Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
In 1908, Sears, Roebuck & Co. ordered and sold the Wallace Memorial
Edition of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ ("limited" to 1 million
copies) for 39 cents in their catalog. It was the first American book
to have the 1 million copy press run.
Roger Adams
Associate Professor / Rare Books Librarian / knower about and collector
of all things Lew Wallace
Special Collections, Hale Library
Kansas State University
Manhattan KS 66506
Quoting "White, Eric" <ewhite@MAIL.SMU.EDU>:
> Of course, I only thought of Mr. Potter moments after I sent. His
> debut, The Philosopher's Stone, Bloomsbury, 1997, was only 500
> copies,
> with 300 going to school libraries.
>
> EW
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rare book and manuscripts
> [mailto:EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU]
> On Behalf Of Greenberg, Stephen (NIH/NLM) [E]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 6:27 AM
> To: EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS-L] Printed in the millions?
>
> The initial US print run for _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_
> was
> 12 million copies.
>
> Stephen J. Greenberg, MSLS, PhD
> Coordinator of Public Services
> History of Medicine Division
> National Library of Medicine
> National Institutes of Health
> Department of Health and Human Services
> 301-435-4995
> greenbes@mail.nih.gov
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ellen Middlebrook Herron [mailto:ellen@CHICAGOBYNIGHT.ORG]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 11:56 PM
> To: EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU
> Subject: Re: [EXLIBRIS-L] Printed in the millions?
>
> perhaps the bible - or maybe the latest john grisham book...
> certainly
> never any publication i've been involved in!
>
>
> > "Most recently, these rare books and thousands like them were being
> stored
> > in
> > the library stacks alongside modern volumes that are printed by the
> > millions
> > instead of by the dozens."
> >
> > What books are printed in the millions?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Everett Wilkie" <ewilkie@IX.NETCOM.COM>
> > To: <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 7:41 PM
> > Subject: [EXLIBRIS-L] Description of new PA state library rare book
> wing
> >
> >
> >> This appeared in the Post Gazette. One interesting aspect of the
> new
> >> library is that they seemed to have banned traditional writing
> >> instruments
> >> entirely from the reading room. --ECW
> >>
> >> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08069/863695-85.stm#
> >>
> >> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >>
> >> State library's new wing slows aging of old documents
> >> Sunday, March 09, 2008
> >> By Tracie Mauriello, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
> >>
> >> Brady C. Bower for the Post-Gazette
> >>
> >> HARRISBURG -- Paper booties, cotton smocks and blue latex gloves
> are
> de
> >> rigeur in the austere and darkened corridors, where hidden
> cameras,
> >> key-card
> >> readers and fingerprint scanners track every movement.
> >>
> >> A filtration system removes harmful gases from the air. Sensors
> detect
> >> chemical changes as subtle as new colognes worn by the small cadre
> of
> >> personnel authorized to enter the innermost sanctum.
> >>
> >> This isn't a scene from "The Matrix." There are no secrets being
> guarded
> >> here, rather documents that the curators want you to see.
> >>
> >> This is the new $7.2 million Rare Collections wing of the
> Pennsylvania
> >> State
> >> Library.
> >>
> >> After two years of design and two years of construction, the wing
> now
> is
> >> being filled with 12,000 of the state's oldest and most valuable
> >> holdings,
> >> including Ben Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanacs" and a well-worn
> copy
> >> of
> >> the Magna Carta that the founding fathers referred to during the
> >> Continental
> >> Congress as they drafted the U.S. Constitution.
> >>
> >> In six months, the wing will be ready for scholars and researchers
> who
> >> come
> >> from all corners of the state and, recently, as far as Japan to
> view
> the
> >> state's collection of historical documents.
> >>
> >> The documents will be available to the public, too.
> >>
> >> "Our purpose is to make documents available to serious researchers
> and
> >> students, but we had a limited capacity to make them available to
> the
> >> public. Now, because we can protect them, we can make them known,"
> said
> >> Caryn Carr, director of the Pennsylvania State Library. "Now we
> can
> make
> >> them available to greater numbers."
