If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

(Yahoo) Interesting A copy of the "most expensive book in the world" Audubon's "Birds of North America" to be auctioned off this week. Unclear if it's the expurgated version or not   (news.yahoo.com) divider line 112
More: Interesting, Audubon Society, Sotheby's, Jane Austen, John James Audubon, business ventures, bidding, United States  
•       •       •

7910 clicks; posted to Main » on 10 Sep 2010 at 1:12 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



112 Comments   (+0 »)
   

Archived thread

First | « | 1 | 2 | 3 | » | Last | Show all
 
HenryFnord [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 10:56:58 AM
The one without the gannet?
 
notmtwain [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 11:04:48 AM
Audubon. Audoban is a song by Kraftwerk.


///Not Audubon:

www.harding.edu

Laden Swallow
 
The English Major [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 11:08:47 AM
 
EvilEgg [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 11:13:34 AM
I can't buy it; it's all torn.
 
shirtsbyeric
2010-09-10 11:17:14 AM
all the tits are blacked out.
 
CitizenTed [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 11:51:22 AM
shirtsbyeric: all the tits are blacked out.

OK, I LOLed. Good jerb.
 
AdolfOliverPanties [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 12:29:26 PM
Is it really the most expensive book in the world, or is it just a tribute?

loyalkng.com
 
Weaver95 [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 12:40:59 PM
I've read the first chapter:

Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They have trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread.
 
dahmers love zombie [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 12:59:03 PM
I'm still holding out for A Sale of Two Titties.

By Edmund Wells, of course.
 
Cyberluddite [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 01:12:43 PM
"Most expensive book in the world"? I'm guessing a Gutenberg Bible, for one, would be worth more than the Audubon book. TFA says the Audubon book is expected to sell for around $6 million to $9 million. But a complete Gutenberg Bible is supposed to be worth around $35 million.

Having said that, I've seen two copies of this Audubon book in person--one at the Huntington Library in Pasadena (where they also have a Gutenberg Bible), and one that's in the State of California's official archives and was on public display for a year or two at the state capitol building in Sacramento. It's a very impressive piece of work, and it's farking huge (TFA says 2x3 feet), but $9 million is a lot of money. If it's worth 9 mil, maybe Ah-nuld should sell the State of California's copy--we could use the cash.
 
Bondith
2010-09-10 01:15:08 PM
HenryFnord
The one without the gannet?

They wet their nests.
 
Gilligann [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 01:16:14 PM
Is that the same book Rudy was cutting up for a school project?

I still blame Vanessa for that.
 
TypoFlyspray
2010-09-10 01:16:33 PM
Meh.
Do you have "The adventures of the Duchess of Kent and her Intrepid Spaniel Pip in the Samarkhand Desert?" or "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying"?
 
Flakeloaf
2010-09-10 01:17:22 PM
Nothin on top but a bucket and a mop and pretty much any book written before the twelfth century.
 
GoodyearPimp
2010-09-10 01:19:44 PM
TypoFlyspray: "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying"?

It's here somewhere.
 
CMetzger42
2010-09-10 01:20:11 PM
dahmers love zombie: I'm still holding out for A Sale of Two Titties.

By Edmund Wells, of course.

Didn't he also write David Coperfield?
 
KhamanV
2010-09-10 01:20:22 PM
The English Major: Huh. Were Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child onto something? (new window)

I came to make that exact crack. Reality sometimes gets weird. It doesn't help that I was just reading a bunch of creepypasta.

Watch out for the really pale guy in the back of the auction house.
 
Lt. Cheese Weasel
2010-09-10 01:20:26 PM
notmtwain: Audubon. Audoban is a song by Kraftwerk.


///Not Audubon:



Laden Swallow

Are you suggesting books migrate?
 
deadsanta
2010-09-10 01:20:27 PM
How is this selling for 5 times as much as a shakespeare original folio? That's just wrong.
 
Vorpal
2010-09-10 01:20:44 PM
How much for the kindle edition?
 
AlgaeRancher
2010-09-10 01:25:09 PM
A copy of the "most expensive book in the world" Audubon's "Birds of North America" to be auctioned off this week


and the Kindle version will cost $2 more than the hardcover one.
 
GuyCaballero
2010-09-10 01:26:43 PM
dahmers love zombie: I'm still holding out for A Sale of Two Titties.

By Edmund Wells, of course.

My favorite by him is Grate Expectations
 
Liberally1337
2010-09-10 01:26:53 PM
If I had that much to throw around, I'd say screw the book and buy that Italian castle from the other thread so people would have to call me Count.
 
