What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

My dad read me this fiction book as a child, probably early 1950s. I can't remember much about it (I was too little!), except that there's an (old?) man who would collect his tears in a seashell, because he didn't want to waste the salt from the tears.

Ring any bells for anyone?

Thanks,
Daniel

Daniel, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

No responses so far, so still looking!

The Quaint and Curious Quest of Johnny Longfoot, the Shoe King's Son (1947) of Catherine Besterman? Contains black-and-white illustrations.

Quotes from book -- Here Uncle Lucas started to cry bitterly. Heavy tears rolled down his hollow cheeks, dropping to the ground. He bent over, picked them up, put them in a little oystershell and explained, "Waste not, want not. Never waste anything. Tears are very useful as a substitute for salt." | "And he handed Johnny the oystershell to gather the tears because he wanted to store up more salt."

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/wome...

Google Books search -- "his tears in" seashell waste salt

Kris,

Thanks for this find! The quote you extracted rings true, but when I look at the book (thanks for the link, too), I recognise nothing about it – not the title, not the cover, not the illustrations.

Mind you, I was probably only about five when Dad read it to me, and I remember very little from that age; just a few highlights (and 'lowlights'!).

But the publishing date is about right (I was five in 1949), and your quote certainly rings a bell, so I guess this must have been it. (I might ask my older sisters if they remember it.)

So thanks again for your detective work. Mine possibly failed because I didn't enclose any parts in quotes.

Regards,
Daniel

You're welcome. Good idea to show this book to your sisters. It's surprising what siblings remember about our childhood books.

Daniel ~~
Should we mark this as "Solved," or are you still checking things out?
If you want us to keep looking, we will.
If you are pretty sure this is the book, we'll mark it as Solved and shelve the book.

Also~~
You can "bump" your thread every month or so. This pushes your thread back to the top of the folder instead of languishing here on page 199 from six months ago where fewer eyes will see it. Get back in the game! Bump!
You can do this by typing a new comment at the end of the thread, or even by typing the word "bump."
Good luck!

Kate,

Many thanks for following this up!

I sent the book details to my four sisters, and none remembered it (or any book that included an old man collecting his tears).

So really, I'm not sure if this is the book or not. So I'm inclined to abandon further searches, as I think this is as close as we're going to get.

Ok, we'll move this to Solved based on you thinking this is as close as we can get. Of course, if you find a book that is even closer, we can come back and shelve a different book.