Only once, I think, have I been guilty of buying a book I did not particularly want, because of its speculative value—that was when I stumbled across a copy of Woodrow Wilson’s “Constitutional Government in the United States” with a long inscription in its author’s cursive hand. Even in this case I think it was my imagination rather than avarice that led me to pay a fancy price for a book which some day when I am not “among those present” will fetch as many thousands as I paid hundreds. In 1909, when the inscription was written, its author was a relatively unimportant man—to-day he is known throughout the world and is in a position to influence its destinies as no other man has ever been.
No paper dealing with the prices of books would be complete without the remark that condition is everything. Any rare book is immensely more valuable if in very fine condition. Imagine for a moment a book worth, say, six hundred dollars in good condition,—for example, the “Vicar of Wakefield,”—and then imagine—if you can—a copy of this same book in boards uncut. Would twenty-five hundred dollars be too high a price for such a copy? I think not.