Thursday, January 12, 2006
More tools for the aspiring bookseller
Buying and selling used and rare books hinges on knowledge. What to buy, how much to pay, how to price books to sell, what is worth something to someone, and what is worth nothing to anyone, at any price. For great sources of book-knowledge, subscribe to Firsts and to Fine Books & Collections. Read them cover to cover! The former is on modern first edition collecting, and has in-depth articles on individual authors, with bibliographies and market values for collectible books, and often entire issues about certain genres of fiction. The latter has everything from auction news and book reviews to columns by Nicholas Basbanes and, this month, Paul Collins. Plus many pretty color pictures of books. Yum. Both magazines are class acts and give readers a real sense of what's happening in the world of old books. The advertising is good too, for antiquarian book fairs and individual dealers. The more knowledge you can soak up in this business, the better your chances are of recognizing a good book when you see one.
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Thanks so much for the advice! Someday my collection is going to need a little pruning. Although, not a hardcore collector or bookseller like yourself, I'd say my two very nice 1900 editions of Leaves of Grass, published by David McKay, would bring my best return. A close second is perhaps my 1930 Random House first of Moby Dick illustrated by Rockwell Kent in really nice condition. I'm curious what is or was your best sale/buy?
Steven
Steven
# posted by 
: 12:02 PM
: 12:02 PM
One of my best buys ever was a fine first edition in fine jacket of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman." It was a dollar at a local library sale. I priced it at a thousand dollars and took it to a bookfair. Sold it quickly, for less than that, but still, for a great price. Wish I could do that every day, or even every month! I've had other great buys, but I've usually paid much more for the books... The best single sale I've ever had was in the middle four figures, for an early nineteenth-century world atlas with hand-colored maps. Again, why don't they turn up more often? Oh yeah, they're RARE.
p.s. I love Walt Whitman. I have two early-ish editions of "Leaves of Greass" myself, one to read and one to save because it's a lovely old thing.
Ditto on Whitman. For reading, it is my prestine heritage edition illustrated by (who else?) Rockwell Kent. One of my fav's from Calamus:
THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING.
The prairie-grass dividing, its special odor breathing,
I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
Demand the most copious and close companionship of men,
Demand the blades to rise of words, acts, beings,
Those of the open atmosphere, coarse, sunlit, fresh, nutritious,
Those that go their own gait, erect, stepping with freedom and
command, leading not following,
Those with a never-quell'd audacity, those with sweet and lusty
flesh clear of taint,
Those that look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and governors,
as to say Who are you?
Those of earth-born passion, simple, never constrain'd, never
obedient,
Those of inland America.
THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING.
The prairie-grass dividing, its special odor breathing,
I demand of it the spiritual corresponding,
Demand the most copious and close companionship of men,
Demand the blades to rise of words, acts, beings,
Those of the open atmosphere, coarse, sunlit, fresh, nutritious,
Those that go their own gait, erect, stepping with freedom and
command, leading not following,
Those with a never-quell'd audacity, those with sweet and lusty
flesh clear of taint,
Those that look carelessly in the faces of Presidents and governors,
as to say Who are you?
Those of earth-born passion, simple, never constrain'd, never
obedient,
Those of inland America.
# posted by : 6:03 PM
: 6:03 PM
Years ago I used to read "Leaves of Grass" on the bus (on my way to work at a new-book store) and would try to keep myself from weeping over his beautiful words. I wasn't always successful.
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