The first lot of my mother’s cactus journals arrived from eBay, and they are in mint condition. It’s hard to know who the seller is because of pseudonyms used in eBay, but the shipper, according to the waybill, is Richard Pontius of Aromas, California, USA. So, thank you for pristine issues of my late mother’s work. The little package cost me $174.00 CAD. I therefore won’t be able to do this very often, so I hope to rely on Marina’s friends and readers to help restore her lost materials.
A half dozen potential buyers were “watching” the journals in eBay at the time I snapped them up. Hopefully, the watchers will find this web site and be able to enjoy them here, as I gradually put them online. Here is a sample cover from one of them, taken from the illustration at eBay:
Volume 5, Issue 6, March 1994
These lovely paper journals are an average of 40 numbered pages, beautifully typeset (justified) with black and white photos and drawings, printed on 8.5″ x 14″ white paper, with an illustrated ivory cover (numbered in the page-count), folded in half and saddle-stitched (stapled in the fold). Once folded, they are about 8.5″ x 7″, and may or may not have been trimmed by a printer.
The earliest journal of the lot is Vol. 5, Issue 6, March 1994. That means at least five prior years of this particular journal are missing, about 29 issues at six a year, and I hope Marina’s old friends and readers will answer the call to help restore her heritage. (The background to its loss is in my welcome message.)
Great news! The journals and booklets have ISSNs. And I have found them at Worldcat, and traced them back to Canada’s National Library and Archives where I could not find them before. I’ve added a new Library Listings tab on the top menu tab for Marina’s publications.
There is some confusion in the ISSN records, and I think I can see why. Marina published Caudex Booklets as extracts of her main journal, and used the same ISBN, which is a no-no. But, as of Caudex Booklet 8 (see below), a new ISSN appears just for these extracts, which is how it ought to be: ISSN # 1199-0791.
This particular lot from eBay contains the following journals:
Vol. 5, Issue 6, March 1994 (loose pages added to promote the journal)
Vol. 6, Issue 1, May 1994
Vol. 6, Issue 2, July 1994
Vol. 6, Issue 3, September 1994
Vol. 6, Issue 4, November 1994
Vol. 6, Issue 5, January 1995
Vol. 6, Issue 6, March 1995
Vol. 7, Issue 1, May 1995
Vol. 7, Issue 2, July 1995
Vol. 7, Issue 3, September 1995
Vol. 7, Issue 4, November 1995
Vol. 7, Issue 5, January 1996
Vol. 7, Issue 6, March 1996
The Amateurs’ Digest, Cacti – Other Succulents – Caudex Plants
Caudex Booklets
Most of the Caudex Booklets are typeset like the journal issues listed above; but a couple of the early Caudex booklets are a combination of typewritten and typeset.
This particular lot contains the following Caudex Booklets:
– Booklet One of Two Booklets, © 1994
– Booklet Two of Two Booklets, © 1994
An explanation inside the front cover of the first of the above two Caudex Booklets indicates that the material in this pair originates in regular issues of the TAD from the early 1990s:
“This CAUDEX booklet is one of two booklets (not sold separately) which are photocopies of all pages (no advertising) contained in our Caudex section in Volume 3 (when we began featuring Caudex separately) and Volume 4. These were put together for our many members interested mainly in caudiciform and pachycaul plants who otherwise would have to pay considerably more to purchase back issues to have access to the caudex information we provided in earlier volumes. Even if you have our back issues, you may want to have these combined issues which have been newly paged and indexed to give you a quick and easy referece to all caudex plants covered from when we started the special section to the end of Volume 4.”
– Booklet Three, © 1995
The inside front cover of Booklet Three above, explains:
“CAUDEX BOOKLETS THREE AND FOUR are photocopies of Caudex pages from The Amateurs Digest Volume 5 and 6, 1993-1994 and 1994-1995.”
– Booklet Four, © 1995
The inside front cover of Booklet Four above, explains, same again: “CAUDEX BOOKLETS THREE AND FOUR are photocopies of Caudex pages from The Amateurs Digest Volume 5 and 6, 1993-1994 and 1994-1995.”
Next, I have two Caudex Boolets from a trio, one of which is missing.
– Booklet 5 (of Booklets 5, 6 and 7), © 1997
– Booklet 6 (of Booklets 5, 6 and 7), © 1997
Booklet 7 (of Booklets 5, 6 and 7) is missing and needs to be acquired.
The explanation from the inside front covers of Booklets 5 and 6, above, reads:
“This booklet is one of three (not sold separately), containing photocopies of articles from our Digest relating to Caudiciforms and Other Collectibles. These are made available to our members who have a specific interest in these plants so that they don’t have to go to the expense of ordering all back issues to obtain this information. Photographs are photocopies and not the same quality as originals which appeared in our Digest, in order to keep expense to a minimum.”
These three booklets continue a series of similar booklets now making a total of seven booklets in all … as follows: …. Booklets 1 and 2, … Booklets 3 and 4, …. Booklets 5, 6 and 7.”
I condensed that at the end to leave out the price information.
A new ISSN appears as of Booklet 8:
– Booklet 8, © 1999, ISSN # 1199-0791
The explanation from the inside front cover of Booklet 8 says:
“This CAUDEX booklet is the 8th of to date (1999) a total of 9 booklets. These are photocopies of pages contained in the Caudex section of our Digest going back to when we started this special section in Volume 3. Booklets 8 and 9 are from Digest Volumes 9 and 10, May 1997 through May 1999.”
– Booklet 9, © 1999 — is missing and needs to be acquired.
– Booklet 10, © 1999
– Booklet 11, © NO DATE.
CD ROM IS MISSING & WANTED!
In the back of Booklet 11, on page 42 near the inside back cover, Marina is promoting a CD ROM for The Amateurs Digest. So there is a CD ROM for TAD that needs to be recovered. There may be more than one!
– Booklet 12, © NO DATE.
That’s it for the current lot. I also picked up a little scanner at eBay and have to find the drivers to install it. When I do, I’ll begin to scan the little journals and OCR them, and will post them here, as available, on the menu tabs above, by year.
Thank you if you have any of the missing booklets and journals, the CD ROMs, and any other materials you may know about, and can offer a scanned copy, or a pdf booklet.
Kind regards,
Kathleen, Marina’s daughter
Montreal, Canada
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