Secondhand finds #3

Master and Margarita: Sealed copy, £100 on ebay UK, sold in less than a day. A bargain for someone.

Folio should reprint Master and Margarita. Immediate must-buy for me, but not for £100 secondhand.

>1 scratchpad: Irony, I trust? ;)

>4 cronshaw: An interesting question. Suppose the secondary price of this infernal book were to be maintained/exceeded (sealed copies, of course), what then? Supply and demand rules OK except there are no rules. This book certainly seems to have its fans. It will be interesting to see how far they are prepared to go. Incidentally, what was the FS price for this book?

>5 scratchpad: I paid $61 including shipping directly from the FS back in 2010.

>5 scratchpad:

And I went for it in 2012's Summer Sale, when it was £18.45.

There is not a single book that is more requested for re-release than The Master and Margarita. If there is a mole he has no pull.

I would like to see the Smiley books and Fahrenheit 451 re-released also. Those would be of more interest to me than most of the books slated for release.

>8 devilsisland:

And yet, and yet... I trust our Mole reports back to the Editorial Board, or whoever, with full diligence, but has anything happened since 2010 to suggest that the book would sell even nearly as well now as it did then, given that the thirst for it of a number of potential customers has now been slaked? And sales can't have been very rewarding when remaining copies wound up being cleared at half price a couple of years after publication.

The vital consideration has always to be, not how passionately a relative few people want the book, but how wide a swathe of the customer base is likely to be open to buying it at or near full price at all. Certain of the Fairy Books are now reaching £200 on the secondary market, a few Patrick O'Brian titles are getting that way too, and Dante's Paradiso has long inhabited the same region, but there's probably no reason to think the FS would do well by reprinting any or all of those. Just a dozen people wanting a book quite badly, with one or two others discovering they really want it each time one of the initial dozen is satisfied, and its secondary market price will remain remarkably high indefinitely.

Just found Death on the Nile in new condition with postage for less than the listed price. Bought it immediately now that I see that Folio have it OOP now. Phew :)

9> I'd buy it!

>9 terebinth: Yes, the secondary market may be mopping up residual/spotty new demand so has little to say about the success of a reissue. I tend to think that when I bid for a book that has recently been sold I stand a better chance than before because there will be less demand for it. I've yet to prove that to myself however.

Of course the secondary market can be entirely misleading as I believe was the case when I picked up a sealed copy of the current 2vol War and Peace for £60 on Ebay. There were no other bidders! I couldn't believe my luck. I expressed my delight to the seller who told me that he had had 2 punters actually contact him lamenting that they had missed the auction. It was a short order auction of just a few days so easily missed if they hadn't kept an eye out. On the other hand there were about a dozen watchers who did just that - watch. That was a happy day.

To tell you the truth if we're talking about re-printing I much prefer that it was the Patrick O'brien series. I missed so many of them

>13 ironjaw: if we're talking about re-printing I much prefer that it was the Patrick O'brien series. I missed so many of them

Couldn't agree more, Faisel. I missed five and I've resigned myself to waiting a very long time for the current (laughable) secondary market prices to approach reasonable. However, I expect we have as much chance of a reprint as the good folk frustrated in their hunt for The Master and Margarita.

>12 scratchpad: I picked up a sealed copy of the current 2vol War and Peace for £60 on Ebay.

A great bargain! I thought I'd nabbed one this morning when Blake's Jerusalem went for £42. I'd set my sniper for £62 but, at the crucial moment, it failed :(

They could reprint `Roman Revolution` and `Handmaids Tale` while we`re at it. That and a bunch more, but i must say, Folio Society `Master & Margarita` cartainly has it`s fans around here amongst the addictives

Reprints are a tricky deal. Whenever the FS announces a new reprint that interests me, I immediately check out the earlier version on the used market. I've often found these books in fine condition for a fraction of the new price. Also, the reprint may be made with inferior materials with regards to the original; e.g. leather being replaced by buckram.

>17 kdweber: That`s why i have two volumes of `Meditations` as the buckram one i bought first, is a missmatch to the original set. It`s in my `one time to be sold` pile

My long experience of FS is that good things do happen... in their own time. Patience is the only defense against the unpredictable and mysterious moves.

Therefore I respectfully suggest to those glamouring for a book which was around a few years ago, in the interests of your sanity, to search for half-forgotten gems in the catalogues from 10~20 years ago.

FAD is a long-term game/affliction!

>19 StevieBby: Yes it is, or can be. But we learn with experience. Luckily there is not many of those that are bad for my sake, just a few, and who knows what FS will produce in the future, to what has been. Will it be better, or worse, who knows. Some may, some probably not. For my sake, i buy if i can, and if i want to, and can afford it. That`s my rule. Forgotten gems is always interesting, and seldom discussed within these pages

>13 ironjaw:
>14 folio_books:
I too agree.I came late to this series as it isn't what I thought I would enjoy and now have awful gaps that I despair of completing

>17 kdweber:
Ken, yes that's true, but it all depends on the RRP Folio offers the individual volumes for more or less than they are available second hand. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not. I would so much love to complete my O'Brian set.

Thus week I finally managed to find a fine copy of Folio's 1980 quarter light blue leather volume of John Clare's Bird Poems, with Thomas Bewick's beautiful wood engravings, for £10, which I was happy with after coveting it off and on for years but persistently frustrated by secondary market prices which have remained impressively high, certainly compared to other Folios of that period. It's a charming volume, the last (if I'm not mistaken) of the smaller quarter leather Folio Poets series that began back in 1948 with Rupert Brooke.

Just went on a binge

Da Vinci Notebooks
The Wealth of Nations
Middlemarch
The Mill on the Floss
The Annals of Imperial Rome
The Sea, The Sea
Between the Acts
Songs of the Wandering Scholars
The Poems of Catullus
Wide Sargasso Sea

>24 gmacaree:

Did you purchase all these gems from one book shop or were you an internet warrior this evening?

From Second Story Books in Washington D.C., conveniently located a few blocks from my office. They are somewhat lighter on Folios (I picked up the LEC Omoo and I Promessi Sposi too, by the by) now that I've passed through. My desk, on the other hand ...

>26 gmacaree: The LEC 'I Promessi Sposi' is one of my favorite LECs. Predictably, it was printed and published Giovanni Mardersteig at his Officina Bodoni (OB) in Verona.

A good rule of thumb for collecting LEC books: nearly every LEC edition that passed through Giovanni Mardersteig's hands with printing done at the OB is worth owning. Specifically, look at:

1. The Metamorphoses by Ovid with Hans Erni illustrations.

2. The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri. Quirky rhyming English translation by Melville Best Anderson, a professor at Stanford University at that time, but a gorgeous book.

3. The Sonnets of Petrarch. Planned at the OB but actually printed at its little sister, the Stamperia Valdonega by G. Mardersteig.

4. The Georgics by Publius Virgilius Maro. Beautiful classic illustrations by Bruno Bramanti.

5. The Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi. Designed and printed by Hans Mardersteig at the OB in Verona.

6. The Life of Benvenuto Cellini Written by Himself.

Any of these LECs will put a smile on your face :-) .

>27 dlphcoracl: would you believe that I Promessi Sposi, in Fine condition, slipcased, everything, was marked at $12.50? I had to do a double check that I hadn't accidentally picked up a Heritage Press book.

>28 gmacaree:

That is remarkable. Frankly, a quality paperback costs as much. The prices on many of the George Macy LEC books continue to amaze me.

That is AMAZING! $12.50? That is the greatest bargain I've ever seen here. I paid an arm and a leg for my Fine copy ... and it is worth it. (I also have the FS edition -- it's my second favorite Italian novel, after The Leopard.)

By the way, even the Heritage edition of The Georgics is superb.

>30 NYCFaddict: The bargain probably cost me money -- I was so invigorated by the price that I decided that I could afford to splurge on the rest!

No regrets, apart from how much my arms hurt from carrying the haul back to work.

$12.50 ... I still can't get over it. Well done!

>23 cronshaw: I finally managed to find a fine copy of Folio's 1980 quarter light blue leather volume of John Clare's Bird Poems, with Thomas Bewick's beautiful wood engravings, for £10

A charming little volume at a very reasonable price. I remember buying it quite soon after publication. You're right about it being the last of the "proper" poetry series ("proper" meaning the slim book of verse designed to slip into a lover's pocket, as opposed to the gigantic tomes of the later series), though The Poems of Catullus, published the following year, is only a little taller - definitely not in series, though.

