Like any field of endeavor, the rare book trade has its quirks and rituals, its habits and history, its jargon and secrets. Unlike some other trades, book dealers have never been afraid to commit their secrets, memories, and insights to paper. There are many, many fascinating and educational books detailing the inner workings of the rare book trade. We polled some dealers and collectors and arrived at this list of the top ten books every book collector should read.
Let's start with the more-educational books:
1. ABC for Book Collectors by John Carter
The classic reference work on book terminology. First published in 1952, the current edition (the 9th) has been updated to include terms spawned by the internet and -- for the first time -- illustrations! With subtle wit and humor, first John Carter and now Nicholas Barker unpeel the layers of meaning from phrases that -- although once more-common -- now appear terribly obscure outside of rare-book circles.
Firsts Magazine has been the premier publication in its field for more than 30 years. Now published bimonthly, it is an invaluable resource for book collectors. Firsts provides an entry into the entertaining and enlightening world of book collecting. Whether you're just starting out or a collector of many years' standing, you'll find something of interest in every issue. Comics Price Guide was the first online price guide for comic books back in 1995. From our humble beginnings, we have grown to the largest, most complete comic book price guide with well over 1,000,000 comics in our database. We have values for any Marvel, DC, Image, IDW, Darkhorse, or Dell comic book that is in your collection.
In a field where it’s essential that buyers and sellers understand what they’re talking about, ABC for Book Collectors is an excellent guide to our common language.
Well known to book collectors and booklovers, our site is an excellent resource for discovering a rough value of an old book. AbeBooks has been part of the rare book world since going live in 1996. When searching on AbeBooks.com it's important to find copies that match the book in your possession as accurately as possible.
After one learns the terminology used in the used book trade, the next thing one needs is a guide that can help you determine whether the book you have come across might of particular value and/or interest. While an acquaintance with an experienced rare book dealer is the best way to access this kind of information, there are several good books that ABAA members and serious collectors keep on hand for constant reference.
2. Collected Books: The Guide to Values by Allen and Patricia Ahearn
Written by ABAA members Allen and Patricia Ahearn of Quill and Brush, Collected Books: The Guide to Values contains information on some of the most widely collected books, provides notes on discerning one edition from another, and guidelines on typical prices for collectible copies. Noted book collector and rare book expert Nicholas Basbanes (about whom more below) declared 'If any single item can be considered essential equipment for today's book collector, it is Collected Books ...this richly informative reference volume offers authoritative guidance for every manner of bibliophile, from beginning bookhunters to hard-core veterans...'
3(a). First Editions: A Guide to Identification by Edward Zempel and Linda Verkler
As every publisher seems to use slightly different means to identify their first editions, a reference book that collects and comments on these practices is vital. Many professional booksellers keep Edward Zempel and Linda Verkler's First Editions: A Guide to Identification on hand for this purpose.
Another identification guide worth pointing out is:
3(b). A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions by Bill McBride
The great virtue of this book is its small size. You really can carry it around in a pocket and pull it out to confirm if the book you’ve stumbled across is a modern first edition or not. Great for exploring used book stores on vacation, yard sales, and other unexpected opportunities to acquire old books.
(Do you need more than one identification guide to modern first editions? Possibly not, but I've never met a book collector yet who said 'one book is enough.')
Beyond the reference and identification guides, there are many memoirs and nonfiction books exploring the world of rare books and the mindset of the bibliophile. Perhaps no writer has made this beat his own as much as Nicholas Basbanes, author of many books on book collecting and the history of the book. We’ll pull just one of these to the fore because it’s a perfect introduction to book collecting:
4. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books by Nicholas Basbanes
Both a “timeless classic” by a charming raconteur and a fascinating work of history for those of us who love old books, book-selling, and the quirky characters who populate the antiquarian book world, A Gentle Madness“captures that last moment in time when collectors pursued their passions in dusty bookshops and street stalls, high stakes auctions, and the subterfuge worthy of a true bibliomaniac,” according to its publisher.
Critics and collectors agree, with Michael Dirda writing in the Washington Post that “A Gentle Madness is chock-a-block with such strange and appealing characters, each more wonderful than the last. On nearly every page Basbanes neatly profiles similar dreams, dedication, and sometimes sheer biblio-lust. Nicholas A. Basbanes has compiled a wonderful gallery of eccentrics, isolatos, charmers and visionaries an ingratiating and altogether enjoyable book.'
If you’re a recent convert to serious book collecting, you need to read Basbanes to understand just what you’ve gotten yourself into. (After this, read Basbanes' Among the Gently Mad.)
5. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
Described as 'probably the most famous bookselling novel in the English language' by ABAA-member Oak Knoll Books, Parnassus on Wheels is a novel about a young women who buys a travelling bookstore and her adventures thereafter. Published in 1917, the book was popular enough to demand a follow-up, The Haunted Bookshop(1919). When this list was originally published in 2015, there were many voices raised lobbying for the inclusion of Parnassus on Wheels, which is impressive for a book that's over 100 years old. That oversight has now been remedied!
6. The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski
An essential and enthralling book about the development of the book as a physical object from scriptoriums to the computer age. Petroski is an engineer, and brings a very practical eye to the development of the book as a physical object, and the influence it has cast on the development of the furniture and buildings where one stores and uses books. Books could have evolved in different ways, but Petroski helps us to understand why they achieved their current form.
7. Obelisk: A History of Jack Kahane and the Obelisk Press by Neil Pearson
“Everyone with an interest in literary history will enjoy Pearson's narrative” wrote the Guardian’s Nicholas Clee in his review, and it’s easy to see why. Obelisk Press was founded by Jack Kahane (father of Maurice Girodias), who set out to profit from scandalous and notorious books in order to publish writers he championed, but knew would sell only modestly (Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Cyril Connelly, Lawrence Durrell and even James Joyce). A fascinating character, Kahane was described by one journalist as “a quite bizarre blend of ultra-sophisticated, avant-garde literary entrepreneur and, by the standards of his time, pornographer.”
