January 10, 2013

In the land of dwarfs


BibliOdyssey mentioned this one way back in 2008 but I keep coming across it and had to feature it. The scans are by flickr user Tomasz and the book is called... W Krainie Karzełków, which Google confidently translates as "In the land of dwarfs." I can't find a date. 1940s? And the sig... Ajo?


Book collector Arthur van Kruining cleared up the mystery: "This book is of Dutch origin. The title is DWERGENLAND (1923). "Ajo" was the pseudonym of Henriëtte Fox-Borel. Unfortunately her books are quite rare." Thanks Arthur!

Google translates "Dwergenland" as "Dwarf Country." See more Ajo here.

3 comments:

  1. Hey there, I've been following your blog and 50 Watts for quite some time now. I scrolled down to previous posts tonight and saw you were based in Philly. Well, I live in Philly too, and it's good to know there is someone in this sometimes miserable city who is interested in such beautiful things.

    I was just in an antique and book store on 2nd st. in Old City today. I forget the name of it, and it isn't the Book Trader, but the place to the left of AKA Music, have you been?

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  2. Thanks Sasha. I was born ('77) and raised here (Northeast) and plotted my Escape from Philly throughout my teenage years. But since I never left I must like it deep down. You will find some serious aesthetes in the city, though they're probably wearing sweatpants.

    I had visited that store a while ago but had two problems with it: no prices (which annoys me as I'm bad at bargaining) and I feel like I'm going to catch book mites just from browsing.

    I'm excited to visit Port Richmond Books. An Irish guy selling 200,000 books in Port Richmond...who knew.

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    1. Yeah, I do end up sneezing after being there for a while. Port Richmond Books looks great. On their site there is a cute little documentary video about the man who started the store, it's very warming.

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