Mine is a hand cut 1886 edt of Scott's Ivanhoe. I also have a 3 bk set of Kipling's poetry dated 1909 and with swastikas on the spine!
My fav is a red leather (so soft) edt of Miltons Paradise Lost, gilt edged, and very delicate. NOt sure how old it is.

Nettie -- who's the publisher / editor of the Scott?

As for my oldest books, I can't think of anything before 1900 other than family photo albums. Earlier this year I inherited a book about Venice with watercolours done by my husband's great-grandmother as a teenager (whose one grandfather had been the publisher and the other an artist of some repute in the 1800s), so that's special for sentimental reasons but the story isn't anything worth remembring. I have my great-aunt's copy of Wuthering Heights, but I don't think it's earlier than 1940, although it has lovely woodcut illustrations. I've also a series of late Victorian English textbooks for 7-10 year olds and I used to wonder at the poetry they would read at that age, which we didn't read until we were teenagers, although they likely were just learning it by rote and we were doing analysis.

My Narina books all date from the 1950's, apart from Prince Caspian which is early 80's.

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Blood! Death! War! Rumpy pumpy! Triumph!

Two tomes (Faust and Theory of Colours) of Goethe's Collected Works, in a 1840 edition, which I inherited from my grandfather. Unfortunately most of the other 38 tomes have been lost in World War II, together with a larger library which would have been quite valuable today. My mother says her sister-in-law still has a few of these, but which is not completely clear.

Well, all I can hope for is that these books have survived and still find their readers, wherever they are.

I have a collection of stories given to my grandfather in 1930 something. About the oldest I can think of.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

I have an early ceramic/pottery reference book from 1914, I bought it for 12AU dollars and it has all the previous owner signatures in the cover.

Okay I searched, the oldest I have is some Thackeray, Newcomes/Pendennis set, 1913. Which has got to be like 50 years or so after the original publication?

Prinz, I feel for you. Great-great-grandma Christine left Prussia a long, long time ago. Unfortunately, any books she brought with her are also lost...probably confiscated by some corrupt official on Ellis Island...

I've got a 'Lexicon/Conversations' printed in High Gothic German about 1856 which still refers to Tasmania as 'Van Dieman's Land' and a set of Penny Encyclopaedias which took from 1856 to 1863 to publish. Also some veterinary books from 1860 onwards that were my fathers.

The oldest book I regularly read is 'The Middle Temple Murders' by J E Fletcher, written about 1912 and printed after WW1.

Then there's all the Saint, Bulldog Drummond, Fu Manchu , Doc Savage etc from the late 20s /early 30s



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2007 03:49PM by bunyip.

I hope you added your name too Evil!

My oldest book... Hmm, there is a copy of Actions and Reactions by kipling that is something like 1913 about somewhere... That's probably the oldest. Although the copy of Frankenstein is pretty old too. No idea how old though.

Cor, they're all v interesting
Prinz, sorry to hear of your losses, literary and otherwise.
HITW Ive no idea about the Scott, we moved house recently and my husband has safely stored our more precious books until he can build us a new bookcase in our lounge. He's an amazing carpenter, so its always coach built to my design. I actually cried when we left his last masterpiece in our old house, but he builds them "built-in" to take the weight of our humungous collections (we all read like addicts), so they are not transferrable from property to property, and we had to move to the country for my health. He has made me promise I will live in this house till I die tho, before he builds me another!
We are hoping to start it this spring but its a mammoth job involving much time and financial outlay so it will be awhile before I see my precious old volumes again - still, I have Thursday and Co to console me

Well Nettie I hope the new occupiers of your old house will use those shelves as they deserve to be used.

My bookcases are all the 'peg-together' variety from Target - @#$%& and easy.

We used to have the peg type too but then one day, one gave way under the enormous strain. The noise was terrifying. Some books were damaged and it took us days to find new homes on the other over burdened shelves.
As an example of what we put our poor shelves through, my bedroom bkshlf is 6ft high and 5ft wide, open slatted (a temp until he can build me a permanent one) has books stacked three deep and is positively groaning.There are also several piles on the floor along the foot of it.
The bed runs along the length of it (perfect for pulling out volumes in the wee hours when you cant sleep) and I have nightmares the whole thing is gonna come tumbling down and bury me! What an ironic way to go!

I see others have similar problems to me. What to put where and just how much space do you need.

We moved from Adelaide to Perth WA in 1962 and midway through the year Dad was packing books and stopped counting at two and a half thousand books, which was nowhere near the complete number.

This did not include periodicals like an almost complete set of National Geographics from the late 19th century through to 1962, most of which disappeared suspiciously while I lived in England in the 1970's. There was a complete set of the Australian Veterinary Journal from the 1930s through to the sixties which ended up at Murdoch University.

I caught the bug and when I went to England I had pile of books and magazines (in boxes) that was about 7ft by 6ft and about 6ft high. I am in the process of 'decollecting' now, seeking to keep only those books which I really want and to discard the rest, but it's a bit like offloading your children or pets. Heartbreaking.

I am keeping TP, RR, JFf, TH, and others of this ilk, plus my Uncle Scrooge Comics and some car magazines.

Anybody know of someone or some institution who wants an incomplete set of 'New Scientist' dating from 1970 to 2000?

Let me ask my brother, he works for Cal Tech, but they can prob'ly get em all online at this point, no?

Some of my peg together shelves collapsed too. My solution? Force bits of broken pencil into holes to replace dowelling, and re-load shelves. And add more books than previously housed by shelves.

Sometimes, I hear ominous creaking noises in the night as the shelves protest, but so far they are still upright. I'm considering adding a bit of glue, but, as that would involve emptying the shelves...

*Offers to teach fforumites how to build solid shelves cheaply* The reason I haven't built myself some it because the walls and floor have been missing for years, replaced by STUFF. Posts missing wall poster in street with reward offer.

*Offers to teach fforumites how to pay someone else to build shelves for them. Much easier* :P

By the way, evil- here's that link I was telling you about [freeonlinesurveys.com]

Cheers!

<Apologizes for monopolixing* thread again>

*Putting pleasure and business in a blender with crushed ice and vodka, then switching it on. Serve with a stick of celery>

Celery? Where?

*runs away*

*Shouts back*

I need more books. My book shelf still has room on it.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Have you got 'Puckoon'?

If not, acquire it and save.

Also, 'served with a stick of celery' doesn't necessarliy imply that you have to eat the celery. It may be there as a reminder of days gone by.

We've got an ancient family bible, circa 1690's. Reigate St Mary's church has got, I think, the first 'official' lending library in Britain, and NOTHING there is less than a hundred years old! It is open to the public occasionally and we're allowed to handle the books. Interesting observation by the curator - she refuses to wear gloves when handling the books. She reckons they are like living things, and need the human touch. It put me in mind of the Book World library, and UU in Discworld. Apparently, a lot of these protectors of ancient books think like this. When I pointed out that many of the books had places on the spine where chains used to be, but not any more, another visitor remarked the security was probably better nowadays. Up pipes our lady curator: 'I think it's because the books discovered it was better to have a bit of freedom, than to try escaping all the time - I wouldn't want to be chained up 24 hours a day, either!' This is TRUE!!!