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Registered: ‎03-10-2010

@proudlyfromNJ wrote:

A Bible my Great Grandmother’s brother gave her in the 1800’s with writing inside. It will probably get trashed when I die. 


Oh no @proudlyfromNJ   That would be terrible for your Bible to be trashed.

I hope someone will see the beauty in it.

 

Oldest books i have is my very first Bible  and all my childhood Nancy Drew,

Hardy Boys, Donna Parker books.

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"The Boy Mechanic Book Three" from 1919 is my oldest book. I've got a lot of do it yourself and gardening books from the fifties also.

Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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Re: OLDEST BOOK ...you own

[ Edited ]

I have three very old books. The most interesting is a child's arithmetic book published in 1889, because the little girl who owned it wrote her full name and address (Peachtree St. in Atlanta) with the date - Sept. 7, 1891.  Someone else has written in pencil below this that she was the niece of Alexander Hamilton Stevens, VP of the Confederacy.  Who knows if that's true, but it's interesting!

 

I also have "Charles Dickens Children's Stories" which has a 1890 copyright.  Pages are yellowed, but it's intact, and the cover has gold leaf and a lovely old fashioned picture of a girl and boy in full color.

 

Last is a copy of A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It looks to be the same age as my Dickens book, but this one has no print date or copyright date, so who knows.  Pages are all in good shape, but the cover on this one is very worn.  And some little darling scribbled in crayon on the inside cover, ha ha.

 

 

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Re: OLDEST BOOK ...you own

[ Edited ]

My oldest has a 1910 copyright, The Book of Fables, Chiefly From Æsop.  I bought it from a used book store; at one point it belonged to a public school.  It's in good condition and is a good conversation piece.

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Re: OLDEST BOOK ...you own

[ Edited ]

@Flatbush Great thread, thanks!

 

@ValuSkr  @shoesnbags  @gardenman  @yellowrose  + booklovers, all:

 

1857 "The Thousand and One Nights or the Arabian Nights Entertainments" a "new" edition it says.

 

I have many copies of the Arabian Nights, adore the tales and their various backstories, but this is my treasured oldest.

 

 

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The oldest book I have is "Beautiful Joe (The Autobiography of a Dog)" by Marshall Sanders.  It was originally published in 1894, although my copy was published in 1903.  Oddly, I've never seen it mentioned anywhere and had never thought of looking for information about it online until I saw this thread.  I was a book-loving child, and this book was left behind in a house we moved into when I was very young, so it's probably the first book I ever owned.  Reading it broke my heart back then (think "Black Beauty"), but I've kept it all of these years because of its age even though just thinking of it always made me feel sad.  After seeing this thread, maybe I'll find the courage to read it again and see what I think now -- the Amazon write up describes it as "a beloved children's classic" and there is a "classics reprinted" edition. 

 

Great thread -- glad you started it!

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I have a First Edition of The Good Earth from 1939. Mr. Sunny bought it for me several years ago as a special gift.

 

It's my all-time favorite book, although I'm not positive it's my oldest book.

"That's a great first pancake."
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Not really sure in nf/history that we have, but MY oldest novel is a first edition of Peyton Place by Grace Metalious from 1959.  Don't think it's worth anything but I love it and cherish it. It's in pretty good shape w/dust cover too.