Ranjit Sinhji's 9,000 Elephants Visit Serendipity Books

Berkeley, Calif: Serendipity Books, 1996. First edition. Paperback. New. Ann Arnold. 32 pp. [22 cm]; illustrated wraps, printed on rectos only. Ian Jackson's and Ann Arnold's marvelouslly droll illustrated tale of 9000 elephants visiting the legendary Serendipity Books in Berkeley, California to destroy it; only to find that some other herd of elephants must have previously destroyed the bookshop, given the shop's state of disarray. Illustrated wraps. A limited edition of 500 copies. This little volume represents Serendipity Books as it was for 51 weeks of the year. To visit it (as many once did) exclusively in February, during the week of the annual California ABAA fair, is like seeing a Greek peasant girl only once, on her wedding day.

The facsimile of a manuscript volume by Ian Jackson & Ann Arnold. Inspired by by the Inidan maharaja and cricketer Ranjitsinhji (1872-1933) who was noted for the simplicity of his private life and for the extravagence of his taste in public ceremony. E.C.Bentley published a clerihew about him in More Biography (1929):

"Of course Ranjitsinhji
was quite right not to be stingy
But I never could quite see the relevance
Of his keeping nine thousand elephants