Anyone collect old books?

[Bonomo]

I have been building my personal library for years and I love really old books. Anyone else? Anybody have some cool ones?

[Elisabeth]

I LOVE collecting books, and have just now started getting a few "firsts".  I must admit that the "firsts" are what they call 'reading' copies, but since that is what I get them for, I don't mind.   I have a first British edition and a first US edition of the Play JOURNEY'S END, a first of JOURNEY'S END the novel,  a Victorian edition of FRANKENSTEIN,(ca 1840) and a couple of John Galsworthys.  Books are very precious to me.

"E"

[Bonomo]

I'm the exact same way, I don't need it to be in mint condition as long as it is in reasonable/not falling apart condition. Age alone just gives a book so much character that sometimes a little wear and tear makes it even more likeable. As far as my really old ones go I only have a few, the oldest being a book of ghost stories from 1890 that has been in my family since it was printed. I'm still frustrated about a great one I found recently. It was a near mint copy of Washington Irving's The Sketchbook from the 1890's which was the book that The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow was originally published in. I got it for about $10 but I had bought it for my brother as a birthday present. When I got my hands on the book it was so cool that I really honestly almost kept it for myself lol, but besides being his birthday my brother and I had been in a little altercation so the book was both a peace offering as well as a b-day present and I couldn't find it in my heart to not give it to him. Still not sure if I made the right decision on that one lol. Learned my lesson though, I no longer get books that I might want as presents for other people.

[Scary Terry]

I love vintage illustrated books and have quite a few on my shelves.  Anything with illos by N.C. Wyeth, Lynd Ward, Frank Godwin, C.D. Gibson, Rockwell Kent, etc. calls my name.  I also love the illustrated editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs -- from the early hardcovers with St. John illos to the '60s paperbacks with Frazetta covers.  Would love to be able to afford original editions of the OZ books.  Have a movie edition hc of Frankenstein -- no dust jacket, though, darn it.

I love crime/mystery fiction, and have a lot of vintage paperbacks of Hammett, Spillane, Chandler, etc.  Have collected many for the cover art as well as the contents.

Also early comic strip reprint books and big little books (of which I have dozens).

[typhooforme]

I've collected everything, I guess--and old books were near the top of my list for decades.  There used to be three great used book stores in Cincinnati which I haunted.  Those stores LOOKED haunted, too!  My favorite was Bert Smith's Acres of Books, and it was four floors of old old books, and on the main floor also, tables full of old magazines--and my gosh, pulps!--you'd go down the narrow aisles between shelves, dimmer and dimmer light as you went deeper into the building--and as you went, you reached up and grabbed the strings or pull chains and turned on one bare lightbulb above you as you went, lighting just that area where you were--and turning off each bulb as you went, as a courtesy.  Often you'd think you were aloneup there, and then you'd hear footsteps 3 or 4 aisles off, and see the lighting change when another customer pulled the light cord over there.  I always thought it seemed like a place from an old murder mystery.  I'd spend whole afternoons there, back in the 1960s, and come out with paper grocery bags full of old books.  Bert Smith's closed its doors about 30 years ago.  I heard the contents--thousands of old books--were stored in a warehouse for a while, and then sold to a bookseller from another part of the country.  Man, I miss that old store!
Sometimes I'd buy just because the covers were so cool--the big one here is 1890s, the other two are 1850-1860 era:

Here's an 1870s edition of a play by Victor Hugo (author of HUNCHBACK  OF NOTRE DAME)--and this play, "Ruy Blas", also has a hunchback!

And here are some old pulps--back then, 2 or 3 bucks each! 

[Illoman]

I am a "bookaholic" as well. Mostly art books by favorite artists. When I can afford them, I *love* signed editions. I have books signed by Arch Oboler, Clifton Fadiman, Chris Van Allsberg, Mel Blanc, John Michael Talbot, James Bama, Frederick Buechner, Alex Nino, Barry Windsor Smith, Jeffrey Jones, Esteban Maroto, etc... just a real eclectic mix of people whose writings or art mean something to me personally.

