I remember reading.
From my earliest years of reading.
I’m not sure can actually remember the moments. Like, where I was when I sat with my first Dr. Seuss book on my lap, chortling out “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.”
But.
I remember the words. The stories. The thoughts and the imaginings around those stories. Like building my first sailboat with Curious George right from the pages of that book.
And those memories are priceless.
So. I guess it is no surprise then, when I learned about the most expensive children’s books that have ever been sold at auction. It isn’t the actual memory that is sold with those books. No. That is specific to every person.
Instead, condition is king when it comes to selling rare books. Torn pages, cracked spines, and any annotations all dramatically lower the price that a book stands to bring at auction. As you might imagine, children’s books often aren’t handled as carefully as adult books. So with that, they can be worth a fortune if they’re in pristine condition.
The most expensive children’s book ever sold is J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard—a book of fairy tales within the world of Harry Potter. Yep. Old queer-hating J.K. does it again. In 2007, one of the seven limited-edition copies was bought at auction by Amazon for $3.97 million. The proceeds went to The Children’s Voice charity. Apparently, these limited books were handwritten by Rowling and decorated with semiprecious stones and silver.
In second place is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, with author Lewis Carroll’s own first edition copy selling for $1.54 million in 1998. This particular book was first published in 1865. And here is the note of interest. The initial print run was withdrawn before it hit shelves because illustrator John Tenniel was “entirely dissatisfied with the printing of the pictures.” Just 23 copies are known to exist today.
At any rate, in both cases, that is a big chunk of change. It always amazes me when people buy things for exorbitant amounts of money. I mean, $4 million can buy a whole lot of other stuff. Other than some book that is going to sit in some safe. Or perhaps even, it might be placed in a glass case, never to be touched again.
What is lost there is the real value.
The words.
The stories.
The meaning.
I truly hope, for the all of us, that we never lose sight of the meaning.
“Some are red and some are blue.
Some are old. Some are new.
Some are sad. And some are glad.
And some are very, very bad.
Why are they sad and glad and bad?
I do not know. Go ask your dad.”
And that is the Seuss, I mean, sense of it.
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“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Pablo Picasso
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“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” – Viktor Frankl
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“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” – Muriel Rukeyser
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The books. The words. The meaning. The value.
