October 2026

If an angel tells you to do it, it's hard to resist

Visitors to Printed Page sometimes ask if we have any grimoires, or books of spells. We can trace the interest in such books to Britain's most famous occult philosopher, Dr. John Dee, who, in the 16th century, spent a career focused on establishing communication with angels. He sought to achieve this with the help of a scryer-- an intermediary who could gaze into a crystal ball to read spiritual responses to earthly questions. Dee's scryer was Edward Kelley, who operated under the name of Edward Talbot to disguise an unfortunate conviction for forgery. Through Kelley, Dee was finally able to to seek celestial help in interpreting a magical manuscript called "Book of Soyga." The book had 147 pages of incantations, astrological instructions, demonology, lists of lunar mansions, and the family trees of angels. Dee was obsessed with a part of the book that carried a square table of letters, 36 rows by 36 columns, all indecipherable.

Happily, Kelley managed to patch Dee through to the archangel Uriel, and Dee, who recorded the session in his diary, wasted no time grilling Uriel about the meaning of the tables. Alas, Uriel's response was disappointing. "Only the archangel Michael himself can interpret the book," he said through Kelley. Michael was unavailable.

It turned out that Kelley was less of an intermediary than a schemer, and revealed to Dee that an angel named Madimi had ordered Kelley and Dee to swap wives. Anguished by the command, Dee ceased any further spiritual conferences, but only after the swap meet. The two men parted ways in 1589.

-Source: "The Madman's Library," by Edward Brooke-Hitching

This month's Puzzler

On October 17, 1928, this man was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York. He was only six when his father, a musician, deserted the family, leaving him, a younger sister and an alcoholic mother to fend for themselves. Growing up, he found a major escape in newspapers, often spreading the pages all over his living room floor and imagining himself filing stories—especially sports stories—from distant American cities. He was thrilled when, while still in high school, he got a part-time job with his local newspaper, The Long Island Press.

He attended Long Island University for two years before landing his first job as a sportswriter in the mid-1950s. Over the next fifty years, he became one of New York City’s most familiar names—and faces—writing in an iconic, street-savvy way and becoming one of the earliest representatives of what became known as “The New Journalism.”

In his career, he wrote for every newspaper in the city except The New York Times. In the 1960s, he helped to successfully launch New York magazine. He also wrote many bestselling books, including "Can Anybody Here Play This Game?"(1963), about the hapless 1962 New York Mets, and "The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight" (1969), a novel about Joey Gallo and his mafia crime family.

In 1969, when Norman Mailer ran for mayor of New York City, he filled out the ticket by running for president of the New York City Council. Despite an extremely clever campaign slogan—“Throw the Rascals In”—the colorful pair lost the election. He continued his work as a columnist and reporter, ultimately winning a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1986.

Who was this man?

(Answer below)

A bookseller's diary

September 8, 2026

My yearly physical last week concluded with my doctor telling me I was "..in good shape for your age," which I took to mean "don't start any TV series longer than two seasons."

Usually when I hear that expression, it's when reading online sellers' descriptions of books: "good shape for its age" is definitely not accepted bibliographic nomenclature, any more than "stained and missing back cover" is not accepted medical language.

What does "good shape for its age" even mean in the context of a book? If you are 75 and a doctor tells you that, does it mean that if you were in the same shape and you were just 25, they would wheel you into the embalming room? I don't know.

But back to books -- I've learned that "good shape for its age" usually means you can tell it's a book, but one that has perhaps gone through a house fire, has been run over by a buggy, or has had parts of it used for bathroom tissue. It's as if it is to be expected that an old book should be beat up, just as an old person would be expected to be beat up if he was at a Philadelphia Eagles game that they lost and he had on the wrong color jersey.

Anyway, if I were a book, my condition would be stated as VG for "very good," which is one step below "fine" and one above "good," which would describe a person who would not be wise to watch anything longer than a single season of "Survivor."

Best for me to take life one page at a time.

-Dan Danbom

When it's time to sell your books,

Printed Page is where to sell them!

The thing about always selling books is that we're always buying them. We're contantly on the lookout for interestinig books in good condition -- and we think we pay as well or better than anyone else in town, so when it comes time to sell your books, let us know. (Sending us a few photos gives us a good idea of what you have, and saves time.)

And don't forget...
We're on Instagram @printedpagebookshop, where you'll frequently see new arrivals. And we're on Facebook, too -- more Puzzlers there!

Puzzler answer

Jimmy Breslin, 1928-2017

Thanks to Dr. Mardy Grothe for the use of his puzzler. Visit him at drmardy.com.

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