The Magic of Julia Child

During an adventurous cleaning of the garage this weekend, I was frequently out of breath from bending over and lifting. These old lungs just don't work like the used to. As a result I had to rest a lot, and we have a chair in the garage, where i relaxed to catch my breath. While sitting there I was perusing our over stuffed garage, something no couple of 28 and 29 year olds should have. We shouldn't have so much crap at this point in our lives but we do. It is due to hobbies, massive amounts of medicines that are stored in the garage, inherited crap, things from our parent's garages' (from our child hoods), decorations, and our need to hold on to stuff, because we might need it later (and we usually do at some point). We also inherited stuff, from my grandmother, my mom's house during their move, and my mom's friend Virginia who moved to the east coast to be taken care of by her family.

Virginia allowed us to pick over her stuff, and i found some great things, and of those things, a variety of old, interesting, and unique books. At the time we put them in a box, and then eventually put them on a bookshelf in the garage, we just don't have room in the house right now, but books are special, and worth keeping. Well, while i was resting my weary lungs, i was perusing the books on the shelf and noticed a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. I took it off the shelf and realized it had never been opened. It was old, and wrapped in plastic. I had noticed it once before, but just forgot about it in the craziness that has been my life for the past 6 months.





I learned from my mom's love of antique road show, DON'T OPEN IT. In my head i knew i could not open it, for it would decrease the value. So i just left it, not thinking too much of it, except it was pretty cool to have something like that by an icon.

Fast foward to Monday...

I mentioned to my mom that i had found this book in the garage, and something within us got excited about it. Could it possibly be a treasure hidden in the garage? My lack of excitement these days gave fuel to my ultra excitement about the possibility of this book being a hidden gem. My mom has found numerous things that she also got from Virginia that were worth something, and i was told that she was a book collector and knew what she was looking for.... COULD IT POSSIBLY BE?????





The excitement started to bubble, and i told my mom to go get it from the garage. That is when the frenzy began. I googled it and saw that people were selling first edition, first printing versions of the book in more of a worn condition for anywhere from $2000-1200 dollars. NO WAY!!!! My little brain started to go wild!!!! I couldn't simply look inside to solve the mystery because it was perfectly wrapped in plastic... how could i tell??? We continued to look up the book, different info about it, we noticed that the book did not say "volume 1" on it, and this indicated to us that it was indeed possibly a first edition, printed BEFORE a volume 2 would even be thought of. The picture of the dust jacket matched the ones in the pictures. I just felt like it could really be something special. How could we tell???? We figured, lets talk to someone who knows books, so after a few calls to used book stores we learned that we needed to head to Bells Books in Palo Alto, to talk to Faith, she would know. She didn't come in till 3pm, so we had a little bit of time to get things done.




Once shopping was done and things put away (thanks to my wonderful mother) we headed with the book to Bells books. We fantasized about how much it could be worth. Could it really be a treasure, what if it is just a dud? Oh well, we won't know until we know.... We got to Bell's books at about 320. We got there and Faith was busy talking to someone else, and couldn't be bothered. They told us to come back later, they didn't know enough about this book to help. They said she would be back again on Wed, but to make sure to call before we come in. DARN.

We were so excited to find out. We realized the bottom line is -- how can we possibly tell what the book is worth if we can't open it? BUT if we do open it -- we might depreciate the value. But how to tell? We racked our brains the whole way home. We thought if we open it then it will be worth less... but it isn't worth anything if we don't know what it is! I finally made the executive decision to open it. We would be very careful and re-wrap it the best we could once we knew.

We made sure to document the entire process. I carefully used a knife to slice the top, and i slid the plastic down. I must admit i was pretty nervous. How stupid would we feel if the book is a dud? But how exciting would it be if it really is a FIRST EDITION, the first printing of the book? We just HAD to know. The cover came down slowly and even though it was old, surprisingly came off in once piece. It was unwrapped. HOLY CRAP.... it was like Charlie in the Chocolate Factory and unwrapping the chocolate bar to maybe find the golden ticket....



From all the research we did on the Internet we learned that what we really really wanted was it to say FIRST EDITION, printed in August 1961.

I opened the first page...... Taking a deep breath......
It said....



1968!!!! DARN.

I looked further and realized it was the 17th printing. Initially I was a little bummed, and just wrote it off as just an old book, but after the buzz wore off i thought about it further. It was still a first edition, still possibly collectible. It wasn't the cash cow i thought it might be... but still, it was published before the Volume 2 was created... maybe worth something?



I did some more research today and it looks like maybe, just maybe I could get 300 bucks or so for it. That is obviously only if someone wants it, and wants to pay that... i think i will pursue it further to find out the possible value. Still, even though it isn't the holy grail of antique roadshow finds, it was still an exciting adventure and could be worth something... How exciting.

I must say that i will cherish that experience. It was a real live treasure hunt. The lesson is that the fun is in the experience and not just the result....

Should i realize that about this whole waiting for transplant? The waiting and the hunt for the lungs is the best experience? NAH, i think the holy grail of the lungs is what i am truly waiting for.