what is your oldest book?

[wildhorses]

any antique book collectors out there? share your story....

[reyd reid reed]

1. I've got a couple of old ones...

I've got a copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that's dated 1900. I've got a couple others that are from the 1890s.

[wildhorses]

3. that is cool....

what are the one's from the 1890's about?

[REP]

2. A Welsh Collection Of Bunyan, 1865

The collected writings of John Bunyan, translated into Welsh, withe engravings, marbled endpapers and leather binding.

[wildhorses]

4. wow, that sounds like it is a beautiful book....

do you keep it in a special place?

[BikeWriter]

5. My western. Oh, do you mean one I didn't write myself?

[wildhorses]

7. no, that is an honest answer...and funny,too!! How about sharing

the first page of your western. Is there a cowgirl in it? And do wildhorses stampede?

[BikeWriter]

30. The first page? I can do that. Here it is:

Jim Horn rode his horse down the trail at a steady pace. He and his horse, Chief, were both wearing several pounds more than their share of the dust of that long, hot trail from the border area of west Texas into San Antonio.
Anyone unfortunate enough to be out in the blistering heat watching him would have seen a sturdily built, sun browned man of slightly above average heighth. He fit the square-rigged stock saddle on his horse as if he were born to it as indeed he was. A brace of worn but clean .44-40 Colts in tied down holsters on his hips and a Winchester carbine of the same caliber in his saddle scabbard showed him to be a man not to be trifled with.
The weapon only a few unhappy and often short lived people got to see was a short-barreled Colt that usually rode in one of Jim's boots. At twenty-eight years of age, Jim considered himself to be not too ugly to look at, but most women rated his looks as very attractive despite his strong features. The women were particularly attracted to his gentle drawl, and as one love-stricken Austin girl had written poetically in her diary, "Mr. Horn has eyes as blue as the wide Texas sky!"
These same characteristics had often been thought of by the men who he made his living hunting down as a blood chilling voice and the stone cold eyes of a born killer! Jim's vocation of man hunting was strictly legal; the left side of his vest sagged under the weight of the gold star of a Texas Ranger. Jim was a veteran of five perilous years of Ranger duty.
Jim sat astride of one of the spectactularly spotted horses from a strain known as the appaloosa, which were bred by the Indians of the American northwest. He was personally of the opinion the horse was anything but pretty. As compared to the average Texas cow horse, this stallion was hammer headed, broom tailed, and cow hocked. His big striped hooves looked almost too big for his legs and Jim had never much cottoned to the wierdly intelligent, almost human look in his eyes. The stud also had the powerful shoulders and massively heavy neck that were then typical of the stallions of that sturdy breed.
What Jim did like about the big ugly horse was he had the ability to thrive at a traveling pace that would have killed most of those prettier average cow horses of Texas. He had an energy-conserving gait that seemed to carry him just far enough on each step to get ahead, but this mile eating pace had carried Jim and his gear almost three hundred miles down some of the roughest trails in west Texas in the last two weeks!
Jim was leading a lanky bay mule loaded down with his latest capture. Joe Three Horses, or Injun Joe as he was better known, was a half-breed Kiowa indian Jim had been sent after a couple of weeks before.
Injun Joe was a character who was notorious around some parts of Texas, not only as an accomplished horse thief but also for his many slick escapes from justice. The officials in San Antonio had finally persuaded the reluctant Ranger Captain to put his best man on Joe’s trail. Joe was presently shackled belly-down in chains across the mule's narrow back as punishment for his latest unsuccessful escape attempt.
It had taken Jim four long days of tracking the Indian's faint trail just to locate Joe the first time, then it took him another three days to run him to ground. The indian had been so good at evading capture the Ranger had to resort to relying on all of his senses, even his sense of smell, to track him!
Joe had been working hard at a job of breaking horses on a ranch outside of Uvalde when he had literally seen Jim coming. He’d forced his green broken horse right through the thin mesquite rails of the corral fence and lit a shuck under him! He’d ridden that horse into the ground the first day out of Uvalde then he’d stolen another one from a nearby ranch.
The injun’s second stolen horse had given out on the evening of the next day and Injun Joe had then fled on foot. Jim had finally caught up with him on the third day of the long chase. He’d bought the mule from a ranch in the vicinity to pack the injun in on.
The saddle-worn Ranger had been leading the mule back toward San Antonio for the last four days; Joe's latest futile escape attempt had been made only the night before. "Hey, Joe!" Jim hollered back to his prisoner, "I've been studying on somethin’ ever since before I caught up with you! You crossed several ranches on foot after that last horse gave plumb out underneath you, why didn't you go and steal yourself another one?"
"Kill too many good horses already!" Joe grunted as the mule bounced unmercifully. "When Joe escape next time maybe Ranger Jim sell Joe good horse with spots?"
"Hell no, Joe!" Jim laughed! "If you’d been riding old Chief, I'd still be chasing you all over Texas!" Jim thought that, horse thief or not, you had to respect the indian for taking his chances on foot rather than risk killing more stolen horses in a chase! He called back to him, "Joe, any man who would sooner give up his freedom than to hurt more horses can't be all bad! If you'll give me your word you won't try gettin' away again, I'll set you right back up on that mule."
"No can do! Not yet, maybe later." The injun replied resolutely. Jim laughed in appreciation of the indian's wild spirit and warped sense of honor, then he shrugged and went back to his day dreaming about the cool beer from the spring house of the Eldorado, his favorite saloon in San Antonio.
The thought of that cold beer then led Jim to thinking about the pretty, brown eyed, auburn haired Louisiana woman who owned the Eldorado.

