Loved the Fur Off Any Books Lately?

Gasp! The headline from the news feed grabbed my attention. “Copy of Poe’s First Book Sells for $662K in NYC,” it read.

 During the Christmas season, it takes an intriguing headline to get me to slow down long enough to read something for fun. This one jumped out for three reasons.

First of all, it was about a book, and a bibliophile can’t pass by such a juicy hook. Second, it was about Edgar Allan Poe – a literary friend of mine from way back. And finally, $662,000 is a huge sum of money in New York – let alone Greenville, S.C.

The rare copy of Poe’s “Tamerlane and Other Poems” just sold at Christie’s auction house, “smashing the previous record price for American literature,” reported the Associated Press. “The previous record is believed to be $250,000 for a copy of the same book sold nearly two decades ago.”

The collection of poems was published in 1827, but only about four dozen were printed. So, it’s understandable why the 12 that still exist are highly valued. It mattered little that the auctioned 40-page volume was stained and tattered – traits that typically lower the value of antique and rare books.

I have some old children’s books that show distinct signs of wear and tear. They were from my childhood…and my mother’s and my grandmother’s before that. I have since shared them with my children. They include “Through a Looking Glass” by Lewis Carroll, “Hans Brinker” by Mary Mapes Dodge, “Heidi” by Johanna Spyri, “Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi and umpteen fairytale books.

The page corners are dog-eared, and the spines are broken. The fonts are uneven, and the tape over the tears (a big no-no among collectors) is quite yellowed. But those books are dear to me. The inscriptions in the front link me to other book lovers in my family, women who gave them as special gifts to the girls in their lives more than a century ago.

While my books probably wouldn’t warrant a second glance by anyone at Christie’s, they are precious to me. Like Skin Horse told the Velveteen Rabbit, “Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off.”

“‘Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse.

 ’It’s a thing that happens to you.

 When a child loves you for a long, long time,

 not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’ ”