First Edition Books - Page 2

I'm intermittently in the market for a 1st edition 2001.

I've liked the idea of book collecting forever. The problem is that I there are many books I want to read, and have to buy, so I just don't get deep in. Not like imatlas.

Like Kai I collect along interests. In my case not much worrying about 1st edition or even about hardback vs trade paper.

So I'm pretty deep in ancient Greece, the beginnings of the science revolution, bronze age civilizations like the Minoans and the Mayans, cosmology and deep time, how myth works, great explorations. Its more like a research library than a collectors library. Then, that is how book collections work.

There used to be a great catalog maker: Michael Thompson Books from Los Angles. He'd send out a catalog titles One Hundred Books every month or two. Each of the books had the detailed book description paragraph, then a paragraph on why I should care about this book. I loved these; I have something like 20 of them. But I haven't seen one in a couple of years; half a decade. His titles were a combination of the history of science, art typography, beautiful bindings, early literature. A typical book might have been: JJ Thompson, The Corpuscular Theory of Matter, London, 1907, $450. I miss these catalogs; more to the point, if they were coming out now I'd be buying many of them.

I collect first edition books. I collect a lot of self-help/business books. I do it, not as an investment, but because I want to hear it straight from the author. When books are republished by many different publishers, they tend to change around the author's words.

On the subject of catalogs: I have a handful from Francis Edwards, in a bookstore Called Quinto Bookshop I stumbled on my last but one trip to London.

I picked up the Naval History and History (catalog 119), and the Voyages and Travel 1597 catalogs.

They are fine, but not in the same class as Michael Thompson. They are more like a listing of what is in the store; no... curation, if you want. But then, the prices are more like 35 GBP, not 350 GBP. I think below a certain price level, I'd rather just handle the books then see a catalog.

Bauman Books in NY puts out the most amazing book catalogs, of the traditional "here are our wares" type. They're beautifully printed with lush photographs of the incredible rarities that they trade in - presentation copies of Victor Hugo first editions and the like.

Their online catalog is certainly worth a peruse.

I've seen them before- yeah, I do love the good photos. Michael Thompson did it all with words.

Bauman Books... isn't there a LA bookseller that is comparable? Heritage Books, perhaps. Yes, I just re-found them on google.

When the prices are in the $20,000 range, I guess you can afford the production costs to make such a catalog.

Hmmm, a signed first edition of Something Wicked This Way Comes for $3k in Bauman's June catalog. Very nice.

Collecting first editions is a very pleasant hobby. One really must find a focus, although the odd volume pops up sometimes that can't be turned down. I don't buy as aggressively as I once did, but I have a fairly large collection of modern firsts by poet, novelist and essayist Wendell Berry plus works by some of the Nashville Agrarians. The treasure hunt aspect of it has disappeared somewhat since the rise of the Internet.

I collected 1st edition literature and art books that caught my eye - sold most now for rare dog books.  Kept a few favourites here and there.  Off the top of my head: Trout fishing in America with the color lithograph by Wayne Thiebaud.  Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (not sure which edition) , a number of signed Bukowskis including a few Black Sparrow Press promo books of poems, Six Fairy Tales with Hockney's orginal lithographs.

 

lefty

I also have a small collection of first edition Charles Bukowsi books as well as some signed first edition by Michael Ondaatje. Haven't really thought about what they are worth...just things I wanted to have.

It's something i'd like to do if i had the bankroll, but alas, I do not, so I stick to my kindle. I'd love to own a copy of mathematica, and some of kepler's stuff. would be tons of fun.

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Well, a signed limited edition of Post Office with the drawing by Buk is worth about 15K. Do you have one of those by chance?

 

lefty

 

 

I wish! But...no signed Bukowskis unfortunately. And the whole bunch of them are sitting in a box on another continent and havent seen the light of day for 15 years. I had actually forgotten about them until this thread.

Despite my age, (just 20) I've amassed a rather large collection of books might I say, I haven't collected most myself but inherited it from my father who was an architect/industrial designer.
Design books sometimes are ridiculously expensive and quite often only printed once, so I have quite a lot of first editions mostly because they are the only editions.

My favorite of all time must be the first edition of the Codex Serpahinius, I also have the single volume edition of that book just because the two volume was deemed to special by my dad.
Other notable's include the first edition of s,m,l,xl with an personal message from mr. Koolhaas inside and a little Italian paperback book about Joe Colombo with his autograph and again a small message accompanying it. Of which I saw a worn out example go for around 730 euros on Ebay. Quite ridiculous might I say.

I don't think I would ever part with any of these books, I've always looked in them when I was younger, even when I couldn't read them, these books (and my father of course) have learned me to appreciate design and architecture.

I try to buy signed first editions I have one or two just really starting out any advice from the experienced on here