COLLECTING OLD BOOKS

Waipa Post, Volume 32, Issue 1785, 22 July 1926, Page 7

COLLECTING OLD BOOKS

It is liarcVto lynderlstand the “mentality” (hateful word!) of a man who parts with six hundred good pounds for a copy of one of Tennyson’s poems which he could buy for a few shillings in an ordinary edition of the poet’s works ) writes “Aquilo,” in a contemporary. This form of insanity should be scheduled as a notifiable disea'se, for it is highly infectious. It is true that the four extarit copies of an early form of this poem differ in some respects from the poem as it was finally published by Tennyson, after fifty-one ■years of deliberation! But will any sane man argue that the possession of a copy that contains these differences is worth £599 10s, allowing ten bob for a copy of the poet’s works containing th e poem in its final form? The fact is that a man who pays £6OO for a poem in a form which Tennyson ibimself withdrew from circulation must regard, the poet as a fool for printing the revised, form of the poem in an ordinary edition of his works—unless mere rarity is supposed to make a thing valuable. But not sane man values rarity for its own sake. Collectors do, but collectors who collect things not because they are beautiful or useful but just because they are rare are not sane men. They are dotty. They are allso afflicted with the most miserable form of .selfishness; they value things just because they themselves possess them and because ordinary people can’t posselss them! •X'or do they usde those things; they just own them. If a “first edition” is “uncut,” it is a joy for ever in its eternally uncut condition. To read it would ruin it! It is one’s own possession of the rare book that makes it valuable in one’s eyeis, together with the fact that hardly anybody else on earth is in a position to point to a similar piece of uselessness among his belongings. What rot! What a pitiful exhibition of senseless selfishneiss! A well-thumbed Shakespeare in paper backs is better value to its owner than ■a first folio in a glass case. Just imagine paying £6OO for Tennyson’s “The Dover’s Tale.” Julst think how many cigarettes—even at their preposterous prices—one could, purchase for £6OO.