Archer in Hollywood … Ross Macdonald’s first omnibus … how I got an antiquarian first edition ...

Ever since I read Pradeep Sebastian’s The Book Hunters of Katpadi, I have caught this ‘antiquarian’ bug.  I have been carefully going through some old books in my collection to check dates and editions.  Even while reading The Book Hunters …, I discovered that some English novels by Indian writers that I have are first editions.  I was thrilled.

So, this thing continued to bug me.  In my previous Ross Macdonald post I had mentioned that only two more novels and my Lew Archer set would be complete.  I was chasing these two titles, The Moving Target and Doomsters, in right earnest … with washed hands.  This omnibus edition of three Archer novels titled Archer in Hollywood kept popping up at regular intervals … mainly because it had The Moving Target and two other Archer novels that I had already have.  I was looking for a ‘standalone’ copy at a reasonable price, but the ‘reasonable’ part was becoming elusive.  The Archer in Hollywood omnibus edition continued to pop up.  I slowly began noticing that it had a very delicious antiquarian looking cover.  I clicked on it and saw that the book was being sold on a used books portal … not surprising that the book looked ‘antique.’  What about the price?  I want only one novel, but I would be paying for three.  The price was, I felt, higher than what I’d usually consider paying, when push comes to shove.  The cover tempted me so much that I decided to go for it. 

But not so soon.  I checked the details provided on the page once again … publisher, ISBN number, year of publication.  They seemed all right and going by the picture of the cover, the book is bound to be an ‘antique,’ I thought.  I was also aware that sometimes websites use stock images of book covers and not the actual picture of the book they are selling.  I sent a mail to the seller wanting to know if I’ll get the same book with the same cover.  I received a reply which was non-committal and which also sounded optimistic in a vague sort of way.  I didn’t want to mention all that ‘antiquarian’ stuff in the mail because I myself was not so sure; who knows somebody there might decide not to sell the book? 

With no firm answer in sight, I decided to take the leap of faith … ooo aaah …

Anyway, I leaped … and my faith was rewarded … for once …

Look what I got …

The front cover is exactly what was shown on the portal … I was delighted on seeing the covers and spine …

There was more confirmation once I opened the book.  This omnibus was first published in 1967 and this one is a first edition. 

And there is a lovely little foreword by Ross Macdonald himself … and he says this collection is the first omnibus edition of his novels and that he is glad that an omnibus edition was being published during his lifetime … and there is the year at the bottom of the foreword … 1966 … when the foreword was written … the book was published next year …

This is splendid, actually … a favourite author … first omnibus, first edition … a 51-year-old book … the only thing missing is Ross Macdonald’s signature … 

I have hyped this edition up so much that I myself am now scared of reading The Moving Target from this omnibus for which I bought this book in the first place.  I am worried that the page edges may crumble or the cover may tear further.  I might end up buying a standalone copy of The Moving Target after all.  

Sunday at Abids on 3rd June 2018

I was going to Abids after three or four months.  Usually, I decide at least four to five days in advance, but this time I was not sure till the morning of the 3^rd whether I wanted to go or not wanted to go.  It was the heat, probably.  I like to hop on to a bus to Abids on a Sunday morning; the roads are clear, the buses have few passengers, and it is a nice long ride for twenty rupees from my house.  I had planned a couple of stopovers at Secunderabad to buy my staple magazines and also Kannada and Tamil newspapers and magazines for my parents.  In fact, this Secunderabad trip was my only plan for the Sunday; Abids was an afterthought.  So, with all this on my mind, going by bus was not going to be very convenient; what with the heat and all.  I called up Anand on the morning; he comes to drive on Sundays.

So, here I was at Abids at around eleven in the morning; after finishing my magazine and newspaper shopping at Secunderabad.  There is a usual route I (others too, Vinod, Umashankar…) take at Abids on Sundays and I was looking up and down – books on shelves, books spread out on the pavements – at the first stretch of our search.  I then saw Umashankar in the distance, looking dapper in his Ray Ban.  So, we chatted for a while and then waited for Vinod at the Irani café.  Vinod was unusually late and anyway, he came straight to the café and we talked over two cups of tea each and samosas for quite a long time.  We covered books and films, but politics was the longest.  And then we set out, but I saw that it was already 12.15, and I had only around half an hour to forty five minutes at the most at Abids.  We began the second stretch, but I saw that some regular Abids shops that were usually closed on Sundays were open and so some of the booksellers weren’t there because they couldn’t spread out their wares on the pavement in front of their shops.  Aah … Id-ul-Fitr is coming close … that’s why … 

