Acquisitions, June 6-12

Another fairly quiet week. Well, I am unemployed -- have to watch the cash and all. (Next week is the last week I'm being paid severance for -- I cut my expenses way down as soon as the severance payments started, but moving onto my unemployment benefits will take me into a new phase.)

• James Thurber, My World -- and Welcome to It (Harvest pb) (Book Store)
• Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure (Oxford pb) (Half Price Books)
• Richard G. Lillard, Desert Challenge: An Interpretation of Nevada (Bison pb) -- When I lived in Las Vegas for six months, I actually taught Nevada History, as well as the U.S. Constitution, at a local two-year college -- both those courses are required to be taken at Nevada colleges, under state law. Every night, I had to teach myself the Nevada history I was lecturing on the next day! It was kind of fun, I must say, and as a result I still have a real fondness for the subject. This book is one of those that I started but didn't finish at the time -- the time pressures I was under were intense -- and I'm looking forward to digging into it again. Film scholar David Thomson's In Nevada, which I did finish, is another excellent book on the state. (Amazon, used)
  
• Richard D. Altick, The Scholar Adventurers (Macmillan pb) (Amazon, used)
• Michael Scott, Tom Cringle's Log (Owl/Heart of Oak Sea Classics pb) (Amazon, used) -- Early 19th century British sea fiction.
  
• Robert Rosenblum, On Modern American Art: Selected Essays (Abrams hc) -- On the clearance shelf at Half Price Books.
  
• The American Literary Naturalism Newsletter, Volume 3, Nos 1-2 -- An unexpected benefit of joining the Frank Norris Society.
  
• The James Fenimore Cooper Society Newsletter, Volume xx, No. 1 -- I belong to the James Fenimore Cooper Society, too. If I could afford it, I'd belong to a hundred of these single author/artist/composer societies.
  
• Dick Haymes, Love Letters (Memoir LP) -- I picked up three Dick Haymes reissue LPs in pristine condition from a British collector for about $3.00 on Ebay. The Argentina-born Haymes (1916-1980) is an under-celebrated vocalist of the 1950s, necessarily overshadowed by the ubiquitous Frank Sinatra, but with his own mesmerizing style. His version of the Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer "Skylark," on the Moondreams LP, is one of the finest tracks of its era, absolutely gorgeous.
  
• Dick Haymes, Moondreams (Capitol/Pathe Marconi LP)
• Dick Haymes, Rain or Shine (Capitol LP)