Rare books?

[Delphinium]

I found a bunch of old books on the floor of my sisters garage. One of them is a signed copy of "Personal Memoirs of U.S Grant" and another is "The Works of Washington Irving", the Life and voyages of Christopher Columbus. Both are dated 1885.

Does anyone have an idea of their value, or where would I go to idea?

[Delphinium]

Stephen King? There were alot of his books that I left in the garage? Should I get them?

[Migraine]

Whats your address?

Cute. I think you have a real treasure there -- especially if the US Grant sig is real!

[stylin_geek]

J.D. Salinger of "Catcher in the Rye" fame? Probably the most overrated piece of drivel every to be hyped as a best seller. Ellsworth Toohey would have been proud.

[Calpernia]

I don't know French. But I would be willing to try that for you at no cost. I would use babel fish. I would only be interested in helping on that end cause I'm third generation myself in America. Family was originally sharecroppers in Italy. I know how precious things like that are.

So you may enter babel fish or forward info to me for that. I all ready told you I personelly don't know the language. But you do understand the empathy of sentiment from me.

[Delphinium]

How do I find what addition it is?

[fqued]

Various ways of finding out what edition a book is.

The first place I look is AddALL http://used.addall.com/

If that is not fruitful, I use WorldCat. [You can log into WorldCat through you library. If you can log into your library from home, you can then log into WorldCat from home.] WorldCat lists all the books from the member libraries around the world. The info given on a book is generally good enough to tell what edition a book is.

Note, it is not always true that a first edition is substantially more valuable than a second or third edition.

Actually, I have one book that has three "first" editions, and, truthfully, each has claim to the title.

[Delphinium]

When I first got a computer, about 9 years ago I bought some French translation software. The problem is that these books are written in pretty old French.

I haven't got the book in the computer now. I copied it from a microfilm. I would have to type it in and I really don't know how to type.

[fqued]

By the way, what is the title, author and date of this (these) french book(s) that you keep mentioning. It is within the realm of possibility that there is a translation already available.

[Porterville]

Stephen King books sometimes say first edition on the copyright page.... but to be sure check on a website that is specific to Stephen King collectors. Many King books have a code-number on a later page, on the inside near the spine, like (CJ768)The Stand for example has a code on page 823. But the code change for each printing... A give away is if the Dust Jacket say Book Of The Mont Club. In general, that means the book is worthless, unless it is The Old Man And The Sea you can get 50-80 bucks for that BCE.

First editions vary on how they are marked to indicate first edition by the publisher. Scribners has a seal that will be on most of their first editions but they may throw in a capital A to indicate the true first and a W to indicate something else.. Ayn Rands Fountain Head states First Edition on up to the 14th or 15th edition, the first edition has burgandy clothe the second Green.... so when your scanning a book store you know what the jackpots look like... then you check out the finer details like what would make it a first edition later. Then you go back and buy the book.

Kipplings Jungle Book is worth a lot of money, but most of his books aren't worth but 10$. He has a ton of books that were printed.

[Hildy]

What a great resource! I've been trying to find copies of one of my Dad's books that's been out of print for quite a while and lo and behold...I found more than I can imagine!!! Thank you!!!!

[Calpernia]

I'm a great typist. Is it normal characters? I would help.

[Porterville]

Yeah, but since that movie with Mel Gibson, people love it, they think they are all Holden Caulfield. But, the true first Nine Storied, Raise the Roof Beam High, and Franny and Zoey, all worth money and are hard to find.. True First that is the key.

[fqued]

What a great resource! I've been trying to find copies of one of my Dad's books that's been out of print for quite a while and lo and behold...I found more than I can imagine!!! Thank you!!!!

You are welcome. What did your father write?

[Porterville]

Nine Stories not Nine Storied

[MarthaNOStewart]

You might want to contact Yale University Library for information, as some of those books have been used in their research, especially the Christopher Columbus one. They might have some concept of their value.
Best Wishes

[Delphinium]

That would be a miracle! I doubt if that would be a possibility.

"Histoire DE LA MAISON d’Urfe"

and,

"Achille-Francois de Lascaris d'Urfe Marquis Du Chastellet 1759-1794" , by David de Saint-Georges

[Delphinium]

The Old Man And The Sea

I think that is one of them. I am sending this information to my niece who sells alot on ebay. They are in her mothers garage.

[Delphinium]

Another book I just discovered in this stack is "Poems" by Oliver Wendell Holmes

It looks in perfect condition. No date at all that I can see but looks very old.

[Delphinium]

Is it normal characters?

Not sure what that means. I was not a good student, can you tell?

[Porterville]

Go to http://www.abebooks.com, take the book, like Old Man And The Sea and turn to the copyright page. The first edition has the scribners seal and I think a capital "A" it was published in 1952, the dust jacket should be a 50's style blue with a tan island and a picture of hemingway is on the back. Also the dust jacket (dj) will not say book of the month club edition... eBay is also a great resource.

I don't know about Oliver Holmes, but just checking on abebooks.com it shows that most dealers are selling early editions, some saying first (you really have to check) for 10-20 dollars. fadedgiant.net is also a good resource online.