Double-Dipping?

Many on here have the fabulous CTP Treasure Island
https://conversationtreepress.com/pages/treasure-island-rl-stevenson
It's a magnificent production that was priced incredibly affordably.

Now, Suntup is releasing a beautiful edition with the iconic Wyeth illustrations
https://suntup.press/treasure-island/

This has created a conundrum because many on here (myself included) would love to have both editions! But, for the vast majority (again myself included) double-dipping is often just not doable due to monetary limitations. I imagine most of us on here enjoy having one edition of a book we truly cherish. But all that said, maybe you do double-dip on occasion? Inquiring minds want to know!

1)Do you double-dip at all?
2)If so, what makes you decide to double-dip?
3)If you don't mind sharing, what books have you double-dipped?

Myself, I do have the Easton Press Foundation Trilogy which is signed by Asimov (it's beautiful) and features beautiful illustrations by Michael Whelan... but I did order the CTP Foundation because, well, it's gorgeous and letterpress! Honestly, I'm considering retiring my EP edition once I have the CTP edition, but of course I do love having Asimov's signature... sigh. Anyway, what about you?

I sometimes will for translated works where I think it's interesting or informative to have multiple versions. The most obvious here is The Bible, but I also have two versions of the Divine Comedy and Outlaws of the Marsh/All Men Are Brothers.

Otherwise ... nope. If I get a book I already own I consider it an upgrade and sell or give away the old one.

I own several Moby Dick editions, none of them fine press because the only fine press I value is Arion Press. I will/would double dip if other good ones come along. My only arguable double dip is The Yellow Wallpaper, which I like fine but is not necessarily a story re which I need multiple copies. I purchased an inexpensive clinker press for typography and then had an opportunity to buy a Suntup lettered that was printed by my favorite fine press, Ascensius Press. For me, if a second edition is special enough to warrant two on my shelves, great, that has yet to really happen with two expensive editions for me. (I will double dip all day long for good Melville editions. For example, I own Bartleby published by Indulgence Press but would definitely grab a Wolfgang Buchta version as well.)

My tastes are such that I'm lucky if someone produces even one fine press edition of a work I want, much less multiple presses. But there are a few titles (Beowulf) and authors (Aesop) that I find it useful to have multiples of. Often the translations and interpretations are wildly different, making each version a distinct enough work.

When I do end up with two comparable versions of the same book, I generally do the same as @gmacaree and consider one my definitive copy and cull the other. For example, when I get my Suntup Gormenghast, I don't think I'll be holding on to any other editions of that afterwards.

EDIT: >3 LBShoreBook: I almost cited The Yellow Wall-Paper as one of the few titles I have multiples of (three, in fact: Clinker, Suntup, and Thornwillow). I also have two very different takes on Goblin Market and Animal Farm, which are both worth having on their individual merits.

I do double dip (and sometimes more) if there's an(other) illustrated edition that appeals to me. As a result, I've got several different editions of some of Gaiman's novels. And in the case of Heinlein, I already had a complete hardcover set (The Virginia Edition) and when Suntup and Folio Society did illustrated editions, I couldn't resist and got those. My experience with such books is that reading such different editions gives me a different reading experience and access to the book - it's very enjoyable.

I also have different editions of Beowulf and the Edda, based on translation and in some cases illustrations. In the case of the Edda that has been somewhat frustrating because the best (to me) translation I could find is incomplete (the translator died before finishing her magnum opus, which took her decades) and not a nice edition, while nicer and complete ones aren't as well translated. In this case, you can't have it all.

All of this only goes for books I'm very interested in. I don't double dip for books I 'only' like.

>1 astropi: I definitely double-dip, but mostly for edition variants of a particular publication. It’s something I have done with several publications over the years as I love having standards and specials of an edition. My most ‘going all out’ example is the Rampant Lions Press edition of Colin Franklin’s ‘Poets of the Daniel Press’. I managed to purchase all four versions (the fine press copies on vellum, handmade paper and mould-made paper, plus the offset litho trade edition).

