Books published by publisher J. B. Lippincott

Boom Town Boy takes place in Oklahoma during the oil boom, which began in the early 1920s but continued to bring change and prosperity for many years. It is the fifth book in Lois Lenski's American Regional Series. The Robinson family are farmers in northern Oklahoma, an area called the Cherokee Strip which was first settled by pioneers in 1893. It is a region of high winds, poor soil, and little water. Farming is lots of hard work with little reward, so almost every family dreams of finding oil on their land. Grandfather Robinson is the biggest dreamer in the family, hoping to leave his children and grandchildren a better standard of living. Oil does come to the Robinsons along with excitement, danger and plenty of change for all. Orvie, the eleven-year-old son, is thrilled with all of it but his mother is dismayed as her house and yard are gradually covered in greasy oil while she begins to run a boarding house for workers. A small community moves onto their land, building flimsy cabins and a tent city.

This Peoples Book Club edition has some terrific color endpapers by Paul Laune, and a double page color illustration for the title pages. This is the final novel of the My Friend Flicka trilogy. In this story, Thunderhead, Ken's wild white stallion, has escaped his remote mountain valley and is stealing mares from the Wyoming ranchers. In his band of stolen mares is Crown Jewel, a valuable racing filly. Ken's search for Thunderhead and Crown Jewel takes him through three states. And, for the first time in his life, Ken finds a challenge to his loyalty and fierce affection for his horses. Crown Jewel belongs to young Carey Marsh. With the fates of their horses bound together, it is natural that she and Ken should see a great deal of each other. Before he realizes it, Ken McLaughlin loses his heart to Crown Jewel's captivating mistress.

'V.'' by Thomas Pynchon. NY: J. B. Lippincott Company: 1963. First edition. First state dustjacket. Classic American novel chronicling the whimsical quest of Benny Profane and Herbert Stencil for the mysterious, elusive V, a woman who surfaces in various guises at crucial moments of late-19th century history. Solid, tight copy of Pynchon's Faulkner Foundation Award-winning first novel.

I found this book when I was on holiday at my aunties in the fifties. It was a hot summer, and I would lay on the bed with the window open, lace curtains blowing, and read Onions In The Stew by Betty MacDonald, for hours at a time. I was only eleven years old, but loved the book. As the years progressed I read other Betty MacDonald novels and they are also full of humour, which reminds me of those far off summers when I was a young boy. Of all her books, Onions In The Stew is my favourite, because of the carefree simple life she describes, which is so alluring. She makes you want to go and live in a beach house by the sea, eating fish and searching for firewood on the shore. Her writing about her teenage girls is very apt in today's world when parents have to deal with this difficult stage. I can't recommend this book enough. once you own it you'll want to read it again and again. A big thank you to the publisher for re-issuing these books.

First edition (1963) of what many consider to be the finest American novel of the 20th century. The wild, macabre tale of two men -- one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose -- and "V.," the unknown woman of the title. From the "Noiseless Chatter" blog: "This edition of V. contains different text from all later printings. The reason is that Pynchon changed his mind about a few things after it went to the printer. It's not uncommon for spelling or formatting errors to be corrected in later printings, but in this case they were actually rewritten passages. Oddly, this unique text wasn't discovered until just a few years ago, when Pynchon's novels were being prepared for release as ebooks. Due to the rarity of first edition copies, and the fact that nobody expected anything different there, decades worth of scholarship missed the fact that the V. we were reading wasn't V. as it was originally published." 492 pages. (Note: This book was published before 1973 so it has no ISBN number.)

Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake is a Doctor Dolittle book written by Hugh Lofting. The book was published posthumously in 1948, 15 years after its predecessor. Fittingly, it is the longest book in the series, and the tone is the darkest; World War II took place before the book was published, during which Lofting had published his anti-war poem Victory for the Slain. The book contains passages that almost border on being misanthropic with some very powerful passages concerning war and Man's inhumanity to man.