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Collecting Copies of Just One Book
ust about everything that ever was, can be collected. From small woven grass which was published by Doubleday Doran in 1940. It’s
items like watches and jewelry to larger items like safes, cannons, not even a scarce book as I often have copies. Unfortunately, I did not
Jautomobiles, and boats. I almost feel sorry for the person who have a copy just them, but I have since acquired one so I will be ready
collects cannons and other large, heavy, and unwieldy things. And let next time he comes if he hasn’t found one already.
us not forget books. Another friend has a huge Wizard of Oz collection, but not just the
And in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I am a collector myself of, books. He even has props from the original movie. And you wouldn’t
among other things, books of course, and antique clocks. Also, local (to believe the number of different editions there are of the Wizard. I’ve
me) maps and probably a few other things that don’t immediately come also had people who collected copies of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,
to mind. But at least my floors are visible, except in the closets. which was especially popular in the first part of the 20th century.
So, what books do I collect? I collect books by and about Henry With books that are seriously collected like these, there are
Thoreau, for one thing. You know, the guy who went to Walden Pond bibliographies that list all the known variants of the first edition and the
and built a small house and wrote about living in nature. reprints. There can be reprints in foreign languages – I am aware of
Why would anyone collect multiple copies of the same book? about three dozen different lan-
At least for me, the book so impressed me that I wanted to see the guages for Walden. I have a
book in as many different formats as possible, few, and of course, can’t
plus, maybe I’m trying to recapture the read any of them! So, how’s
thrill I felt when I bought my first that for nuts?
copy after having to read it in an And let us not forget
American literature class in school. Shakespeare. In the early
At first, I started my collection 1900s, Henry Folger collected
because I wanted to know more all the copies of
about him than I could find in the Shakespeare’s First Folio
local library, so I collected out of (actual title: Mr. William
necessity. Also, because Thoreau’s Shakespeares Comedies,
most famous book Walden so Histories, & Tragedies) from
impressed me, I found myself wanting 1623, but he also collected
to acquire every edition of Walden early Shakespeare material as
that I could find. And there are many well, eventually amassing a
hundreds of them. Old ones, new huge collection that is now the
ones, expensive ones, cheap ones, Folger Library in Washington
some in foreign languages, some with D.C. He eventually had 82
nice illustrations or photographs … copies of the First Folio, which
etc., etc. … and even cheap paperbacks is a rather rare book, buying
with very little value. This will probably them from 1893 to 1928. More
sound nuts, but I have almost 300 copies than anyone had. It is
different editions of the same book estimated that perhaps 750
including, of course, a copy of the first copies were printed of which 234
of the 1854 first editions which, to are known to have survived. The
completely bore you if I haven’t already, most recent find was one that
came with tipped-in ads for one of the turned up in Scotland in 2016!
following months: April, May, June, Walden: or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854, So, the Folger has about a third of
Sept. and Oct 1854, Sept. 1855, or no sold at an online sale at Sotheby’s for $6,875 in 2018 all known copies.
ads at all. Some collectors try to get copies of all of the different months, Curiously, Folger’s obsessive collection has aided scholars
even though otherwise the books themselves are exactly the same! giving them unparalleled access to examine so many copies in one place.
And, believe it or not, I am not the only person to collect multiple Complete copies today can be worth up to ten million dollars! Folger
copies of the same title, as I know friends who collect as many copies as paid $48,000 for his first First Folio. After going over literally every
possible of Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz and Dicken’s Christmas Carol. letter on every page, it seems that almost no two copies are exactly alike
And there are hundreds and hundreds of editions of those books, too. due to the fact that it was typeset and printed by hand. Papers have
There was a young man who came in recently who collected editions been done on how many typesetters worked on the book based on mis-
of Walt Whitman’s famous Leaves of Grass. He became very excited spellings, etc. Scholars and collectors just love this kind of minutia.
when I told him about an edition that I’d seen that was bound in actual Normal people – not so much!

James Dawson has owned and operated the Unicorn Bookshop in Trappe, MD since 1975, when he decided that it would be more fun to buy and sell old books and maps than to get
a “real” job. For a born collector like Jim, having a shop just might be another excuse to buy more books. He has about 30,000 second hand and rare books on the shelves, and just
about all subjects are represented. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 154; Trappe, MD 21673; 410-476-3838; unicornbookshopMD@gmail.com; www.unicornbookshop.com

44 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles