Discovering Vintage Books: Shakespeare Edition

I have collected quite a few vintage books over the years, but this little pamphlet was the first.

I found it at a consignment shop out in the country over 25 years ago, when I was a broke college student. 

I had recently moved and spent a lot of time visiting garage sales and consignment shops, always on the hunt for inexpensive nick nacks and random items to make my new apartment feel more like me.

As an English Lit major slogging through a semester-long course on Shakespeare, my eye was immediately drawn to this ancient little pamphlet with the bard’s name emblazoned across the front. It was resting on a table, the tattered ribbon tied loosely around it. I picked it up and turned it over, gingerly sliding the ribbon off so I could peek inside. 

I knew it was old, but I nearly dropped it when I saw the publication date was January 11, 1892. 

Who had owned this little book, and how had it ended up in a consignment shop that used to be an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere Kentucky?

Immediately, my mind ran through a thousand scenarios that might have brought this booklet to that moment. How many people had read it? How many people had slid that ribbon carefully off? It was stained and definitely not in pristine condition, but I was amazed that the delicate pages were still holding together after so many years.

I think I paid around $8 for that little copy of The Merchant of Venice, and my love for antique books was born. 

I have a small collection, and I am by no means a serious collector. I don’t add books to my collection because of their value, and I’m not on the hunt to find an elusive rare edition that might make me rich one day. 

Instead, I collect vintage classic literature, books with unique covers or titles, or books that have some meaning to me. For example, as an educator, I am particularly drawn to old books that were used to teach reading. I also try to focus on books published in or before the 1930s, but I’m not too picky about dates or the condition. In fact, my favorites are the ones that have a name or (even better) a personalized message scrawled on the inside cover in someone’s looping handwriting.

This book has a name penciled on the top left corner, but I can’t quite make out what it says. I’m sure it diminishes the value, but not to me.

This particular little pamphlet has moved with me from my first apartment to another, then to my first home, and on to two more homes after that. It survived all of those moves and currently occupies a prominent space on the entryway table of our home, resting atop a stack of other vintage books. 

I may share some of the other books in my collection on this blog in the future, but this one is special. Looking at this little piece of history each day gives me a kick, and I still sometimes find myself thinking about where else that book has been since it was published 133 years ago. 

I also like to think that maybe someday far in the future, someone will stumble upon a book I once owned and wonder about its previous life, too.