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Association copies can be difficult to define, but they can add considerable value to your growing book and ephemera collection. Put simply, association copies are books owned by people of significance. Some collectors will argue that books owned by celebrities or other famous figures count as association copies, while other collectors believe association copies are books owned by people significant to the author or particular work. For instance, this special copy of The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac is inscribed by the author to the mother of one of Kerouac's dear friends and fellow Beatniks.
What makes associations copies so precious is the unique relationship between author and recipient. Instead of a book being signed at a typical signature event, association copies provide a deeper glimpse into the hearts and minds of the authors. However, association copies can also include books signed or unsigned that belonged to other famous or influential people in history. Although signed copies are almost always more valuable than unsigned, association copies of any kind are quite collectible and highly sought-after books.
New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, (1952). First Edition. Hardcover. Minor rubbing to the spine tips of the book. Near Fine in a Near Fine slipcase. Outstanding association. Quarto (8" x 11") bound in full blue synthetic leather with gilt lettering on th...
From Charles Agvent
London: A.H. Bullen, 1904. Cloth backed boards, paper spine label, edges untrimmed. Spine label darkened and soiled, minor soiling to edges, a trace of foxing to endsheets, but a very good copy. Half morocco slipcase. First British edition. An important ...
London: Edward Moxon, 1840. Two volumes. Polished tan calf, spines gilt, with gilt labels (small repairs), t.e.g. by Sotheran. Gift inscription (to Emily Vine from her mother dated 1857 on title of each volume); extremities, raised bands and edges rubbed...
London & Boston: Elkin Mathews & Copeland & Day, 1895. Original polished brown buckram, spine stamped in gilt, title printed in black and red. Corners a bit bumped, crown of spine frayed, cloth a bit rubbed, otherwise a very good copy. First edition of t...
Paris: E. Dentu and Alphonse Lemerre , 1879. "Les Femmes D'Artistes" , Alphonse Lemerre, Paris, 1874 and "Les Rois En Exil. Roman Parisien", E Dentu, Paris, 1879, both books SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR at 3rd front end page and...
From Dale Steffey Books
London: Henry Frowde, 1908. Original elaborately gilt decorated cloth, t.e.g., ribbon marker. Usual foxing to endsheets, otherwise a fine copy in lightly frayed and smudged (but very scarce) dust jacket. Slipcase. From the collection of Frederick B. Adam...
London: Chatto & Windus, 1887. Small octavo. Original polished brick-red buckram, t.e.g., others untrimmed. From the collection of Arthur H. Houghton, with his book label on front pastedown. Cloth evidently treated at an early date with some sort of shel...
New York: H. C. Kinsey & Company, 1938. First Edition. Hardcover. Joints and gutters of book darkened but a superior copy in both condition and association. Near Fine in a close to Fine dustwrapper. A small, slim clothbound volume of 47 pages. Roosevelt...
From Charles Agvent
First Printing. Although not marked as such on the wrapper or covers, almost certainly an Advance Reading Copy of the true first edition of Tove Jansson's Sculptor's Daughter. Softcover, pp. 146(7), index, plain white card covers in dustjacket which is fi...
London: Edward Moxon, 1830. vii,[1],150,[1]pp. Small octavo. Full olive green straight-grain morocco, gilt extra, a.e.g., by Tuckett, "Binder to the Queen." Pictorial vignette on title. Some occasional modest foxing, joints and extremities rubbed, with s...
Bolinas, CA: Tombouctou, 1978. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first printing. A fantastic association copy, signed by Jim Carrol, inscribed to poets Ted Berrigan and his wife Alice Notley on the half-title page, "To Ted + Alice, 'I...
New York: Random House,, 1967. INSCRIBED TO LEONARD BERNSTEIN Octavo. Original black cloth, titles to spine and front board in gilt, silver, and orange, brown endpapers, top edge dyed red. With the dust jacket. An excellent copy in the dust jacket with ...
From Peter Harrington
Berlin: im Deutschen Verlag,, 1937. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR at half-title page - " Arthur Kiekebusch su wiedersehen 1937 herrlich (?) Leni Riefenstahl". Arthur Kiekebusch was a German production manager and director, best known for the 19...
From Dale Steffey Books
1921. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1921.. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1921. Cardozo's Copy of His Most Influential Work Cardozo, Benjamin N. [1870-1938]. The Nature of the Judicial Process. New Haven: Yale University Press, [1921]. 180 pp. Ori...
1946-1998: Various Publishers An important collection of 14 separately titled items, 7 books and 7 offprints, spanning the years 1946-1998, all SIGNED AND INSCRIBED by Robert K. Merton (RKM) to his former student, friend, colleague and noted sociologist ...
From Dale Steffey Books
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