The
The Fifth highest is D. P. Thompson’s The Green Mountain Boys published in 1839 in two volumes.? Scribner says of this book, “Of the greatest rarity in any condition” and prices them at $165.? They must have known that a tough copy would be available in
Sixth, Seventh and eighth are books at $150:? William A Carruthers' The Knights of the Horse-shoe, 1845; William Gilmore Simms" The Yemassee, 1835; and James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, 1826.
Mr. Carruthers"book is not available on ABE in the first edition though there are three copies found in a title search of "The Knights of the Golden Horse-shoe" for a 1970's reprint.? Mr. Simms" The Yamassee was available in a single copy of the first printing and I bought it for $255 delivered.? The seller indicated he had had the book for a while and had been asking $350.? The
Ninth, tenth and eleventh belong to first editions priced at $125: Robert Montgomery Bird’s Nick of the Woods, 1837; Charles Brockden Brown's Arthur Mervyn, 1799; and Edward Everett Hale’s The Man without a Country, 1865.
There are three copies of Nick of the Woods ranging from $300 for a single volume of the two volume set to $1,650 for a copy with a “neat” repair. There are also three copies of Arthur Mervyn, an account of
There are 217 other books in this catalogue, many of which are inexpensive. In fact ninety –eight of them are $10 or less in the original catalogue.
Within a day of starting work on this project I began to systematically look on line for most of the items. When an available copy appeared to be similar to the Scribner copy I then looked at the price difference. When this difference was small enough I tended to inquire further about the copy and the availability of a better price. In the course of a solid week I purchased about 40 of the 228 titles for about $3,000. A few of these books were among the great rarities in the Scribner catalogue and others were absolutely common but looked interesting to read. Most are of course in between. Click HERE To Access the American Historical Novels Collection No.1
