Out-of-print and in demand
BookFinder.com tracks the most sought-after out-of-print titles in America. This ninth annual edition is based on BookFinder.com searches from the past 12 months. On this year's list there are a fair share of out-of-print mainstays such as Madonna's nearly perennial number one Sex, but also a host of interesting newcomers; here are a few examples.
New to the BookFinder Report
Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore
Alice Starmore is a superstar in the knitting world but publishers have only just begun to take notice. Last year her immensely popular book Aran Knitting was brought back into print (after perpetually being listed on the BookFinder.com Report) and now her fans are looking for more. In this book Starmore creates a number of sweater designs inspired by the Tudor royals (eg. Henry VIII and Elizabeth I) and their over-the-top gold embroidery, velvet, jewels and lace. The book goes through the history of Tudor fashion and includes reproductions of artwork from the era.
The Reluctant King by Sarah Bradford
This biography of King George VI was published in 1989-1990 by St. Martin’s Press and suddenly shot into steady demand after the mammoth success of the movie The King’s Speech. Colin Firth’s amazing performance portraying George VI piqued the interest in The Reluctant King and made readers eager to learn more.
The House Without Windows by Barbara Newhall Follet
Barbara Newhall Follet was a child prodigy novelist who published this first novel in 1927. At the time she was destined to become the next great American writer but in 1939 she became depressed about her marriage and walked out of her apartment with just $30 in her pocket. The 25-year-old was never seen again. In December 2010 Follet's life story was broadcast on NPR and featured in Lapham’s Quarterly, reigniting interest in her work.
Other interesting out-of-print books
A Payroll to Meet: A Story of Greed, Corruption, and Football at SMU by David Whitford
In A Payroll to Meet, David Whitford discusses the incidents surrounding Southern Methodist University's (SMU) receiving the "death penalty" from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); which involves banning the school from competing in a sport for a year or more (two in SMU's case). This book has been out-of-print since 1989 but scandal in college football has never been more in vogue. The recent rash of cheating, bribing and recruitment scandals to hit Ohio State, Southern Cal, Auburn, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, LSU, and the Hurricanes in Miami have renewed the interest in the grandfather of college football scandal.
The Magic Talisman by John Blaine
This was the final novel in the 24-title Rick Brant series of self-described science-adventure stories. This series was written by Harold (Hal) Goodwin and Peter J. Harkins who collectively worked under the pseudonym John Blaine. The series was published by Grosset & Dunlap in the 1940s-1960s but The Magic Talisman was rejected owing to the inclusion of extra sensory perception elements in the story (the publishers wanted a science-based series). The Magic Talisman was finally published independently (by Manuscript Press) in 1990 as a limited edition run of 500 copies.
William Burges and the High Victorian Dream by J. Mordaunt Crook
Today Burges is considered a genius and one of the greatest architects to come out of the Victorian era; however this was not always so. Most of his life and for decades after, his work was unappreciated and precious little was written about his incredibly short career (which did not begin until he was 35 and endedwith his death at 53). Crook's study of Burges' work (which included St. Finbarre's Cathedral in Cork, the renovation of Cardiff Castle in 1868, and the reconstruction of Castle Coch) was published in 1981 and is generally considered to be the best biographical work on Burges to date.
Gather Yourselves Together by Philip K. Dick
Gather Yourselves Together was one of PKD's early works but the novel was not released until after his death (The first and only printing being printed in 1994). Unlike much of Dick’s later work, Gather Yourselves Together is not science fiction but rather straight literary fiction. The plot is set in China shortly after Mao Zedong’s revolution and centers around the affairs of three employees from an American company which is shutting its Chinese operations. Gather Yourselves Together is set to be reprinted by Houghton Mifflin in July 2012.
Top 100 most sought after out-of-print books in 2011
1. Madonna - Sex
2. Nora Roberts - Promise Me Tomorrow
3. Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) - Rage
4. Stephen King - My Pretty Pony
5. Ray Garton - In a Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting
6. Luigi Serafini - Codex Seraphinianus
7. Johnny Cash - Man in Black
8. Norman Mailer - Marilyn: A Biography
9. H.Henry Thomas - Arithmetic Progress Papers
10. Kyle Onstott - Mandingo
11. Allan D. Richter - Eve of the End
12. Ray Bradbury - Dark Carnival
13. Associated Press - The Torch is Passed: The Associated Press Story of The Death of a President
14. Jean Larteguy - The Centurions
15. Carl Sagan - Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record
16. Cameron Crowe - Fast Times at Ridgemont High
17. J.R. Hartley - Fly Fishing: Memories of Angling Days
18. Dennis Potter - Ticket To Ride
19. Mary and Vincent Price - A Treasury of Great Recipes
20. Anne Alexander - The Pink Dress
21. Lynne Cheney - Sisters
22. Stuart Chase - The Road We Are Traveling, 1914-1942, Guide Lines to America's Future as Reported to the Twentieth Century Fund
