Wednesday, September 08, 2010

I Own a $500 Book

I would have thought my rarest, most valuable books were my four-volume first edition of the Idylls of the King, illustrated by Gustave Dore (1859).

They're lovely: folio-sized, one bound in morroco, gilt spines, embossed covers, tissue paper protecting each engraving.

Nope.

I own some nineteenth-century dance manuals, a school reader from 1847, a few soldiers' reminiscences published just after the Civil War, a first edition Joyce Carol Oates complete with author signature and slightly tattered dust jacket, and a Margaret Atwood (ditto).

None are as valuable as this book I picked up in my LYS a few weeks ago:

It's now retailing on Amazon for around $500. I've no idea why.

Oh never mind. That was for the hard cover edition. I guess I can't retire as a rich bibliophile after all.

1 comment:

Stephanie Ann said...

:D I love Dore. You have dance manuals and you haven't been sharing! Tsk. Tsk.

I'm guessing that $500 book was written by that sheep, correct?