RARE BOOK GUIDE - THE RUNNERS, THE RIDERS & THE ODDS

16 March 2007

The Age of Innocence. Edith Wharton, 1920.





Edith Wharton. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. Appleton, NY 1920.

Current Selling Prices
$800-$8000 /£450-£4000



AMERICAN CLASSIC FICTION
A masterpiece set among New York's elite of the 1870s - 'The Gilded Age'. Well filmed in 1993 in the Visconti style by Scorsese who plays up the gilt and opulence. In 1924, a silent film version was released by Warner Brothers, directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Beverly Bayne and Elliott Dexter. In 1934 a talkie came out from RKO (1934) that starred Irene Dunne and John Boles. Still read, even by kids of the ringtone generation.

Her first publication was Verses (1878), a book of poems privately printed in Newport, Rhode Island when she was sixteen and known in her family as 'Pussy.' Please offer all copies to moi - it's very valuable. The clue is it doesn't say Wharton on the title page -she was then Edith Newbold Jones. Vita Sackville West produced a similarly scarce volume (Chatterton) privately printed in 1909 when she was 16, that is also rather valuable but not in the same league as Edith. Author's first books are a rich and fascinating collecting field - often negligible in themselves and sometimes anonymous or pseudonymous or written under a maiden name they can be true 'sleepers', not all of which can be awoken.

Like her close comrade 'The Master' (Henry James) Edith Wharton plays with themes of innocence and experience, old decadent Europe and innocent America, themes that launched a 1000 dissertations - 'From Countess Olenska to Humbert Humbert' etc., [Want level 25-50 Highish}


VALUE? Nice copies sans jacket can occasionally be had for circa $800, with a jacket it gets a bit more serious. 1920 is the cut off point for jackets in some guides (i.e. they are not assumed to be there before that, pretty much my assumption too.) Jackets in fact have been around since 1830, but not on every book, by the 1870s they were ubiquitous but usually unillustrated.

The copy shown at the venerable Wikipedia described as a first is in fact a reprint from Grosset and Dunlap, with very few exceptions Grosset didn't 'do' first editions. A decent citizen should change it. Like many Appleton firsts this book must have a [1] after the end of the text in the book. The jacket should have no mention of the Columbia (Pulitzer) Prize. It can often be found placed in an early jacket as it sold 66,000 copies within the first year.

In 2002 at auction a copy in a jacket made $9000 with a few repairs and slight dampstaining. Between the Covers had a copy in a fab jacket in their Catalogue 61 a while back and sold it, possibly for more than this record, I have no details but there prices are invariably serious. A copy at circa $2000 in a worn jacket listed late in 2006 appears to have sold.

The Arion Press, San Francisco, 2004 photo illustrated and limited edition is desirable and worth circa $800 - "Truly a thing of beauty" according to Forbes magazine. Look out also for a facsimile jacketed issue (in slip-case) by the First Editions Library (1990ish) almost indistinguishable from the 1920 first but unnaturally fine. An LEC 1973 edition of 2000 copies signed by the illustrator, Lawrence Beall Smith can be had for $100 and change. A slightly unpleasant leathery Easton edition about the same.

You can also get audio tapes, CDS, Videos and DVDs, there are even copies around signed by Scorsese. To my mind 'House of Mirth' was a better movie with the wonderful X files woman Gillian Anderson. Lastly - a decent copy made $25 in 1968 in a jacket. Like Janeway says '.. this isn't an exact science.'

7 comments:

Frugal Pursuit said...

Since I do have a dust jacket that mentions the Columbia University Prize for best novel, does this novel dated 1920 have any value?

Bookride said...

Have a strong feeling this is a reprint --if it is published by Grosset all bets are off--check Abe --none of the good ones mention this prize and presumably the book wd have to be in circulation to achieve it. Am not totally au fait with US books however...N

Frugal Pursuit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frugal Pursuit said...

Thank you for responding. I looked inside the book at the publisher more closely. The big splashy page with title and author listed Grosset and Dunlap at the bottom (as did the dusk jacket). The next page says "Copyright, 1920, by D. Appleton and Company." This line would clinch it is a reproduction then, yes?

Bookride said...

Thanks ABE is a book site that is esp good for first eds--here is the url https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchEntry

You have a reprint of very modest value, almost all Grosset books are such, sorry.

Unknown said...

Dear Bookride,

I have a 1920 Appleton edition of "The Age of Innocence," but, the number at the end of text in the novel is "(6)". What value would this copy of this book have?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Basically a (6) means a reprint--a sixth one too, and thus not of graet value but please check abebooks.com