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Book collecting: Difference between revisions
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==Got 'em== | ==Got 'em== | ||
All are hardback unless otherwise indicated. "First" indicates either the first American edition, or the country in which the book originally appeared. | |||
===Unsigned rarities=== | ===Unsigned rarities=== | ||
* First McCarthy (<i>Blood Meridian</i>) | * First McCarthy (<i>Blood Meridian</i>) | ||
* First Wilson (<i>Schrödinger's Cat</i> trilogy, three paperbacks, no hardback first exists) | |||
===Signed=== | ===Signed=== | ||
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* Signed first Joyce (<i>Finnegan's Wake</i>) | * Signed first Joyce (<i>Finnegan's Wake</i>) | ||
* Signed first Penrose (<i>The Road to Reality</i>) | * Signed first Penrose (<i>The Road to Reality</i>) | ||
* Signed Ginsberg (<i>Howl and Other Poems</i>) | * Signed first Ginsberg (<i>Howl and Other Poems</i>, City Lights paperback, no hardback first exists) | ||
* Signed Ferlinghetti (<i>Coney Island of the Mind and Other Poems</i>) | * Signed first Ferlinghetti (<i>Coney Island of the Mind and Other Poems</i>, City Lights paperback, no hardback first exists) | ||
* Signed Wilson (<i>Illuminatus!</i> trilogy, omnibus edition) | * Signed Wilson (<i>Illuminatus!</i> trilogy, omnibus paperback edition, no hardback exists) | ||
* Signed Schrödinger (lecture notes) | * Signed Schrödinger (lecture notes, not a book) | ||
===Signed at publisher=== | ===Signed at publisher=== | ||
Revision as of 21:03, 12 April 2024
yeah ok so i've kinda gotten into book collecting. i've only paid over a thousand for three books: ~$5,000 for a signed first edition (Fair) of Finnegan's Wake, ~$3,000 for a signed ARC (Mint) of Infinite Jest (later sold for $5,000), and $3,000 for an unsigned first edition (Very Fine) of Gravity's Rainbow (later sold for $4,500). I have no intentions of selling the Wake.
(Probably) not happening
These don't generally sell for less than $25,000, if they exist. I cannot at this time justify spending $25K on a book.
- Signed first Ulysses
- Signed Feynman Lectures on Physics
- Signed Discipline of Programming (Dijkstra) (do any exist?)
Dream acquisitions
These run $5K--$25K if you want them in any decent shape.
- Signed first Blood Meridian
- Signed first Dubliners
- Signed first Gravity's Rainbow
- First Moby-Dick
- Signed Gone with the Wind
- Signed first Waiting for Godot
- Signed T. S. Eliot (ideally some printing of The Waste Land)
- Signed first Ariel (Plath)
- Signed first Rushdie (The Satanic Verses)
Doable
- Signed first Infinite Jest
- Signed Schrodinger's Cat trilogy
- Signed first The Power of One
- Signed first American Prometheus
- Signed first A Clockwork Orange
- Signed first The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- Signed first The Soul of a New Machine
- Signed first The Emperor of All Maladies
- Signed first Watership Down
Got 'em
All are hardback unless otherwise indicated. "First" indicates either the first American edition, or the country in which the book originally appeared.
Unsigned rarities
- First McCarthy (Blood Meridian)
- First Wilson (Schrödinger's Cat trilogy, three paperbacks, no hardback first exists)
Signed
- Signed first Burroughs (Naked Lunch)
- Signed first Burroughs (The Last Words of Dutch Schultz)
- Signed first Ginsberg (Collected Poems)
- Signed first Flynn (Gone Girl)
- Signed first Coupland (Microserfs)
- Signed first Leyner (My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist)
- Signed first Gibson (Burning Chrome)
- Signed first Joyce (Finnegan's Wake)
- Signed first Penrose (The Road to Reality)
- Signed first Ginsberg (Howl and Other Poems, City Lights paperback, no hardback first exists)
- Signed first Ferlinghetti (Coney Island of the Mind and Other Poems, City Lights paperback, no hardback first exists)
- Signed Wilson (Illuminatus! trilogy, omnibus paperback edition, no hardback exists)
- Signed Schrödinger (lecture notes, not a book)
Signed at publisher
These are special editions, signed en bloc at the publisher, usually in elaborate hardcover presentation and including a statement of authenticity. Suntup, Easton Press, and Franklin Press are major purveyors. The Folio Society prints similar editions, but does not generally have them signed.
- Signed Rovelli (Helgoland) (Easton Press)
- Signed Wilzcek (Ten Keys to Reality) (Easton Press)
- Signed Dyson (Disturbing the Universe) (Easton Press)
- Signed Gibson (Neuromancer) (Easton Press)
- Signed Ellison (Invisible Man) (Franklin Press)
- Signed Styron (Sophie's Choice) (Franklin Press)
- Signed first McCarthy (The Passenger+Stella Maris, both signed in boxset)
