The Goldstones, apparently on their way to a trilogy, successfully followed their first book with this one. It’s another delight. Becoming more accomplished as rare book aficionados, they are able to provide even more enlightening and amusing anecdotes of the book trade. They are informative as well about many of the authors whose books are collected. I had never heard of "Bloomsbury" members, being literature-challenged, but it seems the august members of that strange coterie are very collectible, not just because many were good writers, but also because they were prolific and lived lives (there are more than twenty-five 900- page biographies of the members) that would be unbelievable on most soap operas. The group consisted of Lytton Strachey, Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Clive Bell, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant, and John Maynard Keynes, although there is some dispute about others. The group had a unique ethos "which can be summed up by the sort of incisive comment the group and Lytton Strachey in particular were known for. Upon arriving at Clive and Vanessa Bell's apartment one evening, Lytton noticed a stain on Vanessa's dress, 'Semen?' he inquired." Another interesting story of the Bloomsbury folks is that Virginia Woolf and her husband, Leonard had often spoken of starting their own press. One day, while walking by a small printing supply company, they saw a hand press for sale in the window. They bought it, took it home, and taught themselves how to set type.
Thus began Hogarth Press. It reflected their ineptitude visually. Virginia routinely confused the h’s with the n’s. They had trouble with the ink, and the woodcuts they used for illustrations never inked up just right. These volumes are, of course, quite valuable today, especially because their print runs were so small (the first was 134 copies, which sold out, making them a small profit). One of the delights of the Goldstones’ books is learning about many authors of years ago with whom I was completely unfamiliar, for example, William Mcfee (nautical stuff) and Josephine Tey (British mystery writer who died in 1952).
No stranger to book signings, having traveled along to many of Sheila’s, not to mention many at ALA and ABA, I got a huge kick out of an anecdote they relate that happened to a friend of theirs. This author was sitting at the table in the bookstore with lots of his books but hadn’t been aproached by anyone for over an hour when a woman and child came over. “Are your the author of these books?” she asked. He assured her he was. “You wrote them,” she inquired again, “and you’ll be here for a while.” He answered again in the affirmative. She then asked if he would watch her child while she went shopping. The Goldstones don’t relate his response.
