Marked up
The world can be divided into two categories: People who leave their books unsullied, and people who mark them up. And if a prominent...
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Journalist and author
The Line of Thought
. . . to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.
--Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
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Deborah Yaffe
Aug 21, 2023
Coveted rarities
As regular blog readers know, I have a not-so-secret hankering for Jane Austen first editions, along with nothing like enough money to...
Deborah Yaffe
Dec 22, 2022
Father knows best
Although Jane Austen’s novels never commanded huge print runs – the biggest, for Emma, totaled only two thousand copies -- Austen first...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 10, 2022
Expensive thrills
For Janeites, the Austen First Edition Thrill-o-Meter is calibrated something like this: Biggest Thrill: Austen novel first edition owned...
Deborah Yaffe
May 19, 2022
Sticker shock
Apparently, it’s not just gas and hotel rooms: Pandemic-era inflation has also hit the rare book market. Or so we learned from a recent...
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 20, 2021
Pricey, and priceless
It’s always nice to know that other people value Our Jane the way we do. Like, value her in dollars. Last week, as blog readers will...
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 13, 2021
Austens with a pedigree
Owning first editions of Jane Austen’s novels – ideally, as I’ve noted before, of all Jane Austen’s novels – must be . . . pretty cool....
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 12, 2020
Another chance at completion
Less than a year ago, a rich person with excellent taste snapped up a complete set of Jane Austen first editions at a New York auction....
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 9, 2020
Beautiful books, glamorous provenance
When valuable editions of Jane Austen’s novels come up for auction, the selling point is usually something about the books themselves:...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 27, 2020
Completist completes
Apparently, I’m not the only Jane Austen completist out there. Last week, as blog readers will recall, the New York auction house Swann...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 13, 2020
The price of perfection
I was born with a completist gene. I like to finish things up – books, TV series, leftovers. I like to own full sets of things. I abhor...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 29, 2018
P&P on the block
Once again, it’s time to play “If I Were a Rich Janeite.” (Cue klezmer music.) The British auctioneer Bonhams has announced that, later...
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