“They were collected over a 50-year period by Floyd E. Risvold of Edina, Minnesota who participated in expeditions in the West with the Coast and Geodetic Survey in the 1930′s and ’40′s. His jovial admonition to nearly everyone he met was, ‘Keep your powder dry,’” said Charles Shreve, President of Spink Shreves Galleries of New York and Dallas (www.SpinkShreves.com).
“This collection chronicles the U.S. movement westward to find ‘the Promised Land.’ It’s filled with unique, eyewitness accounts to American history. The pre-sale estimate is $5 million or more.”

Risvold died last June at the age of 97, and his family now is making his vast collection and library available to the public.

The wide array of extraordinary items, most of them one-of-a-kind, include a 12-page letter written by John Adams during The War of 1812, a prospector’s 1849-era hand-drawn map to the California gold regions and an Indian peace treaty directive to the Secretary of State signed in 1864 by President Abraham Lincoln. There are hundreds of other items related to the Pony Express and U.S. postal history, the Alamo, the Civil War, expansion of the railroads and Mormon history including an 1841 letter signed by both Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith, early leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“Collectors and museums have been waiting for decades for many of these unique historical documents to again become available,” said Shreve.
After displays of the collection in Dallas, San Francisco and London, England earlier this month, it now is on display in New York City in preparation for the three-day public auction to be held online and at the Spink Shreves Galleries, 145 W.57th St., January 27 – 29.

For additional information, contact Spink Shreves Galleries at (212) 262-8400 or visit online at www.SpinkShreves.com.

(Dallas, Texas) — Despite the gloomy economy, bidding for a softcover copy of the first Harry Potter book already is at a record $15,000 with more than a week remaining in a rare books auction online and in Dallas, Texas, March 6 and 7. It is one of only 200 such copies issued by the London publisher, Bloomsbury.

“This is a 1997 first edition of Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone with the original publisher’s illustrated softcover wrapper and an illustrated card signed by the author, J. K. Rowling. The bidding already has reached $15,000; nearly $18,000 with the buyer’s premium included. The previous auction record was $10,750,” said James Gannon, Director of Rare Books at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas (www.HA.com), the firm conducting the auction.

The anonymous consignor, described by Gannon as “an avid book collector from England,” said he’s frankly surprised — and delighted — at the early bidding: “It takes a lot to shock me, but this is probably as shocked as I have ever been regarding auction bidding. Has the world gone mad? We are in the deepest recession for 80 years and a Harry Potter children’s paperback book is setting a record price.”

Why is it so valuable?

“Now that the final book in the Harry Potter series has come out and the movies are nearing completion, I think collectors are finally realizing that this is not just going to be a rare book but also an important piece of cultural history,” said Gannon.

For additional information, contact Heritage Auction Galleries at (800) 872-6467 or visit online at www.HA.com.

Yahoo! News
By Jon Hurdle – Mon Jan 12, 2009

“PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A literary hoard that includes works by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, as well as 18th and 19th century texts, has been rescued from New York City’s storied but now defunct Gotham Book Mart.

The 220,000-item collection, including books, periodicals, posters and catalogs, has been languishing in a Connecticut warehouse since 2007 when the 87-year-old bookstore – a midtown magnet for many literary figures over the years – closed.

…It contains first editions, experimental literary magazines and advance readers’ copies of well-known works. About a third of the collection is classified as “rare books,” McKnight said.”

Read the Full Story >>

Yahoo! News UK
Friday, July 11, 2008

“LONDON (Reuters) – Police are quizzing a man over the theft of a rare collection of works by William Shakespeare stolen from Durham University 10 years ago.

The first folio edition of the Shakespeare works, published in 1623 and said by police to be worth 15 million pounds, was among items taken during a break-in at the university library in December 1998.

Read the Full Story >>

By KAREN HAYMON LONG, The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 9, 2008

“TAMPA – Baby boomers, as a whole, have been fighting aging since they started turning the dreaded 30. Now, they’re returning to their childhoods in droves by buying the books they loved when they were young.