I also have a lot of old paperbacks, mostly from my youth that have stayed with me on the journey so far. Some have mysteriously vanished but a few have stuck it out.

[Bonomo]

I've collected everything, I guess--and old books were near the top of my list for decades.  There used to be three great used book stores in Cincinnati which I haunted.  Those stores LOOKED haunted, too!  My favorite was Bert Smith's Acres of Books, and it was four floors of old old books, and on the main floor also, tables full of old magazines--and my gosh, pulps!--you'd go down the narrow aisles between shelves, dimmer and dimmer light as you went deeper into the building--and as you went, you reached up and grabbed the strings or pull chains and turned on one bare lightbulb above you as you went, lighting just that area where you were--and turning off each bulb as you went, as a courtesy.  Often you'd think you were aloneup there, and then you'd hear footsteps 3 or 4 aisles off, and see the lighting change when another customer pulled the light cord over there.  I always thought it seemed like a place from an old murder mystery.  I'd spend whole afternoons there, back in the 1960s, and come out with paper grocery bags full of old books.  Bert Smith's closed its doors about 30 years ago.  I heard the contents--thousands of old books--were stored in a warehouse for a while, and then sold to a bookseller from another part of the country.  Man, I miss that old store!
Sometimes I'd buy just because the covers were so cool--the big one here is 1890s, the other two are 1850-1860 era:

Here's an 1870s edition of a play by Victor Hugo (author of HUNCHBACK  OF NOTRE DAME)--and this play, "Ruy Blas", also has a hunchback!

And here are some old pulps--back then, 2 or 3 bucks each! 

AWESOME!

[Bonomo]

I LOVE collecting books, and have just now started getting a few "firsts".  I must admit that the "firsts" are what they call 'reading' copies, but since that is what I get them for, I don't mind.   I have a first British edition and a first US edition of the Play JOURNEY'S END, a first of JOURNEY'S END the novel,  a Victorian edition of FRANKENSTEIN,(ca 1840) and a couple of John Galsworthys.  Books are very precious to me.


"E"

Elisabeth you wouldn't happen to have any pictures of that Frankenstein book would you? I just got one that doesn't have a print date but it's estimated to be early 1900's. Would love to find out the actual date for it.

[Elisabeth]

I'm afraid I don't...but judging by the design on the cover, and the smell and texture of the paper, I'd say between 1860 and 1880.  Whenever we would get an Estate donation of that era, our Library Cat would go bonkers at the smell.  They apparently used fish based glue in that era, and the donations smelled quite delectable.  It was very mild by human standards, but our little black cat would really start vocalising.

How I miss her...
"E" 

[Bonomo]

I'm afraid I don't...but judging by the design on the cover, and the smell and texture of the paper, I'd say between 1860 and 1880.  Whenever we would get an Estate donation of that era, our Library Cat would go bonkers at the smell.  They apparently used fish based glue in that era, and the donations smelled quite delectable.  It was very mild by human standards, but our little black cat would really start vocalising.

How I miss her...
"E" 

Thats funny about the glue. I found out the year, 1940. Nowhere near as cool as an 1880 edition, but I'll take it 

[curseofthewerewolf]

I love vintage illustrated books and have quite a few on my shelves.  Anything with illos by N.C. Wyeth, Lynd Ward, Frank Godwin, C.D. Gibson, Rockwell Kent, etc. calls my name.  I also love the illustrated editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs -- from the early hardcovers with St. John illos to the '60s paperbacks with Frazetta covers.  Would love to be able to afford original editions of the OZ books.  Have a movie edition hc of Frankenstein -- no dust jacket, though, darn it.

I love crime/mystery fiction, and have a lot of vintage paperbacks of Hammett, Spillane, Chandler, etc.  Have collected many for the cover art as well as the contents.

Also early comic strip reprint books and big little books (of which I have dozens).

In elementary school they had two Nathaniel Hawthorne 'mythology' books with the most glorious color plates.  They haunt me now since I want to know for sure who did them.  I thought they were N.C. Wyeth.  After searching I don't think he even did those books. I posted this on some other forum before and MAYBE it was Parrish instead. 

