Our Advanced Search is designed to adapt to the needs of both readers and collectors. Because only one person is doing the entry, search results are consistent.
Interested in collectible books? Select non-ex-library, pre-1914, $35 or more, etc.
Building a family library? Select $17 or less, Any condition, Any edition
Our category field contains dozens of descriptors or keywords, including various historical periods, states, animals, cultures, genres, etc. Email us if your subject does not appear.
Keyword Lists
Children's Literature Reference
Reference Author
Reference History
Reference by Country
Reference Genre
Reference Essay
Reference General
Reference Book Lists
Reference Illustration
Reference Childhood
Reference Education
Reference Arts, Games
Reference Toys
Hans Christian Andersen Awards
Places Enter any country, culture, region, major geographical feature or city. Thoroughly indexed. No England or United States.
Languages For books in original language, enter Anglicized language in Keywords. Example: French.
For books in translation, enter "translated" in Publication Field.
History
Historical fiction
WWII
Medieval
Jewish Interest
Black Interest
Latino Interest
Native American
North American History
European History
Common Topics
Doll
Farm
Train
Ship
Brother, Sister, etc.
Friendship
Courage
Work
Seasons
Christmas
Animals
Bird
Cat
Dog
Horse
Donkey
Insects
Wild Animals
Mice
Genres
ABC, also under Author.
Mother Goose, also under Author.
Bible, also under Author.
Myth, Legend, or Fable
Folk Tale or Fairy Tale
Travel
Family Story
Fantasy
Poetry
Music
Plays
Mystery
Historical Fiction
Science Fiction
Science
Preschool, Early Reader
Construction Also search Publication Field
Cloth
Shape book
Board book
Pop-up
Panorama
Softcover, Wraps
Pop-up
Search Engine Fields
What do these terms mean? What are these things?
Text fields.
Text fields look like this:
. All text fields take the wild card symbol, *, and phrases in quotes "...."
Pull-down menus.
Pull-down Menus look like this:
Type Menu:
Any Type: Use this for Reference, Foreign Language, Softcover, Play Books, etc.
Juvenile: hardback novels in English; readers and poetry found here.
Picture Book: hardback picture books in English.
Price Menu:
under $17: This will include most ex-libraries.
$17-35:
$35 and up:
Condition Menu:
Any Condition: includes ex-libraries.
No Ex-libraries: Some library Sepcial Collection books, as noted, are also listed here.
Vintage Menu:
The vintage category indexes books according to their original date of publication. Accordingly, a modern illustrated version of Alice
In Wonderland would fall under the "Pre-1914" category.
All books are catalogued by the original the last name of the author, or failing an author, the editor or "anon", and never by the rewriter, genre, or illustrator. Authors of record are: Aesop, Grimm, La Fontaine, Mother Goose, Carroll, Lewis, ABC, Bible (biblical text only)
We use common pen names, such as Marianna, Mark Twain and Louis Carroll. True names accompany pen names in search results.
Biographies of authors appear under both the author's name and the writer's name in the author field. Example: (Carroll, Lewis) Richardson, Joanna. All other biographies have the writer's name in the author field, so you would search the title or category for the subject of the biography.
Names of American authors beginning with "de", "van", etc. (van Loon) are listed as such, but are best searched by
the main word in the name (Loon). European authors are listed thus: Brunhoff, Jean de. We attempt to list the first and last names of Asian authors in correct order, but either will appear on the search.
Illustrator:
On our Advanced Search, unlike most, you may search specifically for the Illustrator!
In our search results, the illustrator is listed after the slash /. Example: Treece, Henry/Charles Keeping indicates a book written by Henry Treece and illustrated by Charles Keeping.
Initials after the / indicate that the book is illustrated by the author. Example: Hughes, Shirley/SH indicates a book written and illustrated by Shirley Hughes.
Publisher:
Place of publication.
The full name of the publisher appears on all our newer listing.
Date of publication/date of copyright: We use standard format: 1932/1920 indicates a 1932 printing of a book first published in 1920; 1932, 1st, indicates a first printing of the first edition.
