An educational and informational site about rare, old and antiquarian books.
Sotheby’s sold Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925, at an auction last month for $377,000 including buyer premium. The lot was traded at the high end of the estimated value, signifying the fact that rare book investors and collectors will pay premium prices to acquire top quality books. This particular […]
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On September 1, 1939 4:45am Central European Time, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein leaves Danzig harbor to cross the channel to the Polish army fortress Westerplatte while German Wehrmacht begin crossing the border into Poland. It is the beginning of World War II. At the same time across the Atlantic in the United States, two partners […]
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Dust-wrappers (or “dust-jackets” as they are often called), are the detachable book coverings that have been regularly used by publishers in the English-speaking world primarily British and American, since the early part of the nineteenth century. Publishers have been using them as protective devices and containers for advertising media, biographical information about the author, blurbs, […]
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As the world excitedly anticipates the completion of the long awaited for film, The Hobbit, ample credit towards the remarkable rare book whose story inspired the film is certainly due. While the book is not only a classic favorite in rare book literature, it is also significantly valuable in the rare book market, which […]
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One Hundred years ago, a young American author by the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs, wrote his second story, “Tarzan of the Apes” for the pulp magazine All-Story Magazine. The publication paid $700 for the work, which was enough to send Burroughs the message that he could quite possibly make a living as a writer. […]
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Have you ever wondered how an author becomes the writer of one of the rarest books of modern literature? One thing for certain is that the author must be a pretty good writer and story teller to attract a large following and favorable critic. Limited publication can also help, but that usually is secondary. A […]
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A modern first edition’s value is very much dependant on its dust jacket (dust wrapper or dust cover.) A very desirable copy should not only come in its original dust jacket, but the condition of its wrapper should be in relatively mint condition. The dust cover consists of the detachable outer covers usually decorated with […]
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The incredibly rare and desirable dust jacket to the first edition, first printing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, has definitely seen some better times in the past. Specifically, a copy that sold at a Bonham’s auction in New York on June 10, 2009, for $182,000. Last October 20th, 2011 however, the celebrated art […]
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Ask any rare book dealer – “how’s business” and the response may very well be – “slow but steady.” Regardless of whether selling books on-line or through bricks and mortar outlet stores, the nature of the business is not very volatile with peak and valley type of activity. It is a business that can never […]
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