Julius Rosenwald wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on Ed Gertz.Concurrently, Chicago was in the midst of bitter Taxi Wars. The taxi business was still developing, wholly unregulated, and competition amongst growing cab companies and independents was fierce, endangering drivers, riders and pedestrians who had to dodge the pack of cabs that would descend upon potential fares en mass with contesting drivers invariably getting into fights. Poppy supplemented his income working as a schtarker – muscle - for John D. Hertz, whose Yellow Cab company was asserting dominance.In his youth, Hertz (b. Sandor Herz, Slovakian Jew) hung out in...
"Sex Life of a Cop" Chows Down Big Donuts at Paperbacks Show for Record $
Saber Books SA-11, true first edition, first printing. In 1959, a trashy paperback was issued by Saber Books. Thirty years ago, when I began to take a collecting and scholarly interest in soft- and hardcore erotic pulp literature, if I paid 50¢ for it I was under the influence of something.Yesterday, I saw a very attractive copy of the true first edition, first printing of Sex Life of a Copy by Oscar Peck (pseud.), Saber Books SA-11, at the Paperbacks Show in Mission Hills in Southern California.The asking price was $200, a record for this book. Ten years ago, copies...
The Biggest Jew in Chicago
The following six-part series is excerpted and adapted from The God and the Ghost: Two Grandfathers, a work in progress.*** The author's grandfather, Edward M. Gertz, c. 1949.My father dreams about his father. Dad’s ninety. Poppy’s been dead for thirty-four years.In these dreams, Dad and Poppy, both adults, have a great, feel-good father-son relationship, man to man, as equals. Things were not, in reality, quite that way. Poppy’s shadow fell over my father like a sheet of lead. A long sheet, too: I’ve spent most of my life wearing it as a suit that felt great to have on but when...
The Man Who Taught da Vinci How to Play Darts (and Trumped Galileo)
Titlepage to De unius legis veritate et sectarum falsitate opus utilissimum y perspicacissimum. “Monti! Monti! Monti!”The awkward, manic indecision of of a Let’s Make A Deal contestant as channeled by George Carlin?No, just a simple exclamation asserting who wrote about the relative velocity of falling objects first, Galileo or Pietro Monti?Monti Hall Who?Warrior, scholar, theologian, and noble, Petrus Montius aka Pietro Monti (c.1457-1530) was a Spanish master at arms living and studying in Northern Italy who wrote volumes on military theory, martial arts, and science and nature, all of which are obscure, quite rare, and have only recently come to light....
Irish Rare Books, MSS, and Art Auction a Real Corker
Naomh Pádraig (387-493).Saint Patrick banished snakes from Ireland. Fortunately, he allowed bookworms to stick around.Oh, Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From Jimmy Joyce to William Butler Yeats...Beginning today, March 17, 2010 - St. Patrick's Day - Irish bookhounds and hounds of rare Irish books, art, and eiriana - or simply those blessed with the luck o' the Irish - can get a sneak-peek at a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow when Bloomsbury - New York previews The Irish Sale, to be held next Tuesday, March 23, 2010, presumably to allow hangovers ample time...