One of the many pleasures of working in the rare and secondhand book trade is the sheer range of books that pass through your hands. It is wonderful to read copies of less well-know works by less well-known writers in first editions, or in vintage bindings that are close to contemporary with the original readers. These books often come with all the previous ownership marks that a book acrues, from names and dates on the fly-leaf to the marginalia and inserted epherma from letters to pressed flowers.
Over the last few decades many re-publishing houses have sprung up. These houses often produce quality editions, carefully proof checked (unlike the horrid, scanned, print-on-demand versions) and with interesting extras such as erudite introductions by modern novelists or literary critics, but for me there is still something about having an original volume as published for the first generation of a work's readers.
Of course not all obscure works are worth re-publishing and not all worth re-publishing have been given that treatment. There is the thrill therefore of beach-combing, so to speak, along the tide line of literary hsistory on our shelves and the shelves of my colleagues in the trade.
Older versions or handsomely bound verions of a text can be expensive but actually many are volumes are really very reasonable. Copies on my own shelves start at around £20. You might enjoy taking a look!
Pictured:
The Serious Wooing: A Heart's History by John Oliver Hobbes. Methuen & Co., 1901. Novel on the New Woman theme of the 1890s. John Oliver Hobbes was the pen-name of Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie 1867-1906. Attractive Art Nouveau binding. Separately we also have a double autograph signed with both Craigie's names available here.
Ariadnê: The Story of a Dream by Ouida [Maria Louise Ramé 1839-1908] Chatto and Windus, 1878. Slightly shaky reading copy.
The Daltons, or, Three Roads in Life by Charles Lever. 1852. First edition. Lavishly illustrated by Phiz (best known for illustrating the work of Charles Dickens) with nearly 50 pictures. Half-leather binding.
Nancy by Rhoda Broughton [1840-1920] Richard Bentley, 1887. Victorian novel by Rhoda Broughton, one of the most popular novelists in the nineteenth century.
The Farmer of Inglewood Forest by Elizabeth Helme [1743-1814]. Published by A. K. Newman, c.1820s. Novel first published in 1796. No date but Newman took over the Minerva Press c.1820 so likely later 1820s or 1830s. Textured cloth blind impressed with panel of decorative scroll work to both front and rear boards. spine has gilt titles and gilt illustration. Publisher’s catalogue 4pp on smaller yellow paper at the end of the text block; this includes a mention of Mrs Hofland’s Self Denial published 1827.
The Incomparable Bellairs by Agnes and Egerton Castle. Thomas Nelson and Sons, undated. Full leather binding decorated with flowers and ruled lines, raised bands and fleur de lis on the spine. The binding is perhaps amateur.
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