[wildhorses]

33. oh goody!!! I really like that Injun Joe!!! Jim Horn sounds like

an excellent Hero. What a TREAT, BikeWriter!!! Thanks ever so much for sharing.:hug:

[BikeWriter]

40. I'm so glad you like it, Sweety...

Joe proves to be quite a character, though not a main one. Here's another excerpt from later in the book you might like, too.

Jim's mind was in turmoil at the moment, but his belly still needed some food. He knew he’d lost considerable weight during the pursuit of the last two weeks and right now his stomach must be thinking his throat had been cut. He reflected that a steady diet of tortillas and beans, eaten on the run, would probably lean down most anyone.
Jim remembered there was a small cafe just down the street and he was making a beeline for it when his attention was drawn to angry shouts coming from the sidewalk ahead. He recognized the man coming toward him on foot as Mayor Dixon. The mayor was a middle-aged man who Jim had usually seen impeccably dressed in a nice store bought suit. At the moment though, he had his nightgown half stuffed into his pants and his suspenders were flopping around his legs.
"My mare's gone; I've been robbed!" Mayor Dixon yelled to him. Jim winced; he’d obviously been recognized.
"Let's go check on Sheriff Tilley." Jim told the Mayor. Mayor Dixon fell right in behind Jim as he headed for the Sheriff's office. Jim quickly tied his horse to the rail out front and stormed through the front door of the office. He already had a pretty good idea of what they were likely to find there. He called out. "Sheriff Tilley! Are you here?"
"Back here!" A hoarse voice urgently answered him. Jim went back into the prisoner area and he saw the Sheriff and his Deputy locked up together in a cell. "That damned injun had the drop on Roscoe when I got back here last night! We've been yelling our fool heads off ever since."
"There's a spare key on top of that gun rack out there in the office." The Deputy told Jim. Jim went and quickly found the key and returned to unlock the cell.
Jim was concentrating on keeping a tight rein on his sense of humor, but the Mayor was anything but amused; he was fuming. "So this's where our fearless law officers were while my own horse was being stolen!"
The Sheriff's embarassed look changed to one of fury. "That had to be that danged Injun Joe who stole your horse." Sheriff Tilley complained. "He's the one who locked us up."
Mayor Dixon turned on Jim; he put both of his hands on his hips and spoke beligerently. "I thought your Captain assured me you were the one man in Texas who could catch Injun Joe!"
"He was dead right, Your Honor. It took me two weeks of rough riding to bring him in, but I delivered him right here to this office in chains last night. I woke up your Deputy and turned the injun over to him. Ask Sheriff Tilley yourself, he was over visiting Miss Vickie in her rooms at the saloon when I found him and told him all about it."
Jim thought those innocent little clues about the Sheriff and Deputy ought to be plenty of bait to lure the Mayor off of his own trail. The Sheriff evidently thought so too, he desperately started trying to brush over his own tracks as the Mayor turned quickly back to him. "It's all Roscoe's fault, Mayor. He’s the one who let that blasted redskin get the drop on him!"
"And just who in the devil was it who insisted I hire Roscoe?" Mayor Dixon fumed. "If my mare isn't back in my barn tonight, I'll be looking to hire me another sheriff and deputy! Ranger Horn, you caught that horse thief once, where do you reckon they should begin hunting for him this time?"
They had moved back into the office as they talked. Jim looked over at the big Texas map hanging on the wall behind the Sheriff's desk. He walked over and stood in front of it as he thought out loud.
"Mayor, if I had to put my finger on Injun Joe and your good spotted mare right now I'd figure they've been movin' fast since almost two hours before midnight last night." He stabbed a finger at a point on the map. "I'd say that injun and your spotted mare are enjoying a big bait of breakfast somewhere just this side of Austin right now!"
"What?" The Mayor shouted scornfully. "That's impossible!" Jim would later describe Mayor Dixon's expression as being blown up like a drowned horned toad.
"Alright, Sir." Jim returned a little stiffly. "You asked me where I reckoned he was and I told you. As far as I've heard no other lawman has ever even come close to catching him. Last night I asked him personal' to get out of Texas when he escaped and I think he took it to heart and he's high tailin' it up north." Jim walked toward the front door.
"Where do you think you're going, Horn?" The Mayor asked.
"I'm going to hunt me up some breakfast. Unlike you city folks, it’s been weeks since I had a good meal. I aim to keep a real close eye on that spotted stud, too, just in case I'm wrong about where that injun is."
"That's the stupidest thing I ever heard, Horn." The Mayor blustered. "Even that crazy injun wouldn't steal a Texas Ranger’s horse in broad daylight on the main street of San Antonio!"
"You may be right." Jim said as he grinned broadly. "Then again, Mayor Dixon, I know where my horse is and you don't!" Jim left the Mayor spluttering; for once Jim had seen the man speechless.

