It’s the moment we bibliophiles dream about: walking into a bookshop, yard sale, flea market, thrift shop or antique shop and finding that rare first edition, or signed copy or limited printing, of a title you never really expected to find. And all the better if it’s by a favorite author! It rarely happens but you know it could happen. And that possibility keeps you coming back again and again. (My psychotherapist wife might want to start talking about “intermittent reinforcement” but no need to go there.) I’ve always loved books and though I am certainly a reader, the physical object of the book itself is very much a part of what draws me to books. I was 12 when I pulled a two volume Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature published in 1848 out of a trash at church. I still have that set prominently displayed in my library. Although these weren’t the first books I owned, this marked the first time I acquired books as an act of book collecting. I’ve been collecting books for 50 years now and my library has grown to 8,000 volumes and counting.
It wasn’t until I was 19 that I first discovered C.S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia. For a year I worked a job that often included 2nd and 3rd shift with nothing to do but read. And read I did! After Narnia I moved on to the The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce. And then I found Tolkien, Hobbits and Middle-Earth! Of course, as so many of us know, once you pursue the writings of Lewis and Tolkien, you are going to run smack dab into George MacDonald. I have a poor memory for the specific details of a story and I’m no academic or intellectual, but I knew what I was reading was important. I read Phantastes, Lilith, At the Back of the North Wind, The Princess and the Goblin, The Princess and Curdie, Malcolm, The Marquis of Lossie, Sir Gibbie and many more. Lewis, Tolkien, MacDonald; I couldn’t teach a class or write an essay on their works, but I know these stories went deep inside and helped shape who I am. Falling in love with these authors gave my love of books a focus. Collecting their works is more than just the act of acquiring books for their physical appeal. Their gift for taking eternal truths and weaving them into wonderful stories brings depth and importance to what could otherwise be just a costly hobby.
The first thing I check for when I go out of town for work or vacation is whether there are used book shops where I am going. For decades now I have been a regular customer at dozens of Half Price Books stores which are found in about 20 states in the USA. While primarily a remaindered and publishers’ overstock book shop they also buy and sell used books acquired from the public and I’ve found enough little treasures in their stores over the years to keep me coming back whenever I can, always with the thought that maybe, just maybe I’ll find a treasure today.
My wife and I spent the night in Indianapolis on a recent weekend where our company holiday party was held. With time to kill before the party I suggested to my long-suffering (non-collecting) wife that maybe we could spend some time in the large antique mall near downtown. She willingly indulged me and we spent an hour or two looking through the booths. No book treasures but a beautiful little mahogany bookcase left with us.
The next day after checking out of our hotel we wondered what to do with the rest of our day, maybe just head for home? Knowing I had probably used up my book-shopping “allowance” for the weekend after dragging Elisha through the antique mall I only half-heartedly suggested a stop at Half-Price Books on the way home. (It’s not actually on the way home but let’s not quibble.) The response was not an outright no but let’s just say, having been married for 42 years, I discerned the best destination was home and headed that direction. Of course my darling wife has been married for 42 years too and because she knows her husband (and is long suffering) she suggested that yes we could stop at the bookshop if I really wanted too. And so, we were off to Half-Price Books. The Half-Price Books stores all have a small nostalgia section with older and more valuable books. It’s always the first section I visit but honestly, I almost never buy anything from the locked cases holding the “expensive” books. I didn’t expect anything different on this visit.
And then, there it was!
The Princess and the Goblin, 1871 First American edition, custom slip-case, $500!
Oh where are my reference books when I need them? The case was unlocked for me and I inspected the book under the watchful eye of the bookseller. It had once been in pretty poor condition but someone had spent a fair amount of time and money restoring the binding and several of the pages and creating a very nice custom slip-case. “Hmm, let me think about it, thank you.” (Translation: let me walk over here on the other side of this bookcase and Google this book and figure out if it really is a first edition and what it’s worth.) Yes, this really is the First American edition, predating the first British edition by one year. Two copies on-line, one dreadful copy for $1,100 and one pretty nice copy in Boston for $2,500. Who in the world sold this rare book to Half-Price Books? If I don’t buy this book I will forever regret it! “Thank you, I’ll take the book.”
I’m thrilled to have this book. I read this story to my children when they were young. It’s a beautiful story and high time I read it to my grandchildren. As I entered the book into my library database the thought crossed my mind that it would be awesome to have a first edition copy of the companion book The Princess and Curdie to go with this acquisition. With a chuckle I acknowledged that was unlikely to happen. But, of course the perfect ending to this story is that as I rearranged the books in my MacDonald collection to make room for my new treasure I discovered I already have the first edition of The Princess and Curdie. It has been quietly sitting there on my shelf for several years waiting for its companion to finally arrive.
