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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.
SENDAK, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are. [NY]: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1963. Oblong 8vo, 48pp. Gray quarter-cloth with full-color pictorial boards. Full-color pictorial endpapers; full-color illustrations throughout. Slight rubbing to board edges, mi…
From Books of Wonder
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
New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers / A Story Press Book, 1938 Presentation copy from Richard Wright to Ernest Hemingway: "To Ernest Hemingway / From / Richard Wright." Stated second edition in married original dust jacket, first publish…
From Idler Fine Books
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…
Sauk City, Wisconsin: Arkham House, 1943 First printing of the first edition. One of 1,217 copies printed, Publisher's black cloth with gilt spine titles, octavo, 458 pages. The fourth book issued by Arkham House. The companion novel to The Outsider a…
From Idler Fine Books
Rare books, documents, correspondence, and ephemera, 1964. Chambers, Whittaker: Witness: New York: Random House, 1952. First edition, first printing. Octavo. Original black boards and red top-stain and original dust jacket (not price-clipped). Faint toni…
From Respublica Books LLC
London: Secker & Warburg, 1976 First British Edition. Signed and inscribed by Saul Bellow to Terry Eagleton, the eminent literary theorist, new historicist, and Thomas Wharton Professor of English at Oxford: "For Terry Eagleton / from his neighbo…
From Idler Fine Books
Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Company, 1851. "Collected and prepared under the direction of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, per Act of Congress of March 3d, 1847." Presentation Copies of Parts I, III, and IV only, each part a First Editi…
New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1947 First printing of the first edition. Inscribed and signed by Robert Frost to poet, teacher, and friend, Samuel French: "To Samuel [French] Morse / from his fellow in the art / Robert Frost / in great hopes fo…
From Idler Fine Books
New York: Alfred A. Knopf / A Borzoi Book, 1947 First printing of the first edition, original publisher’s teal cloth, yellow top edge; in original dust jacket; written while Hughes was a visiting writer in residence at Atlanta University, containing…
From Idler Fine Books
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
Madrid : Renacimiento, 1917. RARE. SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR at title page to Fernando Orrego (Puelma) and dated by author in year of publication (1917). Miguel de Unamuno's most famous novel, his re-telling of the story of Cain and Abel set in…
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…
New York: Random House, 1967. INSCRIBED TO LEONARD BERNSTEIN First edition, first printing. Presentation copy inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Lennie with best wishes and memories of Lower Sixth Avenue. Bill Styron. New York, Decem…
From Peter Harrington
Los Angeles: Zeitlin & Ver Brugge Booksellers,, 1974. #105 of 120 copies printed by Saul & Lillian Marks at The Plantin Press, Los Angeles, completed April 1974. "The entire edition subscribed for by Jacob Israel Zeitlin & Josephine ver B…
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