[wildhorses]

46. excellent.....a politician left speechless!!!

How RARE is that?
:hug:

[BikeWriter]

50. ROFL! Yes'm, and it's just the type of humor Texans use most...

I'm so glad you enjoyed the excerpts. :-)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

6. Homicide Investigation.

Not an "antique" by the strict definition, but it was originally published in 1944. I have the third edition, which came out in 1977.

[wildhorses]

8. cool....

:hi:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

9. It's for research.

I swear. ;)

[wildhorses]

10. planning on killing someone?

I know a good place to hide a body, I swear;)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. You're now an accessory.

:D

It's for my writing, particularly a TV series I'm trying to develop.

[wildhorses]

17. oh yeah...I could SOO help you with that TV series....

I am SERIES...this could be HUGH!?!111/1/1

[Starbucks Anarchist]

23. Sorry, it's a one-man operation.

Like everything I do. :D

[wildhorses]

25. are you saying I am a man?

*harumph* tosses head and mane....I am THE wildhorses

[Starbucks Anarchist]

27. Sorry, "person."

I know you're a woman! :D

[NMMNG]

12. The Bible my grandparents gave me in 1976

Not an antique per-se, but it is 30 years old. :shrug:

[wildhorses]

16. Buffy...that is what I like about you....the fact that you

cherish (you do, don't you?) a bible cos your grandparents gave it to you.

[NMMNG]

65. What can I say?

I look at it less as a Bible than as a special gift from them, and keep it only for that reason.

[tjwmason]

13. 1790.

It was given to me by a friend when I was at university.

It purports to be a series of short letters from a father to his son who is just starting to study away from home - I'm not sure whether they were written as letters and later published, or written in the form of letters but with the purpose of becoming a book.

I also have several copies of the Book of Common Prayer from the 19th century, particularly the former half of it (bit of a geek when it comes to collecting them), my favourite being a minature copy which is about 1" wide 1.5" tall, and less than 1/3" thick printed 1853.

[wildhorses]

18. WOW...I think we will have to declare you the winner...

not that this is a contest but, :wow: very impressive!!!

