The AGA just got a large collection of Japanese books. The owner, a Southern California mathematician, had been buying them for years, but recently suffered a stroke and other health issues and can't use them anymore. His wife sought us out, hoping the books could find a good home.

My idea is to get some sense of what they are from you guys, then find a buyer (I have one bid already!) and use the money to fund a small go+mathematics college scholarship thing I've been considering doing using Wolfram's software. I don't know whether to sell them as a block or split them up, though the former is strangely tempting to start with.

Tell me what you think...

Some more photographs

A few more

Last photo ... non-go books

Wow, that's an impressive collection. Some of the sets seem to be the Nihon Kiin's dictionary series. I'd be curious what prices you are considering.

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"Those who calculate greatly will win; those who calculate only a little will lose, but what of those who don't make any calculations at all!? This is why everything must be calculated, in order to foresee victory and defeat."-The Art of War

It looks like a great collection. I'd be interested in it as well. I can't translate all the titles now but maybe later in the evening.

Do you have this? http://web.archive.org/web/200905170303 ... ameo7.html it's hard to see somebook sides...

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My Japanese isn't very good but here's a few that I could read. Some of them I might be able to read if I could see them from a better angle/closer, others I just don't know the words.

Edit: I'm not really sure about about the Maeda Tsumego books, they're a little blurry in the photos. Now that I think about it though I don't think there is a shodan tsumego book in the series so that one should probably say Shokyuu tsumego. Also Shokyuu would be the beginner level book, Chukyuu would by the middle level book and, there should be a third one 上級 which would be the hardest of the three.

The 29 books in the first photo are go super books, the series in which many beloved English translations first appeared (fundamentals of go, eg)

If you're going to sell them, a lottery/ silent auction at a tournament might be a more fun way.

For the first photo's middle and right columns, that is my guess, too.

Why guess in the first photo? Just compare with my blog entry on go super books and you can see exactly which ones they are. There are actually 3 more go super books from the original series mixed in the stack in the third photo as well.

The ones on the left in the first photo seem to be a selection of books by Segoe Kensaku.

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Go is such a beautiful game.

This is sort of like where's Waldo it took me a minute to find the Nadare book!

That is an impressive collection. The kind of books the younger generation will never have seen. (I don't think I've actually seen any of these books. Only seen them described on tchan001's books web page.) I would suggest it would make a wonderful core to the AGA being able to establish a lending library of out of print books. The kind of thing that would normally be hard to get off the ground, but with such a start might be easier to establish traction with.

The AGA is always looking for reasons for people to be a member. I think this would be a strong membership incentive. Yes there would be costs, but discussing whether benefits justify costs, and alignment with the organization's reason for existing is just the sort of thing I imagine the AGA leadership is elected to do.

You could balance the interests of Go book publishers with the library idea by only lending out of print books, or charging more to lend in print books. At least some thought would have to be put into this area to prevent a successful go book library adding a greater hurdle to new go books from being published. A balance of some kind could be found.

Once established, I'm sure it would attract more donations over time.

As I assume the AGA has no current practical place (building/room) for a library, I guess it could physically exist as plastic storage boxes in trusted member's attics, with some kind of AGA web page to manage the index/database/book tracking/inventory/issues/returns.

In the longer term perhaps a permanent home could be created for a go book library somewhere. For example, the English Chess Federation placed their collection at Brighton University

So I hope some AGA members here consider this proposal, add detail, and pass on their opinions to the AGA leadership.

{Oops. I wrote this before I discovered the excellent collection at http://www.usgo.org/archive/agajbib.html
It seems to be with the idea of a single copy of each book rather than an active lending library. Still, it is 95% the same idea. }

If the AGA decides to sell the collection as a group, I'd be interested in knowing how and when. In the past I've mostly collected Go books in western languages only [although I bought a nice lot of Japanese books from the Walter Stubb heirs] but a collection like this would be a good way to start expanding into Japanese material.

Thanks,

chiwito

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I'm always looking for any go publications that i don't have, in any western language. Wanna trade or sell some?

I have a few of these books, but I really couldn't give you more information that you can get from looking at them yourself.

Have you decided whether to put the lot up for a bid?

Okay, I am going to put this lot up for bid as a group. Terms are:

1. Pay by PayPal or, if I know you, check.
2. You pay actual shipping including boxing up cost.
3. You have to take _all_ the books!

I have a bid from someone of $600.

You can post replies here or send me PMs, in which case I will post the amount of the latest bid when I get new bids. The bidding will end next Sunday the 29th.

600 for all those babies, thats cheap. I'll think about it!

The bidding stands now at $700.

Keep in mind that the funds will go to a scholarship program...

The bid stands at $1,050.

The owner of the books, Mr. Joseph Z. Yao, lives with his wife in Los Angeles. He was born in a small town in Yu Hang and went to school in College St. Ignace, in Shanghai. In 1947, he won a scholarship to LMU, then went to University of Chicago where he got a PhD in mathematics and a masters in engineering. He taught math at Illinois Institute of Technology, then went to work for Boeing. From 1972 until his retirement in 1992, he worked at an engineer and then chief engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

He was a lifelong devotee of go, chess and bridge, buying thousands and thousands of books. Since it was hard to get go books in the US, he sent $100 or more a month to Japan to buy the newest go books. He studied the books assiduously, even after having a stroke, but further decline in his health means he can no longer use them, according to his wife, Hong-Dan Zheng, so they made this arrangement with the AGA to get the books into the hands of people who could use them.

I guess it's too late, but it seems a shame (and probably less profitable) to put them all in one person's hands instead of at least selling the collection in smaller lots. Better yet would have been to follow the suggestion to put the books into a library, which would have made them available to a much larger circle. But I guess that's work... Oh well.

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