Smyrna times., 1888-03-14
BOOK COLLECTING MANIA.
Something About Rare Old Books and
the CoIIectnrs of Them.

the Collectors of Them.
''Rare book collecting is coming more
and more into favor among Americans, "
said Nassau street dealer the other day.
''There are comparatively few stores in
New York where scarce books are sold.
though the trade has, to be sure, in
creased greatly within the last ten years.
In London you can find an old book dealer
to almost every other block, and little OBJ
scure and dark stores are sought out and
regularly patrOnized by everybody. The
Americans, though, have always been a
too businesslike and practical race to spend
much time in hunting around after
scarce volumes, or to sit under their
lamps during the evening and pore over
Gutenberg Bibles or tones from the
press of CaXtOn. If they have ever been
inclined to the formation of a library. it
has generally been toward the purchasing
of standard sets, while your real biblio-
maniac would not touch these If he is
collecting the works of Washington
Irving, for instance, he must have each
separate work in its originality, so to
speak. 1t must be a first edition. Of
course these are of various dates, and, if
you look ut his book shelf, YOU will at
once think to yourself that they form a
very uneven and heterogeneous mass of
printing and binding
collectors are particular about pos
sessing only first edition, principally be-
cause it is the only true production of the
authors thoughts when he wrote the
book, and when they were neither affected
nor influenced by criticism Another
thing that is of the utmost importance to
the bibliophile is the binding. He would
rather thousand times have a book with
dirty cloth or board cover than one en-
cased in the most costly Levant morocco.
Here IS book which, as you see, has
rough edges; it was published with the
leaves unopened by the binder, and CON
sequently is known as an uncut copy.
An uncut copy is usually worth about
double the price of a cut or smooth
edged one, simply because of its larger
Margin"
''Where do rare books come from?'
eff you refer to books printed in this
country, l may say that they turn up at
auction about as frequently as from anv
other source. English and other foreign
books, however, have, of course, to be i'm
ported and l myself receive an invoice
of about four cases every week by steam
ship. There is no custom house duty on
books unless they are twenty years old
and even that should be taken off There
are thousands of rare book sellers in
| Great Britain and the continent, and many
send catalogues every month to men in
this country whom they know to be col
lectors, and if you are ever down in the
custom house department of the postoffice
| you will be surprised at the quantity of
volumes that each transatlantic steamship
brings in.
''The mania for book collecting is GER
tainly a very serious one, and buyers are
| constantly cOntending among themselves
| for the possession of rarities. To see men
| buying book you would never think
they wanted it, for they express no en-
! thusiasm and invariably try to beat a
! dealer down on his price. The very
thought of another possessing it, however.
will soon bring them to terms.
ITO give you some idea of prices, lust
look at this copy of the 'Picl1wick Papers. )
1t is in the original monthly parts, with
yellow covers as issued, which are mighty
dirty, without doubt. The plates, how
ever, by II. X. Browne, are fine impress
siOns, and as it is a first edition, l con-
I slider it worth 800. All of Dickens.
/ Thackeray's or Levers books, with illus.
tratiOns by George Cruikshank and Leech,
are greatly in demand In America
Hawthorne, Longfellow and Poe bring
the highest prices. A first edition of
POe's ''Tamerlane" is worth, if YOU can
| get it, $500. New York Evening Sun.