Enjoy!

>33 folio_books:

Although the Catullus is only the same height as the 1974 GM Hopkins, which is in series - at least according to Nash. I imagine Nash treats the series as being English poetry, otherwise Michelangelo's Sonnets might also be included, as it shares the small format and quarter-leather binding. For shelving purposes, I take the widest view of the series, and add in the similarly-bound Coghill translation of Chaucer of the same era.

>26 gmacaree: "From Second Story Books in Washington D.C., conveniently located a few blocks from my office"

I don't know if I feel envious or blessed; I guess both. If I worked or lived near the Second Story Books shop, I'd go hopelessly broke. I go there every time I visit Washington. Last time I was in DC was this past Labor day weekend - took my better half and our little man for a little family getaway. Cunningly booked the Dupont Circle Hotel, strategically located a stone's throw away from Second Story Books and Kramerbooks ) The raid on Second Story Books resulted in the following spoils:
Primo Levi's The Periodic Table
Petronius' Satyrica
Isherwood's Mr Norris Changes Trains
LEC The Coverley Papers
LEC Shaw's Pygmalion and Candida
Earlier this year I got my LEC Martian Chronicles there.

>26 gmacaree:

Second Story Books does have a decent selections of Folios--but the best selection in the D.C. area is Riverby Books a couple of blocks from Eastern Market. As I recall, almost all of their FS books are marked at $10.00 (and they were in good condition w/slipcases).

I picked up a couple of the Britain in Pictures series (after Jonathan (boldface) kindly showed me some examples). They are dead cheap, £1 a piece, but are interesting as they have an intriguing publishing history, being published back in 1941 by Collins, later HarperCollins, during the Second World War (where paper was under rationing) as a means to boost morale but perhaps also record the British way of life. The books are slim volumes with distinctive elegant colour covers.

Following my depressing visit to the dMR this morning (mood dampened by the new 'trial' pseudo-slipcases that have just appeared in the Xmas Collection, out on display for the first time today) I sought to cheer myself up by pedalling along to AnyAmountOfBooks* in Charing Cross Road, seeing as I was no longer contemplating Warhorse or Behind the Wall. AnyAmountOfBooks often affords me rapid mood elevation and today was no exception: I came across an absolutely fine/fine oversized LEC I'd never seen before, Conrad's Outcast of the Islands with a most attractive binding and illustrations, signed as usual, and deeply attractive at £17. I then saw a set I've coveted for ages but never found in very good condition, the Folio Press 4-vol Restoration Comedy, all fine/fine, apparently unread, and all for £25. Oh sweet guardian book angel, how I do love thee! I quite forgot the pseudo-slipcase trauma and pedalled back home, book bags a-dangling from handlebars and in positively fine/fine spirits again.

(*highly recommended to any visitors to London: it's small but with wonderful pricing!)

>38 cronshaw:

Congratulations on the Restoration Comedy, Russell - I paid twice that and was well pleased, it's a very desirable set. Oddly, I had it out just today to read some of Aphra Benn's The Rover, which I'm booked to see at Stratford, and which is starting to get very good reviews.

Thanks, Alan, I was quite excited about finally finding these in fine condition. It's seems a wonderful collection of plays and I don't know any other publisher that has published such a comprehensive set of them, let alone in a fine binding. Enjoy The Rover at Stratford, what a wonderful opportunity! Do let us know what you think of the production.

>38 cronshaw: I then saw a set I've coveted for ages but never found in very good condition, the Folio Press 4-vol Restoration Comedy, all fine/fine, apparently unread, and all for £25.

Ah yes, a lovely set and a great bargain at that price. My first two suffered from a board detaching itself from volume one (yes, exactly the same fault in both of them). Either the third purchase resolved that OR I gave up and resorted to sellotape. I honestly can't remember which!

Found (and grabbed) myself `Russian myths & legends` sealed for £85 (this volume in mint condition often goes higher)

Sorry to those viewers that watched it, if any were you. But i have been looking for this volume for a year now methinks (i needed those bad feelings to go away) looking forward to: Baba Yaga and the black cauldron

>43 Pellias: Nice illustrations by Niroot Puttapipat. Having bought this volume directly from the FS it's nice to see its price appreciation.

>44 kdweber: I know :) But could anyone tell me why this volume (Russian Myths), is so much more expensive than them others? (in this series) - maybe it`s plain logic, say it is bigger and fatter, and more for the money, what do i know - but i do know that the secondhand market loves it (even if it`s priced like mine=expensive)

Missing in this series
*Celtic myths
*Middle Ages
*Greek Myth
*Homer x2 in quarter leather

Irish myths, is a different spine

I know there are some out there, but i don`t want to spend any more money (for a day or two) ..

>43 Pellias: Found (and grabbed) myself `Russian myths & legends` sealed for £85 (this volume in mint condition often goes higher)

Snap! Mine was on Abe. The other was on Ebay. Same price, same photograph! The one on Ebay said nothing about it being sealed although the photo showed a sealed copy. The one on Abe did describe it as sealed. That's why I chose Abe. The sellers were ostensibly different (and the postage differed by a few pence) but the coincidence convinced me they were one and the same. I await events with interest.

>46 scratchpad: `I await events with interest` - so do i. I have lost out on a sealed one from Ardis before, this one is from infinitebooks, and if everything goes fine, then i`m out the next time Russian myths shows up, and it`s all yours ..

>45 Pellias: You shouldn't have any trouble finding the rest of your missing list on the secondary market for reasonable prices. For some reason, Russian Myths & Legends was the most expensive book in the series directly from the FS. Even pricier than Irish Myths & Legends which came out more recently. It's the second most expensive book in my Myths & Legends collection only being beaten by a used copy of the Icelandic Sagas volume 2.

>87 folio_books: This one also had reasonable shipping, most of the others don`t, there are also often added taxes (but that`s another discussion)

Thank you for the confirmation! .. step by step one travels far (or at least can) .. no stress with them others, the Russian myths just started to get this`you can`t catch me` aura :) .. i didn`t want to play that game anymore .. fingers crossed!

>46 scratchpad: >47 Pellias: Infinite Books on eBay is the same as Boundless Bookstore on abe (there's a clue in the name!), so it's likely you both ordered the same copy, unless they had two new copies of Russian Myths and Legends. Congratulations to at least one of you, as it is a gorgeous edition with exquisite illustrations!

>47 Pellias: Just received confirmation of my order from Boundless Bookstore and a notice of posting which is from Infinite Books so the two sellers are one and the same as cronshaw says. Maybe they had two copies. Have you received confirmation of your order?

>51 scratchpad: You thought you had me there, didn`t you? ;)

It has been confirmed, as it has been posted today. Fingers crossed for both of us for what shows up in the mail! :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272337324954

PS: One book i find hard to locate, is: `Seneca - letters from a stoic`- the single volume (in mint/fine condition)

>52 Pellias: What I don't get is that if they had two copies (and let's hope that's the case here) why didn't they advertise them at some chronological distance and avoid this confusion. Of course if we weren't in communication through the FSD site there would be no confusion as we wouldn't know about it at all. Although I kept an eye on the Ebay book it did disappear within a few hours of my purchase and I thought that was simply a delayed removal due to my buy and was thus reassured! Only when you posted did the alarm bells start ringing and as you point out they will continue to clang until we receive the goods. I'll drink to that!

>54 scratchpad: I see (on e-bay) the seller have some few negatives, regarding `i bought the book, but they didn`t have it` - but since the book has been posted, i take that as a confirmation. Cheers! :)

At my local used bookstore I found a copy of "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon" which I have always been interested in buying but could never bring myself to get. Fortunately it was just $10 so I now own it. It's delightful - reminds me of people's facebook/tumblr/twitter posts, but from a thousand years ago. Really showcases unchanging human nature.

>55 Pellias: Congratulations, the book is yours. Just heard from Abe - book out of stock when they forwarded my order.

For future reference I'd be interested when you made your purchase so that I can perhaps avoid this happening again. I put my order in yesterday at about 4pm GMT. I assume your order was placed yesterday?

