Wonders of the Internet

It really does make all sorts of global commerce work that would have been just too expensive to do before. I've mentioned before a multivolume travelogue by Leander A. Bigger, Around the World: An Illustrated Trip for Education and Pleasure (New York: Lyceum Travel Bureau, 1916). This was an eight volume set--of which I was missing volume seven.

I acquired this almost complete set when a great-aunt of a friend of my sister died, and we were given first pick at the estate before it was put up for sale. I was in junior high at the time, and I saw this as an opportunity to acquire some interesting antique books. (That was one of your interests in junior high, wasn't it? Maybe it was coming from a family of librarians.) Anyway, I found all sorts of odd books in the collection: a book on palmistry published in the 1890s by one of the big publishers, and The Learned Elders of the Protocols of Zion published by something that called itself the "Christian Nationalist Crusade of Los Angeles" in the 1920s. (Keep in mind the old saw about any academic department that has to put the word "Science" in its name, such as "Political Science," isn't a science.)

I've long wondered where Bigger traveled and wrote about in the seventh volume--and my wife, who has a serious book addiction problem, suggested that I use Barnes & Noble's used book search engine. To my surprise and delight, I found volume seven in good condition for sale by itself--and I paid $23.50, including shipping. It is only slightly worse condition than the rest of the set--if you saw them on the shelf, you would assume that they have been brothers since birth.

Thirty years ago, I could probably have found volume seven--but it would have required a lot of phone calls to used book dealers in a lot of different places--and I suspect that I would not have been able to get it so cheaply.