Last year was meant to be one of great austerity. By rights, the 2017 edition of this annual list should be the weakest yet. There were few trips to used bookstores, and mere minutes – not hours – were spent panning for gold at outdoor dollar carts. And yet, comparing the year's haul to those of
2014, 2015, and
2016, I think 2017 was the best ever. The riches were such that the copy of Frank L. Packard's
The Big Shot above failed to make the cut. Hell, I couldn't even settle on the list until after the the year was over. Here be the shiniest nuggets:
The Shapes that Creep
Margerie Bonner
New York: Scribners,
1946
The debut novel by Hollywood actress and BC beach squatter Mrs Malcolm Lowry. The jacket describes it as a "combination of murder, astrology, hidden-treasure, and cryptography – with the wild and romantic coast of Vancouver as its colourful background."
The House of Temptation
Veros Carleton [pseud.
Amy Cox]
Ottawa: Graphic, 1931
A
roman à clef set amongst Ottawa's wealthy and powerful. If it is anything like
Madge Macbeth's The Land of Afternoon, also published by Graphic, I'm in for a real treat.
A Social Departure
Sara Jeanette Duncan
New York: Appleton,
1903
It says nothing good about this country that I was able to buy a Very Fine first edition of this novel for $12.50.
The Cannon's Mouth
Wilfred Heighington
Toronto: Forward, 1943
One of the few Canadian Great War novels by a veteran of the conflict. This was a birthday gift from my friend James Calhoun, the foremost historian of Canadian military literature, I didn't know
The Cannon's Mouth existed until it arrived in the post.
Maria Chapdelaine
Louis Hémon [trans.
W.H. Blake]
New York: Macmillan,
1929
My fifth copy of Hémon's big book, I uncovered this on one of
Attic Books' dollar carts. Inscribed by American college prof Carl Y. Connor, who provided an intro and notes, it serves as a reminder of the popularity this novel once enjoyed south of the border.
.
Wives and Lovers
Margaret Millar
New York: Random
House, 1954
I'd long been interested in Millar non-mysteries, but could never afford them. Syndicate Books'
Complete Millar finally granted me access.
Wives and Lovers ended up being the best novel I read in 2017. Researching
my review, I stumbled upon this first edition offered online at US$3.98.
A Voice is Calling
Eric Cecil Morris
Montreal: B.D. Simpson,
1945
A clerk living a mundane life in mid-20th-century Gaspé finds himself transported through time and space when playing the organ of his local church. J.S. Bach serves as tour guide to 18th-century Leipzig!
Lust Planet
Olin Ross [pseud. W.E.D.
Ross]
Hollywood: International
Publications, 1962
Canada's most prolific novelist, Ross made most of his money writing romances and
Dark Shadows TV tie-ins.
Lust Planet is his second and last "adults only" novel. Ribald, it's the subject of my column in the next issue of
Canadian Notes & Queries.
Hot Star
Robert W. Tracy [pseud.
Alvin Schwartz]
New York: Arco, 1952
Following
Touchable, further titillation from a writer who seems destined to be remembered as the creator of Bizarro Superman. I'm guessing
Hot Star wouldn't have passed the Comics Code Authority.
Undine
Phyllis Brett Young
London: W.H. Allen, 1964
I've been meaning to read Phyllis Brett Young for some time, and everything I know about this novel tells me that it is the place to start. "The jacket reminds me of Hitchcock," says my wife. I agree.
Note: Author of
Psyche, not
Psycho.
A year of austerity? Who am I kidding? That edition of Packard's
The Big Shot was the second of two bought in 2017.
Related posts:
