The Fundamentals of Book Collecting
Three concepts to understand as you begin learning about rare books.
An overview of edition, completeness, and condition: the three fundamentals of book collecting.
Edition
In book collecting today, the most highly sought trait is the first edition.
Collecting is very concept-driven, and collectors often seek items with the greatest historical or personal influence. The first edition of a book is often the edition that has the biggest impact on the world. In addition, there’s a romanticism to the idea: a first edition captures the historical moment when those words and ideas were read for the first time by the general public.
Historically, this has not always been the most fashionable way to collect books — nor should it stop you in collecting however you wish. But its status as the current dominant trend does affect demand, pricing, and other major factors in collecting.
There are exceptions…
A later edition of a book can be considered rare, or even more desirable than the first edition. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s famous Sonnets from the Portuguese sequence is first found in the second edition of her Poems (1850), rather than the first edition (1844).
Or a collector may be more interested in a particular illustrator than an author. An Arthur Rackham collector doesn’t seek the “true” first edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, but the “first Rackham edition” — an edition published nearly 100 years later, but the first with Rackham’s artwork.
While first editions may be hot, the key to book collecting is attention to edition, no matter which it is. Collecting asks not only “why this book?” but also “why this version of this book?”
2. Completeness
Rare books are historical artifacts: many collectors prefer copies in as close to their original state as possible.
If a book was originally issued with a dust jacket, it should still have that jacket. If the book was published with a folding map, the folding map should still be there. If it’s a 10-volume set, all 10 volumes should be intact.
Because an incomplete book is missing a key trait of collectibility, this can affect the asking price tremendously. If one volume is missing from a 10-volume set, the price doesn’t go down 10% — it can decrease by 50%-90%. And most books after about 1930 are not considered collectible at all if missing the dust jackets they were issued with.
3. Condition
Condition is the quality of an individual copy’s state of preservation — and it can have a critical effect on the price.
An online search for first edition copies of Hound of the Baskervilles will result in a range of prices that differ dramatically. Although some may be pricing higher or lower for other reasons (e.g. consciously undercutting the market in the hopes of selling a book quickly), this spectrum is a reflection of the importance of condition. Condition alone can sometimes make a difference of thousands of dollars.
In book collecting, “fine” describes copies of the highest grade. This is followed by “near fine.” The lowest grade that is still considered collectible in most cases is “very good.”
In rare books, “good” is usually bad.
See how it plays out.
Take a look at any random sampling of rare books for sale and compare how edition, completeness, and condition are described across different kinds of books. A glance at the new arrivals of my rare book company is a quick way to try it: