Ten Most Expensive Books Sold in September 2007

A popular collector's choice, early copies of The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie are in high demand. A signed first trade edition made the list, selling for $4,500 last month.

You can also see the ten most expensive books sold in 2006.

1. The Holy Land, Syria, Idumen, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia
David Roberts (Artist) and George Croly (Writer)
Roberts spent eleven months in 1838 to 1839, traveling and sketching throughout Egypt from Alexandria to Abu Simbel and through Sinai to Petra, Jerusalem, Palestine, and Lebanon. Presented in six volumes, tinted full-page lithographs throughout.

Sold for $8,407
2. On The Various Contrivances By Which British And Foreign Orchids are Fertilized By Insects, and on the Good Effects Of Intercrossing
Charles Darwin
First state with the publisher's catalogue dated December 1861. Very important work, being Darwin's first publication after 'Origin' and the first book he wrote with evidence to support his theory. This is the only John Murray Darwin publication issued after 1859 that was not issued in green cloth.

Sold for $6,842

3. Madame Bovary. Moeurs de Province
Flaubert Gustave
1857. First Edition; two volumes. A choice copy of Flaubert’s unequalled, scandalous novel. Flaubert was unsuccessfully prosecuted on the grounds of offending public morals and religion. The book is now recognized as a masterpiece of world literature, and as the novel most frequently associated with the birth of modernism.

Sold for $6,791
4. British Warblers
Eric Simms
First Edition, First Issue of this birders book from 1985, with 6 coloured plates and 177 illustrations, diagrams, maps and plans in the text. Edition limited informally to 725 copies.

Sold for $5,284

5. Floral cabinet. and Magazine of Exotic Botany
G.B. Knowles and Frederic Westcott
The text provides detailed information about the characteristics of each plant species and a provenance of the plant used in the plate. Hand-coloured frontis. and 137 hand-coloured lithographs (7 double page).

Sold for $5,065

6. Lepidoptera Indica
F. Moore
Massive 6 volume set published 1890-1905. A very comprehensive study of the lepidopterous fauna of India (insects such as butterflies and moths). Exceedingly rare - an extensive run of this important work.

Sold for $5,000


7. The Prince of Abyssinia
Samuel Johnson
A Tale in 2 volumes 1759.First edition, first issue. Johnson's only novel which was written in a single week to raise funds for his mother's funeral. There have since been well over 500 editions printed.

Sold for $5,000
8. Some Recollections of Cricket
Lord Charles J.F. Russell
Very scarce, supposed that perhaps only 12 copies were printed for private circulation only. The author was the sixth son of the sixth Duke of Bedford and President of M.C.C. in 1835.

Sold for $4,822

9. The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie plus The Siegfried
Arthur Rackham, Richard Wagner, and Marg Armour
1910. First trade edition of this rare children’s title. Illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Translated by Margaret Armour. London: William Heinemann, Signed by the artist and dated "10.11.10." With Two Original Signed Pen-and-Ink Drawings by Arthur Rackham.

Sold for $4,500
10. Description of the Spanish seaport Cadiz
Jerónimo de la Concepción
Beautiful engraved allegorical frontispiece by the Amsterdam engraver Johan vanden Avele (ca. 1655-1727). Very rare first and only edition of the history and description of the important Spanish seaport Cadiz by Gerónimo (Jeronimo) de la Concepción (1642-1697). By its strategic location on the south-west coast of Spain and the position of the city on a narrow peninsula forming a natural harbour, Cadiz has always been of prime importance for Spain. Christopher Columbus sailed from Cádiz on his second and fourth voyages, and the city later became the home port of the Spanish treasure fleet.

Sold for $4,167

Ok..just one more short blog

Lately, I've been listening to the news in dribs and drabs. ..On my way into work, on the way home, and sometimes I get a glimpse of the newspaper in between. A few things caught my eye and I stored them behind all the stuff I needed to immediately think about...and then when trying to calm my mind or wonder they appear like annoying mosquitos.

I try to think of rational reasons these things are occurring. I wonder what happened to our reverence, our dignitiy and our respect. Dumm me, I keep wondering.

I try to see things from the point of view of health professionals, public health workers, law makers, government leaders. The more I think about it, the less I understand it.

okokokokkok

first: THis is happening in Canada..not here..but it isn't where, it is why, anywhere?..and it is just another sad example of government run medicine...

There are clinics set up for drug abusers to freely abuse drugs! It is for mostly heroine users, to have a safe place to "shoot up". They provide comfortable chairs, clean needles, sofas and cots in settings set up like salons for addicts to do their thing and visit the land of nirvana for a while and then go on their merry way...and they are welcome to come back at any time. (while you and I are at work)

Guess who is paying for that? Not their mothers, not even the soul searching shoeless wonders themselves, nooooooo...Canada is paying for it. The working people of Canada....if there are any of them left

Can't wait for that to immigrate to America.

