Rarest book?

[Lawryleslie]

Collingwood Battalion Royal Naval Division by Stanley Geary. Only two in existence to my knowledge, one held by the IWM and I have one which is loaned to the Plymouth Museum.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Collingwood Battalion Royal Naval Division by Stanley Geary. Only two in existence to my knowledge, one held by the IWM and I have one which is loaned to the Plymouth Museum.

There's another one on ABE at £225.

[Borden Battery]

Perhaps the most rare book I am aware of is the “History of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps, CEF” circa 1919 – only six (6) copies were printed. One original copy and five carbon copies were produced in Q4 of 1919. The 900+ page manuscript is on legal paper and was not fully completed before all the authors were demobilized and returned to civilian life. The best copy (carbon copy #1) is from the Raymond Brutinel Estate and was recently donated to Musée Héritage Museum, St. Albert, Alberta – located adjacent to the City of Edmonton. http://archives.museeheritage.ca/raymond-brutinel-fonds

The original paper document is very fragile and was not available to researchers. It is listed as being with Department of National Defence under: History of the Canadian Machine Gun Corps, C.E.F / by H.T. Logan and M. R. Levey -- [Ottawa : s.n., 1919], Holdings V. 1-13, Class D 547 M3 L6 1919 (v. 1-3); Location RARE. A photocopy of the original is located at the University of British Columbia Archives (Harry T. Logan Fonds) under Call Number D547.M3 L63 1919a. The quality of the UBC materials was only fair. The Late Ron Edwards (1926-2015) from Powell River provided additional material associated with the Canadian Independent Force. Excerpts from March 1918 (38 pages) are contained in the Carlton University-Sydney Wise Fonds but were duplicates and not used. No material appears to be held by Library and Archives Canada.

This document, after several years of work, was finally transcribed by members of the CEF Study Group on 17 December 2015.

HISTORY OF THE CANADIAN MACHINE GUN CORPS, C.E.F.

WRITTEN, February – August, 1919, in Bonn, London and Ottawa by Major H.T. Logan, M.C. and Captain M.R. Levey, M.M., assisted by :-

Brig.-Gen. R. Brutinel, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.,Major W.B. Forster, M.C., Lieut. W.M. Baker, and Lieut. P.M. Humme.

Canadian War Narrative Section. Chateau val Fosse, France; London; Shorncliffe and Ottawa.

[jcalhoun]

Late to the thread, but I have several rare books relating to WWI, mostly Canadian novels/poetry & memoirs. I have a signed first edition of Charles Yale Harrison's "Generals Die in Bed;" a copy of Peregrine Acland's "All Else is Folly" signed to his wife, Mary Louise Acland on their wedding anniversary in 1929 (and official day of publication in the UK) -the novel itself is dedicated to her; Douglas Haig's copy of F.G. Scott's "The Great War as I Saw It" (with ex-libris bookplate); a signed first of Philip Child's "God's Sparrows" as well as Will R. Bird's "And We Go On." Somewhat sadly, I have the IWM's second copy of W. Redvers Dent's "Show Me Death!" --why they wanted to get rid of it, I'll never know.

Perhaps rarest of all, I ferreted out a copy of Yukimaro Moro-oka's "Arasu Sensen E" (Up to the Arras Front) --an account of Moro-oko's war with the 50th Battalion CEF up until his being wounded at Vimy. The book was published in Japan, and as far as I can tell there are only two copies in North America, mine being one of them.

Of late, I've been putting together a large collection of war-themed pulp magazines from the '20s and 30's. I have about 2/3 of the run of Fawcett's Battle Stories, about a 1/4 of War Stories, and about the same of War Novels. I'm hoping to eventually pick up copies of Under Fire, Over the Top, and Canadian War Stories, but these three titles come up a lot less frequently at auction than the aforementioned titles. Though these pulps are most definitely middlebrow literature, there is occasionally a piece that really surprises one with its quality.

I also have two unpublished WWI typescripts by Philip Child: one is a short story called "The Phantom Battery", the other is the first hundred pages (or so) of an abandoned WWI novel.

Collecting WWI books is such a joy. If anyone has questions about the Canadian literature of the war, I'm your man. My blog, Field Punishment No.1 was mentioned earlier in this thread: https://peregrineacland.wordpress.com/

Cheers,

James Calhoun

[joeobrien22]

I have a large collection of great war books. A few of the books on this list show up in my list. I do have a few first editions i've already uncovered, namely, A Storm of Steel by E. Junger, and There's a Devil in the Drum, By John Lucy.

