Archive for August 2007

August 31, 2007

I have just acquired a very unusual book. It's a copy of Jack's little book "Young Viking" translated into Portugese. I found it on Abebooks - it has a different cover but the same illustrations inside. Here are images of the original and the Portugese version. As you can see, the title translates into "O Jovem Viking" and the young Viking certainly look a lot more threatening than the rather insipid original. I have added it to Childrens' Books.

August 5, 2007

I am looking continuously for new material, but there hasn't been much available lately, so I have satisfied the collecting urge by tidying up the collection. Recent acquisitions have been the French version of Great Trains of the World mentioned last month, different editions of three books and better copies of five items.

When I started collecting Jack's books I was confused by the different covers available on some of them, until I realised that many books had been re-bound in heavier materials specifically for library use. In some cases the original picture had been transferred onto the new cover, but in a different colour. I have now recorded all the books using the Library of Congress Control Number system (LCCN) which is used on almost all US editions of a book.

The LCCN allows me to check whether a book is a different edition, or just a re-bound version, and I can readily collect all the different editions. I can also use the ISBN system where available, but this did not become commonly used until the late 60s and as many of Jack's books were published before that date, they don't carry an ISBN.

August 7, 2007

I received this email today - it may be of interest.