I do, on occasion, also double-dip in the way you mean, picking up more than one press’s edition of a particular text. The one that comes instantly to mind is Milton’s ‘Areopagitica’, of which I have the Rampant Lions Press/Deighton Bell edition and the Ascensius Press edition. I also have a couple of editions of Paul Valery’s ‘Le Cimetiere Marin’ (Corvus Works and Aralia Press), T.S. Eliot’s ‘Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (Thornwillow and No Reply), and ‘Psalms of David’ (Stichting de Roos and Rampant Lions).

I generally wouldn't keep a second version - if I feel the need to upgrade I'll divest one. I would upgrade for a more pleasing typesetting, art, or binding but ideally want only one edition on my shelves.

I double, triple and quadruple dip as I distinguish between the act of collecting fine press ie the craft itself as opposed to collecting literature that happens to be by a fine press. If every fine press out there happened to publish a favourite title of mine I'd happily but them all; I think it's a good way to have multiple fine presses with their individual styles of craftsmanship and design represented in one's collection without the risk of buying a book one's never read before if one was keen to own a book from a particular fine press.

>6 ChestnutPress: 'I managed to purchase all four versions'.

Wow, that's dedication! :D

>9 Lukas1990: It’s all about the dedication, but then you clearly know that with your own fine collection!!

>8 wongie:
You and I are of like minds.

>8 wongie: Hear hear! I love having different fine press editions of a book I enjoy. Revisits to the text can have an extra level of enjoyment in their different treatments.

I have several works from multiple presses, although not always letterpress.

Shakespeare's Sonnets (Heritage & FS), Dante's The Divine Comedy (Nonesuch, FS, Pantheon), Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (FS, 1798 Oxford edn), and multiple editions of the Rubaiyat which includes LEC, FS (2 edns) and Heritage Club (both issues) as well as several trade editions.

My late wife was particularly fond of The Secret Garden and Wind in the Willows so there are numerous illustrated editions of both in the library now. As an artist herself, she was interested in the illustrations.

>1 astropi:
>8 wongie:
I multi-dip for works I particularly like, but mostly for the joy of having examples of multiple fine press editions of that work.

Take, for example, Shakespeare. Just looking at the Sonnets, I have: Folio Society (1972), Folio Society Letterpress Shakespeare, Thornwillow Press, New Albion Press and A. Tallone. For Hamlet, I have: Folio Society Letterpress Shakespeare, LEC (1933) and A. Tallone. For Lear, it's the Grabhorn Press and Janus Press editions.

I have a copy of John Henry Nash's Psalms of David, but I'd fall all over myself at the chance to acquire the Mason Hill Press edition.

>1 astropi: I do double-dip from time-to-time, but in almost every case I’ve ended up preferring one edition strongly enough that I’ll pass along the other.

The big exception would be collecting stand alone short works alongside collections or the full-length publications they come from.

For example, I’ve probably got some of Thoreau’s writings in at least quadriplicate between various chapbooks, broadsides, compilations and the original full-length works they come from.

I collect fine press Dante, particularly editions of the Commedia, so yeah. They tend to be different translations, but not necessarily.

Also Shakespeare.

Probably a few others also. Has to be an important author or work to me though, where the appreciation is substantively different in some way for each of the editions in question. I'm not a completist.

Also with fine and quality press there's a tendency to partial overlaps. Like Folio Society Call of Cthulhu contains The Shadow over Innsmouth but that does not at all obviate the HM Shadow. Or vice versa.

I do generally try to clear out duplicates beyond those examples though.

>16 abysswalker: any highlights from your collection? I am a big divine comedy collector myself

>17 chase.donaldson: a few:

The Bruce Rogers Commedia published by A Colish in folio size. The illustrations are not his finest work, but everything else is wonderful, from binding to paper to typography.

A three volume Tallone edition in the original Italian, quarter bound in vellum with hard covers.

The early Mardersteig LEC is a favorite as well in terms of design, though the translation is not one of my favorites last time I dipped in.

The Lillie translation published by Grabhorn Press. Hendecasyllabic blank tercets. Has become one of my favorites. Nice production too, good paper, restrained. No illustrations.

When I was younger I was an eager autograph seeker, so I have a couple hundred signed books, many of which are crumbling acidic paperbacks. When possible, I collect nicer editions--which are also my reading editions, because the paperbacks can't be read without damage. But I keep the signed books, too.