When I listented to that report I got a sick feeling in my stomach. A feeling like when someone shots themselves and you hear the gun going off. A feeling of "they've given up". "It's really over". This is how I felt.
First free food and now free drugs and soft couches to go with it.
The thought behind this is that it will cut down on crime and disease and drug seeking people in the hospitals! HA...if I loved drugs and you provided a cozy place and told me it was OK to use whatever I need, I'd probably forget I had a problem and become a never knowing when to leave guest...and then, when you finally needed to ask me to leave, I may just kill someone instead of rob them.
If you put me in jail in the first place or gave me the job of cleaning up the city ..even paying a cop to watch me...would be a better choice. Maybe I'd learn my lesson and if not, at least the streets would be clean.

second: It still seems like lots of people think their trash is welcome in the streets. Trash, newspapers and party debris and animal waste is really not welcome in their houses but the public streets are really an OK to deposit what they no longer want to bring home. Are people really this dum? This ignorant? This oblivious?

I think so..and that is really unbelieveable.

third: Why don't the people walking around with bull horns advertising CHIP, giving out applications and actually coersing people to join up ...why don't they give out job applications, or really help someone find a job or jobs so they can pay their own dam medical bills...so I can spend my money on a cleaning lady for my neighborhood, drugs, liquor or frivolous piercings and tatoos...afterall if I am spending my money on ridulousness than that is really my business but if THEY (the poor, the needy) are spending my money on nonsense I'd like to have a blog to complain about it! Oh some things really do work out.

fourth: The excess weight and scant amount of clothing all on the same person is beyond me. Another way, we've given up.

fifth: Is your daughter 11 and living in Maine? Did you give the school permission to give her contraceptives? 11????!!!!!!
It's free, right? And then you don't have to worry about your daughter having a child too young. Then you don't have to think about her having sex...not even before marriage, what about before she is even a teenager. Without birth control she may ruin her life. Oh my!
If this isn't GIVING THE F up , nothing is....

and I have lots of complaints but I am tired and shaking from thinking about all of this!

We don't want to be parents, we don't want to cover our fat assess (they say they are embracing their big beauty..well they aint pretty and they know it...so it is all a big farce), we want to tatoo ourselves from head to toe and hang rings from things I didn't even know could be pierced, we want fake noses and boobs and big ugly white teeth. We want it all free and oh yea, after your McDonald's lunch or snack, you can just toss your trash on the street on your way to your comfortable heroine fix and the boobs like me will pick it up, pay for your drugs and shake my head until it falls off.

dont worry ...it's almost off...and then you wont have to hear me anymore.

Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins
>
>
> 1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not
show
> up in the standard
> tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell
cancer
> patients that there are no
> more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests

> are unable to detect the
> cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.
>
> 2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's
> lifetime.
>
> 3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be
> destroyed and prevented
> from multiplying and forming tumours.
>
> 4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple
nutritional
> deficiencies. These
> could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
>
> 5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and
> including supplements will
> strengthen the immune system.
>
> 6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and
also
> destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal
> tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
>
> 7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages
> healthy cells, tissues and organs.
>
> 8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce
tumor
> size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in
more
> tumor destruction.
>
> 9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation

> the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can
> succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.
>
> 10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become

> resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to
> spread to other sites.
>
> 11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not

> feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.
>
> CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
>
> a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one
important
> food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar
> substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal,Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame
and
> it is harmful. A better natural
> substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small
amounts.
> Table salt has a chemical
> added to make it white in colour.
> Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.
>
> b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the
> gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus.
> By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk cancer
cells
> are being starved.
>
> c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic

> and it is best to eat fish, and a little
> chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock
antibiotics,
> growth hormones and parasites,
> which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
>
> d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds,
nuts
> and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20%

> can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live
> enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15
> minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes

> for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most
> vegetables including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3
times
> a day. Enzymes are destroyed at
> temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).
>
> e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea
is
> a better alternative and has cancer fighting properties. Water-best to drink
> purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap
> water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
>
> 12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive
> enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the
> intestines become putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.
>
> 13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or

> eating less meat it frees more enzymes
> to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer
> cells to destroy the cancer cells.
>
> 14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac,

> anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals,
> EFAs etc.) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy cancer cells.
> Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed
> cell death, the body's normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or
> unneeded cells.
>
> 15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and
> positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be
> a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a
> stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit.

> Learn to relax and enjoy life.
>
> 16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising
> daily, and deep breathing help to get more
> oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means
employed
> to destroy cancer cells.
>
>
>
>
>

No time to blog!!!!!!!!! Hate that.

I did want to put a little blurb in here about MRSA. MRSA is Antibiotic resistant staph infection. This is becoming a wide spread problem. Death is (can be)a side effect.

Remember the wife of a Philadelphia Flyer who died suddenly after giving birth of an infection that couldn't be treated with antibiotics. MRSA!