>57 scratchpad:

The transaction found place at 21:15 in an 24 hour clock. Meaning 9:15 pm if i`m not dead wrong. Yesterday.

Meaning, if i had bought this book at ABE i would have lost out on it, due to e-bays strict laws ..

>58 Pellias: Thank you for that information. What we've learned from this is that an order on Ebay gets processed quicker than one on Abe made some hours earlier. Given a similar situation (the same book on both sites) the purchase option is a no-brainier.

>59 scratchpad: When you pay on eBay, the order is processed immediately. On abe when you pay, the order must first be confirmed by the bookseller. One advantage of abe is that you can cancel your order if you change your mind before the bookseller has confirmed and completed the processing of the order: good for the impetuous who suffer pangs of post-click regret.

>59 scratchpad:

Yes. They probably do. There are also more strict laws on e-bay, with the buyer/seller trust (as you probably know) and the possibility of being banned if there are human errors involved. I don`t know about ABE, maybe there are also easier to make transactions back to the buyer through ABE, as the former has a more strict policy.

I will be on the lookout for this volume, and notify you, say, it`s in your lap and on your shelves before we reach 2017 - In an ideal world, the shop should also notify you, should they get another volume

>60 cronshaw:

.. and yes, you are right about that, that`s probably it (long time since i have used ABE)

>61 Pellias: Rather than continue looking for a sealed copy I've opted for one of the unsealed variety on Amazon. It looked good on the photographs and did come at £15 less than the one I missed out on so I'm happy enough.

There is a nice looking (unsealed) copy on the Oxfam site for £85.

>63 EclecticIndulgence: Indeed, this is one of several used book 'warehouses' that process thousands of books a month, whose staff are unable to answer any questions about the books they advertise and who refer to an envelope lined with a single layer of the thinnest bubble wrap on the planet as 'protective packaging'. Their descriptions and grading are often hopeless. I once ordered what was clearly advertised as a Folio Society volume by one of these conveyor-belt book warehouses and received a dog-eared paperback. They extended me the offer of a 20% discount if I wished to keep the paperback instead of returning it for a full refund, but I declined. These sellers are perhaps fine for sourcing old paperbacks, but they're nail-bitingly unreliable for Folios.

>62 scratchpad: >64 cronshaw:

Well. Time would tell if they will manage to damage a sealed book. I will notify when recieved (how was the packaging etc) ..

Just bought a copy of the 2012 Folio Tale of Two Cities. Been looking for this edition for ages!

Not Folio, but a pleasant find nonetheless: Yolla Bolly Press's The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze found its way into my hands yesterday.

>65 Pellias: Buying the book through Amazon (>62 scratchpad:) didn't finish the story. Their copy had already gone but they had failed to delete it from the website. Can you believe it - twice in one day and this had never happened to me before! Third time lucky I tried the one I mentioned on the Oxfam site and held my breath. Persistence was rewarded and I received the book today. It looks as good as new so all's well and its a relief to get this thing over and done. Have you got yours yet?

>68 scratchpad:

Well, finally time to celebrate then. You fought well, and were rewarded!

No. Not yet arrived, it is scheduled earlier this week .. fingers crossed ..

>68 scratchpad: Finally recieved mine. A nice volume (mint) slipcase has a nearly no recognising bump (too small to care) = I`m very happy about it (the volume/slipcase overall)

>70 Pellias: All's well that...etc...over and out until, perhaps, the next time?

>71 scratchpad: Jup. Next one is (most likely) on you :) I`m saving money as i`m starting on project library in say 5-6 months

Slim pickings recently as I've been holding back from buying many books, but I found a copy of Columbus On Himself in very good condition in my local Oxfam bookshop for £3.99 that I couldn't resist.

I already have the silk-bound version but I spotted a copy of the dark (blue?) cloth bound Jayne Eyre in a charity shop last week; it had the slipcase and they were charging 50p! I didn't buy it because I have a copy, though I must admit I was tempted!

@cronshaw: Methinks your posts on this forum are a velvety delight to read. More power to you!

>74 bookaroo: Thank you for your very kind words! I'm delighted if anyone is able to share my manifold delights in matters Folio, especially if they're deemed soft and caressable. I am often delighted myself by others when I alight on FSD and read what the many members of our worldwide Folio family think about the well-bound objects of our affection and related subjects. Even when there's disagreement or frank discord on these threads, whether I wince or chuckle, I cherish being part of such a diverse and knowledgeable group of devotees.

>75 cronshaw:
Wholeheartedly agree!

Yes, well said!

I'm going to be in Middlesbrough all of next week. Anyone from thereabouts who could recommend a book shop worth visiting?

The white leather Decameron set is finally mine. Mwahahahahaha.

Congrats! That is a sweet find!

>78 N11284: Middlesbrough is my home turf; for bookshops you would do better to go out into one of the villages - Thirsk, Guisborough, Saltburn, Helmsley, maybe Northallerton...

>79 gmacaree: The white leather Decameron set is finally mine.

I am seriously envious. I have lusted after that and the blue leather first edition War and Peace for a long, long time.

A few years ago I bought the Folio edition of Madame Bovary. The novel's a firm favourite of mine and I loved the watercolours that I'd seen painted for it by Grau Sala, which were first published in the 1945 French edition by La Bonne Compagnie, Paris. It was one of my most disappointing FS acquisitions: Folio in 1952 had reproduced only a selection of Grau Sala's 35 gorgeous, delicate watercolours, and as black and white 'etchings'. This was perhaps understandable during the early austerity years, yet in Folio's 1997 reprint the illustrations remained just as monochromatically dull. Moreover, the translation wasn't the greatest: if you read it in English, it's hard to beat Geoffrey Wall's translation (used by Penguin) which is the most faithful I've read with regards to the syntax, rhythm and poetry of Flaubert's French. My Folio Mme Bovary soon found herself unceremoniously deposited in a charity shop.

Thus for a couple of years I'd been keeping a beady Rodolphe eye out for a copy of the French 1945 original, a paperback (with a reasonably firm card cover) issued in a limited edition of 1000: the first 100 printed on Arches paper and produced with a separate portfolio of prints, all presented in a sturdy dark blue slip-box (the paperback and portfolio together slide into a removable cloth-bound hard binding which itself slides into a rigid slipcase covered in the same cloth, forming a sealed unit, so these first 100 can generally still be in fine condition); the remaining 900 were sold as the paperback volume alone without a slip-box, printed on Rives paper, still with all the watercolours. A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to finally spy a copy of one of the first 100 of the limitation printed on glorious Arches paper, and ordered it immediately. At £100 plus P&P from France, it's the most expensive paperback I've ever bought, excepting The South Polar Times LE, mais je ne le regrette pas un instant. It arrived today and for its seventy years is still essentially fine in its box-slipcase, with even the original glassine dustjacket for the softcovers wholly intact.

Here are six of Grau Sala's thirty-five watercolours. Note: I've cheated and snagged these images taken of a Rives copy from the internet to share with you:













I think it's a shame Folio missed the opportunity to reproduce these illustrations in their full colour glory. (Note to Mole: perhaps a future LE project - all thirty-five Grau Sala watercolours with Geoffrey Wall's translation?)

A warning to prospective purchasers of the La Bonne Compagnie, Paris, 1945 edition: one or two copies that have appeared for sale appear to have had some or nearly all of Grau Sala's watercolour images removed, so do ask any seller if all thirty-five colour images are present.

For those with commodious bourses, the first 35 of the Arches copies (limitation nos. 1- 35) also come with a 22cm tall original watercolour by Grau Sala. There's one currently offered on abe for €1,000.

>84 cronshaw:

Oh, that's a splendid edition! Now I want a copy.

>84 cronshaw: At £100 plus P&P from France, it's the most expensive paperback I've ever bought

Just when I was thinking why would any sane person discard a Folio for a paperback, I saw the illustrations. My gob is smacked (for the benefit of our American friends: "they're AWESOME!"). Fabulous. Mole: That's two votes for a future LE.

>87 folio_books: I've been accused of many things but sanity isn't one of them.

Not sure about a LE but yeah, c'mon, Folio!
>84 cronshaw: Looks lovely, congrats! And another reminder for me to do something about my rusty French that is very close to give up waiting 'till I start using it and go for a swim in Lethe.

