Books in the city

Happy Anniversary!

Books in the City made its debut one year ago with a post called “Dedicated to the one I love”, honouring the well-written book dedication. Since then I’ve run into a few more good ones and here they are, in celebration of a year in which I’ve really enjoyed the blog!  and hope all of you out there reading have too.

1.
To Leanora:
WE ARE MY FAVORITE STORY

A book called 20th century ghosts caught my eye because the author was named Joe Hill, as in “I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night”, an old song my father used to sing (as did Joan Baez) about the ghost of a slain union organizer. I flipped through the first pages to see if maybe it was a pen name –  and found instead this dedication.

For the pen name, I still don’t know, but think probably so: our very knowledgeable, and very lovely, fiction selector told me he is Stephen King’s son. I’m very tempted to read the whole book, or at least the story “Pop Art” which Christopher Golden, the introducer, says is his favourite, and which opens with these lines:  “My best friend when I was twelve was inflatable. His name was Arthur Roth, which also made him an inflatable Hebrew, although in our now-and-then talks about the afterlife, I don't remember that he took an especially Jewish perspective."

2.
"To Remington Portable No. NC69411".
Cornell Woolrich, author of Rear window, father of noir fiction, alcoholic recluse and tortured soul, dedicated The Bride Wore Black to his typewriter.

3.
Tad Williams dedicated the four volumes of his “Otherland” Science Fiction series like this:

Book 1:
"This Book is dedicated to my father Joseph Hill Evans with love.
Actually Dad doesn’t read fiction, so if someone doesn’t tell him about this, he’ll never know."

Book 2:
"This Book is dedicated to my father Joseph Hill Evans with love.
As I said before, Dad doesn’t read fiction. He still hasn’t noticed that this thing is dedicated to him. This is Volume Two – let’s see how many more until he catches on."

Book 3:
"This is still dedicated to you-know-who, even if he doesn’t.
Maybe we can keep this a secret all the way to the final volume."

Book 4:
"My father still hasn’t actually cracked any of the books – so, no, he still hasn’t noticed. I think I’m just going to have to tell him. Maybe I should break it to him gently. 'Everyone here who hasn’t had a book dedicated to them, take three steps forward. Whoops, Dad, hang on there for a second...' "

4.
“For C.K. Stead who, like execution, concentrates the mind.”
Michael King, Tread softly for you tread on my life. Thanks to Steve Braunias for this one. 

5.
For Kelly (my dedication):
"The Faithful but Unpretending Record of A Remarkable Adventure is Hereby Respectfully Dedicated by the Narrator ALLAN QUATERMAIN to All The Big and Little Boys Who Read It"
H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s mines