Estate Book Library, 172 Volumes Catalogued — Thomas Wolfe, Ford Madox Ford, 1912 Morgan Robertson

A 172-volume estate library, and every volume has been identified. This is not an unsearched lot. Each book has been examined by title, author, publisher and — where it decides the value — edition, with printing statements read off the copyright pages. The catalogue transfers with the books.

Be clear about the mix. Roughly two dozen volumes carry genuine collector interest and are listed below. The remaining ~143 are common stock — reprints from Grosset & Dunlap, A. L. Burt, Collier and Whitman, book-club editions, ex-library copies with painted call numbers, school textbooks and odd volumes of broken sets. They are sold as reading and decorator stock and are priced into the lot as such.

Identified highlights

• The Wreck of the Titan, or Futility — Morgan Robertson, McClure's Magazine & Metropolitan Magazine, 1912 Autograph Edition. Unsigned. The novella, published as Futility in 1898, describes an unsinkable liner named Titan lost to an iceberg fourteen years before the Titanic sank. Present with three more volumes of the same Autograph Edition — Down to the Sea, Masters of Men, and Three Laws and the Golden Rule — a complete matched run of four.
• Henry for Hugh — Ford Madox Ford, J. B. Lippincott, 1934. First edition, the only edition published in Ford's lifetime. No dust jacket, both spine ends chipped, tape residue to the rear board.
• The Web and the Rock — Thomas Wolfe, Harper & Brothers, 1939. True first edition — the copyright page states FIRST EDITION over the Harper code E-O. No dust jacket, rubbed with worn spine ends. One of five Wolfe titles in the lot, alongside The Letters of Thomas Wolfe, the uncommon Exposition Press Look Behind You, Thomas Wolfe, a Modern Library Look Homeward, Angel and a Scribner Library Of Time and the River.
• The Condition and Fate of England, Vol. I — C. Edwards Lester, J. & H. G. Langley, New York, 1842-43. Volume I only; Volume II is not present.
• Brideshead Revisited — Evelyn Waugh, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1945. No dust jacket; rubbed with a marked spine. Trade and book-club copies both carry the 1945 title page and this one has not been distinguished between them — assume the book club.
• Shaking Hands with England — Charles Hanson Towne, George H. Doran, 1919, in its original printed dust jacket — scarce on a book of this date. The jacket is heavily water-stained with chips to both ends and is housed in a protective sleeve.
• Reflections on the End of an Era — Reinhold Niebuhr, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. No jacket, rubbed, frayed at the head. Not checked for the Scribner first-printing mark.
• When a Man's a Man — Harold Bell Wright, The Book Supply Company, 1916. First printing — the copyright page reads Published August, 1916 with no later printing statement. No jacket, stained spine, frayed foot.
• Fun Is Where You Find It! — Bob Terrell, self-published, Asheville N.C., 1974. Signed and dated by the author — "Bob Terrell 12/74" on the front free endpaper. A previous owner's bookplate and pencil notes sit below the signature.
• The Hobbit — J. R. R. Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin. Copyright page states Twenty-third Printing — not a first. No dust jacket.
• The Best of the World's Classics — Henry Cabot Lodge, editor-in-chief, Funk & Wagnalls, 1909. Seven volumes of ten — III, IV, V, VI, VII, IX and X. Volumes I, II and VIII are not present.
• Four matching Collier Hemingways — To Have and Have Not, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises, uniform teal cloth with a blind-stamped marlin to each spine. Reprints, not firsts.

Condition

Estate condition throughout, and variable. Expect shelf wear, sunned and faded spines, bumped corners, chipped spine ends, cracked hinges, foxing, tape repairs, former-owner names, bookplates and library markings. Several volumes are structurally failing. A minority retain dust jackets. Every named fault above is disclosed deliberately; assume any volume not described is a reading copy.

Lot details

• Count: 172 volumes, counted — not estimated
• Era: circa 1842 to the 1990s, with the weight of it 1900–1960
• Bindings: cloth over board with gilt and pictorial stamping, some leatherette, a few full leather in poor repair
• Weight: approximately 275 lb across roughly 8–10 book boxes
• Provenance: a single Carolinas estate, consigned

Collection only

Local pickup in Charlotte, North Carolina. This lot is not shipped — 275 lb of books cannot be posted at a rate any buyer would accept. Bring a vehicle and boxes. Viewing by appointment before purchase is welcome and, on a lot this size, encouraged.

Sold as one lot only; individual volumes are not available separately while this listing is live.