>88 cronshaw: I've been accused of many things but sanity isn't one of them.

In the light of the evidence I withdraw the accusation unreservedly.

>90 folio_books: I'm trying to work out whether I should be thanking you.

>88 cronshaw: cronshaw: I've been accused of many things but sanity isn't one of them.

>90 folio_books: folio_books: I'm trying to work out whether I should be thanking you.

I've been accused of many things but inscrutability isn't one of them, Number One son.

I'm having intensely good ebay luck of late. Today I landed another long-coveted target, the four-volume, vellum-spined Thousand Nights and One Night set from 1980.

>93 gmacaree: four-volume, vellum-spined Thousand Nights and One Night set from 1980

That's a nice set. I have it, so I'm not forced to be envious this time :)

>93 gmacaree: You're on quite a roll, congratulations! Happy caressing and reading :)

>79 gmacaree:
Well done that man😃 that was my best ever buy, £3 from oxfsm

>84 cronshaw:

That is a seriously beautiful book and the Grau Sala illustrations are flawless. This book with the complete suite of 35 delicate watercolor illustrations demands to find its way into a FS limited edition. I would purchase that in a heartbeat, one in atrial fib no less.

Picked up a couple of Brecht plays in the local thrift store today - much to my amusement, it was a DDR edition, clearly labeled as such on the title page, with a warning to the effect that selling this book in West Germany or abroad was not allowed. Presumably works for domestic consumption were subsidised. Price paid? Less than a pound.

Faust. Considered also Inferno. But since i got a bloody parking ticket today i dropped it to balance it out. Celebration as Faust is my number 200 standard\fine edition

Icelandic Sagas V.2 .. there went some of my savings .. Book in fine condition, case in near fine (i have learned from before. Don`t think. Do!)

Congratulations! Took me ages to find this ...

>99 Pellias: The Eugene Delacroix illustrated edition? Nice!

>100 Pellias: Congrats! It took me a long time to pick up that volume.

Deptford trilogy is now mine :-) another Peter Stuart to add to my collection

>100 Pellias: Icelandic Sagas V.2 .. there went some of my savings ..

Who needs savings when you've completed a magnificent and hard-to-find set? Well done! Enjoy.

>103 Santas_Slave: Deptford trilogy is now mine

Congratulations! I keep getting close but not close enough. I will NOT raise the ceiling ... probably.

>101 NYCFaddict: Thank you. I have read about your lust for this volume. A funny read. You have been quite open about it ;)

>102 kdweber: Yes. That`s the one. Going down a rabbit hole, have locked in on this set .. Have: Walden, now Faust .. more to come (but no stress) .. `Jerusalem` and `Paradiso` (maybe also `Purgatory`) seem to be the `grails` to have in this set for a completist

>104 folio_books: I try to keep away from purchasing FS books now before i know that i really want them. But this was a no brainer. Didn`t even think. Think and save i can do later, still had to use savings though. That said, i have V.1 in buckram, and will have to sell this for the original someday. At least i now caught my whale, so i do not need to be on the alert anymore. Price with shipping to Norway: £137,30 (swallowed and done with, in reference to money spent)

I just bought the complete 8-volume Barbarian Invasions set for $100. I don't quite understand my luck at the moment, because that seems absurdly cheap.

>107 gmacaree: I bought those back in the day for over the twice amount (shipping made it skyrocket) when i was a FSD trainee, i was young, dumb, had no master and didn`t know life .. in the internet dealing world. I could have had more `mint` volumes and for a lot cheaper if i had waited, i learned it the hard way, but i erected myself back up .. the most important to take note of here is to be repeated `if i had waited` .. funny i even managed to open a door with my low intelligence level back in my trainee days. That set looks really good with `Gibbon` https://www.librarything.com/pic/4674812 .. as the creative mastermind you are, you have probably already thought about that combo .. you are deep into FAD these days. Enjoy - it`s a great trip isn`t it! :)

>107 gmacaree: You ought to buy a lottery ticket this weekend.

My commission on any winnings resulting from this suggestion will be most modest.

That is absurdly cheap -- well done! :)

>108 Pellias: '...when I was a FSD trainee...'

I've been a Faddict for too long now, but I still don't think of myself as very trained. My partner certainly doesn't.

>111 cronshaw: Well. Skills gained i guess .. not very trained? I bet you are an athlete in your field ;) .. it`s in the word though - train. To train (for something) .. in other words most results doesn`t show up unless you .. train. Luckily there are many ways to do it .. your partner is there for a reason. It`s those eyes isn`t it ..

>108 Pellias: I'm waiting on the rumoured Limited Edition to pick up Decline and Fall -- my fellow Devotees have convinced me that the footnotes are absolutely required in order to read it :).

That is going to cost an arm and a leg ...

>114 NYCFaddict: But cronshaw and I are planning to win the lottery this weekend :)

Just won an Ebay auction for Temple of Flora at £299. Considering it was originally sold for £795 I am quite content.

>116 wcarter: The print portfolio or the full book? The print portfolio was heavily discounted at the end.

And many of us regret not purchasing it at that heavy discount ...

The flower plates (print portfolio) came out from nowhere right at the end of the new years sale in late january early february 2016, and were sold for the discounted price of £110.00

>117 kdweber:
The whole book, still in original packing box. One of the 600.

>120 wcarter:

Congratulations! I pondered whether to provide some mild competition for the unknown-to-me first bidder, but decided to content myself with the portfolio of plates, which I'd bought in the aforementioned sale. The plates are currently being offered by one eBay optimist for £500.

>121 terebinth:
Thank you for your restraint. Enjoy the plates.

>116 wcarter: Congratulations, Warwick, that's a bargain! It remains a thorough mystery to me why this magnificent volume, in a low limitation of 600, sells for such a low price considering its remarkable production values. It's one of my all-time favourite Folio limited editions. The plates are exquisitely reproduced on Modigliani Insize paper; if removed and sold individually they would fetch far more than £300 judging from the price of prints reproduced on inferior paper for framing, by various on-line sellers.

I hope the postage cost down under wasn't exorbitant: it's a huge, heavy volume!

>123 cronshaw:
Postage £54. Not too bad for a 14Kg book.

>124 wcarter: That's very good for postage to Australia!

>126 Rodomontade:
£833? Crazy!!

>126 Rodomontade: what a deal! Very jealous.

>127 Kainzow: Not that crazy as you don't see copies on ebay and also close to FS's price. It is a supply and demand game I guess.

Was able to snag Carthage for $40, The Day of The Jackal for $37, and The Trial by Kafka for $35 all with free shipping!

The cherry on top was finding Touching The Void for $5 total including shipping!

>129 venkysuniverse:
Fair enough!
I thought the original price was around £200 - £300.
I hate bidding wars though. Sometimes I had to pay more than what I deemed enough for a book!

>132 Rodomontade:
Yep, you definitely did great on that one! :D

>131 Kainzow: I agree but invariably a lot of people have waiting far too long to accept defeat. We had/have an identical scenario with housing prices in the UK.

Rodomontrade got the deal of the century :D

>135 EclecticIndulgence: congratulation, Eclectic -- Rime is one of my favourite LEs. The binding is exquisite beyond my capacity to describe.

Today I made the more prosaic acquisition of On War, which is surprisingly difficult to find for a reasonable price second-hand.

>135 EclecticIndulgence: Picked up a copy of the LE Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Congratulations! I am definitely envious. This is very high on my list of must-haves.

Faust arrived today. Must be one of my favourites now. I just bought me some shelves, so that i could display the 100 of 200 FS books that were tucked away because there were no room for them. I rearanged, and now i must rearange again for my Faust. It`s huge -AND beautiful. It is also not of the most expensive in this series. Paper is thick, wonderful illustrations by Delacroix ..

I said: `fy faen, fin bok` which i will not translate for as fine ears as yours .. :) .. carried away i guess. That`s allowed. True spirit of a devotee there!

>139 Pellias: I said: `fy faen, fin bok

Pass munnen. ;)

>139 Pellias:

Oh, so we're polite society now, Oyvind? ;) Well, I suppose we are - I certainly wouldn't be translating some lines from Plautus or Catullus here!!!

