Sunday, May 24, 2015

A Visit to the Mullzinis

I'm visiting my daughter, Angela, and her husband, Tom, in sunny Sonoma, California.  Today, Art Scott and Bruce Taylor came over from Livermore and Napa, respectively, and kidnapped me.  Sort of.  They said they had a big surprise for me, but they wouldn't say what it was.  They just bundled me into Bruce's Honda CRV and took off for and undisclosed location somewhere in California.  The surprise was a visit to the home of Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller, two great writers whom it was a pleasure to see.  But the real purpose of the visit was the guided tour of the finest collection of crime fiction west of the Mississippi: hardbacks, paperbacks, and pulps included.  I've never seen such great stuff all in one place.  There's no need for me to enumerate things.  If you can think of a key crime fiction title, it was there.  In jacket and signed.  Okay, maybe not all of them, but wow.  Just wow.  And the pulps were amazing.  The paperbacks, too.   At least I own a couple of the paperbacks.  Maybe one or two of the hardbacks.  None of the pulps.  It was tough not to writhe in envy, but I managed it.  Bill, generous to a fault, even gave me a couple of his dupes.  Art and Bruce gave me even more books.  I have small pile of near mint Laser books and some other great crime paperbacks to take home with me.  This was better than the Kayo haul  And when we came back to Sonoma, Tom grilled some New York strip steaks, and Angela had mashed potatoes and salad and butter cake ready to go.  All in all, a great day.

13 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Excellent. I'd much prefer it to my day, and I'm a bit surprised that you've never started gathering pulps. (Then again, two of the nicest and prettiest of my ex co-workers are on vacation with friends in Mexico, and I'd trade days with them, too...but I wouldn't take your steaks nor their bikini snapshots. And the world is grateful.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Pictures! We need pictures. Sounds like a great day indeed.

Jeff

George said...

Isn't great to have friends who love books? I've heard about the legendary Pronzini Collection and you actually got to see it! What a great day: friends, books, and steaks! What more could you want!

Dan said...

I think what you're talking there is Karma.

RK said...

Sounds about perfect, thanks for sharing Bill. You are the man!

Deb said...

What a wonderful day--and what great friends you have!

Mel Odom said...

Wow. I've heard so much about Pronzini's pulp collection. That's amazing.

Rick Robinson said...

Oh to have been a fly on the wall.

I'm hoping we'll see some reviews of a few of the books, and hear more about this. And Art and Bruce: well done, lads.

Bill Pronzini said...

It was indeed a great visit; Marcia and I enjoyed it as much as you did. Hope you'll come back and see us again next time you're out this way.

Matthew said...

Once while I was at my local bookstore, I overheard some talking about how he use to sell books to Bill Pronzini.

Jeff Meyerson said...

Is that the house or a bookstore?

Nice.

I was able to provide Bill with some of his books back in my bookselling days.

Jeff

Kevin R. Tipple said...

How very cool!

Ron Clinton said...

Very jealous...that picture is as close as I'll ever come to seeing that wonderful collection.