Henry Wessell’s Shelfie
This shelf has the end of a shelf of books by women writers, including both editions of Emily Larned’s Thrift Store and Ice by Anna Kavan.
Each year since 2007 at the Endless Bookshelf I have picked a "best book" and they are on this shelf. Some are almost invisible, such as the Lost Tales of Lord Dunsany (2012) and Greer Gilman’s Cry Murder! (2013). I read many books every year and each one of these was a discovery and a delight. Peter Straub’s Wreckage is the latest. Then at the far right is the beginning of a long row of Mark Valentine’s books.
Up top is Tom Disch’s John W. Campbell award for On Wings of Song (1979), which Tom gave me; a straw boater with my grandfather’s Princeton class of 1905 ribbon; and a book sculpture by Robert The, given to me by William S. Wilson, whose collection of stories, Why I Don't wrote Like Franz Kafka (1977), is brilliant. I had one class with him at Columbia, he told me to change one word (he was right), and we were friends for more than 25 years.
Henry Wessells is a writer and antiquarian bookseller. He is author of The Elfland Prepostions (2025), The Private Life of Books (2020), and A Conversation Larger than the Universe (2018). He lives in New Jersey.
Shelfies is edited by Lavie Tidhar and Jared Shurin.
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