> > > We are just lucky I guess. Most of us garb-and-research-types are > book-aholics. She/he who dies with the most books wins the love > and undying > affection of she/he who inherits the books. :-) > Monica
Truer words were never written :-) I have to watch my back around some of my friends who know the books will be offered to them first when they carry me out of my house. Then there are the ones who complacently watch my fabric stash grow to huge proportions (live near two Pendleton Woolen Mills seconds stores and come from Pendleton. At $3.99 a yard Pendleton wool can be cheaper than either dead dinosaur or cotton!). Certainly I have more than I'm likely to use in the next 20 years or so. Fancy sewing machines mean the "new" 1911 Singer Treadle I just got from Good Will with every attachment ever made to that time plus the original manual. Then there is the 1929 Singer electric/hand crank, or the 1960 Touch and Sew, or the 1960 Morris, or the 1981 Pfaff or... (Housemate is glaring and insisting that there are no more sewing machines to come to the house. She doesn't mention the three that she has rescued in the last year - chuckle!) I actually think that the fact that the SCA and it's offshoots in the re-enactment and Renn Faire arenas are the reason why many books see publication at all. Dress in the Court of Henry VIII was eagerly welcomed by David Brown/Oxbow books when Maney Publishing came up with the idea. They knew it would sell like gangbusters, and it has. Maney publishing is eager to hear from the book buying public about what we would like to see and spend money on. The museum in Italy that put out Moda was evidently completely surprised at the way it was received. Rumor has it that there will be a companion volume on male clothing from that same era now they know it will sell. The same is true of books on Medieval and Renaissance cooking and some of the more "off the wall" cookbooks. Who would think that a hardworking Family Assistance program manager would put out $125 for a translation of a 13th century Mongolian cookbook? (Well, the actual sale price was $225 when the idiots got through with messing with the number published and who would buy it but Barnes and Noble made the mistake of sending out a few at the lower price.) The answer is that SCA members and those who have fallen under their spell would. Any market is better than no market and a new generation is growing up that will never think to thank us for creating it. They will think that it's obvious that someone would be interested in the grave finds on the Isle of Man, or the cut and construction of Spanish clothing in 1578. Wanda > _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
