What Is The Oldest Book You Own?

[GOLLUM]

Hi all.

Just wondering what the oldest book you own is?

You can subdidvide that into SFF and non-SFF if you like.

Also you can inlcude what is the oldest book you have ever seen or handled in the flesh?

My father has a french dictionary from the 1890s handed down from my Grandfather.

I'm currently considering purchasing a series of 3 leather-bound volumes from Holland, published in 1677.

A friend of mine has a full reporduction of the Book Of Kells, which is quite beautiful.

[Quokka]

I probably shouldn't be the first to post here but it's turning into a slow day

The oldest book I own now is likely younger than I am but I still grumble about my mother throwing out an old trunk of my grandfather's books that I had been allowed to keep, they were books he had read as a child himself so I'm guessing that puts them about the 40's-50's. There was a real feeling of a private treasure when I started reading them and now I wish I had them on the shelf incase my children ever wanted to have a look when they were older, I could always replace the ones I could remember but of course then they won't be my grandfather's books which was half the fun of them.

The oldest book I've seen is probably the Book of Kells, well two pages of it at least but the book I'm most thankful to have been able to see was Da Vinci's Codex Leicester which was one of his scientific journals (written back to front) at the time it was at an exhibition at the Chateau de Chambord which is famous for its double helix staircase that Da Vinci may have hand a hand in designing.

Beautiful place, beautiful book... I just wish I had been able to read it .

[j. d. worthington]

The oldest book in my collection is a two-volume set of Samuel Johnson's The Idler, printed in 1795. The oldest book I've ever handled was one from the 1670s... a book on chemistry, as I recall. My oldest sff? Hmmm. I'm not really sure on this; for one thing, I'm not sure if classics of horror fit into your criteria. If so, then probably a book by Bulwer-Lytton which includes A Strange Story, Zanoni, and "The Haunted and the Haunters" (without the final pages of the latter, which were often left out of printings of this particular tale). This one dates to somewhere in the 1880s, from the bibliographic information I've been able to find on it. (No date is given in the volume itself.) If not that, then probably the first book publication copy I have of Merritt's The Moon Pool (1919), which I picked up for a ridiculously low price some time ago....

[Tanegashima]

I have a Complete Shakespeare from the 1850's, it was a textbook from an English school. I have a complete Mark Twain from 1910 and I also have an original copy of My First Days in the White House by Huey Long 1935

[Ragnar]

The oldest in my collection is a first edition of The First Men in the Moon (1901). I've also got an edition of Alice in Wonderland from 1911. The most interesting is a school history textbook from 1912. It makes for fascinating reading - its like something from an alternate reality.

[Fried Egg]

I've got a printing of "The poetical works of Milton" from 1901.

[Harpo]

I used to have a large blank journal, with maybe twenty pages having been written on by friends and family of a young woman named Henrietta in the 1850s.

The oldest published book I had was a "first people's edition" of Alice In Wonderland, from about 1882.

I have long since given away both of these as gifts.

Currently the oldest book I have dates from 1936 and is called "George V and Edward VIII - A Royal Souvenir" which has many large photographs showing what a great king Edward will be (tiger hunting etc)

[Snowdog]

The oldest book I currently have is an 1890 atlas given to my great-grandmother in 1910 (there's a newspaper cutting with it). It's astonishing to look at it and see how the world has changed from then to now.

As for SFF, nothing really old - Connoisseurs's SF anthology (pb) from 1964.

[Marky Lazer]

I'm not sure really. I think my poor attempt is a 1991 LOTR edition

By the way, somehow I read "seen or handled in the flesh" as "bound in flesh," which would be rather oldish, eh?

[Kissmequick]

I've got an old book from not long after the turn of the century ( c 1920 ish I think) with what was at the time a wonder of wonders - photos! Unfortunately I read it to death when I was kid and it's now falling to bits

My favourite old book is a Tales of King Arthur from ( I think) the 50's, with some beautiful colour plates. My mum bought it at a jumble when I was a kid ( 10p!) and it's the book that got me into fantasy. I still love reading about the Pig Sty Prince, the Knight of the Sparrow Hawk, the White Dragon and the Red, and the Fairy Hunt,( and none of the spurious Lancelot and Guinevere stuff either) and now my kids are reading it and loving it.

[elvet]

1975 boxed LotR trilogy (paperback). It's falling apart, but I love it anyway.

[Harpo]

I've been in the chained library at Hereford Cathedral, it was about to close for the day, but my friend and I were given a quick private tour.
Mappa - The Chained Library

[Connavar]

The old best book i own is short story collection called Red Wind by Raymond Chandler printed in 1946.


The oldest book i have seen/read/held in flesh is Natives of Hemsö a 1887 novel by August Strindberg. The version i saw was the first printed in 1887 that always was in the school library.

[HoopyFrood]

I don't own them, but the books that I take out from the university library are always quite old. One of the books I used for my Renaissance comedy essay was published in 1937 and the books that I'm currently surrounded by now for my Modernism essay (all of which are about Ezra Pound) are mostly from the 50s and 60s.

I was rummaging around in the library the other day and came across a thin book with crispy pages that I was intrigued by when I found it was published around the mid 1800s. Spent a few minutes flicking through it just because it was so old.

I buy a lot of second hand books, so I have quite a few from the 50s, 60s and 70s. They usually have fantastic retro covers, too, which I love.

[Adasunshine]

The oldest book I own is probably from 1945, well, that's the date on the inscription - it's a birthday present to someone called Yvonne... the book is Selection of the works by Robert Browning and it's a lickle red one published by John Murray.. I did have one that was much older - from the 1800's and it was called The Talisman but it did actually fall apart completely and was therefore recycled...

The oldest book or written document I've seen is the Magna Carta situated in Salisbury Cathedral, it's one of four surviving original copies and was presented to the Cathedral sometime in the 1200's!

xx