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Understanding Primacy: How Literary Firsts Impact a Rare Book’s Value
From the first appearance of a notable character to the first book published on a continent, debuts make exceptional additions to any library.
I n 1638 Reverend Jose Glover and his family took a ship from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony with their most important possessions, including a printing press, paper and type. Glover died on the voyage, but his widow, Elizabeth Glover, set up a printing operation in Cambridge, MA, becoming America’s first publisher. In 1640, her husband’s apprentice, Stephen Daye, set and printed a translation of Hebrew psalms arranged for singing. Today the 11 surviving copies of this first printing are known as the Bay Psalm Book and are famous for being the first books to be produced in the American Colonies. In 2013, Sotheby’s New York sold 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:one of the copies for $14.2 million at auction.
The book itself isn’t much to look at, says Gabriel Heaton, Specialist in Sotheby’s 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Books and Manuscripts Department. In the 17th century, English psalm b♔ooks were quite common. The early American printer Isaiah Thomas commente♌d that the book is full of typographical errors and “does not exhibit the appearance of good workmanship.” Yet it’s one of the most valuable books in the world thanks to one thing: it was the first book printed in America.
While many other terms are commonly tossed around when discussing what makes a book valuable – condition, first edition, provenance – a book’s primacy is so intuitive that it’s rarely discussed. “It’s very easy to understand the desire to have the first book printed in the English language or in North America,”♔ says Heaton. As he points out, “the Bay Psalm Book w🌜ouldn’t be worth more than a few hundred pounds if it had been printed in London.”
The first appearance of a famous character in a book or manuscript is something that’s also important to collectors. Arthur Conan Doyle began publishing short stories and essays in the 1870s when he was in his 20s. Yet it’s not these early works but those involving his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes, that are valued most highly. The first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet” was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual magazine in 1887 before it was published as a book. When the magazine was 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:last auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2007 it sold for $156,000. Another year’s copy of Beeton’s, even in pristine condition, would be worth only a fraction of this price𓂃.
“There’s something tremendously exciting about an object that played a part in the genesis of something important.”
- Gabriel Heaton, Specialist, Books and Manuscripts
There’s just something about firsts. Books with primacy can be valuable objects, but what collectors are measuring is actually something intangible. The 27-year-old Conan Doyle likely had no idea that the detective he’d created for his short story would ꦿstill be remembered 150 years later. Likewise, how could Daye and Glover have known that what was then a British colony would become what is now the United States of America, with a powerful book publishing indus🎀try that shapes reading around the world.
Often these books are also scarce, adding to their value. Since⛎ nobody knew what their value and place in history would become, there weren’t many printings – and of those, many copies weren’t saved and protected.
“There’s something tremendously exciting about owning this ob✱ject that was actually there and played a part in the genesis of something important,” says Heaton. These books invite us back into the past, situating us in the moment of their creation, while we look forward to everything we know came after their publication.
