Last week my dad's cousin asked me if I'd like some books that belonged to my late great grandmother, and of course I said yes (as long as no on else wanted them, of course). They arrived the other day and it's been such a trip looking at them- they're by far the oldest thing I own.
Two are cookbooks, The American Woman's Cookbook (copyright 1945) and the other the Blue Ribbon Cookbook (couldn't find a copyright, but there were notes dated 1948).
The third was The Calling of Dan Matthews, by Harold Bell Wright (copyright 1909). I think what I loved most was the inscription- why don't people do that anymore?
And then fourth, The Heath Reader (copyright 1903), a collection featuring authors such as Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Washington Irving, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
While I'm not one for antiquing or anything along those lines, I am excited to add these four books to my collection. It makes me wonder, a hundred or two hundred years from now, where my books will be (I think I'd like them incinerated and buried with me, actually). Not to mention the fact people a hundred years from now may not even own physical books. It's a little sad.