>139 Pellias: My grandmother, bless her, would've grabbed a bar of soap to clean up that filthy mouth of yours with... :-)

A filthy viking in the company of gentlemen, learning etiquette. Some believe in him, some have given up on him.

>140 Mencius: Det var artig. Nå er vi 3, snart er vi klare for et raid ;)

>141 scholasticus: Hmm .. i think that`s pretty clear my friend ;) The culture difference, i love it. It`s peaceful here. If you do it in latin, few would know, you would have to confess it though - probably ..

>142 odderi: Your grandmother, bless her. Would offer me coffee and tell stories of all the times she washed your mouth ;)

*Icelandic Sagas V.2 arrived. Not as good packed as the book mentioned. I often have my heart in my troat when i order from where i did. Faust were great packed, but this and many more, - no bubblewrap, nothing to take the fall if ...((insert personal nightmare here))... should happen.

Note to this sagas versus, the buckram binded. The quarter leather is a tiny bit higher, it also has blue painted top pages (i can`t see for sure, maybe green, it`s dark in here), either way the buckram volume is plain white.

>142 odderi: - If memory serves, she only had to do it once. Most educational. :-)

>43 Pellias:
Svensk viking anmäler sig härmed till det stundande vikingatåget.

>143 Pellias: ff.

I'm half-tempted to put up some...questionable Latin, but I don't think it'd work quite as well, given that the Romans were more attuned to temperate climates.

>146 EclecticIndulgence:

Would that be discussing his Fram expedition?

>147 scholasticus: - "Fram" was built after the Greenland crossing; I am not 100% certain as to the English-language titles of his works, but "The Farthest North" as suggested by >148 EclecticIndulgence: sounds plausible as a title for his account of the Fram expedition.

I think - mind, think - I've read somewhere that Fram was in large part financed by the proceeds from his book and lectures on the Greenland crossing, though this may well be myth.

>149 odderi:

Farthest North was first published in English by Constable in 1897 in two volumes. And very handsome they are, with a couple of lovely, if fragile, fold-out maps.

For illustration purposes only, see the the following link:

http://biblio.co.uk/book/fridtjof-nansen-8217-8220-farthest-north/d/919756978?ai...

>148 EclecticIndulgence:, >149 odderi:, >150 boldface:

Ah, thank you for the clarifications and additional information!

Now is as good a time as any to share a couple of my favourite Nansen anecdotes.

Nansen apparently was quite a stickler for formality, which the following illustrate:

Longtime Nansen sidekick Hjalmar Johansen gets attacked by a polar bear, and, with lots of incentive, one would imagine, he takes up the struggle, at one point clutching at the bear's throat and trying very hard to be out of reach of its paws (nevermind the teeth!) - all while Nansen is getting the rifle ready to take a shot, which he eventually does, killing the bear. Johansen that night confided to his diary that in the heat of the battle, he exclaimed "Please make haste, Mr. Nansen, or may well be too late!"

Later, while spending the winter in the Arctic, Nansen and Johansen shared a sleeping bag to conserve more precious body heat; on Christmas Eve, shivering in their bag, Nansen asked Johansen something along the lines of "What do you think, Mr. Johansen, wouldn't it be OK if we were on colloquial terms?", to which Johansen according to his diary replied "Well, I am going to have to think this one over a bit, Mr. Nansen."

A couple of days later, Johansen's diary notes that "Nansen and I are now on colloquial terms."

Hjalmar Johansen's With Nansen in the North is a very readable account of the Fram voyage, by the way. The good people at the Norwegian National Library have kindly put a scanned version of the 1899 Ward, Lock &Co 1st English edition online here:

http://www.nb.no/nbsok/nb/42158b8d1750a5fe4cf056698ec9c6bf.nbdigital?lang=no#0

Chapters in Dublin have a large collection of FS editions just in. I picked up Mohammed and Charlemagne , The Black Tulip, The Stones of Venice all for €50.00. I also took way with me The Holy Land Egypt and Nubia by White Star Publishers for €65.00. All books in as new condition.

Graham Greene: The Complete Entertainments, Evelyn Waugh: Comedies!!! Both sets appear unread but have damaged slipcases. Approximately $160 for both. Non Folio Society- All 5 volumes of the Avignon Quintet (Durrell), 1st U.S. editions, as new, for $40! I am buried in Justine, my first Durrell, and am wading through the lush prose, often rereading paragraphs three or four times. I'm not quite sure what the hell is going on but am enjoying it so I jumped at the chance to buy the Quintet.

I just received the folio society edition of Beowulf that I ordered from an used bookseller in Norway. The book appears unread and the slipcase is fine with two miner imperfections small enough that I would not have contacted folio if I got it like that from them new. I paid ..... wait for it ...... 200 NOK (~ £18,80) for a total of 300 NOK (~ £28,20) with shipping.

I know that many of us (me included) somewhat disprove of buying in print folio books on the secondhand market. However, this is a book I would not afford/prioritize at its normal price, therefore not causing any lost business for FS. (Quite the opposite, felling I just “saved” money I will probably be less hesitant to spend a lot on the soon to start new year sale)

>156 GilbertSWE: Congratulations! (Note to self: check for FS editions at antikvariat.no every now and then; I'd be happy to pay NOK300 for Beowulf; NOK1000 or whatever the FS is currently charging - not as much.)

It is, IMHO, one of the most beautiful publications in latter years; it is just that I suspect I won't spend as much time with it as the price tag should warrant. :)

Good catch!

FS FAD continues:

*Legends of King Arthur (the artificial leather ed.)
*Stalingrad £15
*Carthage a history £15
*Vikings £20

.. i would be a marvelous hunter gatherer! Fact! The last three where to tempting according to price

>157 odderi:
Thank you. It is truly beutiful sitting on my shelves. I guess I have to check antikvariat.se even more often knowing there are more Devotees browsing regularly.

>158 Pellias: Carthage a history £15

That's a great bargain. I've been looking for it on eBay forever and never seen it anywhere near that price. I was hoping it might appear in the sale but no luck there, either.

Congratulations!

It was. Same with Stalingrad at that price. Thanks for reminding me of antikvariatet.no. You Odd fellow ;) >157 odderi:

`Year around things to do`I will bring it to work, it might even come in handy as i work with youths

>162 Pellias: `Year around things to do`

Now that's what I call a rarity.

>162 Pellias:, >163 folio_books:

YRTtD has somehow escaped my shelves; I think I'll have to buy three or four copies, as judging from their seeming abundance in this forum, I don't think a single volume would be appropriate...

>164 odderi: It is FAD de rigueur to collect all twenty printings.

>165 cronshaw: It is FAD de rigueur to collect all twenty printings.

Not to mention the ultra rare handful of copies of the 13th impression with the middle pages erroneously inserted upside down. It's the pride of my collection.

>165 cronshaw:, >166 folio_books:

After having seen the going rate for YRTtD, I am fighting an urge to purchase a couple dozen copies only to proudly display them in the shelfies thread...

Including that much sought-after thirteenth printing, of course. If I so had to make the title page myself, pry the text block apart and have it re-bound...

It`s pretty cruel to be bullied for buying YRttD, maybe you are all just envious, so sad, find something else to do, than to bully the ones that do in fact highly regard other things than you -

It`s you here that enabled me, at least i will now soon find out what you were all talking about - all these years around with nothing better to do

I will bring it along to a binder, that`s what i`ll do, and i will make it outshine all of you .. ;))

>168 Pellias: I'd be happy to chip in, Øyvind. Perhaps this is as good an opportunity as any to give Thomas Støyva* a go? ;)

*) Thomas Støyva being a - or, perhaps, the - Norwegian bookbinder. I'd love to have him do a book for me at some point.

>169 odderi:

In private message, i have left you my donation account which you can use for these purpose - if others are interested, please tell ;)

I am at work this weekend and needed some carrots, so i bought:

* The Babylonians
* The Incas
* Odyssey, quarter bound in green leather thingy

>171 Rodomontade: Wow! Nice hunting, great prices, fabulous books for which I paid much more.

>171 Rodomontade: Also found the full leather limited Life of Johnson from 1968 for £40.

That's a great bargain. It very rarely crops up on eBay and not at that price. Congratulations!