I'm still going through the crates and visually inspecting the books and checking for dust jackets. How should I go about selling these? I wish I could avoid selling individually, or at least not completely. Even individually, i'm not sure the best place to sell. Any ideas? I have a few book reviews coming before I let them go though!

[jcalhoun]

I have a large collection of great war books. A few of the books on this list show up in my list. I do have a few first editions i've already uncovered, namely, A Storm of Steel by E. Junger, and There's a Devil in the Drum, By John Lucy.

I'm still going through the crates and visually inspecting the books and checking for dust jackets. How should I go about selling these? I wish I could avoid selling individually, or at least not completely. Even individually, i'm not sure the best place to sell. Any ideas? I have a few book reviews coming before I let them go though!

I'd list them on ebay, individually. I think it's fair to say most collectors trawl ebay pretty regularly. I know I have maxed-out the number of saved searches they'll automatically run for me (200), and I check a couple times a day on my phone. Take lots of photos, of each book, including of the copyright page. Describe them as best you can, and go to Abebooks and see what other people have written about these books. In my experience a lot of people think they have a rare first edition when in fact they have a seventh printing of a bookclub edition, so take some time to make sure you list it properly. Looking at Abe will also give you a good idea of the value of each book. If you see that there are several dozen copies of the same edition, it probably isn't worth listing. If you see a book that appears to be worth more than say, $100 US, don't get your hopes up. Sometimes there is a high demand, sometimes there isn't. Over the last year I was looking for a WWII novel called Little Man by G.H. Sallans. Copies on Abe go between $600-1000 Canadian. I bought one for 20.oo at a thrift shop; a friend and fellow collector got one for $2.00 in a reputable book dealer's remainder bin. We probably represent the total current demand for this novel and the extravagant asking prices of some other sellers are just pipe dreams.

If you can't find a book on Abe, be sure to list it. That's a good indicator that it's hard to find and potentially quite valuable. If you have a dust jacket on a book and none of the other copies on Abe have a dustjacket, be sure to list it. And if a book is signed be sure to list it. If a book has a bookplate or gift inscription, spend five minutes on google trying to find out who they were, and include the text of their name in your item description. By way of example, I have a common as dirt edition of Freud that should be worth nothing but that I paid about $50 US for because it belonged to Canadian author Peregrine Acland and had notes in his hand in the margins. The clever seller mentioned this in the item description, and so I was able to add it to my Acland collection.

Avoid selling items as lots. It drives up the cost of shipping for the buyer and thus limits your potential pool of buyers (unless it's a really outstanding collection).

Try and list items on ebay so they end at a time that's easy for a maximum number of people to bid. 9am pacific time (Vancouver/Los Angeles) is 12:00 noon eastern (Toronto/Chicago/New York) and 5pm in London. That's a lot better odds (especially for a great item) for maximizing your final sale than having it end at 9pm Vancouver time, midnight in New York and 5am in London. Seems obvious, but a lot of people make this mistake in selling rare books.

This should be obvious, but make sure you spell the author's name and the book title properly. About twice a year I win an auction on ebay for the opening bid because the seller made a spelling mistake, and only the most OCD collectors search for all the likely spelling-error variants of something they're hunting for.

Finally, try and provide excellent customer service. I sold a large collection of tank books/German WWII books on ebay about two years ago. One chap bought about $600.oo worth of books and was so happy when he got them, he ended up buying the rest for another $1500.oo. I've had a few experiences like this as a seller. The guy asking questions about the ten-dollar book might just turn out to have deep pockets and a passion for the subject --you never know.

Best o'luck.

Cheers,

James

[Dust Jacket Collector]

I'm still going through the crates and visually inspecting the books and checking for dust jackets. How should I go about selling these? I wish I could avoid selling individually, or at least not completely. Even individually, i'm not sure the best place to sell. Any ideas? I have a few book reviews coming before I let them go though!

If you're in the UK I'd give Tom Donovan a call. He's the leading dealer in this field. I sell all my spare copies to him.

