Classic Appreciation

So I posted here earlier this week about that John Ashbery book ad earlier, from the Paper Cuts blog, and I got to thinking. The first of the dozen or so ads they included in the slide show was for Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The blog noted that a signed first edition of the book, which sold for $4.95, runs as high as $18,000.00.

Nice.

But that got me to thinking about the others in the series. Since all of them have prices listed, I thought I would do a little research on a book search engine and see how these books compare to the Kesey appreciation. Because of the vast range for book prices based on condition and other factors, I chose the top prices for signed copies. If I won the lottery and wanted to buy these books, these are the copies I'd choose.

Here goes. I ordered them from those with the least value to the highest. Kesey's book will round it out.


Making It by Norman Podhoretz
1968
[No price in ad]
Signed 1st edition: $33 (1 of only 2 copies available online) from Truepenny Books, Inc., AZ

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Do You Sleep in the Nude by Rex Reed
1968
$4.95 (3rd printing)
Signed Edition: $45, Curio Corner Books, TX

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Hanoi by Mary McCarthy
1968
$2.45 (pb)
No signed copies available, First British Edition: $50, Wayward Books, MA

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An Education in Georgia by Calvin Trillin
1964
$3.95
Signed 1st Edition: None available for sale
Unsigned 1st Edition: $55 from MW Books, Ltd., New York, NY

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Play It as it Lays by Joan Didion
1970
$5.95 (4th printing)
1st Edition (No signed 1st editions available): $60, Warwick Books, South Pasadena

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Sadness by Donald Barthleme
1972
$5.95
Signed British edition, $90, Joseph the Provider, Santa Barbara

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August is a Wicked Month by Edna O'Brien
1965
$3.95
Signed 1st Edition: $95 from Jeffrey Bergman Books, Fort Lee, NJ

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The Eye-Beaters, Blood, Victory, Madness, Buckhead and Mercy by James Dickey
1970
$4.95 (hardcover), $2.45 (paperback), $15.00 (limited edition)
Limited Edition: $110, George S. MacManus Company, Bryn Mawr

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We Are Everywhere by Jerry Rubin
1971
$4.95 (hardcover)
$1.95 (paperback)
No signed 1st editions available, $125 hardcover 1st edition, Black Dog Books, NJ

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The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell, pictures by Maurice Sendak
1965
$2.75
Signed 1st Edition: $200 from riverrun bookshop, NY
This is signed by Sendak only. No Jarrell-signed copies on the market.

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The Benefactor by Susan Sontag
1963
$4.50
Signed 1st Edition: $250 from Royal Books, Inc., Baltimore

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The Pump-House Gang by Tom Wolfe
1968
$5.95 (4th printing)
Signed first edition: $429, Flatsigned Books, Nashville

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Three Poems by John Ashbery
1972
$5.95 (hardcover)
$2.25 (paperback)
Signed 1st edition, $500 (hardcover), Compass Rose Books, Kensington, CA

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Naked in Garden Hills by Harry Crews
1969
$5.95
Signed first edition: $682.50, Vagabond Books, L.A.

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The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
1968
$5.95 (5th printing)
Signed first edition: $700, Contact Editions, Toronto

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The Third Life of Grange Copeland by Alice Walker
1970
$5.95
Signed First Edition: $1320, Bella Luna Books, CO.

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Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
1968
$4.95
Signed 1st Edition: $5000, Waverly Books, Santa Monica

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Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72, by Hunter S. Thompson
1973
$7.95
Signed First Edition, with additional signature by Ralph Steadman, $6500, Ken Lopez, Bookseller, MA

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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
1970
$5.95
Signed 1st Edition: $7475, Charles Agvent, Bookseller, PA

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
1962
$4.95
Signed 1st Edition: $17,758.27 from Adrian Harrington Rare Books, United Kingdom

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So there you have it, a total exercise in fantasy and wondering. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did putting it together.