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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Pat P, post: 12296, member: 201&quot;]I discovered a very rare book among my mother&#039;s things yesterday, and am not sure how to proceed with it.</p><p><br /></p><p>The book is an original copy of <i>An Essay on the Trial by Jury</i>, by Lysander Spooner, published in 1852. The book was signed by Spooner in 1879, and apparently was his own copy. By the signature he wrote &quot;This book is mine, and I should be very sorry to lose it, as the work is out of print.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s what I&#039;ve learned after researching the book and Mr. Spooner...</p><p><br /></p><p>Although the book is widely available as much later reprints and eBooks, I didn&#039;t find any original copies for sale on vialibri, addall, abebooks, or eBay. I also couldn&#039;t find any auction records for sale of an original of this book.</p><p><br /></p><p>Similarly, Worldcat doesn&#039;t show any original copies held by any libraries, although there are many eBook copies available. Also the Library of Congress doesn&#039;t appear to have an original.</p><p><br /></p><p>Apparently, the University of Michigan library used to have an original that was used by Google to create an eBook. Since the original doesn&#039;t show up in the University&#039;s database, I assume they no longer have it. </p><p><br /></p><p>I found this biography of Spooner very interesting...</p><p><a href="http://lysanderspooner.org/node/5" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://lysanderspooner.org/node/5" rel="nofollow">http://lysanderspooner.org/node/5</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Lysander Spooner was quite an independent thinker, embracing some points of view that today would be considered radical leftist thought, and other points of view that now would be considered to be on the radical right. </p><p><br /></p><p>Although Spooner made his mark on history, apparently while he was alive there wasn&#039;t a great interest in his books, so they weren&#039;t widely printed or sold. Today, however, there appears to be a market for his writings. My impression is that his appeal may be especially strong for libertarians. </p><p><br /></p><p>The book itself is in poor condition, with the cover detached, tape inside, etc. But if there&#039;s a market for the book, since it&#039;s Spooner&#039;s own copy, and signed by him, and no other copies show up anywhere else, I don&#039;t know if the condition would matter all that much?</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve never used auction houses or offered items to libraries or museums, so don&#039;t know what the best venues would be? If there will be interest in the book, I&#039;d prefer selling it to donating it.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;d really appreciate any perspective on this and, if possible, a little mentoring. This is just the first of many 19th century books I inherited that I&#039;d like to sell, and I could use help in coming up to speed. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ll put photos in the next post.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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