Value and Rarity : Six Letters and Other Booklets

In collecting I found that studying the bibliographies for the rarer items was very stimulating. Certain tricks of the net became useful tools, for example entering various parts of a title into Google searches and finding items in bookseller itineries or catalogues. Sometimes these would be enticed in to view when the bookseller had mis-spelt the author’s name or other basic error. Today’s blog illustrates some items that also show that rare doesn’t equate to valuable. The India Alice, a booklet prepared for a Grolier Club dinner in 1966, describes the finding of one of the few 1865 Alice’s on the floor of a bookshop in Bangalore and its subsequent journey to Warren Weaver’s collection. This I held as especially desirable for a long time – a collecting whim – and when I spotted it in a literature catalogue one day I telephoned to secure it –but it had been sold that morning. Five years later I found this copy on eBay, with the dinner card of Lew Feldman still with it (the famous book dealer El Dieff) and a great inscription. Another rarity is the Six Letters – no 3 of only 26 copies printed; not valuable as such but try and find one! There are others which I will blog about in future posts.