Recently, I’ve
devoted several blogs to old and rare books.
I discussed the Voynich Manuscript on August 31, the world’s most
expensive books on September 10, and the Kelmscott Chaucer yesterday.
Most of us,
of course, will never be able to afford any of those books.
Should that
thought cause bibliophiles to be a bit saddened, I thought I’d share a
humourous piece that recently appeared in The
New Yorker, a magazine to which I have had a subscription for many years
and never fails to provoke thought and laughter, sometimes in the same article.
Some of the
descriptions are wonderful.
A signed first edition of A Farewell to Arms: “The
pages are crisp, and accented by water rings where the original owner no doubt
sat a few whiskeys down while mulling the narrative and yelling at someone
belligerently in a bar. (Light urine damage.)”
The first
goddam edition of The Catcher in the Rye: “The edition has mild foxing to end corners,
as you would expect, because everything good always ends up ruined.”
A newly
discovered first edition of To Kill a
Mockingbird: “This rare first
edition was recently recovered in mint condition from the knothole of a tree, a
fact that, although astounding, is less so than the lack of progress in race
relations since the time of publication.”
Read the entire
piece at http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/rare-books-for-sale-excellent-condition.
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