Rarest book?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

 I thought you might.  But which is the true "First" in English?  American or UK? (or Falkland Islands, North Borneo,etc)  Chummy in the US may have an idea but normally at that price, there is quite a spiel about it being the true first.  Publication dates for both may be needed- a bibliographical trifle again- well,actually not-might save the worry on whether to splash out £75,000 on a dud.

I’ve always believed that the UK edition has precedence over the US one. The 1st issue of the jacket has only German reviews which are replaced by English ones in later issues. I have the 1st German, English & US editions.

[GreyC]

8 hours ago, charlie2 said:

It isn‘t in pristine condition and is ex-libris but I’m very, very happy with it.

And so you should be! Congrats, Charlie!

GreyC

[charlie2]

7 hours ago, GreyC said:

And so you should be! Congrats, Charlie!

GreyC

Thanks GreyC

[anthony]

 

I have rarely posted here in recent years but I will chuck in a book to the discussion by Rev TLB Westerdale- Messages from Mars: a chaplains experience of the western front.

An essential guide for understanding the experience of the men at the  front on the Somme. Lucky enough to own a signed copy for those interested in the kings own royal Lancasters’.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

5 hours ago, anthony said:

 

I have rarely posted here in recent years but I will chuck in a book to the discussion by Rev TLB Westerdale- Messages from Mars: a chaplains experience of the western front.

An essential guide for understanding the experience of the men at the  front on the Somme. Lucky enough to own a signed copy for those interested in the kings own royal Lancasters’.

Interesting. That’s a new one to me. He published a previous series of letters ‘Under the Red Cross Flag’, this one coming from 1917. It’s available to download from here - http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id=0&dvs=1603954324358~120&usePid1=true&usePid2=true

[Guest]

 The book and its sequel/prequel are a curiosity. As a bookseller, I have seen  "Messages from Mars" before- a colleague who dealt in Science Fiction had it (Say no more other than "Never Judge a Book by Its Covers").  It's apparent publishing history may account for its scarcity. Both books were published by C.H.Kelly, a rather obscure and fringe publisher (lasted quite a few years though)- curious that Messages from Mars is only held by all the copyright deposit libraries and no others- As the National Library of Scotland  and the National Library of Wales effectively only date from after the war, this suggests that Westerdale deposited copies sometime afterwards.

    Also interesting to note that Imperial War Museum holds some papers of Westerdale (But not the books) that relate to his service with 7th Somerset Light Infantry during the retreats  (army retreats,I hasten to add,not religious ones) of 1918.  Thus, between the 2 books and the papers we may have a pretty much complete narrative of his war service-which some bright spark may wish to put together.  And a presumption that there might be a complete file of letters still out there somewhere.

 

 

[MaureenE]

For those interested in reading the book,  the State Library of Victoria holds  Messages from Mars : a chaplain's experiences at the front and it has been digitised.

http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER890308 catalogue link

http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/89208 direct link

 

If you live in USA you can access the earlier book on HathiTrust Digital Library  Under the Red Cross flag; with the 'medicals' in action
by T.L. Barlow Westerdale [1915]. Public Domain in the United States

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009040328

[Dust Jacket Collector]

My thanks to Blackmaria for pointing this book out to me. Why this is so scarce is a mystery being published relatively recently in 1943. War-time restrictions I guess. Colonel Head seems to have had a very International career serving in India, in China for the Boxer Rebellion, to South Africa just after the Boer War, back to India then Ireland & finally distinguished conduct in France during the Great War. He also wrote an earlier work in 1931, ‘A Glance at Gallipoli’.

Edited 21 November , 2020 by Dust Jacket Collector
New information

[Black Maria]

That's quite a nice jacket for a book published in wartime , it's good to see it . It's been a while since i last read it but it's an interesting book ,

i especially remember he lived in Ireland during the first 'troubles' and was lucky not to be murdered although his house was burnt down and

he was forced to leave for England .

 

[David Filsell]

Re The War in the Air. -

Buying all five volumes and two volumes of maps some 10 years ago has been just about the best deal in book buying I have ever had. The 5 volumes  and two map sets showed up in an antiques emporium in Bridport and must account for my best deal ever. Offered to me for £50 I exhausted all my good luck in one go and probably forever and bid them down to £25,00. They were original with the IACO library.  Volume one is extensively annotated and marked up. They are certainly not for sale and I actually have no idea of their value, I just smile every time I see them on the book shelves.

Regards

David  

[Dust Jacket Collector]

9 hours ago, David Filsell said:

Re The War in the Air. -

Buying all five volumes and two volumes of maps some 10 years ago has been just about the best deal in book buying I have ever had. The 5 volumes  and two map sets showed up in an antiques emporium in Bridport and must account for my best deal ever. Offered to me for £50 I exhausted all my good luck in one go and probably forever and bid them down to £25,00. They were original with the IACO library.  Volume one is extensively annotated and marked up. They are certainly not for sale and I actually have no idea of their value, I just smile every time I see them on the book shelves.

