Not the oldest-written one, like a paperback copy of “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” I mean the oldest edition.
I think the oldest one I have is an 1849 etiquette book called “Golden Rules of Life.” I have a magazine from 1775, and a lot of mid-19th century novels and beauty and etiquette books, too. I’m not a big “first edition” buff, but I do love an old book!
I have a first edition of ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ but I can’t recall the year right off. I also had a tiny traveler’s New Testament from the 1840s. I gave it to a friend of mine who travels. It seemed fitting.
I love those old books. Magic.
I have a 1948 edition of the Texas Almanac published by the Belo Corporation (parent company of the Dallas Morning News). This almanac is published annually and includes pages and pages of the most current statistics on all things Texan - from population figures to cataloupe production. I enjoy looking at my '48 edition because it gives me a snapshot of what my state was like over 50 years ago. The best feature, to me anyway, is that it includes a map of each of the 254 counties in Texas as they were in 1948, when the highways actually went through the centers of towns instead of bypassing them as they do now. It’s very interesting to see just how much things have changed.
The oldest book I own is a circa 1875 book on Optics and Acoustics.
Years ago the Brattle Street Book Shop in Boston used to sell seventeenth century books for as low as $10. I’m still kicking myself for not buying one, just to say I did.
Struuter, “She Stoops to Conquer” was published in 1773—cool! Does it have those s’s that look like f’s so when you read it out loud you sound like Sylvester the cat?
I love old bookshops, too, and there are fewer and fewer of 'em, it seems. I have found some real treasures on those book-search sites that I never would have found elsewhere. But there’s nothing like walking into an out-of-the-way Mom ‘n’ Pop used bookstore, with piles of dust-covered books in the corners . . .
Offhand, I’d say probably Jacques Futrelle’s The Chase of the Golden Plate, published by Dodd, Mead in 1906. It’s been described as “an automobile and society novel with mystery elements.”
I have lots of books from the 1920s and 1930s, but very few (possibly none) pre-20th century. I don’t usually buy them, because they tend to fall apart on you.
Oh, wait, here’s a copy of Etiquette for Americans right here in my office…1898, published by Duffield and Company. But Eve gave that one to me.
I have a copy of a Midsummer Night’s Dream from the “Little Leathers” series that is pretty old. It’s also about 3" square. Don’t have it in front of me, so can’t check the dates.
I have a very old copy of the Oxford Book of English Verse - I’m can’t think of any 20th Century poets who are included, but I could be wrong.
I have a 1st edition of Brave New World that I picked up in a used book store.
Sorry I can’t give dates. I love books, old & new.
You know, I’m going to have to check on that. To be honest, it’s so old and beautiful that (with kids around) I never get it out. I found it in our attic when I was a girl and just treasured it because it was so old. Weird? Yes, me in a nutshell.
Actually, and I’m giving away my secret here, most of the great book finds I stumble across come from ESTATE SALES. Little old ladies have some gorgeous sets of books that just sit and collect dust. And most people don’t think that books have any real value…I have found a (er…second or third? edition) of Pinocchio recently. The plates are not so hot, but the book is in very nice shape.
I used to have a for-real Dick and Jane book. Learned to read with it. And it was old when I was a kid. Damn Sally. She was such a pain…
An Abridgement of the History of England;
From the invasion of Julius Caesar to the Death of George the Second.
By Dr. Goldsmith
Philadelphia
Published by M. Carey, no 123 High St.
Alexander & Phillips, printers, Carlisle
1808
I got it for a buck, in a box of old books. The American Revolution gets half a page in the addendum.
Tris
An 1889 edition of Robert Browning’s Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in Distemper; With Other Poems, given to me by one of my college professors. In my job as English Department assistant, one of my tasks was to help the professor, who was editing this volume with a couple of others for the Ohio-Baylor edition of Browning’s Complete Works, by doing the initial textual editing work: collating a photocopy of the manuscript with the 1876 first edition. Conveniently enough, I was also able to use this as raw material for my honors project, so I got paid for something I got other benefits from as well.