I also have a small collection of paper ARCs where I also have the final printing of the book, because I like being able to compare the variant texts.

>19 LT79:
I'd also like to see the Mahābhārata in fine press.

I would like that too. And other Indian epics / classics. I currently have the LEC Bhagavad Gita, Panchatantra, and Light of Asia. They are wonderful.

Vedic Cosmos has some really fancy Signature editions of Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali's Yoga-sutras that I will get someday. Link below.

https://vediccosmos.com/shop/vedic-books/signature-editions/

I double dip all the time; although, I won’t be complementing my CTP Treasure Island with the new Suntup edition. I have plenty of doubles and triples bought because of the artwork or craftsmanship of the work. Sometimes books just seem to multiply like my 5 editions of Animal Farm - I couldn’t decide between Suntup and SJPP and I already had copies illustrated by Ralph Steadman and Quentin Blake. I often have copies of non-english books from different translators. I have 7 copies of Don Quixote from 6 translators. I have 10 editions of The Iliad and The Odyssey from 7 different translators though only one fine press edition (from the LEC). I’ve got 11 editions of the Divine Comedy from 9 different translators with a couple of fine press editions. I have 12 editions of the Rubaiyat most of which are fine press. Unsurprisingly, I have a ton of Shakespeare; single plays, series like the LEC and Folio Society Letterpress edition, Folio Society First Folio facsimile, Complete Oxford edition, Complete Cambridge edition, Arden Edition, Riverside Shakespeare, Yale edition.

>23 LT79: You are welcome. Yes, it is the longest poem, and it took me a few years to finally finish reading Penguin's 10-volume unabridged English translation by Bibek Debroy who unfortunately passed away recently. Bibek Debroy also did an unabridged English translation of Ramayana and many of the Puranas. All published by Penguin.

I enjoyed the many digressions and little stories that I had no idea about in the unabridged Mahabharata. Although, it does get tedious a few times, for example when pages-long list of names are mentioned, and repetitive descriptions of combat actions during the war. Overall, it was a wonderful read, and I would highly recommend reading the unabridged translation.

I collect fine press work from the first few decades of the 20th century (along with the output of the current generation) and putting out coincidental volumes of the same work is nothing new. I tend to do checklist bibliographies by press to help guide my collecting so it can be surprising to look at their output relative to each other over time and see that they were often doing editions of the same works close together in time. Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, Gospels, etc but many other things too. To answer the question of the thread - I don’t hesitate to double dip. It is interesting to compare different takes of the same works.

For me it just sort of happens; I bought the chapbook version of one of the NRP science fiction books, bought the others and then decided to get the slipcased set. I have a hard time with pruning books, so I keep them on my secondary shelf for guests to review. The last question in particular is fairly popular, people don’t really pick up on the nuances of fine press right away so having something louder helps demonstrate.

I also have the standard and special state of Memento Mori, in part because the binding on the standard is easier to read with and that a part of it also resonates with me and I want to be able to pass a copy along to a family member or friend.

I multi-dip often. Sometimes it's for different translations, other times for different illustrations or typographic design. Some examples:

Cervantes, "Don Quixote": Arion Press; Ashendene Press; LEC (1933 & 1950)
Chaucer, "The Canterbury Tales" and "Troilus & Criseyde": Golden Cockerel Press; LEC (1934 & 1946, 1939)
Dante, "The Divine Comedy": Ashendene Press ("Lo Purgatorio"); Bruce Rogers (1955); LEC; Thornwillow Press ("Inferno")
Euripides: Allen Press; Gregynog Press; LEC
Homer, "The Odyssey": Walker, Merton, & Rogers (1932); LEC (1931 & 1981)
Milton, "Paradise Lost" and "Areopagitica": Arion Press; Ascensius Press; Cresset Press, LEC
Montaigne, "Essays": Allen Press; LEC; Riverside Press (Bruce Rogers)
Shakespeare, "Hamlet": Cranach Press; LEC (1933 & 1939)
Spenser, "The Faerie Queene": Ashendene Press; LEC; Shakespeare Head Press