My Half-Price Books story from ILPC weekend
A few weekends ago my newspaper staff attended the ILPC conference in Austin. It’s an opportunity for them to learn from professional journalists and award-winning newspaper advisers from across the country, as well as a chance for them to bond and celebrate the almost-over year.
And since BRP is my assistant adviser, it’s also an opportunity for us to do some book-deal hunting at the nearby Half-Price Books.
Austin’s Half-Price Book stores have a much wider selection than my local store, of course, and the particular store we visited always has a grand collection of signed novels and collectibles (BRP calls it his “mecca”). For instance, back in its collections room it has an uncorrected proof copy of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (yours for $700) alongside a first edition of a Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (yours for $6000). BRP was really impressed with an early copy of Ginsberg’s “Howl” while I was (and still am) desperate to find a first edition of John Williams’ Stoner (no dice…probably couldn’t afford it if I found one, though).
We also scoured the fiction section for less-rare first editions and signed copies. I picked up a first edition of Hillary Jordan’s Mudbound. Then I headed over to the end of the alphabet to check what Twain they had – I’m always looking for another copy of A Pen Warmed Up in Hell – and to check on any John Williams novels they might have (answer: none). BRP was there in the same aisle – I moved past him and eventually came to Richard Wright, where I saw an old hard cover edition of Native Son on the shelf. I pulled it down and noticed it didn’t have a price tag , but it did have $10 penciled in on the first page. I took a look at the back of the title page – “first edition” was there, followed by 1940.
A nice find. Native Son is Richard Wright’s seminal work, and one that I read long, long ago. BRP looked at the book and said if I didn’t buy it he would, so I kept it with my others.
When we got back to the hotel that evening, BRP asked to take another look at it. I handed it over to him, and as he flipped it open on the table, he said something to the effect of “what the hell?” causing me to look back. BRP pointed. I looked down – in the pages of the book lay a $100 bill, as crisp as the day it was minted (which was apparently in 1969). Despite being surrounded by my impressionable staff, I couldn’t keep myself from repeating “Holy shit!” a few times. I immediately picked up the book and looked for more bills. Nothing. I shook my fist angrily at God and…no, I didn’t – that would have been greedy.
The Benjamin in question.
I did find a pamphlet inserted in the book, though, that suggested the copy was a “Book-of-the-Month” Club edition. Not quite an actual FIRST EDITION (/angels singing), but, still, a nice find, indeed. Half Price Books, from a particular point of view, PAID ME $90 to take that book off their hands.
The next day BRP and I returned to the store to check the old copy of Wright’s The Outsider that we ignored on our first trip. Nothing. The book stayed on the shelf.
So, now BRP is eating his liver with jealousy, and I’m sure he has his own version of how things went down that fateful day. Ignore him – I’m the one God smiled on that day.
Sidenote: A lot of people ask me if I’m going to “pay it forward” – it’s found money and all that. Hells, no. I’m a public school teacher – I “pay it forward” every day I go to work. The person who put the bill in the book was obviously storing it for a rainy day, and not as any part of a plan to make someone’s day 40 years later.
I spent it on a birthday gift for my wife.
The Lower Frequencies 
Leave a Reply