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As far as I can tell, all major sellers are only selling the (comparably ugly) 90s version.

For example, here is the Amazon.ca listing (yes I'm Canadian but I can't find it from any American sellers either). As you can see, only the old cover is for sale.

Is this edition simply not in print yet (potentially because it's his last novel)? I can find every other novel (barring The Original of Laura, if you consider it a novel) with the redesign, just not this one.

I'd appreciate any help, thanks a bunch

EDIT: BTW I hope this is the right subreddit for this. I'm not interested in collecting them because they'll ever be worth anything, I just really enjoy these covers and would like the whole set on my shelf.

Dating handwriting is a difficult thing, but, the important thing here is the presence of some characters from 'secretary' hand. (Look at the 'Secretarie Alphabete here http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/alphabets.html ). In general, you'll find secretary forms being used very commonly up to the 1630s or 40s, and less universally (but still often) in the later decades of the 17th Century. It would be very unusual to see it at all in the 18C. The main conclusion you can make is that the annotator was most likely roughly contemporary with the printing - getting more solid than that would be a chore. And I think a quill would at this point would be correct; wikipedia says fountain pens are starting to get used, but I still think it's most common to make your own quill and ink. (Check this out for more detail http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Writing-Implements-Age-Quill/dp/1872477003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383010783&sr=8-1&keywords=western+writing+implements ) .

Ah, so h e and r don't stand for anything - it's just that they are some of the letters that have a more distinctive 'secretary' style.

I think (and I might be wrong) that one of the reasons such books survive because the common quality of paper back then was just so much higher than it is now, at least in big print-runs. Whereas a modern paperback would go brittle and yellow in less than a decade, that just doesn't happen so quickly with early modern books.

The whole idea of renaissance annotation has been a big growth industry, (at least within academia!) in recent years. Here's a book on the subject that's genuinely interesting http://www.amazon.co.uk/Used-Books-Material-Texts-ebook/dp/B00DPBKJWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383010543&sr=8-1&keywords=used+books+sherman .

It's pretty rare to see posts or queries on here that I'm equipped to answer with anything resembling specialist knowledge, so I guess it's just nice to have the opportunity to be useful! Rare books are kind of difficult to get a working knowledge of without prolonged exposure to them, and not everyone has had that opportunity.

Okay, my last reply WAS a bit snarky, but now I actually am sorry. I was a bit bothered by your replies, not because of the truthfulness of what you were saying, god knows I've looked up enough obscure book titles, authors, and inscriptions to realize that more often than not things will end up being dead ends, but because I felt like something I found interesting was being turned into 'this is a stupid idea, you're not going to figure anything out, please stop wasting everybody's time.' I can see that wasn't your intent though, and am actually sorry I got snarky with you.

Anyway, moving on, I did find the article you linked quite interesting, thank you. :) I was unaware that they were friends, and it does seem odd that he didn't simply obtain the book himself when it came out. I haven't been able to find a link between him and Olive Cole Smith, but I did find some more information about Mrs. Smith, if you're interested. She was apparently the granddaughter of Deborah Goldsmith, who was an artist in the 1800's. Her paintings are apparently displayed in American Folk Art Museum of New York. Mrs. Olive Cole Smith, in her lifetime, apparently compiled many of the papers into a book, Ancestral Charts of George Addison Throop(Deborah Goldsmith's husband.) At different places Mrs. Smith is listed as the author, other places, the editor.

I was trying to figure out exactly who published the book, thinking maybe if it was Beacon press (the publisher Mr. Jenkins seemed to use), and Mrs. Smith worked for them, that might be why she would have a copy of Prayers and decide to gift it to Mr. Jordan? Not being in Boston, New York, or San Francisco though, I'm having a difficult time getting access to the archives to actually look at the various books. Still, it's been fun, and an interesting time on google! :)

The sunflowers are mine by Martin Bailey is a really good book about Van Gogh's story of his life and how he became famous after this death. It's got pretty nice reproductions of his paintings and a focus on his famous sunflower paintings. However it's not leather bound but a beautiful coffee table book read nevertheless. I've read this book and as a Van Gogh lover found it enjoyable!

Edit: Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/Sunflowers-are-Mine-Story-Masterpiece/dp/0711232989

Awesome. Glad you’re enjoying it!

As a Psych major, phrenology is really interesting to me. Still need to find myself a phrenology bust.

Though not quite obscure, there’s a great book detailing the history of asylums in the US.

(Store links should not be construed as advocating purchase through them.)

