I was at my local GW last night and they had a selection of rather old books in their display cabinet which caught my eye. I looked them up and bought two, primarily because I couldn't find much info on them at the time and 'I had a feeling...' (that and they were rather cheap. lol)
The two books are 'True to Herself' by Mrs. J. H. Walworth from 1890 and 'Too Old for Dolls' by Anthony Ludovici from 1921.
and
(Sorry for the big pics. I couldn't find a way to get them smaller.)
Anyhow, I did some more research on these once I got them home. I checked ebay, Abe Books, Heritage Auctions archive, Google and other sources that usually have given me good results for oddball items like these but found nothing.
Looking further, I found these were both considered 'culturally significant' books with the reprints alone selling for $30 and up. Of course that got my attention and I continued digging deeper.
A few 1921 French editions of 'Too Old for Dolls' were being sold for between $53.00 and $83.00 euros but I saw no copies of the English version for sale anywhere. While that itself is interesting, I was just getting started.
At first, 'True to Herself' proved even more elusive in that I couldn't even find an image of the book cover through Google. I saw someone had set up a Facebook page for the book but everything was greyed out so I couldn't read anything.
Then I saw someone had one of the softcover reprints on Amazon for $30 so I decided to check it out to see if I could glean some information about this book or author at the very least. Of course there was nothing but I did notice that there also were hardcover editions for sale.
These HC editions were priced between $1,049 and $1,256. At this point my eyes bugged out of my head. "Whoo-hoo! That's what I have!" I thought to myself as visions of a weekend vacation, funds for car repair or maybe a nice new metal detector danced through my mind. LOL
As you might have guessed though, there were no images, details or information available to let me know if, when buying this book, I hit the bibliophile jackpot or did I just buy someones junk from grandma's attic?
Can someone who knows about vintage books (or whose Google-fu ability is better than mine) tell me if either of these editions have any real value or did I strike out here? Also, if they are so rare, what is it about them that makes them 'culturally significant' and in such demand?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you might have!
The two books are 'True to Herself' by Mrs. J. H. Walworth from 1890 and 'Too Old for Dolls' by Anthony Ludovici from 1921.
and
(Sorry for the big pics. I couldn't find a way to get them smaller.)
Anyhow, I did some more research on these once I got them home. I checked ebay, Abe Books, Heritage Auctions archive, Google and other sources that usually have given me good results for oddball items like these but found nothing.
Looking further, I found these were both considered 'culturally significant' books with the reprints alone selling for $30 and up. Of course that got my attention and I continued digging deeper.
A few 1921 French editions of 'Too Old for Dolls' were being sold for between $53.00 and $83.00 euros but I saw no copies of the English version for sale anywhere. While that itself is interesting, I was just getting started.
At first, 'True to Herself' proved even more elusive in that I couldn't even find an image of the book cover through Google. I saw someone had set up a Facebook page for the book but everything was greyed out so I couldn't read anything.
Then I saw someone had one of the softcover reprints on Amazon for $30 so I decided to check it out to see if I could glean some information about this book or author at the very least. Of course there was nothing but I did notice that there also were hardcover editions for sale.
These HC editions were priced between $1,049 and $1,256. At this point my eyes bugged out of my head. "Whoo-hoo! That's what I have!" I thought to myself as visions of a weekend vacation, funds for car repair or maybe a nice new metal detector danced through my mind. LOL
As you might have guessed though, there were no images, details or information available to let me know if, when buying this book, I hit the bibliophile jackpot or did I just buy someones junk from grandma's attic?
Can someone who knows about vintage books (or whose Google-fu ability is better than mine) tell me if either of these editions have any real value or did I strike out here? Also, if they are so rare, what is it about them that makes them 'culturally significant' and in such demand?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you might have!
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