When Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" was first published, the New York Times reviewer said it was "bonecrushingly dense, compulsively elaborate, silly, obscene, funny, tragic, pastoral, historical, philosophical, poetic, grindingly dull, inspired, horrific, cold, bloated, beached, and blasted."
If that sounds good to you, we've got a gorgeous First Edition: $3,500.
Who'da thought? -- Arthur Conan Doyle's original name for the world's most famous detective was -- would you believe? -- Sherringford Hope. Who knows where Sherringford comes from, but Hope was the name of a whaling ship that the author loved. In any case, Doyle's wife Louisa thought her husband's name choices were awful and she urged him to come...
Immediately upon the publication of "Ulysses" James Joyce was considered a genius. Like a modern day rock star he was invariably stopped on the street and asked for his autograph. One day, in Switzerland, a stranger walked up to him and said, "Oh, Mr Joyce, please -- May I kiss the hand that wrote "Ulysses?" Joyce looked at him, shook...
How's this for some trivia?
Actual, Original Titles (which fortunately got changed):
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was originally called The Mute
All the President's Men was originally At This Point in Time
The Blackboard Jungle was originally To Climb the Wall
Brideshead Revisited was originally The House of the Faith
Lolita was originally The Kingdom by the Sea
Roots was originally Before This Anger
The Red Badge of Courage was originally Private Fleming, His Various...
It was Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, who was the very first person to suggest putting the title of the book on the paper dust jacket. He proposed the idea to his publisher and -- voila! -- it became the accepted practice from then on. So the one that started it all was Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark.
Fascinating what people say on their deathbeds. The following are true quotes, actually documented by witnesses:
Oscar Wilde: "Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."
Lord Byron: "Now I shall go to sleep. Good night."
Eugene O'Neill: "Born in a hotel room -- and God damn it -- died in a hotel room."
Emily Dickinson: "The fog is rising."
Edgar Allen Poe: "Lord, help my...
First a bit of explanation and a bid for your kind patience. This new site of ours obviously requires hours and hours (if not days and weeks) of adding and refining new titles, current titles, photos, descriptions, etc., and of course nothing is ever fast enough for us. Please, PLEASE bear with us. We’re trying. We’re trying hard. And we’ll...
Welcome to the new enlarged and enlivened website of Mystery Pier (called “One of the Most Important First Edition Bookshops in the United States”). We hope and trust that you’ll find the site easily navigable as well as informative, educational and, most importantly, enjoyable.
Since the shop’s opening in 1998 (a nice long time now), we’ve had the great good fortune...
A must for every L.A. visit ---
Home from home. ---
Mystery Pier has single-handedly turned me into a collector of First Editions -- If I'm lying I'm flying!!! This bookshop possesses great artistry. Harvey & Louis are raconteurs, bon vivant & bookmen of the highest element ---
Wow! Amazing shop! Now I have to learn how to read ---
This bookshop possesses great artistry. Harvey & Louis are raconteurs, bon vivants & bookmen of the highest element.
This shop is so incredible they ought to charge admission ---
I could spend a lifetime here!
I LOVE the shop!
I could spend days here! ---
More a museum and place of treasure than a shop. A dream.
Mystery Pier Books is like the most wonderful museum, except you get to buy the exhibits.
From the moment I walked through the door, I found magic on the shelves of Mystery Pier Books ---
With much gratitude ---
I've been to bookshops all over the world, and Mystery Pier is by far the best ---
I love it here!
I've died and gone to heaven.Here's to a long, long friendship ---
A delight!
