Collecting Modern Literature

The popularity of modern first editions has exploded in the last decade, and for many it is the field through which readers become collectors. Some collectors want to own first editions of novels that changed the world, while others want to fill their shelves with books that changed or touched their own lives on a very personal level. Both approaches are valid, and occasionally they happen to be one and the same. This introduction to collecting modern first editions, or modern firsts, as they are often called, is simply that - an introduction. Ultimately, personal taste, level of interest, and financial considerations are the only arbiters of desirability.



There are no hard and fast rules about which modern first editions to collect, but there are a few points to keep in mind about how to collect. First and foremost - more so than any other field of book collecting - is condition. The physical state of a book and, more importantly in this field, its dust jacket, are crucial in determining its value. Since dust jackets were not issued with books until the early 1900s and did not become standard until about 1920, the field of modern firsts is the only one in which they are relevant - and they are, indeed, most relevant. Due in part to their fragile nature and the fact that they were first intended only to protect and promote the books on the bookseller’s shelves, dust jackets were often discarded by readers as a nuisance. People are understandably shocked to discover that the dust jacket they casually tore off of their first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird or The Old Man and the Sea comprised 80 to 90 percent of its value as a first edition. This ratio varies, but it is almost always true that to collectors the dust jacket holds more value than the book itself. In nearly all cases, to be collectible modern first editions must have their original dust jackets in acceptable condition (exceptions include such legendary rarities as The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises). The presence of a dust jacket and grading of the condition of book and jacket can make a substantial difference in price and rarity - a first edition of The Old Man and the Sea without the dust jacket is worth less than $100, with the dust jacket in poor condition around $200-$300, but in fine (the highest grade) condition about $3000.



It is important to distinguish first editions from later printings. Unless otherwise specified the term “first edition” implies that the copy is from the very first printing of the first edition. Publishers sometimes denote which printing a book is on the copyright page (the back of the title page) by stating “first edition” or “first printing,” or through a seal or a series of numbers. Later printings are sometimes identified as such, but often it is only the absence of a statement that indicates a copy is a later printing. In other words, unless certain books state “first edition,” they are later printings. And with few exceptions, only the first printing of the first edition is collectible - the first printing of The Catcher in the Rye in its dust jacket, for example may be worth $10,000, while the second printing, though issued in the same month as the first, is not considered collectible. Another factor in determining a book’s value and desirability is whether it is a signed or association copy. Books signed by the author are considerably more valuable than unsigned copies of the same edition, and those that have a notable association - say, The Great Gatsby inscribed from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Ernest Hemingway - are of particular interest. Keeping these ideas in mind will allow one to understand more fully the relative pricing and ultimate merit of different copies of the same book, and will prove invaluable in building any collection of modern first editions.



During and shortly after World War I, a handful of writers produced a dozen novels and books of poetry that forever changed the path of literature. These cornerstones of modernism, often rejected by the general reading public and denounced by authorities, are among the highest of high spots for collectors of modern first editions.



Foremost among this new breed of literati stands James Joyce. His first work of fiction, Dubliners (London, 1914), consists of structurally interrelated short stories that culminate in the much-anthologized “The Dead.” He followed this with the more intricate, largely autobiographical A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (New York, 1916), in which Stephen Dedalus embodies the struggles of every artist in the midst of a patently unsympathetic world. Both are truly desirable and rare first editions, and though copies in dust jacket surface occasionally, they are considered collectible without the jackets.



While these early works stand firmly on their own as important points in the evolution of modern literature, it was Ulysses that “established Joyce’s reputation as perhaps the greatest writer of English prose in the twentieth century - perhaps in any century” (Parker, Twentieth-Century Novel, 91). Though hailed as a masterpiece by fellow writers in his adopted home, Paris, this boundless, shockingly innovative and radical novel frightened authorities, who sought to have it banned on both sides of the Atlantic.



The first edition of Ulysses was published by Sylvia Beach, owner of the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, in Paris in 1922. As was (and still is) the custom in France, the book was bound in paper wrappers rather than hard covers, and the entire first edition consisted of only 1000 numbered copies. Of these, 250 were printed on larger paper stock, and Joyce signed 100 of those large-paper copies. These 100 copies of Ulysses signed by Joyce are among the most sought-after first editions in modern literature, and the price (when copies can be found) is now approaching $100,000; copies of the regular limitation of 750 retail for around $30,000 when the original paper wrappers are in excellent condition. A first edition of this landmark work serves as a worthy centerpiece for any collection.



The contemporaries who hailed Joyce, however, were hardly idle in the wake of Ulysses. Ernest Hemingway wrote several books during the 1920s that have endured. In short story collection In Our Time (New York, 1925), Hemingway introduced the spare, masculine style that characterizes his best work. His first major novel, The Sun Also Rises (New York, 1926), brilliantly captured the wild spirit of Pamplona and the bullfights through the eyes of Jake Barnes, whose emasculation by a war wound suggests the spiritual impotence afflicting the “Lost Generation.” Considered Hemingway’s finest novel, it is among the most elusive of 20th-century books in the original dust jacket. His last novel of the 1920s, A Farewell to Arms, is also highly regarded, and is the only one of his works issued in a special signed limited edition - 510 specially-bound copies printed on large paper, each signed by Hemingway.



