posted on 16 Jul 2023

Sometimes you just can’t resist…

Where do you stand on the question of owning multiple different editions of the same book? I am prepared to bet a sizeable amount of money that the answer you give to that question will depend on whether you consider yourself a book collector or not. If your primary interest in is simply having the best reading copy of a book that you can find, then you will certainly be puzzled by those of us who find books so irresistibly aesthetically pleasing that they must be added to our shelves no matter how many other copies of the same title you already own.

Let me give you an example. I have a perfectly serviceable reading copy of Bram Stoker’s famous gothic masterpiece, Dracula – it’s a hardback published by the budget publishing house, Wordsworth Editions (pictured below) and there’s nothing to be said against it and it does its job perfectly. 

Then, a little while ago now, I came across an edition of Dracula published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the death of the author (see below).  A perfect facsimile of the original first edition, it is one of 1000 numbered copies in yellow cloth boards with a red slipcase and facsimile Bram Stoker letter beautifully packed into original bespoke box. There’s also a new introduction by the Irish author and national compatriot of Stoker, Colm Toibin.

I purchased this copy when it was published because, as I remember it, the price was relatively modest – it felt like a bargain. I can’t actually remember the price when it came out but it’s now pretty hard to find copies and, I suspect, if you could find one, it would be punishingly expensive and probably out of my price range.

I didn’t, of course, strictly speaking, need this facsimile copy of Dracula: in truth, I find the novel is quite a hard read and having studied it at university, I’m not likely to be rushing back to read it again and again. But I wanted the anniversary edition simply for the beauty of the book and its packaging and the pleasure that gives me goes well beyond the content and enters the realm of art appreciation.

Like me, you may well conclude that given I’m not likely to wear out two copies of Dracula in what’s left of my reading lifetime, enough’s enough when it comes to owning editions of this book. But we’d both be wrong.

Earlier this year we paid a visit to Bath and, as you must, we dropped in Mr B’s Emporium bookshop and stumbled across the delux edition of Dracula illustrated by the great Edward Gorey and published by Sterling books of New York. So what, you ask, makes it delux. Well, the whole design of the volume is perfect bookish eye-candy. The Gorey illustrations – not many of them it has to be said – come from the illustrator's earlier publication, Dracula, A Toy Theatre, and give the book splendid front and end papers but it’s the striking front and back covers that will hit you in the eye. The illustration on the front is slightly raised above the plush, deep blood-red velveteen cloth and the black title strap carries the title of Dracula in inlaid silver ink. Add to that page edge blocks that are printed with fluttering bats.

Who in their right mind could resist such a book? And for a mere £25! So, I bought a copy. Come on. You know you’d do it too.

Now I have three copies of a book I may never read in full again but I’m not planning on giving them up until I’m dead and gone.

If you can understand that, then maybe you’re a book collector too – or have the capacity to become one. I can’t think of anything better……..

 

Terry Potter

July 2023