I finally came across the cream leather Decameron early limited edition today, in quite pristine condition with no prior ownership marks, not the faintest darkening of the spine nor hint of foxing anywhere. In fact it looks as though it's never actually been removed from its slipcase and read. Even the slipcase has virtually no shelfwear. I snaffled it breathlessly for £50, or a fifth of the original inflation-adjusted Folio price of approx. £250; the price in 1969 was £16.

The embossed binding is extraordinarily impressive. My precise sentiment is that already most succinctly expressed by Graham at post 79 above: 'The white leather Decameron set is finally mine. Mwahahahahaha.'

>174 cronshaw:

Congratulations, Russell. That set is the most unreasonably satisfying acquisition: I am still purring over mine, which was even a little cheaper than yours. You haven't mentioned the smell; I do hope that has lasted well, too.

>174 cronshaw: My precise sentiment is that already most succinctly expressed by Graham at post 79 above: 'The white leather Decameron set is finally mine. Mwahahahahaha.'

Fabulous news, Russell. I am most deeply envious. I have the first edition, of course, in the standard binding and green dustjacket. But the leather set I can only sigh for.

Wonderful bargain, too. I'd happily pay double for that, if anyone's reading ...

Edited for afterthought.

>174 cronshaw: Congratulations! I don't think I've ever come across the cream leather Decameron. Any chance of pictures?

Yes, great find! What a bargain!

>178 cronshaw: quite on a par with the blue leather War & Peace set of the same series I got a few years ago

That's another one on my most lusted-after list. Beautiful.

>178 cronshaw: multiple images of the cream leather Decameron along with several other titles given full leather special binding LE treatment this old thread dedicated to Folio Society special bindings.

Thanks to Conte_Mosca and to you for finding the link. There are some great photos in there but I think the "cream" of the crop (sorry) has to be the Decameron. I'll just keep on searching, as I have been doing these many years.

>180 folio_books: I've never seen the limited special binding edition of Malory's The Chronicles of King Arthur, or of Carlyle's The French Revolution, but from the images in Conte_Mosca's thread, both look as impressive as The Decameron and War and Peace. The latter seems particularly grand in a slipcase that looks the most solid and sumptuous.

Best of luck with the searches, Glenn. You'll enjoy your finds all the more for having patiently waited.

>181 cronshaw: Best of luck with the searches, Glenn. You'll enjoy your finds all the more for having patiently waited.

Oh, of course. I am nothing if not patient - 20 years + to complete the Fine Editions! If you think about it, even longer for the cream Decameron, but when it was first published it was way beyond my budget. It was a struggle sometimes to buy the four standard editions each year for membership.

I have to say I don't believe I'd seen the three volume Malory before (I have the standard edition of course) and it looks mighty tempting, though a tad less so after my recent acquisition of Beardsley's Morte Darthur. Still, very nice. One day. Well, tomorrow, if the price is right. And, as you say, the Carlyle looks pretty gorgeous - love the slipcase. Oh, what the hell, let's buy all of them!

I think with any limited edition, particularly one given a sumptuous binding, the content has to be worth the special attention, unless you're a bibliomane interested in the binding per se. When I came across Folio's special binding limited edition of A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain last year I didn't feel tempted. Its gilt ornamented tan leather binding is certainly handsome, but the content seems to me much improved, with smarter typography and far more illustrations (in colour rather than black and white) in the more recent FS standard edition of 2006, a beautifully produced volume which you can find on the secondary market in fine/fine condition for as little as £10!

(edited to amend 'Journey' to 'Tour')

>181 cronshaw:
>182 folio_books:

FWIW, I think the most beautiful of the Folio Society Special Bindings series are (in no particular order):

1. the 3-vol. The Chronicles of Arthur
2. the 4-vol. The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night
3. the 3-vol. The French Revolution.
4. And, of course, the Decameron.

I have nos. 1 and 2 but it is too late in the evening for me to take proper photos. However, I will take a few of 'Arthur' tomorrow and post them.

>184 dlphcoracl: I have nos. 1 and 2 but it is too late in the evening for me to take proper photos.

I thought you picked up the cream Decameron from our resident FSD bookseller, not so very long ago? Or, as is often the case, am I getting confused?

All of those four are lovely examples and firmly established on my wishlist. Only three things required:

Fine condition

Under my price ceiling

I need to find them!

>183 cronshaw: I think with any limited edition, particularly one given a sumptuous binding, the content has to be worth the special attention, unless you're a bibliomane interested in the binding per se.

No argument from me - I'm a book lover and a collector of books rather than bindings. The books we're talking about here all meet the "essential" requirement in my opinion, indeed I have them all in Folio standard editions. "Upgrading" them to a suitably designed Limited Edition seems like a just reward for loyal and distinguished service. Besides, the leather smells so damn good ;)

>185 folio_books:

I DID purchase the cream Decameron from the bookseller who listed (and was removed) from LibraryThing. It was a set in fine condition, as nice as I could ever hope for.

I also have the FS Fine Bindings sets of 'King Arthur' and the '1001 Nights', both in the same league as the FSFB Deameron.

>188 dlphcoracl: I DID purchase the cream Decameron from the bookseller who listed (and was removed) from LibraryThing.

And then sneaked back under a different alias. He hasn't been removed yet.

>188 dlphcoracl: It was a set in fine condition, as nice as I could ever hope for.

You made the most of your window of opportunity. Congratulations!

>187 EclecticIndulgence: A People's Tragedy, sealed

That's another one on my wishlist. Well done!

I'll go for it when Folio offer it at 50%. The current 25% isn't enough for me.

>187 EclecticIndulgence: Congratulations, that one's on my wish list too!

>103 Santas_Slave: Deptford trilogy is now mine

And now mine :)

A question for Santas_Slave and anyone else who owns a copy: Does every copy suffer from the dreaded Flat Spine affliction?

>192 folio_books: Mine is a 'shallow curved spine' edition.

>192 folio_books: I appear to have a chimera, the top being of the Flat Spine specie while the bottom is as rounded as a hippo's derriere.

>193 scratchpad: Mine is a 'shallow curved spine' edition.
>194 HuxleyTheCat: I appear to have a chimera, the top being of the Flat Spine specie while the bottom is as rounded as a hippo's derriere.

Interesting. Now I take a good close look I'd say the bottom is slightly less flat than the top but it would be an exaggeration of hippo-like proportions to call it rounded. The top is about as flat as you can get. If it got any flatter it would be concave. But thanks, folks.

>192 folio_books:

Congratulations! Mine is indeed also stricken with a case of spinae planus. Folio unfortunately opted for a slightly thinner buckram for this edition (similar to the Name of the Rose), it almost doesn't do the cover design justice; however, it is nothing a book shoe cannot sort out.

Blake I think is another nasty flat-spiner. I'm pleased to see that this is a shared annoyance.

quite a few flat spines chez moi - Stones of Venice, Deptford Trilogy, Painter of Passion, Once and Future King, Blue Fairy Book - I can't say it bothers me unduly.

The localised embonpoint seems to be common to all the fatter volumes, though it doesn't always translate so obviously to the spine. The Old Wives' Tale is probably my worst.

>198 overthemoon:

Likewise, I have the first printing Blue Fairy Book with a flat spine. However, later printings I have seen have a rounded spine like the rest of the series.

>200 EclecticIndulgence: I don't have that one. My Old Wives' Tale is almost flat but not quite.

>201 boldface:

On balance, I would really like a copy with a rounded spine but not at the price of substituting my first printing. As others have said, I have a few with this particular affliction and it's really a case of learning to live with it.

>203 folio_books:

You've said it. I absolutely agree.

Capt. Cooks Voyages - sticks out (or rather doesn't) from the rest of the Victorian Adventure series like a sticky out thing.

I went bonkers today after evidently too long a period of unnatural book-buying restraint and bought a dozen Reprint Society volumes from the 1950s. I find the publisher's 'World Books' an attractive series in their colourful patterned dustjackets, and some of them are illustrated internally with line drawings and/or photographic plates. My finds today all had dustjackets with minimal wear, mercifully lacked inscriptions and bookplates, and included the monthly 'World Books broadsheet published by the Reprint Society, address 22 Golden Square, London W1.', each with an article about that month's book and other literary-publishy tidbits. At 65p a volume it would have been rude to resist.