[tjwmason]

22. I love old books...

and have been known to spend hours on end in old-book shops - most of them come from the mid 20th century in there, but there's always one or two from earlier as well. Very very tempting. :D

[wildhorses]

24. I love books, too

if and when I ever get to build my "dream" home. I will have a library... or at least a den with bookshelves for walls:P

[bleedingheart]

14. I have some antique books but I have no idea their worth..

they were left to me by an aunt...

One work is a book of poetry that includes the now famous..."Casey at the bat"

[bleedingheart]

15. here is a link with a picture of the book...

http://www.joslinhall.com/casey-2.htm

the one I have is the one at the top in the white binding...

[wildhorses]

20. it looks beautiful...thanks for posting the link and for

sharing:hi:

[bleedingheart]

21. your welcome...I have others...the sweetest thing about them

are the inscriptions in them written by the folks who gave them as gifts...or the notations that denote who the book belonged to back in the 1800's...

[wildhorses]

26. oh yes, I like that aspect of looking at old books, too

and then I wonder what they looked like and what their lives were like...

[wildhorses]

19. the bases were loaded ....

baseball and poetry...it doesn't get any better than that

matter of fact: I think baseball is poetry in motion...

[LanternWaste]

28. annual edition of National Geographic from 1918

I've got an annual edition of National Geographic from 1918. All issues from that year collected into one volumne and hard-bound. It's an interesting read-- one article is about Boomerangs of all things and how scientists and 'aero-engineers' are still attempting to determine how/why they return.

[wildhorses]

34. boomerangs....I guess that was High Tech for 1918...

wonder what will happen between now and 2018? We sure have come a LONG way!!!
Thanks for sharing LanternWaste.
:hi:

[LouisianaLiberal]

29. My oldest is from 1801.

The first volume of The Works of Samuel Johnson. Wish I had the other eleven volumes.

I usually try to collect odd or offbeat books. For instance, I now have almost all of Horatio Alger Jr's books. My favorites are my great grandfather's med school books from Trinity College of the 1890's, and my great great grandfather's Irish hate-the-English books from the mid nineteenth century, and his massive three volume illustrated Shakespeare.

For a while I collected first edition twentieth century writers like Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, (just found a first edition of Francis Parkmans' The Oregon Trail, illustrated by Thomas Hart Benton in pristine condition for a dollar at a book sale) but now just look for the obscure and the odd.

[wildhorses]

36. OMG....you have quite the collection!!! What fun it is too find such

treausres!!!

The Obscure and The Odd....sounds like a title...

Thanks for sharing
:hi:

[Fox Mulder]

31. I have a geology book from the 1880s.

[wildhorses]

37. was it given to you? Did you find it in the attic? Some dusty old

bookstore hidden away? Is it in good shape?
:hi:

[Fox Mulder]

53. It was given to my by my now deceased geology professor.

And it's in great shape for a book that old.

[swimboy]

32. 1790-something Cookbook

Includes recipes for "To make an egg as big as sixty" and "Syllabub under the Cow"

as well as lots of instruction on preserving, brewing, game, etc.

[wildhorses]

39. and WHAT exactly is "Syllabub under the Cow"

I think you MUST share that paticular recipe!!!
:hi:

[swimboy]

45. I'll try to copy it out and post it.

Here if I manage to do it soon. Otherwise, I'll be sure to let you know. :hi:

[wildhorses]

47. that would be wonderful...I bet other folks out there are

curious too...
thanks, swimboy
:yourock:

[swimboy]

76. Syllabub under the Cow

Here it is. I posted it in the Baking and Cooking forum so it will reach its widest potential audience.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x22575

:hi:

[redqueen]

35. probably a couple original issues of some sherlock holmes stories

either that or tarzan...

edit: obviously i'm no collector :) just what i've lucked into receiving over the years

[wildhorses]

42. How wonderful...what great gifts books make!!!

I often give books for presents.

Original "Tarzan" and "Sherlock Holmes" nestled together on the bookshelf...


thanks for sharing
:hi:

[libnnc]

38. The Genesis of Lincoln

by James H. Cathey

first published in 1899. I have the 4th edition--1939.

Was a birthday present from my uncle.

[wildhorses]

43. sounds like you have a WONDERFUL uncle!!!

