On the 9th day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a signed, first edition of David Herbert Donald's famous biography of Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln. 

Donald was an eminent Lincoln scholar, and taught at several universities throughout his long career, including Oxford, Harvard and Princeton. He was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize twice, so it will not surprise you to learn that Eric Foner (president of the American Historical Association!) called Lincoln the best biography of Abraham Lincoln in existence. 

Our particular copy is signed on the title page by Donald. Both book and dust jacket are in as-new condition. 


Other Lincoln books in our possession that will make good Christmas gifts are Mark E. Neely, Jr.'s The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln (1993) and Allen C. Guelzo's Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (2004). Some scholars speculate that Mary Todd Lincoln, who was in and out of sanitariums her entire life, suffered from bipolar disorder. Three of her four sons died during her lifetime, which may have contributed to her depression and erratic behavior. 


These three books, though, are only a small sample of our Lincoln collection. We have dozens of books in stock right now that discuss the 16th President's life and various aspects of his administration. 

Come on by! Time is running out. (At least for Christmas shopping.)

Title: Lincoln 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 1995

Features: Signed, first edition

Condition: Very Good+ / Very Good dust jacket

Price: $40

Title: The Insanity File: The Case of Mary Todd Lincoln 

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press

Year: 1993

Condition: Very Good / Very Good- dust jacket

Price: $4

Title: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2004

Features: Signed, second printing

Condition: Very Good+ / Very Good+ dust jacket

Price: $18

On the 12th day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a $15 first edition and $25 signed first edition of Aleksandar Hemon's The Lazarus Project. Both books are in near-fine condition, with dust jackets in similar shape. 


Guest-blogger Alex Smith tells us more below.

Eye-catching composition not intentional.

In 2000 I got a fantastic Christmas present from my longtime friend and onetime Babbitt's employee, Lynn Bulgrin. The Question of Bruno introduced me to the Chicago-by-way-of-Sarajevo author, Aleksandar Hemon. He has that sly and world-weary style that you find in many Slavic writers. His works are semi-autobiographical and they fictionalize his early years in America and especially Chicago. Those of you who are familiar with the city will find his stories vividly illuminated with familiar Chicago landmarks and neighborhoods. Hemon sees his adoptive city with the fresh eyes of a stranger. Oh, and his books are laugh-out-loud funny. Beware reading him in a public place!

Anyone who is reading this blog has likely spoken English longer than Hemon. Like Nabokov and Conrad he learned (and demonstrably mastered) English as an adult. He published his first story on English in 1995.

The Lazarus Project is a few shades darker than some of his previous books, dealing as it does with holocaust and institutionalized anti-Semitism. It has some tense and thrilling moments too, showing another side to an author who previously was happy to ramble, albeit in the most entertaining way.

Illustrated with photographs taken by a friend of the author, this signed (signed!) copy is a steal at $25. You'd better buy it quick before I change my mind and buy it for myself!

Title: The Lazarus Project

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Year: 2008

Features: Signed, First edition

Condition: Very Good+

Price: $25

Title: The Lazarus Project

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Year: 2008

Features: First edition

Condition: Very Good+

Price: $15

On the 15th day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a signed first edition of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster.

This book is Krakauer's most famous next to Into The Wild, and tells the story of his perilous ascent up Mount Everest. Krakauer, an amateur mountaineer, was originally assigned by Outside magazine to climb only to base camp, where he would report on the commercialization of Mount Everest. However, the assignment reawakened his interest in mountain-climbing, and he asked for an additional year to train so that he could follow the expedition all the way to the top. 


He eventually makes it to the summit, but not without suffering hypoxia and severe sleep-deprivation. The grueling climb quickly becomes the least of his problems as a sudden, violent storm sweeps across the mountain. When the clouds lift the following morning, five climbers in his party are dead. 


"Krakauer examines what it is about Everest," reads the dust jacket blurb, "that has compelled so many people--including himself--to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense."

If you'd just like to read the story, never mind the Krakauer autograph, we have two additional copies to suit your needs. One is a hardcover, jacketed first edition for $5 and the second is a paperback for $4. Both are in very good condition.


So if you have a rugged, outdoorsy friend or family member to buy for, keep this book in mind. Travel writing and outdoors writing doesn't get any better than Jon Krakauer.

Title: Into Thin Air

Publisher: Villard

Year: 1997

Features: Signed, First Edition

Condition: Near Fine / Very Good dust jacket

Price: $80

On the 18th day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a $50 signed first edition of Gregory Maguire's Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.

