"Stella Bugbee" is inscribed on the inside flap. The previous owner, I suppose. There's a designer by that name, but I don't know if it's the same person.

I gleaned this book a few blocks from my Brooklyn apartment just yesterday. It’s a beat-up hardback copy (sans dust jacket) of a Playboy compilation of interviews, fiction, reportage and humor from the era when Hefner put out a great publication that attracted the best writers. This collection features work from Woody Allen, Murray Kempton, Joyce Carol Oates and Vladimir Nabokov.

One brief, interesting piece from 1971, “World 42-Freaks 0,” recounts conservative author Garry Willis’ visit to a Canadian commune, where he mostly found “dope, dirt and self-indulgence.” An excerpt about a drug deal gone awry:

“A car door slams–Tony, back from taking Dani to the city. His hair is short, the Army crew cut still growing out: his tanned, thin arms are scribbled over with ‘good ole boy’ unsophisticated tattoos. His eyes light up at the sight of two motorcycles, and he kicks one off into the field, wheels slipping as he bangs off thin deciduous trees, then races halfway up the incline till the loose grass and leaves throw him, laughing crazily. the motor kicks and coughs itself to rest on the ground.

‘Bombed out of his head,’ Al mutters. ‘He was supposed to deal some dope in the city, but he got high on the first batch. Well, it always happens. When people first come over the border, they have to stay high for a couple of weeks before they can get themselves together.’ Tony deserted last week, when his company was preparing to ship out for Vietnam. ‘That mean we’ll have nothing but rice and salad for dinner tonight.'”

More Gleanings:

• Ed Ames LP. (1972)
• Railroads in the Days of Steam. (1960)
• Major League Baseball All-Star Masks.
• The Great American Marble Book. (1972)
• Assassination Vacation.
• Revere T-700D Reel-To-Reel Tape Recorder. (1955)
• DeJur Model 750 8MM Film Projector. (1955)
• Black Pioneers of Science and Invention. (1992)
• Eating in America: A History. (1976)
• The Myth of Solid Ground. (2005)
• Janlynn Counted Cross Stitch Kit
• Journal of Gastronomy. (1990)
• Ron Mueck catalog. (2003)
• Best American Crime Writing 2005.
• Gertrude Stein’s Picasso.
• Marshall McLuhan and Virtuality. (2000)
• Granta: Ambition. (1997)
• Introducing Wittgenstein. (1999)
• LSD, Man & Society. (1967)
• “Pepino, the Italian Mouse.” (1962)
• Guiness Book of World Records. (1983)
• Last Train to Paradise. (2003)
• Palmistry for Everyone. (1952)
• Roland Barthes’ The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies. (1979)
• Studs Terkel’s Working, Pt 1 and Pt. 2. (1972)
• A Genius in the Family. (1962)
• The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. (1972)
• Vogue Dress Pattern. (1950)
• The Ballad of the Green Berets LP. (1966)
• O Congress. (1972)