"Strange fetish" at ILAB Congress
The 37th Congress of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers just opened in Melbourne.
The Age reports on the event, and on attendees' "strange fetish for first editions" (registration required):
What persuades anyone to part with more than two million dollars for a long roll of teletype paper covered in the scribbled script that would one day become On The Road? How can any old book be worth nearly half-a-million dollars when the same thing brand spanking new is sitting on the paperback classics shelf for less than $30? Why were first editions of John Fowles, author of The Magus, worth a bomb a few years ago whereas now, says rare book dealer Rick Gekoski, "you can barely give them away". [More...]
(via Books Do Furnish A Room)