Maguire is best known for his 1995 book Wicked, a revisionist telling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Most of you probably know that it has also been made into a popular musical by the same title. Wicked is told, of course, not from Dorothy Gale's point of view, but from the view of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (1999) was Maguire's next novel and, in a similar vein, relates the Cinderella fairy tale not from Cinderella's point of view, but from the views of her two maligned stepsisters, plain-faced Iris and mentally handicapped Ruth. Très original!

Our particular copy of this book is in very good condition, with glossy, illustrated boards (not pictured) and a pristine interior. You might notice that is has been inscribed to a previous owner, as many used books often are. Babbitt's Books has devised a solution to this in the form of a bookplate, which we hope will go on sale soon. Written by Kathleen Kirk, the text of the bookplate is as follows:

Whose book this is, I think I know.
I don’t mind the inscription, though,
To someone else, for now it’s mine;
A book in the hand’s worth two in the snow.

Couldn't have said it better myself. 


If you'd like to give someone the gift of Gregory Maguire this Christmas but don't think $50 is in your price range, we also have a first edition, hardcover copy of Son of a Witch (the follow-up to Wicked) for only $6 and a paperback copy of Confessions for $4.

Oh, what a world! What a world! That such good books are available so inexpensively.

Title: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

Publisher: ReganBooks

Year: 1990

Features: Signed, First Edition, Dust Jacket

Condition: Very Good+

Price: $50

Title: Son of a Witch

Publisher: ReganBooks

Year: 2005

Features: First Edition, Dust Jacket

Condition: Very Good+

Price: $6

On the 21st day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a signed, first edition of William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner.

Whether they're buying from us or selling to us, a common mistake that people make is assuming that signed books are automatically valuable / expensive.  As in, worth $200 or $300 . . . or more. Of course, as evidenced by yesterday's $35 signed Sandburg, that isn't always the case. A signed book's value is based on a number of factors, including supply, demand, condition, edition, and scarcity. If you want J.D. Salinger's signature, be prepared to shell out at least $7,500; he rarely signed anything, unless it was to a friend. By the same token, you can buy a book signed by Toni Morrison for under $25, as she signs liberally. 


Tonight's book is a good buy all around. It's a first edition in the original dust jacket, which means that you get the book as it first appeared. A book doesn't get earlier or more authentic than a first edition. The condition is also agreeable. There's a smudge or two to the book itself, a couple small tears to the dust jacket, but no extremely compromising defects. Plus the book is signed on the blank front endpaper by William Styron. No flourishes, no frills. Just a plain signature and lots of empty space for you to add a gift inscription, if you're so inclined.

The book is a fictional account of the life of Nat Turner, and was controversial at the time of publication for its sexually explicit content, as well as the fact that it was written from a black man's perspective by a white author. Did I happen to mention that this book won a Pulitzer Prize? That it's William Styron's best-known book? That it's only $50? 


If you're looking for something a little cheaper ($8), we also have a first edition of William Styron's Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, an account of the author's plunge into severe depression in the mid-1980s. "Our perhaps understandable modern need to dull the sawtooth edges of so many of the afflictions we are heir to," he writes, "has led us to banish the harsh old-fashioned words: madhouse, asylum, insanity, melancholia, lunatic, madness. But never let it be doubted that depression, in its extreme form, is madness" (46-47). The book certainly deals with difficult subject matter, but it is also comforting to have someone put precise words, gorgeous words, to this often stigmatized disorder. 

Styron may not write the most happy-go-lucky books, but there's a reason he won a Pulitzer Prize: he's damn good. So if you're looking for a nice, modern signed first at an affordable price, look no further than Babbitt's Books.

Title: The Confessions of Nat Turner

Publisher: Random House

Year: 1967

Features: Signed, First Edition, Dust Jacket

Condition: Very Good-

Price: $50

Title: Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

Publisher: Random House

Year: 1990

Features: First Edition, Dust Jacket

Condition: Very Good

Price: $8

On the 24th day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . a potpourri of books signed by ex-Presidents.

First up is My Life by Bill Clinton, an autobiography published in 2004 by Alfred Knopf. Everything that you could possibly hope to know about this two-term President is contained within the book's 957 pages. 

Clinton spent over two years penning the book, even hand-writing all the drafts. (Say what you will about his time in office, but that's dedication!) Our copy is signed on the title page by Clinton in blue felt-marker.

Next up is Jimmy Carter's Turning Point, which is the tale of how Carter ran for state senate in Georgia during the turbulent year of 1962. Segregation was on its way out the door, protests at lunch counters and on campuses were peaking, and Carter's opponents did not care a bit for civil rights. This particular copy is a signed, limited first edition from the Easton Press, which is known for their collectible fine bindings of classic and popular books. Among its features are 22k gold accents, peach-colored silk endpapers and tooled red leather.