23. Andrew Loomis - Creative Illustration
24. David Williams - Second Sight
25. Anna Elizabeth Bennett - Little Witch
26. Nan Gilbert - 365 Bedtime Stories
27. Allen Drury - Advise and Consent
28. C.S. Lewis - The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition
29. Alex Angos - Endgame Artillery
30. Philip K. Dick - Gather Yourselves Together
31. A.C.H. Smith - Labyrinth: A Novel
32. Salvador Dali, illustrator - The Jerusalem Bible
33. Elmer Keith - Hell, I Was There!
34. Ricky Jay - Cards As Weapons
35. Madeleine L'Engle - Ilsa
36. Norman Denny - The Casket and the Sword
37. Charles Eric Maine - World Without Men
38. Paul Gallico - Jennie
39. Robert Nathan - The Bishop's Wife
40. Ben Bova - The Star Conquerors
41. Walt Kelly - I Go Pogo
42. Curtis Richards - Halloween
43. S.O. Pidhainy - The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: A White Book
44. Clancy Holling - The Book of Indians
45. Tom Lea - The King Ranch
46. John Blaine - The Magic Talisman
47. José Garcia Villa - Footnote to Youth
48. Harry Twyford Peters - Currier & Ives: Printmakers to the American People
49. Rasiel Suarez - ERIC : The Encyclopedia of Roman Imperial Coins
50. Alice Starmore - Tudor Roses
51. Kate Holmes - Too Good to be Threw
52. Nicholas Guild - The Blood Star
53. Charles M. Russell - Good Medicine; The Illustrated Letters of Charles M. Russell
54. Donald Hamilton - The Big Country
55. J. Mordaunt Crook - William Burges and the High Victorian Dream
56. David Whitford - A Payroll to Meet: A Story of Greed, Corruption, and Football at SMU
57. Leo S. Figiel - On Damascus Steel
58. Marie Simmons - Pancakes A to Z
59. W. Somerset Maugham - Tellers of Tales: 100 Short Stories From the United States, England, France, Russia and Germany
60. Arthur Koestler - The Act of Creation
61. Charles Thomson - The Septuagint Bible
62. Henry W. Simon - A Treasury of Grand Opera
63. Jack S Levy - War in the Modern Great Power System, 1495-1975
64. Jack Howell - The Lovely Reed : An Enthusiasts Guide to Building Bamboo Fly Rods
65. John Harris - Covenant With Death
66. Charles Luk (Translator) - Empty Cloud: The Autobiography of the Chinese Zen Master, Hsu Yun
67. Jan Wolkers - Turkish Delight
68. Watt Piper - The Bumper Book; a Harvest of Stories and Verses
69. John Burnet - Platonism
70. David Miller - The Nature of Political Theory
71. Laura Bannon - The Wonderful Fashion Doll
72. John D. Green - Birds of Britain
73. Glen Cook - She Is The Darkness
74. Sarah Bradford - The Reluctant King
75. Charles Flato - The Golden Book of the Civil War
76. James Virgil Howe - The Modern Gunsmith : a guide for the amateur and professional gunsmith in the design and construction of firearms, with practical suggestions for all who like guns
77. Ernest Cole - House of Bondage
78. Patricia C. Barry - ABCs of Long Arm Quilting
79. Ferdinand Pecora - Wall St. Under Oath; The Story of our Modern Money Changers
80. A.E. Gutnov and A. Baburov - The Ideal Communist City
81. Arthur Upfield - The Lure of the Bush aka The Barrakee Mystery
82. Polan Banks - Carriage Entrance
83. Barbara Newhall Follett - The House Without Windows
84. R.P. Hunnicutt - Stuart: A History of the American Light Tank
85. John Cage - Notations
86. M.J. Whitley - German Coastal Forces of World War Two
87. Roland Pierrot - Chemical and determinative tables of mineralogy
88. Arthur Watt - VLF Radio Engineering
89. John Atlee Kouwenhoven - The Columbia Historical Portrait of New York: An Essay in Graphic History
90. Cecil Beaton - The Glass of Fashion
91. David Sokol - Pleased, But Not Satisfied
92. Steve Wiper - USS New Jersey BB-62
93. Laura London - The Windflower
94. Edward Matunas - Practical Gunsmithing
95. Thomas Craven - A Treasury of American Prints - A Selection of One Hundred Etchings and Lithogrphas by the Foremost Living American Artists
96. Paul Hoffman - To Drop a Dime
97. Nicholas Brawer - British Campaign Furniture: Elegance Under Canvas, 1740-1914
98. Sam Dalal - Swami and Mantra
99. Alan Raven and John Roberts - British Battleships of World War Two
100. Don Graf - Basic Building Data: 10,000 Timeless Construction Facts
from: BookFinder
No comments:
Post a Comment