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international collectors library



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 27th 03, 09:02 AM
Kim C
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Default international collectors library

I am interested in book collecting...but am not knowledgable. Can
someone tell me what the international collectors library is? Is it
worthwhile to pursue a collection of these books?
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  #2  
Old November 28th 03, 05:56 PM
Jon Meyers
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"Kim C" wrote...
I am interested in book collecting...but am not knowledgable. Can
someone tell me what the international collectors library is? Is it
worthwhile to pursue a collection of these books?


Series of inexpensive reprints of classic literature, published by
Doubleday, bound in faux leather. The paper is highly acidic and often
found yellowing; the leatherette also is not of the highest quality, and it
is prone to chipping and splitting at the hinges.

That said, it looks like there are one or two books in this series--e.g. To
Kill a Mockingbird--that are scarce and in demand. But for the great bulk
of them, dozens of dealers at ABE have laughably high notions about the
value of these books. I wouldn't take one for free.


--
Jon Meyers
[To reply,
lose your way.]


  #3  
Old November 28th 03, 07:30 PM
Gary Pfeifer
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Kim C wrote:
I am interested in book collecting...but am not knowledgable. Can
someone tell me what the international collectors library is? Is it
worthwhile to pursue a collection of these books?


Depends on what you mean by worthwhile.

The ICL was a Doubleday & Company book club in the 60s and 70s. The
books are fancy-looking but cheap copies of great lit. Each book was
supposedly made to look like some famous old book, with gilt stamping on
the spines and front covers, gilt on the top edge, and a sort of paper
cover made to resemble leather. Some are illustrated. If you look at a
bunch of them on a shelf from a ways away, or at a picture of them, they
have a sort of attractivess, but, on closer inspection, their cheapness
is evident. As such, you might say that the ICL was a sort of poor
person's Easton Press, although I do not know if the Easton Press even
existed at that time.

Thus these books have little value as collectibles, except for
sentimental value, perhaps, as in my case. I have seven of them. They
were among the first books I ever bought for my library, and include my
first Shakespeare and Odyssey. I was a teenager at the time. While I
have other editions of all seven of these books, I still hang on to the
ICL books. They represent my original desire to have a fine library.

So, if your desire is simply to have copies of the "Great Books" that
are more attractive than paperbacks or even the Modern Library or
Everyman's Library, perhaps it is worthwhile to collect ICL books. They
can certainly be had for cheap on eBay.

I am sure there are plenty of other interesting, if maudlin, stories
about how rcbers first collecting impulses played themselves out. Any
takers? In particular, anybody else still have the first books they
ever bought?

Gary Pfeifer

  #4  
Old November 29th 03, 01:04 AM
William M. Klimon
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"Jon Meyers" wrote in message
...

"Kim C" wrote...
I am interested in book collecting...but am not knowledgable. Can
someone tell me what the international collectors library is? Is it
worthwhile to pursue a collection of these books?


Series of inexpensive reprints of classic literature, published by
Doubleday, bound in faux leather. The paper is highly acidic and often
found yellowing; the leatherette also is not of the highest quality, and

it
is prone to chipping and splitting at the hinges.

That said, it looks like there are one or two books in this series--e.g.

To
Kill a Mockingbird--that are scarce and in demand. But for the great bulk
of them, dozens of dealers at ABE have laughably high notions about the
value of these books. I wouldn't take one for free.




Just to second the remarks already made, there is very little to recommend
books in the ICL. I recently picked up a couple of dozen at a thrift--and
indeed they are relatively fragile.

I also recently picked up a copy of the ICL Augustine's *Confessions* (the
J.G. Pilkington translation) for my Confessions single-title collection.
That might be their only appeal: to fill out a single-title or completist
collection.


William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com



 




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