I didn’t find anything even remotely interesting even after half an hour and wondered if I’d go home empty handed from Abids that day.  I had reached the bottom of the road and I had checked piles of books and now, I was ready to throw in the towel.  With heat increasing and interest declining, I saw a book by Ngaio Marsh on the shelf.  I had read about the author earlier and knew that she is a crime writer and that she has created her own detective.  Though at that time I didn’t remember the detective’s name (I should have seen the back cover … it is there … A Roderick Alleyn Mystery).  I was not very hopeful, but I asked the price.  He said 80.  I kept it back on the shelf.  He said 60 de do.  I said bhai, tab se dekhroon, ek bhi kitaab nahin mila, abhi ek dikha hai, chalees detoon.  For some reason, he agreed.  Good chap.  That was my first book … Ngaio Marsh’s Opening Night …  

I was relieved.  The last time at Abids was dismal; I returned empty-handed.  I crossed the street and wanted to take a last look at the ‘Rs. 20’ pile on the pavement.  I saw a familiar name, McBain, on a book cover.  Could it be Ed McBain?  I opened the cover and saw that it is indeed.  Again, I had read about the author.  While doing some online reading about Police Procedural crime fiction, Ed McBain’s name came up often as one of the pioneers of this genre.  But on this book it said A Matthew Hope Mystery.  I thought I’d check on the spot.  On what else should I use all that mobile data?  Oh, Ed McBain was a prolific writer; apart from a number of standalone novels, he has two series’ – the 87^th Precinct series and the Matthew Hope series.  The former novels were police procedurals and Matthew Hope is a lawyer-detective.  I was a tad disappointed that I did not land an 87^th Precinct novel, but I picked up The House that Jack Built anyway. 

I found another book with another familiar name on the cover … Sara Paretsky … the book titled Women on the Edge.  And then in small print on the cover it said “and 14 classic tales of mystery and heart-pounding suspense.”  I saw the contents page and only one other name was familiar … John D. MacDonald.  All stories were about “women on the edge,” the blurb on the back said.  I decided to buy it.  For twenty rupees, it would be total timepass.     

Arre bhai, for three books, you made us read through this whole thing?? 

Running after Ross Macdonald novels after washing hands …. haen?!

And this is what was actually happening … Ross Macdonald ke novels ke peeche haath dhokay pad gaya tha … why one needs to wash one’s hands before running after someone or something I don’t know.  Three years ago was when Vinod first introduced me to Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer novels, and I used to buy and read Ross Macdonald's Archer novels as and when I found them in secondhand book stores.  This was especially after I realized that buying new editions of Lew Archer novels was an expensive proposition and also that not all novels were easily available.  So, finding and reading an Archer novel was a rare pleasure in itself.  After some time, impatience got the better of me as I finished reading the novels one by one and I also became greedy, and threw caution to the winds.  I wanted to finish the series and spent quite a sum six months ago and bought 5 Archer novels in one go from a used books portal on Amazon. 

Sometime in March this year, I bought my first non-Archer novel, Trouble Follows Me.  I was not searching for it … I happened to see it on another secondhand site while searching Ross Macdonald books … the price was good and I thought why not.  Trouble Follows Me is one of the four non-Archer novels that Ross Macdonald wrote under his real name, Kenneth Millar (they are also sometimes reissued under the more familiar ‘Ross Macdonald’ name).  This is one of the two novels that features Chet Gordon, the other being The Dark Tunnel.  He wrote two more non-Archer novels, one under the name John Ross Macdonald and another under his more familiar pen name, Ross Macdonald.  Now that there were only four more Archer novels to read and complete the set, Trouble Follows Me set off a new chase.   I located three such novels in one portal along with two Archer novels.  For some reason, they couldn’t send Blue City.  These four novels came in after a couple of weeks.  Meet me at the Morgue was written as John Ross Macdonald and The Three Roads was written as Kenneth Millar.  All this happened in April.  Only two more Archer novels remained to be bought and read after these two came in … and what a book one of them turned out to be … till then, these are the covers.