An inscription that I can sink my teeth into

Sometime late last year my mom gave me a book that she had gotten at one of the places she volunteers at. This has become a fairly regular occurrence in recent years, but this particular book was a bit older than the ones she usually finds for me.

Being sans dust jacket, one would be hard-pressed to identify the title just by looking at the "cover". Book nerds may recognize the publisher's logo though.

A simple turn revealed the title... "Racul" 😆 by Bram Stoker. 

The book has clearly been read a few times over the years, but some hide glue will do wonders for the binding (provided I can ever find any).

The Modern Library was undoubtedly trying to cash in on the renewed interest that came about thanks to Universal's film adaptation of Dracula that was released the previous year.

I have a less than desirable paperback from the 80's, so this was a considerable upgrade. 

The book itself was a nice surprise, but the proverbial "cherry on top" is that it was inscribed...

"November 5th 1935

To Hazel Reid

From

Everett Howell"

That might seem innocuous enough, but given the title, the year in which it was given, and that it was being given to a woman is quite interesting. These days, nobody would think twice about giving a woman any particular book, but things were still different (better?) back in '35. Hazel must've been quite the woman. I'm also infinitely curious as to the relationship between Everett and Hazel. Were they friends? School chums, perhaps? Relations of some sort? Or, as I would like to imagine, was Everett courting Hazel? If so, again, she must've been quite the woman at the time to be the sort who would be receptive to receiving such a book.

I have done some cursory internet sleuthing, but with no location mentioned, it'd be quite the task to locate either of these folks......

---------------------------- Update -------------------------------

I wrote the first part of this post back in March, and then, obviously, never published it. Well, now three months later I've come back to finish it. Before hitting the publish button, I thought I'd give my search for these folks another go, and am happy to report that I've found them. And what's more, apparently one of my original speculations turned out to be correct, as they got married in 1936, so Everett was indeed courting Hazel when he gave her this book. I can honestly say that now that I know who the book belonged to, and the circumstances in which it was given, this instantly becomes one of my most cherished possessions.

Not surprisingly, both have passed, but if it you're curious to read a bit more about these folks, here's Everett, and here's Hazel. 

------------------------ Bonus content -----------------------

My mom has given me a few more books since the beginning of the year, and seeing as how I haven't posted in a while, I thought might be worth padding this one out a bit more by sharing the rest of those...

This book, and the next two, both came from one of my mom's excursions to McKay's.

I've made it no secret over the years how I feel about cellular phones, but, they do occasionally come in handy, especially when it comes to one person being able to instantly ask another whose a couple of hours away what books they still need in a particular series. And I know that I've already mentioned it in a previous post, but damn do I love these Aubrey-Martin stories. The dialogue between characters almost makes me swoon with giddiness. And all of the esoteric language and phrases are just a thing of sheer bliss. 

Everything from here on came from one of the places my mom volunteers at; which I'm hoping most of you would understand why I'm not publically naming either of. She doesn't get a discount at either place (books are generally a dollar apiece though), but does have access to items before the general public, so in some cases, I guess by proxy that means that I do to. It's been nice, at least as far as books go.

It's funny how I had little-to-no interest in anything sailing prior to starting my genealogy research last year, and now I can't seem to get enough of old accounts/fictional stories set in centuries past.

My mom and I are both fans of Harlan Hubbard, and with the Ohio River being such a big part of his life/work, she thought of him, and then me, when she found this book. And what's more, this particular copy has another nice inscription...

And no, I haven't tried to find these people yet, as I just got it a few weeks ago. As an extra added bonus, this book contains a bunch of ephemera tucked in between it's pages; none of which I've look at yet.

My mom already got me a copy of this book a number of years ago, but that one was minty fresh, and signed by the author, and while I don't collect books, I still didn't want to muck it up so I never read it. This one is definitely a reader though, so I fully intend to finally do so.

I wonder if people called Michael are more predisposed to writing about the Hindenburg? If one only had these two books to go by, it might seem somewhat plausible.

I don't usually go to either place that my mom volunteers at, but did go to one a few weeks back. While there, I couldn't help but go through the books. The rest of the books in this post were gotten that day.

I've been spending more and more of my time reading and researching local history, so both of these were must haves. The Cumberland County book is of some note, in that many things of interest (to me) are mentioned in passing, but aren't fleshed out nearly as much as they could've been. I guess those things weren't of interest to the authors.

I'm not reading as much about ancient history as I used to, but this one looked good.

There are a lot of books like this out there, some good, many bad. Where this one will fall is anyone's guess.

My interest in English history wasn't that high before starting my genealogy research. It's grown considerably since then. 

And finally, a biography for a fictional character. I've only read one of the Hornblower stories thus far, but this seems like the sort of book that might actually work better if I read it before reading any more of the original stories.

Oh, and I guess for a bit more bonus content, though not book-related...

I spotted a snapping turtle walking by the patio door last month, likely headed towards either the waterway behind the house, or the pond just beyond that.

By the time I got outside, he, or she, had decided to take a rest amongst the echinacea (which by now is in bloom). Here's the ass end, dinosaur tail and all.

As is always the case with their kind, it turned to face me as I approached. They don't seem to go out of their way to look for a fight, but they're always ready for one if it comes to them. This one wasn't full grown yet, but could still easily take off a human finger with one bite. It should go without saying that I didn't give it a chance to do so; just grabbing a few pictures, and then letting it be.

Ok, no more bonus content for today, I think this was enough, as I'm trying to ease myself back into blogging after taking a few unplanned months off.