Rarest book?

[rflory]

Dust Jacket Collector wrote: "'126 Heavy Battery R.G.A. 1915-1919' by Sgt. George Porter is a tiny volume privately printed in 1919. It takes the form of a day by day War diary which also contains lots of useful information on actions undertaken, no. of rounds fired & a list of all who served with the Battery. It came with a leaflet for a Battery dinner & a hand-written list of all those who attended (41) so I suspect it was printed to be distributed at the dinner so probably no more than 100 copies."

Thanks for the information on the book - did not realize it was so unusual. Bought my copy a number of years ago for £60; would love to have a scan of the hand-written list of those attending the Battery dinner.

Five books that I have that I have not seen for sale over the years:

1. Memoirs of the Great War by Lt. Col. H M Davson, CMG, DSO. Bought my copy at an OMSA Convention in 1989 for $10.00 US. It is numbered #35 out of 100 copies printed.

2. An Outline of the War History of the 240th (1st South Midland: Gloucestershire) Brigade, R.F.A. (T) by F. S. Gedye.

3. The Wessex (Hants) R.G.A. 1914-1919, published by Sutton & Sons, Hants.

4. 326 Siege Battery, R.A. No author or publisher indicated.

5. A Short History of the 72nd Brigade, R.F.A. 1914-1919, by Brig Gen J W Stirling, CB, CMG and Lt Col F W Richey, DSO, RGA.

[barkalotloudly]

Been searching for Davson for years!

I have the 240th and the 126th

also the 211,266,283,88th 359th and 20th siege batteries, "Hampstead Heavies" 144th Heavy battery, 27th battery RFA as well as several Canadian battery histories

I look to buy these histories as I find them very intimate more often than not with a list of persons who served

best regards John

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Thanks for the information on the book - did not realize it was so unusual. Bought my copy a number of years ago for £60; would love to have a scan of the hand-written list of those attending the Battery dinner.

Let me have your email address & I'll send you a scan of the list.

[MartH]

Ok has anyone seen the:

"Historical Record, 110th Mah(a)ratta Light Infantry (Now 3rd Battalion\5th Mahratta Light Infantry) During The Great War, 1914 To 1918" 1927. Government of India Press.

I have only every seen one copy and the reference in Perkins was from that.

It's sister volume was History Of The 1st Battalion, 5th Maharatta Light Infantry (Jangi Paltan), 1930 Government of India Press.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Plenty of reprints from Naval & Military Press & some POD's but the original is not one I've ever come across. Trouble is we'll all be looking for it now! (in the jacket, of course).

[MartH]

Plenty of reprints from Naval & Military Press & some POD's but the original is not one I've ever come across. Trouble is we'll all be looking for it now! (in the jacket, of course).

Are you refering to the ones I posted?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Are you refering to the ones I posted?

The 110th Mahratta Light Infantry in the Great War? Naval & Military Press 2007 is the reprint I meant. Have you asked Tom D. to find it? He's quite good on the Indian Regiments.

[MartH]

The 110th Mahratta Light Infantry in the Great War? Naval & Military Press 2007 is the reprint I meant. Have you asked Tom D. to find it? He's quite good on the Indian Regiments.

All this talk of ex library and reprints on a rare book thread is making me feel quite ill, that or the pollen .

Anyway for those of you are interested, said volume:

And this book is probably in the top class or rarity, that is until other people say they have it.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

A good example of just how rare the above book is and how little information there is on it can be seen by putting its title into Google. Sorting the results by relevance shows this very post in first place. It shows that just by discussing them here we raise their profiles.

[MartH]

A good example of just how rare the above book is and how little information there is on it can be seen by putting its title into Google. Sorting the results by relevance shows this very post in first place. It shows that just by discussing them here we raise their profiles.

Also a reason why you should not rely on the internet but bibliographies like Perkins. Though the entry for this book came from me.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Don't know if this really counts but the first 2 original single issues of The Wipers Times have just gone on sale on Ebay. Supposidly there were only 100 & 200 copies of each respectively published. I don't recall having seen any seperate issues before although I've not really been looking. Sadly I'll have to make do with the various anthologies as the seller wants £3250.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

It seems that the approaching centenaries is certainly having an effect on rare book prices, at least in regard to War Poetry. I've been keeping an eye on the price & availabilty of major works & I've noticed that books which were relatively common a few months ago have slowly disappeared from the market. A couple of examples prompted by a recent listing :-

Sassoon's 'War Poems' 1919 - at the beginning of the year there were 4 copies of the 1st in its jacket on ABE, now there is only 1 & that'll set you back £1,000!

Ivor Gurney - there were 5 firsts of 'Severn & Somme' & a single 'War's Embers',(none in jackets), now there is just a single copy of the former & that in a tatty jacket at £1,750.

It looks as if collecting War Books, or Poetry at least, is attracting the mainstream buyers, which will be bad news for most of us here ( unless we wish to sell, of course).

