LA BIBLIOTECA MODERNA

So I had what?  Over 600 Modern Library books? 

I pulled out all the duplicates and thought I might take a portion of the collection with me, but what to take?  What to leave behind? The duplicates were no indication of what I really had and it didn't make any sense to cart the rare stuff all over creation.

The whole collection is now nestled in cardboard, sleeping safely in storage. There are many striking covers that deserved scans, but I limited myself to three early titles. 

Dracula belongs here, and Native Son. The Sun Also Rises and Nine Stories and Invisible Man. Anything by E. McKnight Kauffer or Paul Galdone or George Salter.

ALGREN UP AND NO PLACE TO GO

I don't know where you stand on Nelson Algren, but I like the guy.

His novel The Man With The Golden Arm won the very first National Book Award, back in 1950. I'm not crazy about Otto Preminger's adaptation with Frank Sinatra, but how can you not love a protagonist named Frankie Machine? He plays cards, he plays drums, and he's addicted to morphine. Talk about a monkey on your back.

Of course, Algren is also known for his affair with Simone de Beauvoir, his relationship with the city of Chicago, and his novel A Walk On The Wild Side, an inspiration for one of Lou Reed's best-known songs.

The Neon Wilderness (Doubleday, 1947)

The Man With  The Golden Arm (Doubleday, 1949)

A Walk On The Wild Side (Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1956)