Regards

David  

You wuz robbed. There’s also a Vol.6 & a separate Appendices vol.

[David Filsell]

DJC

Good to hear from you. Thank you for that. Nevertheless still a bargain I feel!

best regards

David

[charlie2]

A copy of Schlachten und Gefechte des großen Krieges arrived today. It‘s not particularly rare but as a limited edition (200 copies) leather bound volume it somewhat rarer. For those not being conversant with it, it is a cross between the Report of the Battlefields Nomenclature Committee and Order of Battle of Divisions and belongs, in my humble opinion, as much to the German OH as the Weltkrieg volumes.

 

Charlie

Edited 2 December , 2020 by charlie2

[GreyC]

Hi Charlie,

congrats to this fine find. Just to clarify: The book itself was not published as limited edition, only the leatherclad version of it, that you have a copy of, was.

Best,

GreyC

[charlie2]

Thanks GreyC, that is correct only the leather bound one was a limited edition.

Charlie

[Dust Jacket Collector]

This morning the postman brought this little gem. I’m pretty sure it qualifies as rare given it was reprinted several times within days of publication and I’ve not seen one before. The first German edition of All Quiet in its jacket. I think it translates as Nothing New in the West.

[Guest]

Is it the true first?  It appears to have a review printed at the bottom of the dustwrapper-although would that be pre-publication??  What does verso title say? (if anything).  Are there any date codes on the wrapper?

Edited 5 December , 2020 by Guest

[Black Maria]

Well done , can you read German ? 

[charlie2]

Congratulations, the title does translate as „Nothing new in the west“. Quite why the title was translated to All Quiet on the Western Front when Nothing new on the Western Front would probably be more in context I don‘t know. How one interprets the (German) title depends on whether your glass is half full or half empty.

 

Charlie

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Is it the true first?  It appears to have a review printed at the bottom of the dustwrapper-although would that be pre-publication??  What does verso title say? (if anything).  Are there any date codes on the wrapper?

The book is certainly the first - no additional printings on the verso. I’ve got a picture on my website of a first edition (can’t remember where it came from) and the jacket is the same so hopefully it’s ok.

(I got the image from Wikipedia so not necessarily that reliable)

[Dust Jacket Collector]

40 minutes ago, Black Maria said:

Well done , can you read German ? 

No, but I believe there are a few translations around!

[Black Maria]

1 hour ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

No, but I believe there are a few translations around!

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

The book is certainly the first - no additional printings on the verso. I’ve got a picture on my website of a first edition (can’t remember where it came from) and the jacket is the same so hopefully it’s ok.

(I got the image from Wikipedia so not necessarily that reliable)

 

Good ho!!  Looks just like the one on  Encyclopedia Wikiannica, so it must be right!!   The matter of the title being a variant translation has come up before-  Literally, it is "In the West nothing new". I believe this was deemed capable of confusing American audiences to whom "The West" meant something else-hence "Western Front" to make it clear to them that nothing along the lines of Tom Mix was going to appear.

     (I got the image from Wikipedia so not necessarily that reliable)-  Treason, mutiny!!

Edited 5 December , 2020 by Guest

[Dust Jacket Collector]

 

Good ho!!  Looks just like the one on  Encyclopedia Wikiannica, so it must be right!!   The matter of the title being a variant translation has come up before-  Literally, it is "In the West nothing new". I believe this was deemed capable of confusing American audiences to whom "The West" meant something else-hence "Western Front" to make it clear to them that nothing along the lines of Tom Mix was going to appear.

     (I got the image from Wikipedia so not necessarily that reliable)-  Treason, mutiny!!

 

Strangely, the value seems to lie with the U.K. edition. ABE shows several copies  priced between £3-6,000 (including a signed one optimistically priced at a tad under £27,000), whereas this one was only £45. Probably a lot cheaper than it should have been but I suspect the Germans aren’t as obsessed with jacketed 1sts as we and our American cousins are.

[Guest]

   I believe that "All Quiet" is still the all-time bestseller of a book written and published originally in German-thus, still relatively common despite the attempts by Adolf to reduce the stock.   My understanding is that Remarque wrote the novel to be apolitical - thus, one might have thought that Hitler would approve as a veteran himself-and one whose experiences would have made much of the narrative of the book familiar to him.  But the book soon took on a life of it's own as an anti-war novel.  This seems to be reflected in the different dustwrappers of the early UK editions. The original is bland, with an apolitical emphasis on youth and innocence (perhaps)

 

 

 

The cheaper edition of 1930 is much the same:

 

 

     But the UK edition that went out in mid-1929 shows a distinctly  anti-war dustwrapper-with the skull and the colours of the empire.  I suspect that dustwrapper is the toughest to get

 

 

Edited 5 December , 2020 by Guest