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Re: Prices for VN books? (fwd)
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Rare-book dealers Allen and Patricia Hearn, owners of the Quill and
Brush in Rockville, Maryland, publish a useful series of "Author Price
Guides" for collectors. I have just received the new edition of the one
on Nabokov (revised November 97). Basically it is a precis of Michael
Juliar's bibliography (though it covers only works published in
English), with "the compiler's estimate of the retail prices current at
the time of the price guide." Prices for the books mentioned by Matthew
White are as follows (where two prices are given, the first is for a
copy WITHOUT the original dust jacket; in all cases must be first
edition, first printing):
Lolita, 2 volume Olympia Press: $3,000; "somewhat less if new price
sticker added over original price."
Sebastian Knight, New Directions 1941:
First issue binding (woven red burlap): $250/$750
A variant with red cloth binding and two dust wrapper variants, one with
author's name spelled "Nabokoff:" $100/$500
Conclusive Evidence, Harper 1951: $75/$350
Since I'm giving away information that the Quill and Brush charges for,
let me get in a disinterested plug for them: they publish many other
Author Price Guides, which cost between $1 and $30; the one on Nabokov
costs $9. They are delightful people to do business with, and they can
be reached in any of the following ways:
Mail: Box 5365, Rockland, MD 20848
Phone: 301-460-3700
email: firsts@qb.com
WWW: http://www.qb.com/pub/q-and-b/home.htm.
In their Holiday Catalogue they are offering a fine first edition of
Nine Stories, inscribed by VN to Vera "For my darling" and signed with
his Russian initial "B" and dated 11.1948. It is "housed in a
custom-made morocco slipcase and chemise" (whatever that last means) and
the asking price is $15,000. (The catalogue however is free.)
Mary Bellino
iambe@javanet.com