• Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2017 Issue

Popular Print: Fearless (if subjective) Forecasting

A 2016 ad for a comic book auction house displays SOLD prices from $120,000 to $625,000.

“By the shore of Gitche Gumee,

By the shining Big-Sea-Water,

At the doorway of his wigwam,

In the pleasant Summer morning,

Hiawatha stood and waited…..”

 

When my father was a child in the early years of the 20th century every school child knew Longfellow’s Hiawatha, and - oh best beloved - had read and re-read Kipling’s Just So Stories. The best seller lists of those years were populated by authors with three names like John Kendrick Bangs, Gene Stratton Porter, and Frances Hodgson Burnett. His own personal favorite in the three names department was James Branch Cabell, and though I still have my dad’s own copy of Jurgen, it’s been a mighty long time since I’ve cracked the covers.

 

The Hundred Million Club

 

A hundred years later, in the summer of 2017, it’s doubtful that most of what the last century admired in printed word will survive the crossover into the digital era, much less remain popular, collectible or go up in value in our own day. With that in mind, there's no time like the present to take stock of who will and won’t be with us in years to come, though your guess is as good as mine when it comes to anticipating what keeps a work of fiction or nonfiction fresh and relevant despite the passage of time.

 

Consider a book like The Tale Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, which first saw the light of day as a private printing of 250 copies in December 1901 and has never been out of print since then. Peter and other titles in the series have subsequently sold over 150 million copies in 35 languages according to Wikipedia.

 

Other titles in the 100 million or more club include: Don Quixote, The Tale of Two Cities, Lord of the Rings, The Little Prince, the Harry Potter books (Wikipedia estimates the series sales at over 500 million), the Hobbit, She (Who Must Be Obeyed), and the Narnia series. Despite changing tastes all of these seem likely to continue in popularity whether in printed or digital form. On the non-fiction side a few titles that seem destined to endure include the Prince, Origin of Species, Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, Autobiography of Malcolm X, all in print and all seem to be selling just as well now as they did in years past.

 

In addition to those already mentioned, here are a few of my own nominations for books that were popular in the 20th century that will continue to be read through the 21st century and I predict will maintain their value as collectibles in the correct editions (in no particular order):

 

Atlas Shrugged; The Fountainhead; Catcher in the Rye; To Kill a Mockingbird; Gone with the Wind; Mastering the Art of French Cooking; How to Win Friends and Influence People; Ulysses; Animal Farm; The Hobbit; 1984; The Godfather; Where the Wild Things Are; Cat in the Hat; Goodnight Moon; Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book; all the James Bond thrillers; 100 Years of Solitude; Pride and Prejudice; Winnie the Pooh; Sherlock Holmes; Lolita; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?; Blood Meridian; One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; all Emily Dickinson; Howl; On the Road; all of William Blake; and Gnostic Gospels to name a few.

 

Notice how many have already disappeared and how many more are apt to fade in the coming decades. Quite a comprehensive view of the fleeting nature of popularity can be found in this link that goes through best sellers and critically acclaimed books of the 20th century year-by-year. www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~immer/booksall

 

20th Century Drek

 

As for 20th century drek: here are a few of my picks for books that once were popular but IMHO you won’t be able to give away much less sell -- In the Kitchen with Rosie; Bridges of Madison County; The Da Vinci Code; Jonathan Livingston Seagull; Your Erroneous Zones; Anything with “Chicken Soup” in the title; Tuesdays with Morrie; The Celestine Prophecy; Fifty Shades of Grey; The Purpose Driven Life, and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. All of them are books that sold multi-millions of copies but have little or no present or foreseeable future monetary value.

 

Fearless Forecasting

The Halas forecast for male authors whose values are still rising include Tolkien, Orwell, Kerouac and the Beats, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Joseph Conrad, Kafka, ee cummings, TS Eliot, TE Lawrence, Faulkner, Hammett (and all noir fiction), Dr. Seuss, Mandela, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Bradbury, and Vonnegut.

 

Among my picks for women writers who seem destined to remain popular in the years ahead are: Ayn Rand, Emily Dickinson, JK Rowling, Harper Lee, Beatrix Potter, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, Margaret Mitchell, and Zora Neale Hurston.

 

Slipping a little (or maybe a lot) are some of the benchmark authors who don’t seem to have the cultural traction they once enjoyed. The Halas crystal ball sees declines in Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Michener, Whitman, Twain, Poe, Updike, Roth, Mailer, Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, Tarkington, Melville, Freud, Mann, Shaw, Tom Wolfe, and Capote.

 

On the distaff side some ladies who have perhaps seen better days are Pearl S. Buck, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Edna Ferber, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mary McCarthy, Daphne du Maurier and Frances Parkinson Keyes.

 

Comics the sleeper of the print world

To me the great sleeper phenomena in the world of print in the 20th century was the incredible rise in popularity and value of comic books. While we were busy focusing on books, an enormous audience turned their attention and collecting dollars to comics.

 

For example, book fairs and other events aimed at rare and collectible book enthusiasts may draw an audience of a few thousand. Compare that with he numerous comic conventions which boast attendances in the six figures and growing.

 

Even more astonishing are the prices realized for desirable comics, which now routinely bring eye-popping figures. A 2016 ad for a comic auction house displays six SOLD prices ranging from $120,000 to $625,000, top dollar prices paid for merchandise that until recently was considered of little value. In contrast, the most expensive book sold on ABE books in 2016 was an 1866 American edition of Alice in Wonderland which brought $36,000.

 

If you’re a dealer or collector thinking about what the future might hold for print this is a dramatic illustration of how tastes, markets and prices have shifted. If you're waiting for Hiawatha to rebound, you may wait a long time.



To jog your memory on what the 20th bought and read here are a few lists of popular books through the last 100 years. Try making your own list of what will survive the 21st century.

  

Some interesting links for popular books of the 20th century

 

redeemingqualities.wordpress.com/early-20th-century-bestsellers

 

jamesclear.com/best-books/best-selling

 

thegreatestbooks.org/nonfiction

 

www.abebooks.com/docs/Community/Featured/bestSellers20thCentury.shtml

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books#More_than_100_million_copies

 

www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~immer/booksall

 

www.abebooks.com/rare-books/most-expensive-sales/year-2016.shtml

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_books_and_manuscripts

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

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