[joeobrien22]

I'd list them on ebay, individually. I think it's fair to say most collectors trawl ebay pretty regularly. I know I have maxed-out the number of saved searches they'll automatically run for me (200), and I check a couple times a day on my phone. Take lots of photos, of each book, including of the copyright page. Describe them as best you can, and go to Abebooks and see what other people have written about these books. In my experience a lot of people think they have a rare first edition when in fact they have a seventh printing of a bookclub edition, so take some time to make sure you list it properly. Looking at Abe will also give you a good idea of the value of each book. If you see that there are several dozen copies of the same edition, it probably isn't worth listing. If you see a book that appears to be worth more than say, $100 US, don't get your hopes up. Sometimes there is a high demand, sometimes there isn't. Over the last year I was looking for a WWII novel called Little Man by G.H. Sallans. Copies on Abe go between $600-1000 Canadian. I bought one for 20.oo at a thrift shop; a friend and fellow collector got one for $2.00 in a reputable book dealer's remainder bin. We probably represent the total current demand for this novel and the extravagant asking prices of some other sellers are just pipe dreams.

If you can't find a book on Abe, be sure to list it. That's a good indicator that it's hard to find and potentially quite valuable. If you have a dust jacket on a book and none of the other copies on Abe have a dustjacket, be sure to list it. And if a book is signed be sure to list it. If a book has a bookplate or gift inscription, spend five minutes on google trying to find out who they were, and include the text of their name in your item description. By way of example, I have a common as dirt edition of Freud that should be worth nothing but that I paid about $50 US for because it belonged to Canadian author Peregrine Acland and had notes in his hand in the margins. The clever seller mentioned this in the item description, and so I was able to add it to my Acland collection.

Avoid selling items as lots. It drives up the cost of shipping for the buyer and thus limits your potential pool of buyers (unless it's a really outstanding collection).

Try and list items on ebay so they end at a time that's easy for a maximum number of people to bid. 9am pacific time (Vancouver/Los Angeles) is 12:00 noon eastern (Toronto/Chicago/New York) and 5pm in London. That's a lot better odds (especially for a great item) for maximizing your final sale than having it end at 9pm Vancouver time, midnight in New York and 5am in London. Seems obvious, but a lot of people make this mistake in selling rare books.

This should be obvious, but make sure you spell the author's name and the book title properly. About twice a year I win an auction on ebay for the opening bid because the seller made a spelling mistake, and only the most OCD collectors search for all the likely spelling-error variants of something they're hunting for.

Finally, try and provide excellent customer service. I sold a large collection of tank books/German WWII books on ebay about two years ago. One chap bought about $600.oo worth of books and was so happy when he got them, he ended up buying the rest for another $1500.oo. I've had a few experiences like this as a seller. The guy asking questions about the ten-dollar book might just turn out to have deep pockets and a passion for the subject --you never know.

Best o'luck.

Cheers,

James

Thank you James, for a very informative post. I have much experience with the relic and antique side of the market and field, but not the books. I have heard the book market can be much more fickle than the antique market.

I found a few books I can't seem to find anywhere, past or present, short of a possible mention in another list compiled by a collector or university. I was worried about letting things go at a steal or asking too much for those types. I also have collections of clippings, commemorative stamp albums, etc.. a real conglomerate.

I'll try your advice on, Thank you again!

J.S.

[joeobrien22]

If you're in the UK I'd give Tom Donovan a call. He's the leading dealer in this field. I sell all my spare copies to him.

Thank you, I just checked out your site as well, I see pictures of a few first edition dust jackets i'm missing!

I'm currently in America, Moving to Ireland, hence the unloading of heavy items!

But I am holding onto a few and collecting anew so i'll look him up when i'm settled in Europe.

Cheers

[barkalotloudly]

I think you will have to come to terms with is the fact there is not huge numbers of collectors who are prepared to pay mega bucks know matter how scarce the item, you only have to look at some of the books listed on the net ..they have been there for years! About 18 years ago i sold a very large collection to T D and i do wonder whether or not it would fetch the same price today? This is a subject i have been mulling over just recently concerning my present collection do i leave it for my daughter to sort out on the event of my demise? trouble is you are then flooding the market with many many scarce items and their full financial potential is unlikely to be realised ? I remember T D saying about a third will sell quickly, a third will take 1/2 years and the rest who knows.........he no doubt may still have some on them!

[Dust Jacket Collector]

There's a quote I remember from Polanski's 'The Ninth Gate' "When a book collector dies his books will follow him out of the house the next day" (probably into a skip!).