I came across Amereon House as I was working on my Heinlein collection. They “accidentally” printed pirated versions of a couple of his books, as they thought that they were in the public domain. You can search “Amereon” in the publisher field on abebooks.com and have a lot of results come up, for both Amereon Limited and Amereon House. Although I was not able to find specific examples of Dracula, there were examples of some of Stoker’s other works, one of which is The Garden of Evil. Amazon shows copies of Dracula, although out of stock.

I’ve come to consider Amereon House along the lines of The Franklin Mint. Their “Limited Editions” have relatively little value to collectors, excepting titles like the Heinlein books I mentioned earlier, which are only valuable due to their rarity and illegality.

However, it is still a nice looking book, and it would make an interesting and valuable addition to your collection!

Thanks. I found it in Barnes and noble. The illustrations look pretty cool. Another cool thing is that it's a lot more reasonably priced than the anniversary editions they carry.
https://www.amazon.com/Hobbit-Illustrated-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0544174224

You should look into the little rechargable dehumidifier bricks that you put into gun safes. At least we do over here in the States. Basically it's this plastic thing filled with stuff and you put it wherever and it will absorb moisture from the air in that area. It changes color when "full", then you plug it into a micro USB outlet for 10 mins or so and it is good to go. I have a dozen or so from Amazon and they work great at keeping my guns rust-free, I imagine they would do the same thing for books. Bonus points if it your bookcase has a glass front.

Examplee:

https://www.amazon.com/Eva-dry-333-Renewable-Dehumidifier-2-PACK/dp/B00LVN7BM0/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=gun+safe+dehumidifier&qid=1570704028&sr=8-4

Great Books of the Western World - I just picked up a full, mint set for free!

Gateway to the Great Books

Harvard Universal Classics

Penguin Classics

Harry Potter

Avicenna Canon of Medicine Complete Five Volume Set

If you're looking to read it, the Howard/Paret translation is the most common and readable translation. It was originally published in three volumes, but it is one work and is published now as the full text. Avoid the Penguin translation or any abridgments unless you need some kindling. Here's a link to the Howard/Paret translation on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/War-Indexed-Carl-von-Clausewitz/dp/0691018545/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1457787735&sr=8-2&keywords=On+War

If you're looking for old three volume editions as collectibles, good luck.

To be clear - you are saying you don't really have a set, right? You have found or bought various volumes from a 20 year range and put together all of the volumes, yes? I don't think a collector (if there still are any for encyclopedias) would be very interested in a mishmash set. But I could be wrong.

Here are several people's asking prices for 11th edition sets. Keep in mind these are all asking prices - not prices anyone has necessarily paid

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000NPJ02Q/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&sr=8-34&qid=1377365204

and here are a couple of 9th edition sets.

http://www.amazon.com/ENCYCLOPEDIA-BRITANNICA-NINTH-EDITION-VOLS/dp/B000GXHF8Q/ref=sr_1_45?ie=UTF8&qid=1377365437&sr=8-45&keywords=brittanica+encyclopedia

If you have a LOT of books that will be stacked in boxes, consider 12 gallon folding lid storage bins sold at Costco. It's a different brand (than the Amazon link) and sells for about $7 each. I use about 30 bins to store children's books for schools.

The downsides:

1. The bins have several convex bubbles on the bottom, and thus could, over a long period of time, bend the books that are in direct contact. I cut thick cardboard inserts to line the bottom. Once in a while Costco changes brands and they sell versions without the bubbles.
   
   
2. The walls aren't at a 90-degree angle, slanting out as they go up. This works for me because I have different size books. You're likely not to have a snug fit for books.
   
   
3. The version currently sold has sharp edges on the outside. I trim them with scissors. Sometimes when Costco changes brands, the boxes don't have the sharp edges.
   
   
4. Not water-tight. As you can see from the photo, the lid is two pieces that fold together.
   
   The upside:
   
   
5. Sturdy as hell and they stack well. If you're going to stack lots of bins on top of each other, you want bins that won't crack over time.
   
   
6. The price is right. Costco sells nicer bins, more expensive bins with flat bottoms, smooth edges, etc., but they're not geared to sustain significant weight on top.

For those interested in the artist's other works, he's done the Folio Society's Voyage of Argo as well as Little Red Riding Hood and Die Apokalypse

Don't want to ruin your perfect trilogy, but Pullman just launched an addendum series to these featuring Lyra as an adult and it has different cover art. He just re-released the whole series with new cover art to match the new books.

The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust, Volume 1) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375815309/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rKMaAbRBH0CVV

I'm guessing it is only the first 5 books (in reality papyrus rolls) of his surviving work (35 extant out of originally 142), corresponding to this Penguin volume.

So you need the other 3 volumes to have a complete set of his surviving writings.

Understood. But...there's a copy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0984713638/ref=tmm_hrd_collectible_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=collectible&qid=&sr=.