Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2004 Issue
Heritage Book Shop’s California<br>Book Fair 2004 Catalogue
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Some children’s books are really for adults. Take, for example, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Last month we ran a story about a collector whose home is a virtual shrine to “Alice” and her creator. See Mark Burstein & Alice: a World of the Mind. Item 57 is a first American edition of Alice, printed in 1866. $12,500. Item 58 is a sixth edition from 1883, but is an inscribed presentation copy. It is inscribed simply “from the Author,” perhaps to avoid the issue of choosing whether to use the penname “Lewis Carroll” or his real name Charles Dodgson. $8,500.
Another author who wrote children’s books for adults and had two names was Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens. A first American edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in “near fine” condition is offered as item 351 for $6,000. A true first (which is an English, not American) edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is offered for $5,000. Item 352.
Perhaps the best-known American reference work is “Webster’s Dictionary.” Technically, it was called An American Dictionary of the English Language… by Noah Webster. This is the first edition, printed in 1828. Item 368. $12,500. In the legal field, the leading work is “Blackstone’s Commentaries,” officially Commentaries on the Laws of England by Sir William Blackstone. Item 27 is the four set first edition, printed 1765-1769, including the eight-page supplement to the first volume. $20,000. Not so well-known a reference is Henry Chadwick’s Chadwick’s Base Ball Manual for 1889. It includes all the latest rules, like a batter walks on just four balls, not five as had previously been the case. Still, the book is dated as it includes no instructions on how to negotiate multimillion-dollar contracts. Item 67. $1,250.
The Heritage Book Shop has a website at www.heritagebookshop.com, or may be reached by phone at 310-659-3674.