It’s not a first edition so it’s not worth much, but it’s more a keepsake than anything else. Nothing in the volume even approaches the standards of Browning’s best work (and I grow tired of him quickly in any case), so I really have no desire to revisit it again, having scrutinized every character of both the manuscript and printed text at least three times.
My mother was a college English professor and we had books all over the place. I know many of her books would have been collectors items now. Unfortunately I have no idea what happened with all those books, she died when I was 15.
I remember looking at them wishing I could open them up but some of them were leather bound antique type books.
As for what I own, the earliest one I can think of is a “facimile” of the original Lewis Carroll manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Underground it states copyright in 1964.
Not a spectacular age for a book but since I love Lewis Carroll it means a lot to me.
< BTW, my grand father was a book binder in Philadelphia before they moved out west in the early 1950s, he also had an extensive collection of books I assume are with my aunt now. >
Mother West Wind’s Children - Thornton W. Burgess
From 1911. Its a childrens book with kind of Kipling-like stories in it. Like “Danny Meadow Mouse learns why his Tail is Short” and Why Bobby Coon Washes his Food".
The stories are great and the illustrations are nice, too. I love it.
An 1810 copy of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. It’s not in very good shape so I’ve never read it.
OK, I’ll bite—Why IS Danny Meadow Mouse’s tail so short? And does he get teased about it?
This Bible is approx 3" x 2 1/2 " and would fit in a soldier’s left breast pocket of his uniform.
Copywrite date is 1861.
The Works of John Webster, no copyright date, but one of the prior owners signed his name on the flyleaf in 1885.
I also have a set of 30 or so “Little Leather Classics” that were given to my grandmother around 1928 – everything from Shakespeare to Sherlock Holmes in these little 3-by-2-inch volumes. Unfortunately they’re very fragile and probably not in good enough condition to be worth anything, but still pretty cool.
Not so very old (1902) but historically interesting. (Members of my family are earthquake buffs.)
“The Martinique Horror and St. Vincent Calamity, containing a full and complete account of the terrible volcanic eruptions; the destruction of St. Pierre and other towns and loss of nearly 50,000 lives; heart-rending scenes, etc.”
That’s all part of the title.
Cloth-bound, green, with an illustration of the erupting volcano on the cover. What looks to be a leather bookmark is glued to the back cover.
I love the reporting style of the 19th century. You’d think the writers were paid extra for each adjective.
No, Danny didn’t get teased about his tail much. But he was always terribly ashamed of it.
The Cliff - Notes Version:
Danny Meadowmouse’s grandfather a thousand times removed got into some trouble. He carried a bag of Striped Chipmunk’s acorns down the path for Wharf Rat.
Trouble is, Wharf Rat had stolen them from Striped Chipmunk.When the crime was found out, Mother Nature punished Danny by taking away his splendid long tail and making him have a short, stubby one to always remind him to avoid bad company. The punishment for Wharf Rat was worse.
Oh they’re really lovely little stories, with so much description. Nothing is just a ‘tree’ or a ‘cloud’. Its ‘jolly, round,red Mr.Sun’ or ‘five fat, foolish, green flies’. Maybe I ought to make text files of them…
An 1892 first edition, signed presentation copy of Edgerton Castle’s “Schools and Masters of Fence”, considered one of the best books on fencing (that’s the sword type, not the white picket type).
An 1881 copy of selected stories from “1001 Arabian Nights”
A 1910 copy of “Pinocchio” - I think it is the first English edition - has beautiful full-page color illustrations.
My high school yearbook.
Oldest book here in the house?
“history of the curch from the birth of Christ till 1666”
Published in 1668.
Also a few from the mid 1700’s as well.
All of them are in Dutch so only Coldie can read then. (I made him translate the titles for me)
Osip