Peruse the Stacks

A different sort of list from us featuring vintage mass market paperbacks which run the gamut from sleaze to thriller, science fiction to good girl art. We chose these from a single collection simply for their covers, occasionally content, or just for being in unusually great shape. We think the books speak for themselves, so we've added very little in terms of description. Please enjoy.

Tremendous collection of Hindu and Buddhist texts from the library of American yoga pioneers, Blanche DeVries and Pierre Bernard. These books were acquired by a single owner from Samuel Weiser's shop at its second Broadway location, Weiser likely having acquired them around the time of DeVries' death in the 1980s. We suspect most or all of them were rebound at that point in India by the owner. The group includes manuscripts from DeVries, books inscribed to her, and material from the Tantrik Order in America, Living Arts Center, and Clarkstown Country Club. Though many do not contain ownership marks, we can be almost certain they are all from the couple's library due to the content and chain of ownership. Pierre Bernard (1875-1955) known as "The Great Oom", "The Omnipotent Oom" and "Oom the Magnificent" is widely credited as the first American to introduce the philosophy and practices of yoga and tantra to the American people. Bernard founded his Tantrik Order in America in 1905 or 6, a secret society with lodges at least in San Francisco and Seattle (New Orleans is also listed as a "Supply Depot" on the front cover of its single published journal issue), and later New York. The activities of the order were sensationalized by press partly due to a sexual scandal involving a female student in 1910. The Tantrik Order taught yoga and Hindu philosophy as a blueprint for living, but Bernard is credited with the exaggerated association of tantra with mystical sex in American opinion because of his lodge rituals, sensationalized and not, involving sex initiation, opium, occult practices, blood oaths, and other "iniquities." Around 1919, Bernard opened the Clarkstown Country Club in Nyack, New York where he, DeVries and other prominent guest lecturers would teach yoga and other new age practices to affluent clientele. The 72 acre compound became the birthplace of modern American yoga. Blanche DeVries (1891-1984) moved to New York from Adrian, Michigan at an early age and met Bernard in 1913, becoming a student at one of his Yoga schools. After just a year, she was appointed head of his yoga school for women, and the two married in 1918. She then opened her own Gymnosophy institute, teaching yoga and sensual dance in a five-floor town house. This institute along with Bernard's Clarkstown Country Club in Nyack helped refine modern yoga practice, popularizing the exercise system and Hindu philosophy, especially among women, in America. Around 1938, DeVries opened the Living Arts Center, the first woman-owned yoga studio in the country. Through her teaching there, she helped contribute to a shift in attitude about women's autonomy and sexuality. The books, pamphlets, journals, and manuscripts in this collection all relate closely to the teachings of the two yogis. They represent key influences on DeVries and Bernard's shaping of modern yoga practice and spreading of Hindu and Buddhist belief systems both in physical culture and esoteric thought in America.

A miscellany for the Manhattan fair, heavy on the Beats.

A miscellany for the shadow fair.

An occult/esoteric list, many items with Los Angeles area interest.

...and 1 map for good measure. A list of 25 various flat things, all suitable for framing.

Manuscripts, photos, illustrations, and more.

A miscellany