Such was the sign that met the eyes of those who entered Parnassus at Home, a very unusual bookshop on Gissing Street, Brooklyn. Roger Mifflin, the eccentric booklover who owned the shop, only meant that his shop was haunted by the great spirits of literature, but there were more substantial ghosts about, as the story tells. Read the curious adventures that befell after Titania Chapman came to learn the book business in the mellow atmosphere of the second-hand bookshop of this novel. There was mystery connected with the elusive copy of Carlyle’s Oliver Cromwell, which kept on disappearing from Roger’s shelves. Some readers may remember that Roger Mifflin was the hero of Mr. Morley’s first novel, Parnassus on Wheels, though this is in no sense a sequel, but an independent story.
The Haunted Bookshop, $1.75
SHANDYGAFF
This is the book at the beginning of which its author has placed this bit of explanation:
SHANDYGAFF: a very
refreshing drink, being a mixture of
bitter ale or beer and ginger-beer, commonly
drunk by the lower
classes of England, and by strolling tinkers,
low church
parsons, newspaper men, journalists, and prizefighters....
JOHN MISTLETOE:
Dictionary of Deplorable Facts
Published in the war period, “Shandygaff” brought this humorous letter from J. Edgar Park, of Massachusetts, Presbyterian pastor and author of “The Disadvantages of Being Good”:
“This book of Morley’s is absolutely useless—mere rot. It has already cost me not only its price but also two candles for an all-night seance and an entire degeneration of my most sad and sober resolutions. Money I needed for shoes, solemnity I needed for my reputation—all have gone to the winds in this nightmare of love, laughter, boyishness, and tobacco-smoke!”
Shandygaff, $1.75
PIPEFULS
“These sketches gave me pain to write; they
will give the judicious patron pain to read; therefore
we are quits. I think, as I look over their slattern
paragraphs, of that most tragic hour—it
falls about 4 P.M. in the office of an evening newspaper—when
the unhappy compiler tries to round up the broodings
of the day and still get home in time for supper.”
The
Author
“Envelops in clouds of fragrant English many quaint ideas about life, living, and literature ... A belated Elizabethan who has strayed into the twentieth century! These piping little essays are mellow and leisurely!”—The Sun, New York
Pipefuls, $1.75
KATHLEEN—a story