Hello and welcome to this book is collectible, a website for book collectors; more specifically for collectors of modern fictional literature. There will be an emphasis on signed first editions, Canadian literature, and gay literature, but you can expect to see a wide range of collectible books here. Because there are as many different collections [...]
Christmas Stories Charles Dickens Thomas Nelson, London, 1906 This book is part of a complete set of Dickens works which were put out between 1898 and 1913. They are beautifully bound in soft burgundy leather. Each book has an engraving of a scene from the story protected by a leaf of tissue. They also have [...]
The Sound and the Fury and AsI Lay Dying William Faulkner The Modern Library, U.S.A. 1946 The Modern Library puts out well made and handsome reprints of modern classics. This publication is unusual in that it is comprised of two of Nobel laureate William Faulkner’s greatest works. Which is cool, because they just happen to [...]
How the Light Gets In — true first M.J. Hyland Penguin, Australia, 2003 This paperback is the very rare true first edition of Hyland’s incredible debut novel. I had been looking on-line for a copy of this edition for years. The price for this copy was reasonable, probably because it is a basic Penguin trade [...]
The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, U.S.A. 1993 The first chapter of The Virgin Suicides was originally published in the Paris Review and won the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. Now considered a cult classic, this novel was written from the perspective of a group of boys who became infatuated with the [...]
Mont Blanc Starwalker Rubber/Platinum Ballpoint Pen This pen is part of Mont Blanc’s Starwalker line of fine ballpoint pens. The Starwalker line is noted by the floating star — the Mont Blanc star emblem appears to be floating in a clear dome top. This is one of the most popular of the Starwalker line. It [...]
Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey University of Queensland Press, Australia, 1988 Peter carey won his first Booker Prize with this epic novel. It also won the Australian Miles Franklin Award and several regional awards. It was made into a major motion picture in 1997. It was included in the 1999 Callil/Toibin publication The 200 Best [...]
The Stone Raft Jose Saramago Harcourt, Brace and Company, U.S.A. 1995 This fantastic story, wherein the Iberian Peninsula breaks free from the mainland and sails away, took eight years to come out in English translation, the longest time of any of Saramago’s books. It was only once Blindness came out, three years after The Stone Raft, [...]
The Big Why Michael Winter House of Anansi Press, Canada, 2004 The Big Why is Michael Winter’s second novel. It was shortlisted for the Trillium Award and the Thomas Head Raddall Award, and it was longlisted for the IMPAC Award. His debut novel This All Happened won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. In 2008, [...]
The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster Random House Young Books, U.S.A. 1961 The Phantom Tollbooth, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, was called an instant classic when it came out in 1961. Norton Juster, an architect by trade, claimed that the Marx Brothers movies provided inspiration for this children’s adventure story. It is considered by many reviewers to [...]
Franny J.D. Salinger New Yorker Magazine, New York, January 29, 1955 The first appearance of Franny, one of Salinger’s most revered stories, was in this 1955 New Yorker Magazine. Two years later, the New Yorker published Salinger’s novella Zooey, and in 1961 these two stories were featured in the Little, Brown and Company publication aptly [...]
Humboldt’s Gift Saul Bellow Viking, U.S.A. 1976 Humboldt’s Gift won the 1976 Pulitzer prize for fiction and was nominated for the National Book Award. Later that same year, Bellow won the Nobel Prize for literature. According to Wikipedia, he is the only writer to be nominated for the National Book Award six times and the [...]
The Folding Star Alan Hollinghurst Pantheon Books, New York, 1994 In this story of obsessions, a disaffected gay man moves from England to a country town in Flanders to tutor two boys. The Folding Star won the James Tait Black Memorial prize for fiction in 1994 and it was shortlisted for the Booker. The New York [...]
A Silver Dish Saul Bellow Albondocani Press, New York, 1979 This well-reviewed long story was Bellow’s first book to come out after winning the 1976 Nobel Prize for literature. It was first published in the New Yorker in 1978 and was later included in the 1984 collection Him With His Foot in His Mouth. This [...]
Goodbye, Columbus Philip Roth Houghton Mifflin, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1959 Goodbye, Columbus is Philip Roth’s first work of fiction. It consists of the title work — a short novel — and five short stories. Roth was awarded a Literary Fellowship before this book was published, and it won the National Book Award in 1960. Many reviewers [...]
The Corrections Jonathan Franzen Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, U.S.A. 2001 The Corrections won the 2001 National Book Award and the 2002 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. It was runner-up for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award, the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, the 2002 Pen/Faulkner Award, and the 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It was named one [...]