[MartH]

There's a quote I remember from Polanski's 'The Ninth Gate' "When a book collector dies his books will follow him out of the house the next day" (probably into a skip!).

I recall the tale of a Blackpool bed and breakfast landlady using her deceased husband's collection for toilet paper. They were first edition Caxton's.

[joeobrien22]

Well, compared the markets i'm used to, I am prepared for a long road to unload them, but i've been carrying all of these crates around for years and it''s not getting any easier! It's just a bit daunting to unload hundreds of books, Even if I list them at prices that are a steal, I doubt it will make much difference. I'd rather have a collector have it than someone who will resell it.

[jcalhoun]

Joe,

If any of the books don't turn up on Abe and you suspect a lingering Canadianess about them (scent of maple syrup, etc) fire me a private message and I'll help you try and identify them. I have all the relevant reference works close to hand, and am more than happy to help.

Cheers,

James

[joeobrien22]

James,

Thank you again, my mentor Billy Pearson, did have an interest in the Canadian forces and I did inherit many of his books. I'm sure I'll shoot a message when they are uncovered

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Back to rare books, I think. This arrived today. Although scarce sans jacket it's distinctly rare with one. Reprinted in 1930 this is the 1919 anonymous original. In all my near 40 years of collecting I've only ever seen a single copy of each in jacket. The author was, of course, Aubrey Herbert. Wounded at Mons whilst a Lt. with the Irish Guards he ended up a Lt.Col. after action in the Dardanelles & Mesopotamia. He seems to have led a remarkable life as an archetypical Edwardian adventurer, Tory MP, friend of Lawrence & inspiration for Buchan's Sandy Arbuthnot. A champion of Albanian independence he was 3 times offered that country's crown. He sadly died in 1923 after undergoing an operation to have all his teeth removed, apparently as a proposed cure for his increasing blindness.

[Black Maria]

Nice buy DJC, I have not seen many copies of the original edition and none in their jacket, shame it's a plain one, I do like the jacket on the 1930 edition . Thanks for the info

on the author, I hadn't realised what a sad end he came to, a bit like Edwin Campion Vaughan who wrote the modern day classic 'Some Desperate Glory' who died in a botched

operation in 1931.

[MartH]

Alan were there many plain dj's?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Alan were there many plain dj's?

There do seem to have been quite a few around that time. Aubrey Smith's 'Four Years on the Western Front' comes to mind. Almost all unit histories seem to have been in plain jackets. I think the more 'serious' the publishers considered the book to be, the plainer the jacket. Strangely they were also far more expensive. Most hardbacks in the early 20s were 6/- or 7/6 but these two were 14/- & 15/- respectively (and no pictures). It's almost as if they didn't really want to sell them at all.

[MartH]

There do seem to have been quite a few around that time. Aubrey Smith's 'Four Years on the Western Front' comes to mind. Almost all unit histories seem to have been in plain jackets. I think the more 'serious' the publishers considered the book to be, the plainer the jacket. Strangely they were also far more expensive. Most hardbacks in the early 20s were 6/- or 7/6 but these two were 14/- & 15/- respectively (and no pictures). It's almost as if they didn't really want to sell them at all.

This hold true for Official Histories, except Gallipoli of course.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

I seem to be doing rather well at the moment with finding rarities. This arrived today & is arguably even scarcer than the last one. Lt. Col. Hamilton's 'War Diary of the Master of Belhaven' who was killed on 31st March 1918 whilst commanding the 106th Brigade, RA. I don't need to tell you what a classic it is. Published by Murray in 1924, it was actually reprinted a few months later but still seems to be remarkably hard to find. This is the only copy I've come across in the jacket, although I believe a fellow collector also has one.

[other ranker]

What a fantastic find Alan. I am very jealous! I am building my Aviation section at the moment. How easy is it to find 'With A Bristol Fighter Squadron' in an early edition?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

What a fantastic find Alan. I am very jealous! I am building my Aviation section at the moment. How easy is it to find 'With A Bristol Fighter Squadron' in an early edition?

A rare one indeed, but it could have been yours a few months ago from an American dealer for the trifling sum of £1075! I think that's due to the fact that it has a preface by Churchill which means you're contending with a whole other bunch of wealthy collectors.

[Black Maria]

There is a copy for sale on Amazon for a mere £150.

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

The book on the Jewish war dead in Germany. I finally tracked one down to an Argentinian book dealer with a relative in Florida and got a great deal.

Ralph