Few writers are as closely identified with a particular time and place as F. Scott Fitzgerald. His closely drawn character studies captured the Jazz Age almost photographically. Though Tender is the Night (New York, 1934) was his own favorite among his works, and though he showed an uncanny mastery of the short story in such collections as Tales of the Jazz Age (New York, 1922) and All the Sad Young Men (New York, 1926), Fitzgerald “fulfilled his highest promise and gave to American literature one of its masterworks” (B) in The Great Gatsby (New York, 1926). To an even greater degree than The Sun Also Rises, Gatsby is among the very rarest of first editions in original dust jacket.



Others who made their mark during this crucial age are T. S. Eliot, whose The Waste Land (New York, 1922) secured his place as “the poetic voice of a disillusioned postwar Western world” (Nobel Laureates, 109); William Faulkner, whose The Sound and the Fury (New York, 1929) and later Absalom, Absalom! (New York, 1936) used a highly poetic level of language within the framework of classical Greek tragic structure to convey the tectonic stress of the Old South meeting the New; Virginia Woolf, whose Mrs. Dalloway (London, 1925), To the Lighthouse (London, 1927), and A Room of One’s Own (London, 1929) portrayed with striking accuracy the inner lives of women and whose body of work helped obliquely to fuel the women’s liberation movement; and D. H. Lawrence, who in Sons and Lovers (London, 1913), Women in Love (New York, 1920), and Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Florence, 1928) brought to light the burgeoning sensuousness of post-Victorian England.



While it is safe to say that this core of writers and their works helped to usher in the modern era and that their works are among the most desired titles in modern firsts, subsequent movements in 20th-century literature offer a wide array of options for the collector. Perhaps the best way to discuss this array is in terms of themes and trends, each of which is rich in appeal and may suggest an appropriate strategy for collecting.



One favorite area is the novel concerning the often traumatic transition from adolescence to adulthood. These are books that have had a profound influence on young adults - many of whom have returned later in life to read on a higher (or different) level. A universally acknowledged masterpiece in this vein is J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (New York, 1951), which is among the most popular novels of the 20th century and which is becoming increasingly difficult to find in collectible condition. Other books to consider are William Golding’s allegorical Lord of the Flies (London, 1955); Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (New York, 1960), whose dust jacket incidentally includes a photograph of the author by cousin Truman Capote; George Orwell’s Animal Farm (London, 1945) and J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic The Lord of the Rings (London, 1954-55), both enjoyable as fables but with deeper insinuations about politics and the nature of myth than a casual reading would suggest.



The literature of the American experience provides another fertile ground for collectors. One of the earliest modern novelists to master this field is Theodore Dreiser, whose Sister Carrie (New York, 1900) marked a transition both chronologically and in terms of style between the old and the new, and whose An American Tragedy (New York, 1925) is a strident warning against too strong a desire to fulfill the American dream. John Steinbeck captured the pain of the Great Depression in The Grapes of Wrath (New York, 1938) and Of Mice and Men (New York, 1937), the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small. All the King’s Men (New York, 1948), Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel based on the life of Huey Long, remains unsurpassed as a study of the American political mind.



What might be called the literature of the downtrodden -- works written by or about minorities and the oppressed -- reflect the tension inherent in the rapid growth of America. Among them are Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (New York, 1906), a virulent indictment of labor conditions at the turn of the century; Richard Wright’s Native Son (New York, 1940) and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (New York, 1952), both documents of the struggle to be recognized for something other than the color of one’s skin; and Alex Haley’s tremendously popular The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York, 1965), one of the most influential books of the century.



The American counterculture movement and its offshoots produced literature that was bold, even outrageous, but which has had a lasting impact. William S. Burroughs’ tripped-out Naked Lunch (Paris, 1959) details the surreal sensations of deep addiction, while Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (New York, 1957) and Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (San Francisco, 1956) were twin catalysts for the Beat movement. The anti-war movement is anticipated in Joseph Heller’s scathing and hilarious Catch-22 (New York, 1961), now a common phrase in the American language. Howl and Naked Lunch were printed by small publishers willing to risk prosecution for indecency - as was Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (Paris, 1955). Though Nabokov was worlds away from the Beats, Lolita toed the line between virtuosity and obscenity to become an icon for the post-war generation.



Though most who collect modern firsts focus on fiction, both drama and poetry abound with possibilities for collectors. Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Samuel Beckett each wrote several works that are highly sought after in first edition, and the works of Wallace Stevens, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams and others can still be found, often signed by the poet.



Needless to say, there are countless avenues for collecting modern first editions that have not been mentioned here. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (New York, 1957) and The Fountainhead (Indianapolis, 1943), Albert Camus’ L’Etranger (Paris, 1942), and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (New York, 1973) and V (Philadelphia, 1963) defy easy classification, yet are popular and much desired. These, again, are only suggestions -collectors will decide what is important to them, and with a little discrimination will doubtless be able to put together a collection best suited to their tastes and budgets.