Publications
Books, Eh? What Does it all Mean? by David Mason
Toronto: Mason,2023. First edition.
12mo., printed wrappers, (14)pp.
Designed and printed in an edition of 200 copies by Stan Bevington of Coach House Press.
This excerpt, in fact the final chapter of David Mason's memoir The Pope's Bookbinder, has been the part of that memoir most commented on by various readers and reviewers. By kind permission of the publisher, David Mason has reprinted this chapter, "because it seems to me to perfectly encapsulate my relationship with books, both as a reader and a booksellers, over a long life."
To order:
Mailing address: David Mason Books, 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite LL05, Toronto, ON M5V 1R9
or,
Price $12.00
Usual terms to the trade.
ALSO AVAILABLE:
The Colonial's Progress: William Whiteley's
Toronto: David Mason Books,2019. First edition.
8vo., printed wrappers, (30)pp.
Designed and printed in an edition of 300 copies by Stan Bevington of Coach House Press.
An account of the author's pre-bookselling time as a young emigrant to England. Part of a chapter of an unpublished memoir.
To order:
Mailing address: David Mason Books, 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite LL05, Toronto, ON M5V 1R9
or,
Price $17.50
Usual terms to the trade.
NEW PUBLICATION
Brian Fawcett and David Mason Announce Their Latest Publishing Venture
BRIAN FAWCETT
Cultural Appropriation and Misappropriation. An Impolite Enquiry
(Toronto): Time Sensitive Inc. David Mason & Dooneyscafe.com, (2019). First edition.
8vo., printed wrappers, (37)pp. (edition of 300)
This is the first in a series of pamphlets on subjects that need public discussion. We hope to incite both controversy and rejoinder. We therefore solicit fully thought through and written essays of up to 10,000 words.
To order:
Mailing address: David Mason Books, 366 Adelaide Street West, Suite LL05, Toronto, ON M5V 1R9
or,
Price $15.00
Usual terms to the trade.
NP: Aliquando Press, 2014. 1 of 125 copies. Size is 15" x 10 1/2".
A reprinting of an early Eighteenth century broadside on the pitiful lot of the bookseller then. This is copied from the original held by the British Library. We have been unable to trace any other copy and we felt it was worthy of a Twenty-first century revival. Now that the book trade is perhaps more threatened than at any earlier time, Matthew Gun's lament resonates strongly. It has been printed by Will Rueter at his Aliquando Press in Garamond, the display fonts are ATF Baskerville and xiv Century Roman. It's is printed on Hahnemuble white mould made paper. Rueter is one of the foremost designers and private printers in Canada and we are very pleased he agreed to take on the project. This printing is indicative of the quality of Rueter's work and now that we have exhausted our list of friends we offer copies for sale.
Price $50.00
Usual terms to the trade. All material is guaranteed as described. Returns for good reason within 5 days of receipt, with authorization.
The Protocols of Used Bookstores. A Guide to Dealing with Certain Perils Which Could be Encountered in a Used Bookstore.
David Mason.
(Toronto): David Mason Books, (2011). Third edition with corrections.
8vo., printed wrappers, (18)pp. With illustrations.
Originally issued in an edition of 300 copies in September 2011. NOW in its THIRD PRINTING.
Price $10.00.
Usual terms to the trade.
Why Booksellers Die Broke.
The Collected Aphorisms of Earle M. Mason, Banker.
Edited by David Mason.
(Toronto): David Mason Books, (2014).
8vo., printed wrappers, (24)pp. With illustrations.
Price $10.00.
The usual terms to the trade.
Here are a few examples:
- All they seem to ever talk about is buying books. Why don't they try selling one once in a while? They should be called bookbuyers, not booksellers.
- It's not so much that these guys insist on ignoring all the rules of capitalism, it's that they do it so cheerfully. They seem to delight in failure.
- My son's favorite phrase is, "Any fool can sell a book; it takes a pro to buy one." How can a banker deal with idiots like that?
- Booksellers? Don't those guys only sell to each other?
- When a customer actually buys a book they always respond the same: "It was too cheap."
- They're always saying about yet another book "I'd better buy that. I'm sure someone will want it." What that means, I've learned, is that they like the book. They don't really care what their customers may like.
Order your copy today!
Email us at dmbkadmin@davidmasonbooks.com to order.
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.
Now OUT OF PRINT
We have a few copies left available for: $35.00
FORBIDDEN FRUIT: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter by Pearce J. Carefoote.
Forbidden Fruit is fundamentally an apologia for the freedom to read. Author Pearce Carefoote’s principal interest is not so much in the morality of censorship as in its ultimate futility. In a world where freedom of speech, ideas, and religion clash with various forms of fundamentalism, where, post—9/11, democratic societies debate the limits to freedom of speech, Forbidden Fruit calls on all of us to examine the long history of censoring ideas and reminds us that the impetus to ban books is still very much alive.
Many of the works discussed in the book are very familiar and most readers will be surprised to see the writing that has been and continues to be challenged in Western society. While most citizens of a democracy say that they oppose literary censorship and support the freedom of expression, Carefoote provokes us to face some of the thorny questions of modern censorship: Where do we stand when the nation’s largest bookseller decides not to carry Hitler’s Mein Kampf? How do we respond when a high school teacher has been disciplined for assigning The Merchant of Venice in a public school? Or when the only bookstore in a small town decides not to carry The Satanic Verses for fear of reprisals? Or when certain magazines and novels, fall into that grey area between literature and pornography. Ironically, it is the Internet, as Carefoote points out, that may finally force governments, schools, and families to talk about what is appropriate for reading and viewing and what is not–and, more importantly, why.
Now OUT OF PRINT
We have a few copies left available for: $35.00
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