Remember the premature babies that died in the ICN from an infection of unknown origin....guess where it came from...after searching for weeks for a source...acrylic nails ...nurses are no longer allowed to wear fake or acrylic nails or even chipped nail polish. It is a health risk and in this case caused the death of more than one baby. (bacteria lives under the nail and no one is capable of keeping it clean)

There are many reasons for this public health threat. One is that our society has become immune to antibiotics from overuse. Another is that the bacteria (staph) has become stronger.

There has been some recent instances of MRSA in schools. This was always the fear...germs spread quick among kids..mostly because they play and don't wash and eat and don't wash and use the bathroom and wash too fast and use equipment that is never washed and is stored in a hot room with other equipment that is never cleaned. Handwashing MUST be 15 seconds and soap needs to be used with warm water. Hand sanitizer can be used but it has to be 85% alcohol in order to be effective...pretty smelling ones don't kill the germs.

Schools are susceptible especially around sports related activites since some equipment is rarely washed and can breed germs that can spread from kid to kid at close contact.

I immediately thought of hockey equipment. My four kids played ice hockey for years and the only thing that ever smelled worse was a skunk spray on my cousin one weekend up in the Pocono mountains. Hockey equipment is big and bulky and doesn't fit in the washing machine. They no longer play but really equipment like that should be wet, doused with cleaner and scrubbed with a brush and then allowed to dry after rinsing.

It is important.

It may save a life.

Of course, other equipment should be washed..I throw football pads directly in the washer and even use some bleach.

Another tip about washing bacteria off of food. I won't bore you ith the 6 page report I read but the bottom line is soaking food in water, giving leaves and stems a rub or brush, and using a tiny bit of vinegar in the water and then rinsing is the best way to clean bacteria off of fruit and vegetables that you will eat raw. Cooking helps.

Wiping your apple against your shirt is only a bit better than not wiping it at all and worse if the shirt isn't clean. That procedure is not recommended...tell that to my 9th street husband who thinks we're all a bunch of paranoid babies. He should know better since he knows the critters that run all around in those big wide open spaces of storage areas...get it?!

And lastly, I've been hearing through the grapevine that the Dept of Health is expecting a bad flu year this year...so get your flu shot. I did...and I ached for 3 days....eeerrrggghhhh!

so..maybe after my aches go away and I get a minute..I'll do a real blog.

lol

SUMMARY: wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 15 seconds, clean sports equipment, get your flu shot and keep your nails short and either completely polished or no polish and no acrylic nails if you take care of sick individuals.

It is the beginning of my third week in orientation and I am exhausted. It is because I am not doing my own thing and driving to japip and back every day....don't they know South Philadelphians can't take long travel. I've been doing much more driving, and longer distances on winding roads and hills. How could anyone live in a house on a slope?

The territory is the Main Line. Philadelphia's elite suburbs: Narberth, Ardmore, Gladwyn, Bryn Mawr, Radnor, Villanova. The houses are unbelieveable. I have never seen anything like it. The other day, we were in a patient's sitting room. It had a lovely huge marble fireplace, 12 large windows, beautiful draperies, 19 tables, 3 sofas, and 12 chairs. Most of the homes are like this...even the smaller ones are beautifully old and rich in character. All the homes are old (I love old homes). It is a very hilly area, in fact, I've been dizzy a bit when walking up and down the streets. The nurses with me are wonderful, they are great professionals who are smart and do their jobs with integrity and sincerity. I feel enriched professionally. The patients are very well informed and their learning starts on a much higher level than my usual/past patients. We actually share information with the patients..we are learning as well. Many of the patients (or their children)are physicians. One was a "big wig" at Penn, another was a scientist/a pharmaceutical researcher, they all play tennis or ride horses or swim or ski. I love looking through everyone's book cases..lots of books, some really beautiful art and lots of great furniture. Only one house smelled of cooking food. It was gravy, too!!!..you know, "sauce"..the wife is Italian (but I think a cook was doing the cooking). All the tennis players are having knee replacements. Tennis is a big favorite. Everyone is white and either Jewish or Protestant (and my one Italian wife). The neighborhoods are very quiet and clean! I miss my colorful patients: the Asians, the Africans, the Spanish, the Italians. I miss the really old patients, too. Most of these patients are much younger (54-72); joint replacements and cancer are the big diagnoses. I did have a little (5'3")Greek, 90 year old man, who was as colorful as a rainbow. He was full of life, poetry (he recited 8 poems for us by memory/long ones), recipes, gardening tips, art and literature discussions and the history of Greeks. Did you know they invented everything? I mean EVERYTHING: the toilet, cement, art, WORDS!!!!oh..no, now I can't remember..And the Italians? They copied EVERYTHING from the Greeks. The Italians were barbarians, savages, beasts! (He apologized for being so frank). HE was adorable. I was there for 2 hours (the first visit paperwork takes forever as it is).

I skipped the gym tonight due to exhaustion. Chocolate helped give me some energy.

It is October!!!!Does the weather fairy know that???It was 89 degrees today. ERRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHH! I really love normal fall, not this hot, dry, lingering summer.

coming soon.......more blogs..........