> >>
> >> There is a 1739 ceremonial Bible that the Pennsylvania General
> Assembly
> >> used
> >> in its earliest days. There is a 1795 map of Harrisburg hand-drawn
> on
> >> animal
> >> skin. There a copy of the 1752 newspaper in which Benjamin
> Franklin
> >> first
> >> described his kite-and-key experiment that resulted in the
> discovery
> of
> >> electricity.
> >>
> >> The collection also includes agricultural pamphlets, musical
> scores,
> >> ornithology books and religious texts, including the German Saur
> Bible,
> >> the
> >> first non-English-language Bible printed in the colonies.
> >>
> >> For the oldest volumes, the relocation to the collections wing
> will
> be
> >> their
> >> 12th move since in 1777.
> >>
> >> Thought to be a target of British soldiers in the Revolutionary
> War,
> 425
> >> volumes were taken at night from Philadelphia to a hay barn in
> Easton
> >> for
> >> safekeeping, said Mary Clare Zales, the state Department of
> Education's
> >> deputy director for libraries. All but two of those volumes
> survived
> >> war,
> >> fire, flood and neglect, she said.
> >>
> >> Most recently, these rare books and thousands like them were being
> >> stored
> >> in
> >> the library stacks alongside modern volumes that are printed by
> the
> >> millions
> >> instead of by the dozens. Centuries-old documents were stored on
> metal
> >> shelves in a room with peeling paint, dusty curtains and
> florescent
> >> lights
> >> known to cause paper to disintegrate.
> >>
> >> "They are in a much better environment now, much better," Ms. Carr
> said.
> >>
> >> Thousands of books, pamphlets, maps and newspapers have been moved
> to
> >> the
> >> new environmentally controlled area already, and library employees
> are
> >> transporting the rest one bookcart at a time from the library
> stacks
> to
> >> the
> >> renovated 18,000-square-foot wing that used to house card
> catalogs,
> >> meeting
> >> rooms and administrative offices.
> >>
> >> The area includes an elegant reading room with Venetian plaster
> walls,
> >> stained-glass depictions of Franklin and granite floors and
> tabletops
> >> that
> >> reflect and amplify light, which is kept at low levels to better
> >> preserve
> >> documents. The room is framed on three sides by Pennsylvania black
> >> cherry
> >> wood, which came from trees hand picked by project architect
> Cornelius
> >> Rosnov, of the state Department of General Services. The fourth
> side
> >> comprises plaster tryptychs depicting figures from Greek
> mythology.
> >>
> >> No pens or pencils are allowed here, lest graphite dust and stray
> ink
> >> mar
> >> its treasures. Instead, patrons can use laptop computers to take
> notes.
> >> The
> >> reading room is the only elaborately decorated part of the wing.
> It
> was
> >> designed with people in mind, while the rest of the vault is aimed
> not
> >> at
> >> creature comforts, but at book preservation. Translation: It is
> dim
> and
> >> cool.
> >>
> >> Out of that darkness will come new light shed on the state's past
> as
> the
> >> library provides greater access to the treasures of William Penn's
> time.
> >>
> >> "This is really going to help us elevate the discourse about that
> time
> >> period," Ms. Zales said.
> >>
> >> The high-tech environment is the only one of its kind in
> Pennsylvania,
> >> and
> >> already is becoming a model for other states. It was designed by a
> team
> >> of
> >> architects, engineers, chemists, physicists, historians,
> librarians
> and
> >> paper-preservation specialists.
> >>
> >> "We are showing that we can produce an appropriate environment to
> >> preserve
> >> books despite the climate inside," Mr. Rusnov said. "It is a model
> >> project
> >> that other libraries could learn from."
> >>
> >> Paper and other artifacts cannot be stopped from deteriorating,
> but
> Mr.
> >> Rusnov believes he has created the perfect environment to slow the
> >> process.
> >>
> >> "These things are going to continue to deteriorate naturally. They
> are
> >> going
> >> to rot," he said. "We can't stop the process, but we can extend
> the
> life
> >> of
> >> these materials until technology catches up and can extend it
> again."
> >>
> >
>
>