Pearson’s book is part-exhaustive bibliography, part a biography of Kahane (a short one, as Kahane and Girodias were careful to destroy correspondence and the press’ paper trail), and part a digressive collection of stories about writers, booksellers, and minor literary characters in Paris between the wars.
(Digression: if you are interested in the 'lost generation'/publishing in post-WWI Paris, other fascinating books include: Shakespeare & Company by Sylvia Beach and Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties by Noel Riley Fitch. But skip Maurice Girodias' dull memoir unless you really must read everything.)
8. Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper by Nicholson Baker
Just when you thought your collection was focused and under control, along came Nicholson Baker and got everybody all worked up about the destruction of newspaper archives and distrustful of libraries.
9. Penguin by Design: A Cover Story, 1935-2005 by Phil Baines
Allen Lane's Penguin Books had a huge influence on the book trade on both sides of the Atlantic over the course of the twentieth century. This volume charts the development of British publishing, the ever-changing currents of cover art and style, and the role of artists and designers in creating and designing the Penguin look. If you are interested in book design, this is an essential volume. (Honorable mention: If you are into Penguin Books, you simply must read Penguin Special: The Story of Allen Lane, the Founder of Penguin Books and the Man Who Changed Publishing Forever by Jeremy Lewis.)
10. The Adventures of a Treasure Hunter: A Rare Bookman in Search of American History by Charles P. Everitt
The late William S. Reese’s hilarious review of this “no-holds-barred” memoir of a lifetime in rare book trade between the late 1800s and the 1940s won me over with his first line: “Bookseller’s memoirs are a variegated and somewhat suspect form of literature. It is hard to find the right balance between anecdote and the nitty-gritty of prices, between tales out of school and platitudes. It helps, of course, if the autobiographer outlived most of his contemporaries, and so felt less constrained in what he has to say about them.”
Book Collectors Price Guide
For humorous insights into the history, practices, and mindset of the bookdealers of a much earlier age, The Adventures of a Treasure Hunter is a delicious piece of history and gossip.
Also recommended:
On Paperby Nicholas Basbanes
Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Busbee
Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer
Used and Rare by Lawrence Goldstone
Modern Book Collecting by Robert A. Wilson
Living With Books by Alan Powers
When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
Book Collector Mystery Series
Printer's Error by Rebecca Romney
No doubt we’ve still left off many favorites or undeservedly obscure classics. Please share your favorite books about books or book collecting in the comments below or on our Facebook page...
The easiest way to know how much your copy of a book is worth on the open market is to check on how much similar copies are currently being offered for.
Fill out this form with enough information to get a list of comparable copies.
Book Collectors Mn
You probably don't need to include every word of the title and author's name. A couple of words from the title, and the author's last name are generally enough to get a list of matches. Filling out too much can cause you to miss a copy that was listed slightly differently from what you are using.
Find Copies of Your Book
You can narrow down the search results by selecting the filters in the search results to see only Hardcovers, First Editions, Signed Copies, etc.
A few things to keep in mind:
- Condition means everything in a book's value. A book that has significant damage is likely not worth much. A book collector wants an attractive copy.
- Dust jackets. Most hard cover books published since the early 20th century were sold with a dust jacket. The dust jacket is both the most decorative part of a book, and the most delicate. A missing dust jacket, or a dust jacket that is in poor condition, can cut a collectible book's value more than 50%, and make it harder to find a buyer.
- Make sure that the copy you have matches the copy that is being offered.There are a number of ways that a book may, at first glance, look to be a rare collectible, but upon closer examination doesn't match up.
- Reprint editions: Some publishers specialized in reprinting popular works in affordable reprint editions. Publishers such as Walter J. Black, Sun Dial, Triangle, Collier, A.L. Burt, and Grosset & Dunlop, to name just a few, would use the printing plates from the original publisher and reprint works long after their popularity was established. One way to check if your copy is a reprint is to compare the name of the publisher on the book's spine to the name of the publisher on the title page. Reprints will often have the original publisher's name on the pages in the book, but the book binding will identify the name of the reprint publisher.
- Later printings: Publishers don't use any standardized systems for identifying a first edition. Each publisher uses their own individual system to state a first printing of a book. Even the words 'First Edition' aren't a guarantee. Publishers will sometimes forget to remove the 'First Edition' words from the printing history as they go into subsequent printings, and the number line is the only way that you can really know that your copy is a first edition.
Adding to the confusion, publishers will often change the way that they identify first editions. You can buy a guide to identifying first editions to make some sense of the confusion. - Book Club Editions Book of the month clubs often use the same printing plates as the original publisher, right down to the words 'First Edition' on the printing history. You can find detailed help on identifying book club editions here.
- Supply vs. Demand Too many comparable copies currently for sale may indicate a glut in the market. It's harder to sell a book if you have too much competition, and prices for that book tend to start going down.
- Check the range: get an idea of the full range of similar copies currently offered. Don't just settle on the lowest or highest price for comparison.
If you're unable to find a comparable copy on Biblio, try using BookGilt which searches for antiquarian and rare books across the entire internet.
If you do decide to sell your copy, it may be months, or even years before the right collector comes along.
Book Collectors Guide
You might decide to offer your copy to a reputable local bookseller instead of selling it on your own. A professional bookseller can give you an immediate fair offer for your book, but their price will need to factor in the profit they need to run their business, so don't be surprised to be offered 1/4 of the average retail. Their offer will figure in their costs and the time that they expect to have it in their stock before a buyer comes along.