:hi:

[Ron Green]

41. 1628. A Historie of the Kings of England.

The latest guy in this book is Charles I. We have some other books from the 1650's to the 1700's, some of them hand-colored (before color printing, of course.)

[wildhorses]

44. Oh my.....looks like tjwmason will have to settle for 2nd place

cos you sir, have taken the grand prize with that treasure trove that you have just described!!!
Do you keep them in a special place...you know so they won't be exposed to the elements?

Hand colored...imagine THAT?!?!? AWESOME

thanks, ever so much, for sharing.
:hi:

[Ron Green]

49. My wife's father was from England and he collected antique books.

Some of these have been re-bound, but others are in their original state for 350 years. We're getting ready to sell them, I think, to give them a better home.

[wildhorses]

54. how loving and thoughtful of you...and I am sure the money will

be nice, too;)



:yourock:

[malta blue]

48. I have a 1st edition of Mark Twain's "Roughing It"

signed by him

[Deep13]

51. The blue one with the real numbers, ...

...NOT the red one I show the government.

[Book Lover]

52. A mid-nineteenth century German bible

that formerly belonged to my great-grandmother. As dearly as I would love to collect further, I just don't have the facilities to care for anything significantly older (humidity control, etc). But I did intern for two summers at the Morgan Library, and so was privileged to view some of our oldest manuscripts. In fact, one very gracious scholar once saw that I was reading over his shoulder, and so invited me to sit down next to him as he described the binding and scribing for me.

[Aristus]

55. I have a book of collected farm songs and poems that dates from

the 1880's. It's a first edition, too. I have no idea what it is worth. It was a gift from a friend.

[nickinSTL]

56. eh, probably only from the '50s or '60s, I'd guess...

I'm not a book collector, at least not of old books (I sure have enough newer ones lying around, though:D )

But, for the interest of those who are into old books...I work for a university library and have been working with rare books for a couple months now - the oldest I've worked with were from around 1641.

[Whoa_Nelly]

57. I collect old books, especially Palmer Cox books

Have quite a few Palmer Cox books, both The Brownies and other characters he wrote about and illustrated, dating back as far as the late 1880s. Also have Palmer Cox's autograph on a card with Brownies on it and Cox's note of "From Brownieland".

I have this Brownie book, First Edition....mine is in better condition than the pic I found for here:

[AmandaRuth]

58. I have an old picture book of dinosaurs

from 1910. I just can't find the friggin' book right now... :grr:

[NoPasaran]

59. I have a biography of James G. Blaine

Published for the election of 1884

[rug]

60. 1669

Cathechisme Spirituel

CONTENANT LES PRINCIPAUX MOYENS
d' arriver a la perfection.

Tome I et Tome II

A PRIS

Chez Claude Cramoisy, rue Saint Jacques, proche le College du Plessis, au Sacrifice d'Abel

M. DC. LXIX

Avec Privelege & Approbation

[RoyGBiv]

61. Georgia Scenes, 1835

Inscription by the author, Augustus Baldwin Longstreet.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

78. I had to google that...

to see if the author was related to the famous Civil War general...He was Gnl Longstreet's uncle.

I'd love to find a copy to read. I wonder if anyone's transposed it to the internet...

On edit: Aha! I found it! http://docsouth.unc.edu/longstreet/georgia.html

[RoyGBiv]

82. His uncle ...

The whole reason I got the thing. :-)

Augustus basically raised James from the time he was a teen and was partly responsible for getting him his appointment to West Point.

Anyway, it's not exciting reading by any means, but it is an interesting insight into that time period. And it was old. I love old books.

[khashka]

62. A few...

First edition of "Alice"? Read and weep!


A A Milne's "The Red House Mystery".

Lot's of others.......



Khash.

[swimboy]

87. Yes, sir.

:cry: so once again, you've reduced me to tears. That is truly an enviable possession. The Milne is a clue that I would really like to come over and see your first editions.

[NJ Democrats]

63. I have a Mark Twain set from around 1900

I think they are from. They were my great-grandfather's. My greadpa gave it to me.

[NewJeffCT]

74. I have those, too

From right around 1900 or so. I think they're at my parents' house... I'll have to look them up some day when I'm down there.

[RetroLounge]

64. I have a LARGE collection of James Whitcomb Riley

original editions.

