David Mason Books

Welcome

Hello and welcome to our new locations on the web and the street! We have a new location in Toronto Ontario Canada at 366 Adelaide Street West, Ste LL04/LL05 M5V 1R9 (see map). The store is open Monday through Friday 10am to 5pm (and by appointment on Saturdays). Our new website is open 24 hours a day. We can accept orders over the phone or via email.
Our phone number is 416 598-1015, fax number is 416 598-3994, email

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Latest eList Now Available.

Our latest e-list is now viewable at: eList #9. This list will always be emailed out before being posted on the website so if you wish to receive the list email us at:

Clarence B. Farrar Library Acquisition

We have recently acquired and are currently cataloguing the library of Dr. Clarence B. Farrar [1874-1970]. Born in New York State, he entered Allegheny College but transferred to Harvard and upon graduation went to Johns Hopkins to pursue the study of medicine. At Johns Hopkins, Farrar studied under several prominent physicians including Sir William Osler. In 1902 Dr. Farrar travelled to Heidelberg where he remained until 1904, studying psychiatry and neuropathology under such luminaries as Kraepelin, Nissl and Alzheimer. Dr. Farrar returned to the United States where he held positions in several mental institutions, including the Sheppard-Pratt Hospital. Dr. Farrar emigrated to Canada in 1916, joining the Canadian army as chief psychiatrist working with victims of shell shock. Dr. Farrar published several scholarly articles in this field as well as examining, with his colleague, C.K. Clarke, "1,000 psychiatric cases of returning Canadian soldiers." In 1925 he was appointed the Director of the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital a position he held until 1947, and also served as a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. However, some of his most valuable contributions to the field of psychiatry were made during his long tenure, from 1931-1965, as the editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Psychiatry, the preeminent journal in this field in the world. We have Dr. Farrar’s complete run of “The Journal of Insanity”, which became the “American Journal of Psychiatry”, from volume 1, no. 1 July 1844 to volume 128 no. 3 September 1971. His papers, of enormous research value, are held in the Archives of the University of Toronto.

The library of Dr. Farrar reflects his profession, containing a wide range of books, pamphlets, offprints and journals relating to all aspects of mental illness, including psychiatry, psychology and addiction; from criminology to sexual deviation to the affects of war on the human mind. Because of Dr. Farrar's position as editor of the American Psychiatric Journal and the respect and affection in which he was obviously held by his colleagues, several of the items are review copies or bear inscriptions to Dr. Farrar.

However, in addition to books relating to his chosen profession, Dr. Farrar was a life long bibliophile with a wide range of interests outside psychiatry, all of which are represented in the library. His lifelong interest in art is apparent, from monographs on individual artists, exhibitions catalogues from institutions and dealers, through several issues of Verve magazine. There are, for instance, many monographs and catalogues issued by the Museum of Modern Art. Dr. Farrar's lifelong interest in history, travel, literature and the classics are widely represented. Dr. Farrar was not primarily interested in literary first editions as such, but the library contains some very scarce 18th and 19th century works in addition to good scholarly 20th century books. It includes items such as finely leatherbound sets of Samuel Johnson, Sir Richard Burton's Arabian Nights ( in one of the scarce Smithers/Nichols issues) and Jane Austen. There are also satirical and illustrated journals in French and German which he no doubt bought in Heidelberg, and Paris as a young man. We have acquired the Farrar library intact, including even his early schoolbooks. There are many books I have not seen before, mostly in very fine condition and often in dustwrappers.

C. B. Farrar was a man of great stature in his profession; his papers reflect the great esteem in which he was held by colleagues all around the world. But for people to whom books are one of the most important cornerstones of society, he personifies those virtues we consider essential to the civilized man: curiosity about everything relating to man, dedication to progress and civilized principles and a great love of learning and books.

It is a great privilege to handle the library of such a man; I only regret I never met him.

Inquiries Welcome

Map to Store

A New Publishing Venture

This is a new publishing company of which we are one of the principals. It was founded to publish polemical essays and an allied series of titles relating to book collecting and the book trade. Later this year we will publish the following:

-A Field Guild to the Works of L. M. Montgomery by Frank and Juanita Lechowick, who are longtime collectors and students of Montgomery's books.

NOW AVAILABLE!
OUT IN PAPERBACK. A Visual History of Gay Pulps by Ian Young. A fascinating history of the code words and images used in early paperback publications so gay people especially young ones living in isolated communities could discover literature relating to their own sensibilities. Ian Young, a poet and long time gay activist, has published widely on many aspects of gay culture; he is the compilier of the standard bibliography "The Male Homosexual in Literature: A Bibliography", Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1982.
Price $29.95

NOW AVAILABLE!
THE RESCUER by Harold Troper.
Originally published in 1999 as "The Ransomed of God" and quickly sold out this new edition contains a new preface by the author. In the new preface the author recounts a talk he gave on the hero of the book Judy Feld Carr on its original publication after which a member of the audience asked him to explain which parts of the story were true and which his invention. The man, on being told every word was true, shook his head in disbelief and walked away. A reading of the book shows how easily one could come to this conclusion. The story is incredible. A Canadian housewife responsible for smuggling some 3000 Jews out of one of the most repressive regimes in the Middle East seems hardly credible but the documented evidence is all here.
Harold Troper is a Professor at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, (University of Toronto) and the author of "None is Too Many: Canada and the Jews of Europe" and others.
Price $24.95

THE BIG LIE
On Terror, Antisemitism, and Identity
by David Solway
Price $24.95

Catalogue 86

Boy's Adventure Stories.

Just issued catalogue. We have some printed hard copies of this catalogue which can be obtained for $10.00 inc. by request.

To download a PDF copy of our latest Catalogue entitled Boys' Adventure Stories, click to launch OR right click and select "Save Target As" to save to your computer.

We are always in the process of creating new catalogues. To have your name added to our mailing list and to view upcoming catalogues CLICK HERE.

Previous Catalogues Available

School Days - A Selection of Books and School Related Artifacts.

To view an HTML version of the Catalogue - click here School Days

To download a PDF copy of our latest Catalogue entitled School Days click to launch OR right click and select "Save Target As" to save to your computer.

We are always in the process of creating new catalogues. To have your name added to our mailing list and to view upcoming catalogues CLICK HERE.