Hmmm...spend time in the garden tidying up or jump in the car for a drive in the countryside that will take us to the opening day of an outdoor flea market? Well, there were also a few outbuildings absolutely crammed with all sorts of junk and treasure. One vendor had tables and tables full of books - they were $2 for 1 or $5 for 3. I found...
...an E. M. Delafield, a Folio Society edition of
The Diary of a Nobody, and a lovely orange Penguin by Ann Bridge.
I don't know how such a lovely book came to be shoved into the bottom of a box full of discarded coffee table books on flower arranging, cooking and paperbacks from the 70s but there it was. And an American first edition at that.
Another irresistible item that I brought home is a pamphlet from the 30s or 40s advertising vegetable compound tablets. Chock full of anecdotal evidence of its efficacy from women laid up by everything from menstrual discomfort, ovarian pain, and lack of energy after the birth of a ninth child. Also included were some cringe-worthy recipes such as...
CABBAGE AND PINEAPPLE SALAD
3 cups shredded cabbage 1 cup crushed pineapple
pinch of salt
Moisten with salad dressing to taste and mix lightly with two forks. Serve on a lettuce leaf. Sprinkle with paprika if desired.
Pass your plate if you're interested....or brave.
What a wonderful haul - the Delafield jacket is so stylish. (I love reading those awful recipes: at least this one omits jello and tuna!)
ReplyDeleteHaha, oh there were several dishes featuring jello that made me shiver! One had you make jello and just before it sets you whip it into a fluffy cloud with a beater and add, oh I don't know...mayo or something like that *gag*. But jello and tuna..that's cause for a case of the shivers!
DeleteWhat fun! Isn't it great to find such treasures buried and forgotten among a bunch of other unwanted items? Glad you could give these books a new home, and I look forward to hearing about the Ann Bridge book (I'm in the middle of Illyrian Spring right now and wondering whether her other novels are similar).
ReplyDeleteOh Illyrian Spring is wonderful! Rachel of Book Snob fame sent me a copy, she was on a bit of a campaign to advertise it in hopes of a reprint. Fingers crossed!
DeleteYou know what? I would probably eat that salad. It sounds miles more palatable than some of the vegetable and jello combinations I've been presented with in the past.
ReplyDeleteAnd those books, what wonderful finds! I adore that Provincial Lady cover.
Oh Claire, you made me laugh! I remember a Brownie luncheon when just a young thing and the amount of wobbly things straight from a mold sitting along the long stretch of tables...blech. The next time you find a head of cabbage and a tin of pineapple in your kitchen at the same time you know what to do with them!
DeleteBut the paprika just takes it to the next level! :) I like your finds! Ann Bridge is new to me (meaning I've read just one) and I'm looking forward to more.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it just?! Some of the recipes remind me of Lettie's from The Vicar of Dibley...peanut butter and anchovy paste filling in a cake. Well, okay, perhaps the salad isn't quite that bad.
DeleteWhat larks. There's nothing like a flea market or garage sale to find the really rare and lovely editions, since used book stores are either of the Danielle Steele and John Grisham persuasion, or know the value of the rare ones (and of course, that's only fair).
ReplyDeleteThis is clearly Provincial Lady Acquisition Day, since I've just come here from Simon's blog.
You are so right, Susan! Oh the number of shops I've walked into and swung right around when I spied the rows of bodice-rippers lining the walls. The hunt is quite a lot of fun most of the time though!
DeleteWhat a stylish cover, Darlene.
ReplyDeleteShe's not looking very provincial in that image, is she!
DeleteTesting a profile pic issue, Mary.
DeleteWhat wonderful finds - lovely books and lovely editions. I have the same edition of The Portugese Escape, and I really must get back to that particular series of Ann Bridge's books soon.
ReplyDeleteAnn seems to be picking up in popularity these days. Since my travels won't include anything very exotic this summer perhaps it would make a nice 'escape' for me...and maybe you too, Jane!
DeleteI love that Provincial Lady cover ... I'd buy it just for that! Books as Art! I have the original hardback of The Portugese Escape (who's a lucky girl, then?)
ReplyDeleteIs Jello what we call Jelly (the stuff you buy and dissolve in boiling water?) We call that Jelly. And I think what we call Jam (fruit preserve) you call Jelly?
I will pass on that cabbage & pineapple dish!
Jello (it's a brand name) is Jelly but Jam is the same here in Canada as you refer to it in England. Americans tend to call it 'jelly'.
DeleteI've offered up the Ann Bridge to Book Snob so she's a lucky woman too!
I've never even seen that PLIA cover before, how lovely!
ReplyDeletePretty snazzy, isn't it! I'll tell my husband it's going to you should I ever get hit by a bus or succumb to malaria.
DeleteHahaha!
DeleteUgh I think I'll skip the salad! But sooo envious of your Provicial Lady in America! K x
ReplyDeleteIt does sound horrible but then again - remember a delicious bowl of parsnip and pineapple soup I thoroughly enjoyed a few years back while in Stratford?
DeleteGood haul! That is a very nice edition of Prov Lady in America.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly was a lucky day. Oh the thrill of the hunt!
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