My guilty pleasure is collecting Victorian travel and adventure books. I love that fact that people have loved tales of adventure for hundreds of years. Long may that continue…..Ben Fogle
Up Steve’s alley. He had a fetish for them as a kid.
The Sweet of the Year by Palmer Baker, Jr. Limited Edition SlipcaseNew York, New York. Kevin Begos Publishing, Inc. 1996. Quarto. (10 x 8). 138 pp. plus colophon. Limited Edition. Book number 2 of 250 copies published (although others suggest that maybe 100 copies or fewer were published, but who knows, except the publisher, and he ain’t talking). Signed by Palmer Baker and Thomas Aquinas Daly on the limitation page. With six reproductions of watercolors by Thomas Aquinas Daly tipped-in. Also with six additional stories not included in the 1965 first edition. This is a fine letterpress edition, printed on Artemis paper. With the four-page prospectus laid-in. The book is bound in gray cloth spine with a paper titling label and handmade paper with pieces of flora mixed in. Blue cloth slip case. It’s attractive. Fine in a fine slip case.THE SWEET OF THE YEAR, by Palmer Baker An Exquisite deluxe limited edition printing of this classic in flyfishing literature. Gray linen colored spine with a paper spine label, hand-made paper-over-boards embedded with flower petals, cover label in cutout; decorated end papers; 4to; 138pp; 26 chapters; illustrated with frontispiece. Includes 7 other color tipped-in plates after watercolor paintings by Thomas Aquinas Daly; plain green cloth-covered slipcase; limited to 250 numbered (#37) copies, signed by the author & artist. A special reprinting of Baker’s classic work on fly fishing for trout with an additional 6 stories not appearing in the first edition of 1965. Chapters include: Taking To The Fly; Little Trout; Crazy As A Loon; The River Pools Downstream; Fishing The Wilderness; Back Country; Back To Bass; Angler’s Idle; Masters of ?Deceipt; Mine Enemy, The German Brown; The Leaping Trout; The Sweet of The Year; and many more. Although lists limitation of 250 copies, it is believed fewer than 100 copies were actually produced. A beautiful production by this talented book maker Kevin Begos. This copy is as-new. R. P. Baker, Lawyer and Humanitarian, Dies at 89 By DENNIS HEVESI Published: March 9, 2008 R. Palmer Baker Jr., a lawyer who was instrumental in the creation of a leading cancer research institution as well as organizations involved in criminal justice issues and the treatment of addiction, died on Monday in Manhattan. He was 89 and lived in Manhattan. Mr. Baker s daughter, Mary Baker Eaton, said her father died moments after walking into his doctor s office on the day before his 90th birthday. No cause was given. From 1995 to 2005, Mr. Baker was chairman of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, a Manhattan-based organization with nine research centers in seven countries. It has spent $1.2 billion on research since its founding in 1971 by Daniel K. Ludwig, a billionaire who made his fortune in shipping and real estate. He died in 1992. Mr. Baker, who worked for the law firm of Lord, Day & Lord, had been Mr. Ludwig s lawyer. Ray Palmer Baker was born in Troy, N.Y., on March 4, 1918, one of three children of Ray and Mary Messinger Baker. His father was vice president of Rensselaer Polytechnic. Mr. Baker received his bachelor s and law degrees at Harvard and served in the Navy during World War II, rising to lieutenant commander. Mr. Baker s wife of 50 years, the former Alma Nicoll, died in 1992. Besides his daughter, of Newburyport, Mass., he is survived by a grandson.
Speaking of fun books, I remember this one. A friend had one. It was so unique with flowers pressed into the cover. I have wondered if the writing was good. It is not a book you hear of often.