If a printing is not indicated, the copyright date will appear in parentheses (1932). If the original date of publication/copyright is not stated but
is known from another source, that date will appear in brackets [1932].
1st indicates a first printing of the first edition. 1st US indicates the first American printing of a book previously published in another country. 1st thus illustrated indicates the first printing of the book with work by a particular illustrator.
Binding; size of book in inches, width x height; many foreign language books in cms.
Plates; 18 plates as issued means that you can rely on the fact that I have checked for the correct number of plates for this edition and have counted each one within the copy of the book in hand.
Description of the dustjacket. Appears on our newer listings. The clipped or unclipped state and the price, if present, can be found at the end of the Condition Description.
Number of pages (or n.p., for not paginated). We will collocate rare older books on request.
Comments:
The comments section contains brief plot summaries and observations. It is searched by the Keyword field.
Signed or Inscribed:
Signed means just the author's name appears.
Inscribed indicates a message or note accompanies the signature.
Briefly Inscribed means a short note such as, "To Tom and Joan from Bill Shakespeare."
Children's Awards:
We list Caldecott and Newbery Award Books, Honor Books and other books that have major national and international awards.
The Hans Christian Andersen Awards for lifetime work as well as the Bader Numbers, plate numbers from American Picturebooks, by Barbara Bader, can be searched using the "keyword"
category, but will not necessarily appear with every book.
Condition descriptions
Our hope is that you will be pleasantly surprised with the book's condition when it arrives. We observe conservative AB condition guidelines, long the standard of professional booksellers. Internet descriptions for the large online databases require more assurances of nice condition and our newer listings reflect this changing style. However, whether or not we have stated straight or unmarked, you can trust that any deviations from the standards below are stated.
Our more recent online condition descriptions contain few abbreviations, but you will still see these abbreviations in our paper catalogue.
In a traditional condition description, the book itself is described first, the jacket is described after the slash. VG/G indicates a Very Good book in a Good jacket. V/O means that we are sure the book was issued with a jacket and that jacket is not present.
Books have been published with protective jackets since the mid 1800's, but we indicate a missing jacket with /0 only on modern books, approximately from 1930+, depending on book design.
F= Fine. Completely clean without tears or wrinkles, only differing from As New by its age and its having been opened.
NF= Near Fine. Some minute defect of interest to collectors only and clearly stated, i.e., very light rubbing on a corner.
Unless requested, neat inscriptions and price clipped jackets are only noted on N or NF books.
VG= Very Good condition. Often unmarked, no tears, but signs of having been read. VG books may have an owner's name, light edgewear
and tiny bumps to corners or spine ends or minor wrinkles, all specified.
A dust jacket may have minor edge tears or chips and rubbing on spine
ends if it is clean and bright.
G=Good condition. Not broken, any major tears are specified. May
have name, soil, wrinkles, hinges starting, bumped and worn corners,
edges, and spine ends, or some combination thereof. Jacket may have
edge tears, chips, rubbing, soil, with any major flaws specified.
Selection hint: A 4" closed tear is more presentable than a 1" chip.
We also have Fair, Poor and Reading Copy books. We stock very few books graded Fair or less, although some books have Fair jackets. Jacket remnants are mentioned but are not calculated into the book's price.
Book Clubs, including Junior Literary Guilds, Remainders and ex-library books
do not have permanent collectible value. We mark the latter clearly
in our descriptions and price accordingly.
Condition of Ex-library Books:
We comment on the degree of "ex-librariness" using the
following descriptors: few marks, some marks, usual marks, and heavy
marks, although there are so many variables that this just gives a general
idea of what to expect. We carefully selected our ex-library copies, in most cases ones with clean title
pages, tactful discard stamps, and no pasted-down flaps. Most ex-library
books do have tape stains on the boards and library stamps on the
edges, which are not mentioned.
Processing:
All books with jackets are covered with clear polyester jacket protectors
(most of them of archival quality). On all but rare books we mend jacket
tears, using small pieces of acid free document repair tape. Early collectible
books are protected with stiff, transparent archival mylar covers.
