General Fiction – Joan Didion & Isak Dineson

Joan Didion’s novels and non fiction books were well known in the 1970s. Play It As It Lays, was at one time a favourite novel of mine, though it has been years since I last read it. It was made into a film in 1972 and starred Anthony Perkins and Tuesday Weld. Democracy is a later novel (1984) and was a best seller at the time.

Isak Dineson was the pseudonym of Baroness Karen Blixen. Karen Blixen had an unusual life and her stories are unusual as well. They are not conventional in any sense and have a spooky gothic sensibility. Wonderful stuff! I have a good collection of her stories - they are displayed below and are in various paperback editions produced in the 1970s.

Next – Doctorow, Eco & Fowles

General Fiction – Brautigan, Burgess, Calvino, Carter & Cortazar

Most of my Richard Brautigan paperbacks are in Picador editions which I shall get down to displaying soon, but here are two in US paperback editions. The Revenge of the Lawn is a 1972 Pocketbooks edition and Dreaming of Babylon was published by Delta in 1978.

I recall that Enderby by Anthony Burgess as being an entertaining novel, though I have not read it for years. This 1973 Ballantine edition describes the novel as an “hilarious and touching portrait of the artist in middle age”.

Italo Calvino I discovered back in the early 1970s. It was Cosmicomics that first blew my mind, so naturally I continued to collect his books. The editions below are only a few of his books in my library. There are more in Picador editions.

Angela Carter is one of my all time favourite writers. I have an almost a complete collection of her novels and non fiction writings. Below is a 1972 Panther paperback edition of her novel Love.

I can’t really recall if I ever read Julio Cortazar’s novel Hopscotch, in any event I certainly don’t remember anything about it.

Next – Joan Didion and Isak Dineson

General Fiction/Non-Fiction - Paperbacks of the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s

In the main, the books I am about to show here, are a mixture of mass market paperbacks - the small pocket sized variety and larger formats like King Penguins etc. There will even be a few hard covers as well.

I have decided to take it in alphabetical order, starting with A. Alvarez’ book, The Savage God, a rather interesting study on suicide that was a best seller in the 1970s.

Next – Margaret Atwood’s early novels. I must admit the covers aren’t all that inspiring, but then again she did write quite a different sort of novel in her early career compared to her latest novels.

Lady Oracle was my first encounter with Margaret Atwood, and it impressed me enough at the time to continue collecting her books.

Then of course she went on to produce the fabulous Handmaid’s Tale, a wonderful feminist dystopian novel. This edition is a Virago Press edition.

And finally, for the moment – I have other Atwood books on other shelves which I will get to later - Cat’s Eye, also published by Virago Press.

To finish this post a couple of books by John Barth. The Sotweed Factor, with its outrageous plot, was another of those books which were very popular in the 1970s.

The below editions were published in 1972 & 1973 respectively.

General paperback fiction/non-fiction continues in the next post…

General Non Fiction – A miscellaneous selection

I’ve spent the last week since Christmas scanning the fiction shelves on the left hand side of the large bookcase. It was a task that involved unforeseen toil and trouble. I was wondering why I ended up in the evening with a sore throat, then finally realised today that it was the dusty state of the books that was causing this. The shelves, I must admit have not been dusted for over twenty years. This exercise has at least cleaned them up.

Anyway, before I get stuck into fiction, I’ll finish off the non fiction.

First Andre Breton’s Manifestos of Surrealism and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces (which book I discovered in the fiction shelves).

Next – a few books relating to psychology. Ego And Archetype and The One Dimensional Man.

A stray Pelican on Existentialism and The Highest State of Consciousness

Literature & Biography – The Bloomsbury Group, both books by Quentin Bell.

A biography of Oscar Wilde by Philippe Jullian

It has been many years since I last heard Findhorn mentioned, but apparently the community is still going. The New Agers of the 1970s were of course fascinated by its claims of giant vegetables and fairies at the bottom of the garden. Being a new ager of the 1970s I of course have a book on the subject.

And Celtic fairies…

Finally a biography of Marie Stopes and a facsimile of colonial Australian history titled Town Life In Australia.

Coming soon – mass market paperbacks of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Archaeology, History and Mythology

I think it was reading Gods, Graves, & Scholars by C W Ceram that gave me an interest in archaeology. I recently reread it and it is still a terrifically entertaining history of archaeology.

I can’t think of a more appropriately named author than P V Glob for The Bog People.

The Piltdown Men relates to a famous archaeological fraud. And The End of Atlantis by J V Luce

Another book on Atlantis or Mu as it was sometimes called in the 1970s. Also Pauwells & Berger’s The Dawn of Magic.

Proof copies of The Masks of God by Joseph Campbell, rather the worst for wear.

And finally –The Spanish Conquistadors by F A Kirkpatrick

Next – miscellaneous non fiction

Arthurian Britain

After shamefully neglecting this blog from August, I was suddenly overcome with an urge to continue it, as I assure you I have always intended to do so.

It has been bubbling up inside me for a couple of weeks and I’m steeling myself to scan some of the fiction shelves on the large bookshelf whilst I’m on leave over Christmas.

So tonight, I present for your delectation various books on King Arthur and an ancient Britain theme, which obviously fascinated me at one time. I do have an Everyman’s edition of “Le Morte D’Arthur” somewhere or other which will be shown later.

A stray Pelican first, and a few popular titles to complement it.

I can’t say I’ve seen these books around in the stores lately…

Next : Archaeology