Old children’s books are very collectible now, says Mike Slicker, owner of Lighthouse Books in St. Petersburg…

Those original, old childhood favorites can come at a steep price: First editions of the Hardy Boys series can run $300 to $1,000, although newer copies sell for as little as $3 or $4 used, Slicker says.

Some of the original Little Golden Books, which came with dust jackets, can sell for $175 if in pristine shape.”

Read the Full Story >>

The Fine Books Blog publishes an annual round-up of the highest prices paid last year for books, maps, and autographs at auction. They publish their full list in their March/April issue.

Their post from December 2007 gives a sneak peak at the top 10, which includes a copy of J. K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. 2007 in the number two spot which sold for $4 million. It was one of seven copies of a handmade book related to the Harry Potter stories, which was sold to raise money for charity and purchased by Amazon.com.

The number one spot was a copy of The Magna Carta, dated 1297, which sold for $21 million. It was the only copy in private hands of this foundation document of Anglo-American law and freedom, and was sold by H. Ross Perot and bought by a private equity fund.

Read the Full Story >>

By KAREN HAYMON LONG
The Tampa Tribune
December 23, 2007

“…Slicker says books that have been made into movies are especially collectible.

That’s true of even newer books, such as Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men.” The first edition, published in 2005, jumped to $75 at abebooks.com after the movie came out this year (you can buy the paperback for $8.40 at amazon.com).

Older books that became movies bring even more. A first-edition of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book,” from 1894-95, was on sale at Bauman Rare Books this month for $6,000.”

Read the Full Story >>

How to make a killing from first editions

www.telegraph.co.uk
21/11/2007

“Investing in books, whether the classics or cheap thrillers, can be lucrative if you know what to look for. Toby Walne reports:

A first-edition of the Emily Bronte novel Wuthering Heights printed in 1847 went under the hammer at a Bonhams auction in London last week for 114,000 pounds (US $235,000).

The classic Victorian tale of romance had no happy ending for Heathcliff and Cathy but for the seller it was all smiles. Books can be a great investment if you go for a first edition in hardback. These earliest print runs are often low in number as they were churned out before the book became a hit, so surviving copies are particularly rare and potentially valuable.”

Read the Full Story >>

Other first edition books to watch:
- The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (1930): 50,000 pounds (US $103,000) with the original dust jacket.
- Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (1938): 30,000 pounds (US $61,800) with dust jacket
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (1953): 20,000 pounds (US $41,200) with dust jacket

There’s much more to read in the article, so check it out…

A Success Story: Step-by-Step Online Bookseller Guide

www.ecommerce-guide.com
November 19, 2007

“Since the invention of movable type the sale of new, used and rare books has been a large, steady worldwide market. The sheer love of books has segued many from collectors into dealers, the ‘prestige’ of dealing in a respected product has compelled others into the trade, as have the mathematics: few collectible commodities can be as readily found as books.

…Years ago, the most common way booksellers discovered they had under-priced a book was to list the title in a catalog or industry magazine and receive 10 orders for the book within a day. Now, thanks to Internet book-listing services, meta-site search engines and auctions, all that has changed.; today there is a transparency to book pricing that allows virtually anyone — retirees, ‘once-cent wonder’ types and the semi-literate — to become booksellers.”

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allAfrica.com: South Africa
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
7 September 2007
Natasha Prince

“Harry Potter is magic! A Stellenbosch family who bought the first Harry Potter novel at a bargain bookstore 10 years ago for a measly R10 are on the verge of selling the rare edition copy for a whopping US $20,000 (R144 000).

Greer Salt was completely unaware of how valuable her copy of J K Rowling’s Harry Potter And the Philosopher’s Stone was.

The book, published in 1997, is believed to be one of only 300 copies of the first printing of the first book in the series. Auctioneer Paul Mills of AuctionExploreBooks.com said it was “extremely rare”.

Read the Full Story >>