SALON

Friday, Jun 17, 2011 3:30 PM UTC

Would you pay $27,500 for book proofs?

Here's how much pre-publication copies of literary classics -- from "1984" to "Harry Potter" -- could set you back

By

Topics: Bookstores, Books,

Would you pay $27,500 for book proofs?

If you thought the hardcover edition of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” was expensive at $35, you may be in for quite a shock. Online bookselling service Abebooks recently scoured their partner stores’ inventories for rare review copies of literary masterworks; here we’ve highlighted ten of the most interesting items they found, from vintage Potter to Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific.” We’ve added salient details — including, of course, price.

1. Set of three Harry Potter proofs: ”Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”; “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”; “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” (1997-99)

Price: $27,500.

From the listing: These were the only titles for which there were proof copies done: after the third book, Bloomsbury did not print or issue prepublication proofs. Reportedly, there were only 200 copies of the proof for Philosopher’s Stone and only 50 copies of the purple proof for Prisoner of Azkaban, which means that no more than 50 sets such as this could ever be assembled, making this perhaps the rarest set of Harry Potter items possible.

2. Saul Bellow, “Herzog.” (signed, with hand corrections and marginal comments; 1964)

Price: $9,500.

From the listing: We know of only two other copies of this proof surfacing over the years.

3. Gabriel García Márquez, “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” (1970)

Price: $7,500.

From the listing: This proof copy is in the very fragile “pad-bound” format, which presumably accounts for its extreme scarcity: pad-bound proofs, because of the way they’re constructed, tend to lose their front or rear covers over time; what was undoubtedly a scarce proof to begin with is now exceptionally rare.

4. James Michener, “Tales of the South Pacific.” (1947)

Price: $5,000.

From the listing: Extremely scarce: Michener’s first book is uncommon even in the first trade printing; we have never seen another set of these sheets or any other prepublication copy.

5. John Lennon, “A Spaniard in the Works.” (1965)

Price: $3,500.

From the listing: The only proof copy we have handled, and only the third that we have heard about.

6. Truman Capote, “Other Voices, Other Rooms.” (1948)

Price: $2,500.

From the listing: A bit cocked, slight spine erosion, a near very good copy of a fragile and uncommon issue.

7. Ray Bradbury, “Long After Midnight.” (signed; 1976)

Price: $2,000

From the listing: [C]ontains the story “I, Rocket” that was ultimately deleted from the first printing…. The title is handwritten on the spine.

8. George Orwell, “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” (1949)

Price: $1,837.

From the listing: Only copy of the Canadian proof that we have seen.

9. Daphne du Maurier, “Rebecca: A Play in Three Acts”. (1940)

Price: $1,750.

From the listing: [This] play, based on the author’s own novel, was the basis for the David O. Selznick film, the first directed in America by Alfred Hitchcock, and which featured Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, and Judith Anderson. Hitchcock was nominated for an Oscar and the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

10. Kurt Vonnegut, “Hocus Pocus.” (1990)

Price: $700.

From the listing: Signed and dated “April 7 2003″ by Vonnegut on the half-title page.

Emma Mustich is a Salon contributor. Follow her on Twitter: @emustich. More Emma Mustich.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 8 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations