My copy of the Poems has, alas, no inscription, but it cost me in excess of five hundred dollars; and a well-known collector has just paid Rosenbach nine thousand dollars for Keats’s three slender volumes, each with inscriptions in the poet’s hand. Three into nine is a simple problem: even I can do it; but the volume of “Poems” is much rarer than “Endymion” or “Lamia.”
IV
“ASSOCIATION” BOOKS AND FIRST EDITIONS
NO books have appreciated more in value than presentation or association volumes, and the reason is not far to seek. Of any given copy there can hardly be a duplicate. For the most part presentation copies are first editions—plus. Frequently there is a note or a comment which sheds biographical light on the author. In the slightest inscription there is the record of a friendship by means of which we get back of the book to the writer. And speaking of association books, every one will remember the story that General Wolfe, in an open boat on the St. Lawrence as he was being rowed down the stream to a point just below Quebec, recited the lines from Gray’s “Elegy,”—
“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth, e’er gave
Await alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave,”—
adding, “I would rather be the author of that piece than have the honor of beating the French to-morrow.” When Wolfe left England he carried with him a copy of the “Elegy,” the gift of his fiancée, Miss Katherine Lowther. He learned the poem by heart, he underscored his favorite lines, among them the passage quoted; he filled the book with his notes. After his death the book and a miniature of the lady were returned to her, and only a few days ago this book, a priceless volume of unique association interest, was offered for sale. The first man who saw it bought it. He had never bought a fine book before, but he could not resist this one. When I heard of the transaction I was grieved and delighted—grieved that so wonderful a volume had escaped me, delighted that I had not been subjected to so terrible a temptation. What was the price of it? Only the seller and the buyer know, but I fancy some gilt-edged securities had to be parted with.
How the prices of these books go a-soaring is shown by the continuous advance in the price of a copy of Shelley’s “Queen Mab.” It is a notable copy, referred to in Dowden’s “Life of Shelley.” On the fly leaf is an inscription in Shelley’s hand, “Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, from P.B.S.”; inside of the back cover Shelley has written in pencil, “You see, Mary, I have not forgotten you”; and elsewhere in the book in Mary’s hand, we read, “This book is sacred to me, and as no other creature shall ever look into it, I may write in it what I please. Yet what shall I write? That I love the author beyond all powers of expression and that I am parted from him”; and much more to the same effect. At the Ives sale in 1891 this volume of supreme interest brought $190; in 1897, at the Frederickson sale, it brought $615; and a year ago a dealer sold it for $7500; and cheap at that, I say, for where will you find another?
I have before me a copy of Stevenson’s “Inland Voyage.” Pamphlets aside, which, by reason of their manner of publication, are now rare, it may be said to be the author’s first book. It has an inscription, “My dear Cummy: If you had not taken so much trouble with me all the years of my childhood, this little book would never have been written. Many a long night you sat up with me when I was ill; I wish I could hope by way of return to amuse a single evening for you with my little book! But whatever you may think of it, I know you will continue to think kindly of the Author.” I thought, when I gave four hundred dollars for it, that I was paying a fabulous price; but as I have since been offered twice that sum, Rosenbach evidently let me have a bargain. He tells me that it is good business sometimes to sell a book for less than it is worth. He regards it as bait. He angles for you very skilfully, does Rosy, and lands you—me—every time.