This one is from 1899


RL

[grasswire]

70. I pick up Riley books...

...whenever I see them at estate sales. I haven't seen the one you show, though!

[1monster]

66. I have a book of poetry from the mid 1800s, but I don't remember

offhand who it was. A rather obsure poet, I believe. I also have Shorthand text books from early in 1910-1915 area of time.

And a set of children's books published 1922 through 1928 by The Bookhouse for Children in Chicago and Toronto called MY BOOKHOUSE.

I have a couple of books from the 1940s and 1950s by Gwen Bristow, Anya Seton, and others.

I'd love to get my hands on the old Emily Loring romances from the 1920s through the 1970s which my library used to have, but have since done away with without me having chance to bid on them. :grr:

[ChoralScholar]

67. A Little Rock phone book from 1995.

In a strange twist of fate, I came home and it was outside my apartment door. I brought it in, removed the plastic, and have cherished it ever since. I've sent it to have it rebound with acid-free covers.

[trackfan]

68. After consulting with mrsgwbsamoron, the oldest we can find: 1841

but we haven't scoured all the old ones yet.

The 1841 book is Excerpta Liviana, a collection of passages from Livy's Ab Urbe Condita.

[grasswire]

69. anyone curious about book values....

...can get some help at http://www.abebooks.com. That's the site independent booksellers use for rare and antiquarian books. Condition is everything, remember that when trying to peg a value of your book. And getting the right edition is important, too, in determining value.

I had a cool book a couple of years ago that came in a box from an estate auction in New England. It was a theological book from the 1700s, and I noticed that inside the front cover was the inscription C. Wesley. I put it up for auction on eBay with a close scan of the inscription, and a bidder who was an expert in antiquarian theological things confirmed that it was indeed the signature of Charles Wesley. He bought it. The condition of the book was not good, so the dollar amount was fairly modest. Still, it was quite exciting to hold a book that had belonged to Wesley.

I have a bunch of tiny old childrens religious books from the 1700s that came from some ancestors in New England. Little paperbound books with hand-colored engravings. And I collect a lot of old printed items.

[SoCalDem]

71. I have several textbooks from the 1920's.. They are so funny

One is a health book.. oh my..the stuff they believed back then

[Hardrada]

72. Loci Communes by Phillip Melancthon 1536

Wittenberg Germany 2nd edition. A Lutheran theological work and an essential work in the Corpus Reformatorum.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

73. It Can't Happen Here

1935 first edition. Found it in a used bookshop.

[Maestro]

75. I don't have any old books

but I do have a collection of antique postcards from the turn of the century. They are from my great grandmother and handed down to me. I'll try to post a pic or two of them later.

[applegrove]

77. I had to climb up to the top of my parent's bookshelf to find the book

on Disraeli and do some reading up on them Neocons. Achoo! dustry.

[bridgit]

79. we have a torah given to hubby by a hebrew couple when he was...

16, so it's about 40yrs old :-)

[khashka]

80. I have an original copy of "Alice In Wonderland"

It was a birthday present. Prize possession.

I quit collecting antique books cuz I didn't have room and I was gonna end up bankrupt.

Khash.

[seemunkee]

81. Bound copy of Harpers Weekly 1868

I have almost every year to 1910. My mother worked at a library that was going to throw them away.

[Nailzberg]

83. "It's Up to the Women" - Eleanor Roosevelt

I don't have any really old books. I'm not a collector. But that sucka is SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, bitches!

[bedazzled]

84. 1859 - history of the city of new york

from its earliest settlement until the present time! it's so cool - has info on the creation of central park!

also anecdotes, poetry and incidents of the war - north and south - 1860 - 1865 (dated 1866) by frank moore

i have lots of great old books, and always wanted nice bookcases. they deserve better than my "bradlees specials."

has anyone ever seen 84 charing cross road? it's about people like us (with anne bancroft and anthony hopkins as the
"star crossed lovers" if you can imagine.) the book's outstanding, also...

[LSK]

85. I have one from the 1840s I think

Its been a while since I looked at it. I found it in a used bookstore in Milton, Wi. I also found a world atlas from 1946 at the same store.

[Hardrada]

86. 1536

See above.