>206 cronshaw:

Those books were regular arrivals at my childhood home, and I remember them fondly. I did consider salvaging some when my centenarian mother finally relinquished her hold on them a couple of years back, but the print had shrunk considerably over the years, and I abandoned the idea.

>206 cronshaw:

They're pretty good, aren't they? I'm looking now at a shelf of 43 Reprint Society volumes which once belonged to my late father-in-law. One day, alas, in his wisdom, he decided to throw away the dust jackets because he thought the books looked better without them. I'm sorry to say that in my youthful ignorance I helped him! Having said that, they still look very nice in their Rousseauian innocence. The bindings come in a great variety of hues and I've arranged them to give a very attractive rainbow effect.

Your father-in-law couldn't have wished for a better home for them than The Shed, third only to The British and Bodleian Libraries in renown! RS volumes are indeed charming in their simplicity, and an ideal book size. Some appear quite collectable, including The Old Man and the Sea (the first illustrated edition), Wind in the Willows (with E. H. Shepard's illustrations and a delightful embossed binding decoration featuring Ratty, Mole and Toad), and King Solomon's Ring with all Lorenz's original line drawings. I had been hankering for FS to do KSR but the RS edition is delightful and more than meets my needs.

>207 affle: Congratulations on the great longevity genes, Alan. You stand to gain all the more from your enormous library!

>209 cronshaw:

I do have The old man and the sea, purloined at an earlier stage. I fondly remember KSR, with the lovely drawings of the imprinted ducks; I salvaged also the Churchill set, which lurks shabbily in every secondhand bookshop, out of sentiment, as it was a favourite of my father who had been in the war. All jackets had had the same treatment as Jonathan's father-in-law's.

>209 cronshaw:

You flatter me, Russell! But sorry to disappoint you, my RSs are not in the Shed at all but in my sitting room, next to the 37 Slightly Foxed Editions which tone in quite well with them. I don't have any of those you mention, so naturally I am now driven to seek them out!

>211 affle:

By the Churchill set do you mean the 'Second World War' with the white covers? I did inherit this from my father-in-law, but it was a bit grubby so I disposed of it. I've noticed, though, that pristine copies (and some not so pristine) can be found from time to time on Abe listed at ridiculously inflated prices.

>212 boldface: Re: Shed/sitting room, most noteworthy libraries have an annexe or two.

>212 boldface: Good luck hunting those sought-after RS volumes. I trust you'll find a better bargain than the £100+ several abe seller are asking for RS's The Old Man and the Sea. The 1952 1st thus is the one to go for with the attractive (predominantly yellow) DJ, the later 1963 printing has a different (blue) DJ, that is if you're bothered about dustjackets.

>212 boldface:

Yes, that's the one - originally had clear plastic jackets, which didn't last well; I'm amazed at the prices of decent full sets.

>214 cronshaw:

My Old Man's a first printing, but I have no recollection whatever of the dj.

I found at a second store in DC the two impossible to find Smileys, Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. $160 for them both, Second Story books. I didn't buy them myself but I figured someone here might be interested

Three recent finds on e-bay. Rupert Brooke Poems 1948 FS; The Georgics Virgil FS and Folio Fine Press Poems from the Greek

My girlfriend just nabbed a copy of Master and Margarita in excellent condition for $70. Huzzah!

>220 Jason461:

About this, there is no doubt.

>309 I agree with you The Shed, third only to The British and Bodleian Libraries in renown!

Having visited it, I could spend the rest of my life exploring and reading Jonathan's books.

Paid through the nose for the Folio Principia, but it's so hard to find that I couldn't resist ...

>223 gmacaree: It's not a FS edition, it's from the University of California Press. There were plenty of reasonably priced copies available this past October when I bought mine on Amazon but it looks as though the pricing has gone up.

>224 kdweber: You'll find that there is indeed a Folio version of the Principia :)

>225 gmacaree: Very nice! Who was the editor and who wrote the commentary?

>227 EclecticIndulgence:

It was a regular FS edition, published in 2008. I bought mine (second printing, 2008) in the 2009 half-price summer sale. It's based on the University of California Press edition of 1999, "translated by I. Bernard Cohen and Anne Whitman, assisted by Julia Buzenz". Volume I contains the text; volume II is "A Guide to Newton's Principia Mathematica" by I. Bernard Cohen "with contributions by Michael Nauenberg and George E. Smith", with an introduction by Stephen Hawking which is taken from his book On the Shoulders of Giants (2002).

This month I purchased "Wide Sargasso Sea", "Utopia", and "Vanity Fair", all for about $50.00, including shipping, from three different sellers, and all I fine shape.

"The Roman Republic" is nowhere to be found, even at $200.00 US!

As a new member of the board, I had a big gap in my burgeoning Folio-collection. FOLIO 60 I was without. Yesterday after work I walked into a re-opened second-hand bookstore in the town where I work. Went looking for different books and offerings. Didn't find what I was looking for, but noticed that they had a few Folio Books. On the train home I searched for Folio Books on their website and low and behold, they had a copy of FOLIO 60! Today I went right back after work and bought the book. It is an Near Fine Book in same state slipcase and I got it for €29.50. That's £24.70 on today's exchange course, according to Google. Well pleased!!

>230 NLNils:

As others have noted, what is called the purchase price of this cursed volume is only really a down-payment. As time goes on you are likely to find that it's by far the most expensive book you have ever bought. Enjoy!

>230 NLNils: Well done Nils, that's an excellent buy! It'll perhaps not be long before you want to complete a full Folio bibliography set with Folio 50 and Folio 25*, or some other combination of the titles thoroughly described in the Folio Bibliographies thread kindly prepared by Conte Mosca, a formerly active Devotee who regrettably seems to have been on sabbatical from us here for some time now.

*By the way, if you see that that secondhand bookshop also has a copy of Folio 25, drop everything and GRAB IT: it's one of Folio's rarer editions with only 445 copies produced. But if you don't find it, you can still use Folio 21 plus Folio 1968-1971 to access the same content.

Not Folio but I picked up a pristine Hardcover 'Australian Classics' of Herbert's Capricornia for $3 the other day. I've read PFMC but not this.

>231 terebinth: I read those stories too. At least at this price, I can have one FOLIO 60 and other Folio books for the going price of #60!😆

>232 cronshaw: I have FOLIO 50 as well, so I'm getting there!

What is the appeal of earlier Folio bibliographies, outside of collecting purposes?

>235 NLNils: Bravo! Your Folio Acquisition Disorder (FAD) is coming along superbly.

Personally I've never felt the need for Folios 34 and 40, since Folios 25 and 50 are so comprehensive and contain far better illustrations, descriptions and a much wider selection of essays. If you don't care for earlier Folios, and aren't fussed about the extra essays and illustrations, you probably won't miss Folio 25 or Folios 21 & 1968-71. Folio 25 is a stigma of advanced FAD :)

>236 cronshaw:

A persistent craving for Folio 25 would indeed be cause for concern. Mere ownership of a copy doesn't, I tell myself, signify anything very worrying. My own set me back £16.55, just because its eBay listing didn't refer once to the magical "25", only describing the book as "Folio 21 A Bibliography of the Folio Society 1947-1967. Also Folio 1968-71". In such circumstance, merest sanity demanded that I buy the thing. Even with it in the house, my FAD has been pretty subdued of late. The recent directions taken by Folio's publishing programme have helped, but the even more effective treatment, I think, has been retirement. Lately I have the time and energy to read books: one thing leads to another and soon I'm for the most part engaging with texts far too obscure for Folio to touch them with a bargepole; and gone, mercifully gone, has been that wretched itch in some measure to compensate for the dismal hours of mental and/or corporeal labour by the quick fix of another Folio purchase.

Folios 34 and 40, though, are such sweet, handy little volumes. Having said that, I'm still lacking 34 myself, which I suppose is evidence enough that I've not felt the need of it either,.

>237 terebinth: My FAD has been subsiding lately too. It's probably a combined effect of dismemberment, closure of the dMR, price increases, straining bookshelves at home, and tinges of altitude sickness I've felt looking at my TBR mountain.

