["Diet Book"]
WALKER'S PEARL DIARY 1929
John Walker & Co., London, [1928].

A partly-used datebook, smaller than an arrowroot biscuit, in which an invalid has catalogued his bland meals; the inauspicious final entry (Aug. 3) reads, "Pain about 5:00 o'clock."

<-- front cover, with penny for scale

Browne, D.J.:
THE FIELD BOOK OF AMERICAN MANURES; OR, THE AMERICAN MUCK BOOK [etc.]
C.M. Saxton & Co., New York, 1858.

Animal manures (including human "nightsoil"); liquid manures; vegetable compost; and, most intriguingly, "Gaseous and Imponderable Manures."

<-- title page

Bliss, Charles [with Shirley McNaughton]:
THE BOOK TO THE FILM "MR. SYMBOL MAN"
Semantography-Blissymbolics, Sydney, 1976.

The life work of an optimist who believed he could save the world by creating a "universal" pictograph language, and who subsequently became the subject of a 1974 documentary.

<-- front cover

Heriot, Angus:
THE CASTRATI IN OPERA
John Calder Ltd., London, 1960.

"...strange creatures mutilated in the name of art, but sometimes reaping rewards more glittering than any other singers have achieved..."

<-- front cover

MacFadden, Bernarr:
HAIR CULTURE
Physical Culture Corp., New York, 1922.

A quack's theory on hair health, illustrated with dozens of faintly obscene photos of young models brushing, towelling, massaging, and tugging at their thick manes.

<-- frontis and title page

Tabak, Aelene, and Rochelle Savetman:
CB HANDLES
Dell Publishing, New York, 1977.

Even if you're not a trucker, you can still use these as gmail addresses, pet names, or insulting nicknames for coworkers.

<-- front cover