us that one of the good parts about doing a thorough reference check was the possibility your title would not appear in any of the standard works. In which case, you could confer the coveted “not in” and cite all the places it wasn’t, thus adding by implication to rarity and desirability of your book.
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Using Reference Works Can Help Enhance Value
- By Susan Halas
Participant Howard Prouty compares his copy of Ash Wednesday to the bibliography.
For those like this writer who live in an area where reference libraries and books are scarce the best part of the day was to actually see-feel-touch and thumb-through the dozens of volumes presented as essential, useful, or interesting. These he divided into five categories: Literature including Modern First Editions, Americana with an Emphasis on Western America and California, Children’s Books, Early Printed Books with a Focus on Books Printed in English and On Line References.
Of the things he showed, the works that proved most unexpected were those that offered scholarship and detail devoted to relatively recent books of less than stellar literary merit, such as Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys - both series with their own comprehensive bibliographies. There’s also a fat and detailed compendium on every imaginable version of Little Black Sambo titled Pictus Orbis Sambo that leaves little out in a hundred year review of that now politically incorrect story. I was also much taken with First Editions of Dr. Seuss Books by Younger and Hirsch, which goes through the output of Theodor Geisel book-by-book, dust jacket-by-dust jacket, cover price-by-cover price and is certainly a must own for the Seuss fan or collector.
None of these specialty children’s reference titles come cheap. The least expensive on line copy of the Seuss Firsts was $150 and rapidly escalated to close to $300. The Sambo reference came in at $200 low to $500 high, Farah’s Guide to Nancy Drew only slightly less pricey could be found on line starting at $60 and going up to $200.
One title in the Western Americana section, a title I found fascinating, was A Complete Collection of the Zamorano 80, A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made By the Members of the Zamorano Club Formed By Daniel G. Volkmann Jr. This was not just a bibliography, it was a bibliography with extensive annotation, lots of contextual notes, wonderful reproductions of plates and maps in color and black and white, as well as facsimile titles for each of the books. It was an outstanding auction catalog of an impressive and important regional book list and best of all Zoschak’s copy had a complete list of the prices realized laid in the back. It was equally surprising to me that this volume of considerable scholarship, impressive graphics, a detailed narrative for each of the 80 titles on the Zamorano list and a wealth of Western Americana detail, can be had for as little as $10; I saw a copy with prices realized for $20 You can also view it in capsule form on line along with prices realized at Dorothy Sloan’s (Austin, Texas) site www.dsloan.com/Auctions/A12/A12Contents.htm.
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Using Reference Works Can Help Enhance Value
- By Susan Halas
The best in bibliography coming soon to youtube.
Also useful and not too expensive and much less rarified in scope are the McBride pocket guides. These little paperbacks fit in pocket or backpack, and assuming you’re out in the real world and not pouring over the Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England 1475…...1640, can be extremely helpful. Look for McBride’s POCKET GUIDE TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF FIRST EDITIONS and McBride’s POINTS OF ISSUE : A COMPENDIUM OF POINTS OF ISSUE OF BOOKS BY 19TH-20TH CENTURY AUTHORS. He also recommended Firsts Magazine, and noted that a 20th anniversary index to the popular collectors’ periodical is finally available.
As interesting as the bookstore, the books, and learned commentary were, the interaction among the various participants was also lively. Zoschak hosted the group to a lunch at the neighboring sushi restaurant and talk turned to catalogs, ephemera, the pros and cons of entering the trade, the emergence of the ebook and readers, the changing tastes of collectors, which shops in the area were interesting, who might have a collection for sale and all the other tidbits that the bookish find so interesting to discuss while sipping their hot tea and spearing the sashimi.
Later in the afternoon those who had brought a book or two along got a chance to put those stellar reference books to work. Out popped a T.S. Eliot with a variant binding, a Jean-Jacques Rousseau in a 19th century English translation, an unusual 1865 missionary almanac from Siam, Civil War papers. As the various books floated around the circle and as if by magic the right reference source popped out, all that fine print became considerably more interesting and the invisible mental dollar sign clicker much more readily apparent.
Before ending the day Zoschak turned his attention to references on line including our own Americana Exchange (by subscription) and the long running American Book Prices Current (also by subscription) and openly yearned for a portal to some of the more pricey and expensive services that are available to many academics. He told the group that the iPad is an indispensible addition to your ability to research in a mobile or book fair situation, and moments later was checking his own inventory or that same device.
The handouts for this annual session are free and available on request from Vic Zoschak vjz@tavbooks.com.
Reach AE writer Susan Halas at wailukusue@gmail.com.
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