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Every year, as predictable as the tides, the seasons, or arguments over the Book Prize shortlist, some magazine publishes an article celebrating the practice of shelving books by color, spawning a brief but passionate flurry of rebuttals, think pieces, and social media posts weighing in on this (either supporting the "well-established" or "dubious practice" positions). One thing this annual cycle of outrage and aesthetic justification has shown is that people do enjoy their books for more than purely intellectual reasons, and shelving books by color appears to be a far more popular and persistent a practice than previously suspected.
With the onset of Fall, it seems a good opportunity to try a little virtual shelving by color ourselves; so, here's a selection of interesting books in many genres spotted on our virtual shelves that you might wish to place on a fall-themed orange/brown shelf of your own...
When the Leaves Begin to Fall (Pamphlet)
by C.A. White
Boston: White, Smith & Company. Good. 1881. First Edition. Pamphlet. A waltz with a bright chromo-lithograph pastedown illustration of a couple embracing. Sewn binding , some soil, tears, and worn corners. Charles A. White, composer and owner of the publishing company, is credited with writing over 1000 songs. Only one copy found on OCLC. ; 14" x 11"; 9 pp .
Offered by Back of Beyond Books.
by Eric Protter (Editor), Illustrations & dust jacket by Edward Gorey
New York: The Vanguard Press, Inc, 1965. Hardcover. Near fine/very good. Gorey, Edward. Octavo size, 286 pp. A collection of horror stories featuring a diverse cast of monsters, "Monster Festival" brings together short works of fiction by masters of horror such as Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe (including "The Tell-Tale Heart"), and Arthur Machen. This edition features a dust jacket and illustrations by the inimitable illustrator Edward Gorey (1925-2000), whose distinctive style is evocative of a mystical, gothic Victorian era; his vast body of work includes over one hundred books written by himself, as well as those by many well-known authors such as T. S. Eliot, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, H. G. Wells, and Virginia Woolf (n. b., info from the Edward Gorey House website). His illustrations for this volume contain an eery quality, showcasing his signature pen and ink style with deep splashes of red in each drawing. As of this writing, there are no other jacketed copies of this book available online.
DESCRIPTION: Quarter orange cloth with burgundy cloth boards, gilt line drawing on the front board, gilt lettering and illustration on the spine, top edge stained red, red endpapers, title page with black-and-white illustration by Edward Gorey, full-page illustrations in black and red, and chapter headpieces in black and white, by Gorey throughout; octavo size (9.5" by 6.5"), pagination: [1-12] 13-286. In a paper dust jacket with illustration by Gorey in brown, black, and white with red and black lettering on the front panel, red and black lettering on the spine, a list of the stories in the book on the rear panel, a description of the book on the front flap, and author and illustrator bios on the rear flap.
CONDITION: Volume is near fine, with clean boards, straight corners without rubbing, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; head and tail of the spine very gently bumped, some sunning to the edges of the boards, else fine. The dust jacket is very good, clean but for light soiling to the rear panel, with bright colours on the front panel; it is price-clipped, the spine is sunned, with light overall edgewear.
CITATION: Toledano no. B25. Due to the dust jacket being clipped, we cannot state with certainty whether this is a first printing, but it seems likely.
Offered by Swan's Fine Books.