Do you remember the Fun-at-a-Time book exchange that John from Summer of '74 and I started? Back when I was looking for books to offer from my end of the exchange, I came across a book that was an awesome surprise and I thought would be fun to share with you all.
Full disclosure, I showed this off here once before, but it was a long time ago. I'm figuring I have a new crop of readers now, who didn't see that post way back then. Besides...I was happy to pull the book out and I'm happy to show it off one more time.
Back in the day I grew my library by hunting used book stores and library sales. It was a poor man's way to pick up valuable literature on the cheap. One day while perusing a library sale, I came upon this...
The Maury Wills story. Well-loved, but not beat up, and a bargain at fifty cents.
Then I opened the cover to find this...
Yup, that's Maury Wills' sig, in all it's glory. SOLD!
I suppose folks stumble across signed books all the time. It's not such a rare acheivement. But this is different - to me.
A Dodgers and baseball legend signed this book that probably began as a personal item. It eventually made its way into the library system, and was read by who knows how many kids forced into writing book reports and by true fans who wanted to know the story of a sports hero? It was days away from the scrap pile when I came across it in a "last chance, take it or we'll dump it" book sale.
Now it happily rests in its final home.
Aloha!
Signed books are always cool. My mom had a decent amount at one time, but nothing near as cool as Maury Wills!
ReplyDeleteYup. Wills qualifies as cool :)
DeleteNice! When I was a kid, my mom found Minnie Minoso's autobiography at a garage sale for a dollar, and I was shocked to find Minnie's autograph on the first page when I opened it up! I also recently found a book autographed by Jim Bouton at a thrift store for three bucks.
ReplyDeleteWow, Bouton. Did you see the news about him? He's being treated for brain trouble.
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