Great Literature from Whitmore Rare Books

Whitmore Rare Books has issued their Catalogue 27. Whitmore specializes in the great literary works. That includes both fiction and nonfiction, great novels and historic works, poetry, science, even children's books and a dictionary. If the books are noteworthy, they may show up in a Whitmore catalogue. Here are a few selections from this latest collection.

We begin with the first published edition (second edition) of the book that turned children's literature on its head. Children's books were generally rather moralistic fare until Alice's Adventures in Wonderland came along. Instead of telling children what to think, it made them think, its twisted logic fascinating children and soon, adults as well. The author was logician, mathematician, and children's portrait photographer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, though readers knew him by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. Alice, and there was a real Alice, was the daughter of friends. Dodgson liked to tell stories so Alice asked him to tell one about her. The book was originally printed in 1865, but illustrator John Tenniel was displeased with the reproduction of his images and demanded the pages be withdrawn. A few copies were bound but not published, which is why what is technically the second edition of 1866 is the first published edition. The extremely rare first is essentially unobtainable. Item 8. Priced at $50,000.

Many people consider this the most important science text ever written. Considering that it is competing against the likes of Newton and Einstein, that is quite an honor. The book is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Its importance is that unlike the works of those other greats, who taught us how better to look at the universe, Charles Darwin made us look at ourselves in a completely new way. The bad news was, we are no longer the center of the universe, a message many people did not want to hear. This is a copy of the first edition, published in 1859, one of 1,250 copies printed. It didn't take long to sell out. Item 15. $135,000.

Here is that dictionary, and it is an amazing feat by Samuel Johnson, its author. Most lexicographers get to crib from preceding dictionaries, but there weren't any of much substance when Johnson took on the task in 1747. How can you think of all the words? He must have missed some, but Johnson came up with 42,773 in the nine years it took him to complete his dictionary. Printing and the Mind of Man described what Johnson accomplished as “the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography.” Johnson read great writers such as Shakespeare, Milton and Locke in his search for words. He then had to come up with definitions for each. Item 39 is a 1755 first edition of A Dictionary of the English Language. $19,500.

Its hard to imagine that anyone spending nine years writing an almost 43,000 word dictionary could have had any life, but he must have as here is The Life of Samuel Johnson, bound with The Principal Corrections and Additions to the First Edition of Mr. Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson. These are first editions, 1791, 1793. Actually, the much younger Boswell only met Johnson long after he had finished his dictionary. Johnson was some sort of wit and public celebrity, and James Boswell quickly turned into a friend and slavish admirer. Boswell was an extreme note-taker, and wrote down practically everything Johnson said. Assisted by his copious notes and Johnson's own diary, Boswell wrote what has become the standard for biographies, perhaps the greatest one ever written. Light on the first 50 years of Johnson's life, it is intensely focused on those last years when Boswell knew the elder man. Ultimately, the two became intertwined in history. Johnson, for all of his reputation a couple of centuries ago, would be mostly forgotten today, as would Boswell except for this book. They made each other into historic figures, for whatever that is worth. Item 4. $9,500.

This is not Ernest Hemingway's greatest work, but it is his first and rarest making it the most valuable. The title is Three Stories and Ten Poems. The three stories had never been published before, but some of the poems had. It was printed in a run of just 300 copies. Hemingway was unknown at the time, but thanks to this and other writings, that quickly changed. This copy contains an inscription from Hemingway to Ernest Walsh and Ethel Moorhead, editors of Paris literary magazine This Quarter. Item 36. $150,000.

This is not the oldest nor greatest literary achievement in this catalogue. It is actually the newest book and is unlikely to ever be compared to Shakespeare. However, its extraordinary popularity, particularly with younger people, has made it the leading book sensation of the past three decades. It is in reality a series, but this is the first book in that series – Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. When this first edition was published, Rowling was as obscure as Hemingway when he published his Three Stories. Obscurity would not last long for Rowling either. Whitmore notes that “Harry Potter is the most successful book franchise of all time, with over 600 million copies of the books in print.” Only 500 copies of this hardback first printing were made, half of which went to libraries where users made them less than desirable for collectors. This one was privately owned. Is Harry Potter a lasting literary treasure or a phenomenon of its time, to be mostly forgotten a century from now? I don't know. It brings to mind the $12 million spent on a Mickey Mantle baseball card. Will much of anyone know who Mickey Mantle was a century from now? These are questions we will have to leave to our great grandchildren to answer. Item 63. $225,000.

Whitmore Rare Books may be reached at 626-714-7720 or info@whitmorerarebooks.com. Their website is www.WhitmoreRareBooks.com.