# What is the oldest book you own? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2017, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122 "2017-04-24T05:04:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/61 "2017-04-27T02:37:59Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > 1898 leather-bound collection of Kipling. Terrible shape, alas: the leather is peeling away from the old newspapers (!) that made up the pastboard for the covers. > > (Amusing that the spines have swastikas as decorations. Long before those brown-shirted boobs highjacked the image!) I’ve got those, from my Fathers side, and from my Mothers side “Elsie’s holidays at Roselands”, 1863. From my personal selection, the oldest I see is “Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley”, 1908 (‘3 vols $60’ secondhand ) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/62 "2017-05-09T03:12:23Z")
I have an 1898 edition of Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton, complete with his own exquisite engravings. On the flyleaf is a loving inscription from my great grandmother to my great uncle; it was a birthday gift. It was in my grandmother’s house and I read it many times as a child. She gave it to me before she died. The binding was disintegrating so I had it archivally rebound with the cover illustration conserved. Unfortunately as an adult I can’t bear to read the stories as they are too sad. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2017, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/63 "2017-05-09T04:52:29Z")
[This book](http://baekur.is/is/bok/000131903/Gothrici_Rolfi_Westrogothiae), printed in 1664, although my copy has a leather/cardboard cover which is probably of much later (early 1800s?) date. Yes, I’ve read it (only the title is Latin; the text is in Icelandic with a parallell Swedish translation). My second oldest is a Swedish translation of Euler’s _[Letters to a German Princess](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_to_a_German_Princess)_ in two volumes, printed in 1786/1787. _That_ one is actually still fun to read, if you’re interested in science history. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/64 "2017-05-10T04:40:41Z")
I have a copy of _The Young Sea Officer’s Sheet Anchor_ from 1808, but my copy is a recent replica reprint. The oldest physical book I own is _The Princess and Curdie_ by George MacDonald from 1883. ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Matt_Mason)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/65 "2017-05-10T08:46:41Z")
I have a signed copy of the Necronomicon. Lemme check the copyright-AIEEEEEEEEEEEE! ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Matt_Mason)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/66 "2017-05-10T08:50:26Z")
(fights off shambling horrors) Connecticut Railway Commissioner’s Report, 1884. Mit map of choo-choos in the Nutmeg State. -MMM- ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/67 "2017-05-10T08:57:41Z")
_The Outline of History_ - H.G. Wells, 1937 I’m pretty pleased to have _Elements of the Differential and Integral Calculus_ - Granville, Smith, and Longley, 1941 as well. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/68 "2017-05-10T12:20:23Z")
The oldest book I have that I have read is: “The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Alesbine” by Stockton, 1896 I’d heard it on Ronald Coleman’s radio program “Favorite Story” in 1947 and recently found the book. The oldest document I have is a 1660 newspaper with a letter to the editor about health care that could be contemporary. Crane ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/69 "2017-05-10T14:11:54Z")
I once had an ornately decorative gilt edged book, with the beautiful intricate end papers, a hand-written diary from the Civil War period. There were very few entries and faded and hard to read - mostly names, accounts owed, dates. More of an antique curiosity, we sold it during my mother’s estate sale since no one in the family wanted it…Myself, the oldest book I have left from childhood is an old copy of ‘Little Pictures of Japan’ by Olive Beaupre Miller, from the 20’s or 30’s. Full of the most charming drawings and haikus, it was one of my favorite things to look at, as a child. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2017, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122/70 "2017-05-10T14:43:55Z")
I got book that was published in 1905. I think it was a wedding gift to my grandparents who married in about 1914. **[The Household Physician](https://img1.etsystatic.com/106/0/9004599/il_340x270.920204811_p0u8.jpg)**. Its a time capsule of what was status quo medicine and treatments from the early 20th century. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-oldest-book-you-own/785122.md?page=3)