You can't find that at a Borders or Barnes & Noble! Neither can you find a signed copy of Jimmy Carter's Christmas in Plains. Of today's three books, this may be the most affordable and the most engaging, not to mention the most pertinent to the holiday season. It is a slim 155 pages next to Clinton's behemoth of a book. Engaging and unpretentious, Carter relates Christmas anecdotes from his own life, beginning with his childhood in Plains, GA and ending at the present day. He glosses over his four Christmases in office in favor of more meaningful events, like the time a truck accidentally spilled Christmastime grapefruits--an unexpected and delightful bounty--near the Carter home. 

All of these books are hardcovers in very good condition with very good dust jackets, and perfect for the political junkie on your list. 

Title: My Life

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Year: 2004

Features: Signed, First Edition

Condition: Very Good

Price: $180

Title: Turning Point

Publisher: Easton Press

Year: 1992

Features: Signed, First Edition, Fine Binding

Condition: Very Good

Price: $180

Title: Christmas in Plains

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2001

Features: Signed, First Printing

Condition: Very Good

Price: $20

You might also like these other presidential presents:

Title: Christmas in Plains

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2001

Features: Hardcover, Dust Jacket

Condition: Very Good

Price: $4

Title: Sharing Good Times

Author: Jimmy Carter

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Year: 2004

Features: Signed, First Edition

Condition: Very Good

Price: $25

We also have several trade paperbacks of Barack Obama's two books.

On the 27th day of Christmas, Babbitt's Books gave to me . . .

. . . I Just Kept Hoping, signed and authored by the inimitable Gloria Stuart.

When I picked this book off the floor yesterday to put it back into its rightful category, I admit that I didn't quite know who Gloria Stuart was. This actress enjoyed her Hollywood heydays some five decades before I was born, and I'm not as well-versed as I would like to be in classic films. In my defense, James Cameron didn't know who she was, either, when he cast her in a certain 1997 film.

Yup. Titanic.

Then in her mid-eighties, Stuart apparently had to undergo more than two hours in the make-up chair each day in order to look aged enough for her role as the approximately 100-year-old Rose. That's what I call a tough lady!

Stuart's film credentials from the Golden Age of Hollywood include The Invisible Man, Busby Berkeley's over-the-top Gold Diggers of 1935, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. She acted alongside the likes of Boris Karloff, Lionel Barrymore, Claude Rains, and Shirley Temple. 

A number of fascinating projects absorbed her after her Hollywood career waned. She entertained troops during World War II, operated a small business called Décor Ltd., wrote seventeen screenplays, dabbled in oil painting, survived breast cancer, and practiced the Japanese art of bonsai. Perhaps most interesting to readers of this blog, she fell in love with a printer named Ward Ritchie a few years after her husband (famed Marx Brothers scriptwriter, Arthur Sheekman) died of Alzheimer's disease in 1978. Ritchie ran the Ward Ritchie Press. Stuart asked him to teach her how to use an antique hand press, then went ahead and bought her own, soon adding printer and book artist to her already impressive list of accomplishments. Her press was called Imprenta Glorias and with it she created fine artists' books, most of which are now in museums or private collections. When the heavy press with its small type became too cumbrous for her to handle anymore, she gave it--and her collection of rare type--to Mills College. 

From there, she accepted a modest role in what would go on to become the highest-grossing film of all time. Her acting in Titanic earned her an Academy Award nomination. Speaking of milestones, she's still the oldest actress to have been nominated for that award. On July 4th of this year, she celebrated her 100th birthday at a party hosted by James Cameron and his wife. Two months ago to this day, on September 26th, she passed away in her sleep from respiratory failure. It just so happens that she did so at the very age of the Titanic character whom she so lovingly portrayed. 

So is there a Hollywood buff on your list this year? A loved one who loves Titanic? A strong lady who'd like to be inspired by the life of another strong lady? Then this book is for you.

Title: I Just Kept Hoping

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Year: 1999

Features: Signed By Author, First Printing, Dust Jacket

Condition: Very Good

Price: $15

You might also like these related books:

Author: Lawrence Clark Powell

Title: Island of Books

Publisher: Ward Ritchie Press

Year: 1951

Condition: Very Good

Price: $20

Title: Wreck and Sinking of the Titanic, The Ocean's Greatest Disaster

Publisher: L.H. Walter

Year: 1912

Features: Memorial Edition

Condition: Good

Price: $35

Author: Maurice Chevalier

Title: I Remember It Well

Publisher: Macmillan

Year: 1970

Features: Signed by Author

Condition: Very Good-

Price: $15