All of which goes to make my jacketed first of 'War's Embers' a very rare book indeed.

[barkalotloudly]

a fool and his money are soon parted!!

[David Filsell]

Like most of us I do not consider myself a fool, but it seems to me that I and my money soon parted without making any effort to be foolish at all.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Reading an interview with Shirley Williams yesterday, I'm reminded of her mother, Vera Brittain's book 'Testament of Youth'. Published by Gollancz in 1933 it seems to be rather rare as a first edition. I bought my copy, in its jacket, many years ago for a few pounds and as far as I can recall I've never seen another. Can it really be that scarce or have I just missed seeing a copy? Any thoughts?

[Black Maria]

Reading an interview with Shirley Williams yesterday, I'm reminded of her mother, Vera Brittain's book 'Testament of Youth'. Published by Gollancz in 1933 it seems to be rather rare as a first edition. I bought my copy, in its jacket, many years ago for a few pounds and as far as I can recall I've never seen another. Can it really be that scarce or have I just missed seeing a copy? Any thoughts?

Not being a collector of exclusively first editions I have never searched for a copy, mine is a 1944 sixteenth edition, in it's jacket.

I see it was reprinted five times in 1933 so I wonder if Gollancz were not expecting it to be such a popular book and gave it a smallish

first printing?

[MartH]

Reading an interview with Shirley Williams yesterday, I'm reminded of her mother, Vera Brittain's book 'Testament of Youth'. Published by Gollancz in 1933 it seems to be rather rare as a first edition. I bought my copy, in its jacket, many years ago for a few pounds and as far as I can recall I've never seen another. Can it really be that scarce or have I just missed seeing a copy? Any thoughts?

Alan there is an article here from the Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/24/vera-brittain-testament-of-youth.

Whilst it's slightly more trustworthy than the Daily Mail, I always thought it was initially published with high production values and a low print run, but it states that "all 3,000" where sold on the first day of publication. Weren't latter editions labelled "cheap" ones? . I know there where many subsequent editions. 3,000 is rather large.

What does the introduction and preface say and what was the initial price? That might give us clues. Did a large number go straight into libraries?

You are the source for Wikipedia of the dust wrapper so maybe only a few survived.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Thanks for the link, Martin. I wonder where they got their figures from? The original price was 8/6 (42.5p for younger viewers) & it's in their usual red cloth with black titles, so not special. The forward & acknowledgements don't give us anymore information & the jacket is covered in an anonymous comment on the book from 'a woman of Miss Brittain's own generation'. I suppose after the TV series any available copies were snapped up by a much wider audience than would be usual for a War memoir.

[Black Maria]

Alan there is an article here from the Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/24/vera-brittain-testament-of-youth.

Weren't latter editions labelled "cheap" ones? .

The first cheap edition was the eighth impression of February 1935 , my 1944 copy is titled on the jacket 'Cheap War Edition on thin paper'.

p.s just noticed there are two jacketed copies on E.Bay the 1937 11th impression which had by then gone down in price to 3/6 and

the 1943 15th impression, gone up to 6/- !

[MartH]

Alan and Blackmaria 8/6 is not cheap. I still am surprised about the 3,000 print, I would have thought a lot fewer.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Alan and Blackmaria 8/6 is not cheap. I still am surprised about the 3,000 print, I would have thought a lot fewer.

From what I've seen of novels from the same year - Christie, Greene, etc. they're generally priced at 7/6 & the Brittain is a hefty book so an extra shilling doesn't seem too much more. Chapman's 'Passionate Prodigality', published in the same year had a 3000 print run & he was a relative unknown so maybe that was the norm.

[MartH]

From what I've seen of novels from the same year - Christie, Greene, etc. they're generally priced at 7/6 & the Brittain is a hefty book so an extra shilling doesn't seem too much more. Chapman's 'Passionate Prodigality', published in the same year had a 3000 print run & he was a relative unknown so maybe that was the norm.

Ok maybe it is the norm.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

It seems the blurb on the jacket was written by Vera Brittain's great friend Winifred Holtby. There is also an earlier thread from 2007 in which someone tells of their delight at finding a first of this book. Clearly it was scarce then.

[paulgranger]

'The Land-Locked Lake' by Alan Hanbury-Sparrow is one of those memoirs frequently cited in other books, but rarely ever seen 'in the flesh' . Today there are two for sale on Abebooks. One looks to be a pretty battered object, offered at £75 or so, but is from the orginal publisher, Barker, and the other is a more attractive offer of the 1977 reprint from Broderick, complete with dust jacket at just over £140. Both are above my self-imposed budget limit, but if anyone else feels flush....?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and go for it. £75 isn't a bad price, even in that state. You'll be lucky to find a cheaper copy & it's a great book. It took me 30 years to find a copy with its jacket!