All I know is everyone that was suggested I either could not find enough examples or a painting/illustration that rang a bell for sure.  I used to check those books out repeatedly as a kid.  Looking at some Parrish examples they look more like them than the others I could find examples of (because of his orange cliffs/mountains/backgrounds/colors).  That may very well be it.  I seem to recall a painting of the minotaur, but don't see it online at all.

THE WONDER BOOK and TANGLEWOOD TALES were the books. They were older editions for sure. Those books TRULY sparked my interest in mythology (besides comic books).

[neonnoodle]

Sad to say:  Atmospheric old used book stores are getting pretty darn well hard to find in Los Angeles!  I remember one of the best was a store on Rosemead Blvd. in Rosemead... it had pictures of Marvel comics characters painted on the outside of the place, but inside it was much more than a comic book store.  They had boxes of old magazines, musty paperbacks and hardcovers on shelves, even a glass case with 8mm films and odd buttons and knickknacks inside. 

Every time I went into this place (I discovered it around 1980) I felt magnetically drawn to stay, to get absorbed into the books.  There were many treasures inside and the people who ran the store had no idea, or did not care, what any of it might be worth.  So everything was 25 cents, or 50 cents, or a dollar.  It was all there to be plundered by anyone willing to go through the boxes and find a gem.  Sheer magic!  It vanished around 1992 or 93.  Still sorry every time I drive by the address, where now air conditioners are sold.

I have a special love for ghost books.  Supposedly "true" ghost stories are great and so are the basic creepy old yarns.  I remember getting "Horror Times Ten" and some others at that used bookstore.  I used to get a lot of stuff at garage sales and library sales.  Favorites are "The Phantom Cyclist" by Ruth Ainsworth, and "Strangely Enough!" by C. B. Colby, and "The Most Famous Ghost of All" by D. J. Arneson.  All of these books are great.  Sometimes a very short story can be powerfully spooky, as the latter two books may attest.

[monsterphile]

In elementary school they had two Nathaniel Hawthorne 'mythology' books with the most glorious color plates.  They haunt me now since I want to know for sure who did them.  I thought they were N.C. Wyeth.  After searching I don't think he even did those books. I posted this on some other forum before and MAYBE it was Parrish instead. 

All I know is everyone that was suggested I either could not find enough examples or a painting/illustration that rang a bell for sure.  I used to check those books out repeatedly as a kid.  Looking at some Parrish examples they look more like them than the others I could find examples of (because of his orange cliffs/mountains/backgrounds/colors).  That may very well be it.  I seem to recall a painting of the minotaur, but don't see it online at all.

THE WONDER BOOK and TANGLEWOOD TALES were the books. They were older editions for sure. Those books TRULY sparked my interest in mythology (besides comic books).

If you Google images for "TANGLEWOOD TALES" you'll see a lot of pages of the art used, including some by Parrish.

Rob

[neonnoodle]

Oh:  I need to mention Heigh-Ho For Halloween, Ghosts and Goblins (edited by Wilhelmina Harper...early editions have great illos), Spooks, Spirits and Shadowy Shapes (illustrated by Robert Doremus).  And also the wonderful Ghosts That Still Walk by Marion Lowndes.  These are all fine books and on a lucky day you can find one real cheep on Amazon or Alibris.

I believe there was a thread at one point about Alfred Hitchcock ghost books and also "The Three Investigators" mystery books.  These are a lot of fun too and I have one or two of these sitting around somewhere.

[ChrisW]

I'll go on record as confessing my book fetish. If I bought every book I wanted, I'd be poor in a heartbeat. S I end up searching for used book stores as we travel. My books run the range from 1800s leather bound tomes (ended up being props in paintings many times) to 1920s and 30s children's books, to 1950s flying saucer and horror novels through contemporary books. Illustrated books and books about art or illustration make up the majority.
If you've never visited it before, be sure to check out
http://www.booksalefinder.com/
It is an AMAZING resource for finding old books. I've attended a few that were advertised here and have been astounded by the sheer volume (no pun intended...well, maybe a small one) of books available. Prices generally have been very very good, and you never know what you'll find.