>236 cronshaw:
I have the full set of all FS bibliographies, so I am a prime case to demonstrate the advanced FAD stigmata.
I can see no outward sign though, no bleeding from any wounds, no a mark on my forehead, and no obvious horns.
What should I look for?

>238 cronshaw: "tinges of altitude sickness I've felt looking at my TBR mountain"

I get a stiff neck looking at mine

>239 wcarter: "What should I look for?"

A counsellor who has never heard of FS.

>239 wcarter: Interestingly enough, a couple of FAD stigmata are most prominent in antipodeans: calloused fingertips from the frenetic tapping of repeated e-mails to Customer Services demanding to be able to pay ROW prices in pounds sterling, and dark bags under red eyes as a result of staying up all night waiting for sales to come live on-line.

>242 cronshaw:
Ahhh, I see - yes, those ai have!

>237 terebinth: >238 cronshaw:
Interesting to read of your respective declines; I seem to have experienced very similar, for much the same reasons.

Have just got some folio society books I have long wanted-the blue Nile and White Nile set and the large format Walden. Both I'm fine/fine condition I also got Iris Murdoch The Sea The Sea, The little Princess and James Cover her Face Some good reading for me

Obtained Gulliver's Travels LE from Denmark in mint unused condition for EUR455 including postage to Australia - a discount of 40% on the new price direct from the FS to Australia.

Folio's reprint of Ten Days That Shook the World piqued my interest but at $70 including shipping I decided to go the "preowned" route. Found a pristine copy in the UK for $20 ($10 for the book and $10 for postage to California).

>245 shdunne: Well done on the Blue Nile and White Nile set. I purchased these a couple of years ago and they are well illustrated. I recall that the covers are silk and so it currently sits in the shadiness of our hall.
Was looking at what Walden was for some reason the other day (excuse my ignorance), but have too much on my TBR to acquire at present, even though it looks a fine volume.

>248 CarltonC: the spines of mine have faded horribly. But I love these books, read them from cover to cover.

>249 overthemoon: I bought mine on eBay, as new and still in the shrink-wrap but, the spines are quite noticeably faded when the books are removed from the slipcase.

Ordered a "like new" "His Dark Materials" UK Folio set for $40 AU (roughly £23) from on online seller. Arrives today, still sealed. Pretty happy with that transaction!

>251 cameronm75:
Welcome to the FSD community. I hope you enjoy your time here, and are well enabled to buy lots of FS books.
I take it you are a fellow Australian.
Where are you on the continent?

Down in Melbourne.
With two young kids and two mortgages, not that enabled to buy anything much sadly!

>253 cameronm75: not that enabled to buy anything much sadly!

In which case let us celebrate your fabulous bargain with "His Dark Materials" all the more!

And welcome!

>251 cameronm75:

Welcome, cameronm! That was a great bargain on a very nice set.

I had a stroke of luck today, too: The Bayeux Tapestry : The Life Story of a Masterpiece, as new, for £15 from a local charity shop. A nice £60 saving on the list price and no postage because I was there in person.

>255 boldface: I had a stroke of luck today, too

You certainly did. That's a lovely book at an almost unbelievable price. Congratulations!

:)

The Yellow Fairy Book for $60 au (£34) , still sealed. As my first FairyBook, this could be my first step down a very dark and expensive path

Have just received the two volume The Blue Nile and White Nile from Ardis. I have been looking for several years for a copy without fading of the silk. Also arrived from First and Fine is the two volume cream leather Decameron and two leather bound limited editions from 1960 that I have never seen before-Hermsprong and Apuleius The Golden Ass These last three for £180 for all so I am pleased Thank goodness I am not working today and can enjoy these beautiful books. FS certainly knew how to produce outstanding books back then too.

Just got a new copy of A Brief History of Time on eBay UK for £21. Quite happy with the discount :)

The Chronicles of King Arthur in red morocco, signed by the artist (Edward Bawden) for £70 on eBay UK. Very happy :)

>261 folio_books:

That's exactly what I paid in a local s/h bookshop a couple of years ago, Glenn. I was very happy, too - so pleased I didn't bother to beat them down, just grabbed the books and ran, before they changed their mind.

>262 affle: just grabbed the books and ran, before they changed their mind.

I was astonished I was the only bidder. I had it on my watch list for a week, expecting someone to start the bidding at any time. Didn't dare mention it on FSD :) I consider myself extremely fortunate.

Edited for omission.

>261 folio_books: Nice! I don't really need another edition of the King Arthur stories but I grab this one if I could find it for under $100.

>261 folio_books: Great find, Glenn. Malory's Chronicles (standard ed) was my first ever FS purchase, from a small but very well stocked secondhand bookshop in deepest, darkest Portsmouth. For a penniless student, whose non-academic book-buying horizons had previously stretched as far as BCA and Penguin paperbacks, it was a real eye-opener that such lovely books existed at such reasonable prices. I've since seen the red morocco edition and it's a stunner.

>178 cronshaw: The much-missed devotee Conte_Mosca (who would appear to be on a long sabbatical from FSD and whom I hope is otherwise well) kindly posted multiple images of the cream leather Decameron along with several other titles given full leather special binding LE treatment this old thread dedicated to Folio Society special bindings.

>180 folio_books: Thanks to Conte_Mosca and to you for finding the link. There are some great photos in there but I think the "cream" of the crop (sorry) has to be the Decameron. I'll just keep on searching, as I have been doing these many years.

>181 cronshaw: Best of luck with the searches, Glenn. You'll enjoy your finds all the more for having patiently waited.

>182 folio_books: Oh, of course. I am nothing if not patient - 20 years + to complete the Fine Editions! If you think about it, even longer for the cream Decameron, but when it was first published it was way beyond my budget.

Well of course the point of this painfully long preamble is to exult in the acquisition, at long last, of the cream leather Decameron. It is with the greatest pleasure I report that the item in question was brought to my attention by Russell (cronshaw) who spotted this in fine condition from no less a dealer than Ardis. Even better, at a bargain price. Do I hear £200, as some with less patience have been known to pay? No. £100, then? Nope. One fine condition cream Decameron from Ardis for £70. I have now sent Russell out in search of the blue leather War and Peace ;)

Seriously, thank you, Russell.

>266 folio_books: My pleasure! I doubt it could have found a more appreciative home.

>268 EclecticIndulgence: Glenn - congratulations!

Thank you. Still drooling ...

>268 EclecticIndulgence: my only copy of the Decameron.

If you didn't live so far away you could have my old one, Folio first edition, 1954/55 with authentic pre-slipcase dust jackets.

>269 folio_books:
Maybe you should charge a premium for those lovely dust jackets. By the time of the 5th impression, which I bought new, they were no more.

>270 Jayked: Maybe you should charge a premium for those lovely dust jackets.

Oh I wasn't joking, I really like the old dust jackets, so much that I bought a 1954/55 set to replace my original 70s set in a slipcase. And then I had a brainstorm and decided I must have the LE. Bought the LE, sold the set with the dust jackets. Found the LE was, in fact, merely a photo-litho reprint of the first edition (admittedly in a fancy leather binding) so sold that and bought another dust-jacketed set, the one I have now. Honestly, I don't do this with all my Folios. Only this one has suffered multiple changes and that's because it's one of my favourites.

70? Wow! Well done, and enjoy!

Splurged a bit... just bought:
Tractatus De Herbis LE for 400$
Temple of Flora LE for 800$
And
The Surinam Album for 800ish

All complete with the second and third including the prints and original folio packaging and marketing material.

>273 jlallred2000:
Congratulations! All are superb books.

>266 folio_books: Well of course the point of this painfully long preamble is to exult in the acquisition, at long last, of the cream leather Decameron. It is with the greatest pleasure I report that the item in question was brought to my attention by Russell (cronshaw) who spotted this in fine condition from no less a dealer than Ardis. Even better, at a bargain price. Do I hear £200, as some with less patience have been known to pay? No. £100, then? Nope. One fine condition cream Decameron from Ardis for £70. I have now sent Russell out in search of the blue leather War and Peace ;)

I have resurrected this thread to report that Russell has done it again, finding the fabled blue leather War and Peace at a very reasonable price on eBay. Which is to say it was on eBay but is now on it's way to me! Many thanks, Russell. Now you need to find the Letterpress Sonnets and Poems ;)