Cowboy Spencer
2010-09-10 01:27:02 PM
Why don't you try W.H. Smith's?
 
Thorndyke Barnhard
2010-09-10 01:27:20 PM
The English Major: Huh. Were Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child onto something? (new window)

Um, thanks for the link? I guess?
 
KhamanV
2010-09-10 01:27:50 PM
deadsanta: How is this selling for 5 times as much as a shakespeare original folio? That's just wrong.

Pretty pictures helps; it's more visual, I'd say. Each page of the elephant folio is a professional work of art; difficult to truly replicate. The original Shakespeare is valuable, of course, and shouldn't be dismissed, but the text of it is more easily distributed.

The few commercial attempts at reprinting the elephant folios do no justice.
 
don't understand
2010-09-10 01:28:08 PM
BURN IT!
 
danvon
2010-09-10 01:29:05 PM
A pioneering French-American ornithologist and entrepreneur whose business ventures took him across the expanding United States, Audubon came to Britain in 1826 after failing to raise money to print his book in America. His outdoorsman image and vivid illustrations made a strong impression.

"He caused a sensation," said Goldthorpe. "It was as if someone in a (James) Fenimore Cooper novel had ended up in a Jane Austen novel."

I don't get how Audubon's book about birds relates to the above statement. Must be a book collector thing.
 
tricycleracer
2010-09-10 01:30:03 PM
James Bond would approve.
 
KhamanV
2010-09-10 01:30:35 PM
Thorndyke Barnhard: The English Major: Huh. Were Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child onto something? (new window)

Um, thanks for the link? I guess?

The wiki link is pretty unhelpful. They wrote a recent bestseller where a fictional 'Black Frame' painting by Audubon was a major point. The book also featured a copy of the elephant folio under discussion, cared for in the mansion owned by the protagonist.
 
latrans lycaon
2010-09-10 01:30:48 PM
At work we keep our copy in the vault. I've only seen it once.

/Rare books grad assistant
 
Bullroarer_Took
2010-09-10 01:31:46 PM
deadsanta: How is this selling for 5 times as much as a shakespeare original folio? That's just wrong.

Reading it doesn't make you catch teh ghey.
 
goochmeister42 [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 01:32:46 PM
Unavailable for comment:

thepirata.com
 
Cybernetic [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 01:32:59 PM
dahmers love zombie: I'm still holding out for A Sale of Two Titties.

By Edmund Wells, of course.

The one with four M's and a silent Q?
 
Thorndyke Barnhard
2010-09-10 01:33:27 PM
KhamanV: The wiki link is pretty unhelpful. They wrote a recent bestseller where a fictional 'Black Frame' painting by Audubon was a major point. The book also featured a copy of the elephant folio under discussion, cared for in the mansion owned by the protagonist.

Ah. Is their book any good or is it just a propos for this thread?
 
Biness
2010-09-10 01:34:24 PM
this is a book of an ornothological nature?

have you all heard?? I was under the impression that everyone had heard.


www.lovebadges.co.uk
 
Mock26
2010-09-10 01:34:38 PM
Wait a minute. Is this a book about the German highway system or is it about birds? I am confused.

:-D
 
Devolving_Spud
2010-09-10 01:34:57 PM
Cyberluddite: "Most expensive book in the world"? I'm guessing a Gutenberg Bible, for one, would be worth more than the Audubon book. TFA says the Audubon book is expected to sell for around $6 million to $9 million. But a complete Gutenberg Bible is supposed to be worth around $35 million.

Correction: "...the most expensive non-fiction book..."

Anyway, I came for the Python references and to see if you had a copy of "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying".
 
elev8meL8r
2010-09-10 01:35:30 PM
Flakeloaf: Nothin on top but a bucket and a mop and pretty much any book written before the twelfth century.

Gotdangit, I came in here to make a Plateau reference.
 
vudukungfu
2010-09-10 01:36:30 PM
I auctioned off a bunch of signed Aududon prints I collected as a kid when I needed the money in the late 1980s. I got a freaking lot of money. The guy that bought them can still sell them for a handsome profit, too. They will only go up in value.
I really miss my signed Parrish prints, though.
 
Manfred J. Hattan
2010-09-10 01:38:07 PM
KhamanV: deadsanta: How is this selling for 5 times as much as a shakespeare original folio? That's just wrong.

Pretty pictures helps; it's more visual, I'd say. Each page of the elephant folio is a professional work of art; difficult to truly replicate. The original Shakespeare is valuable, of course, and shouldn't be dismissed, but the text of it is more easily distributed.

The few commercial attempts at reprinting the elephant folios do no justice.

This. Also, you have to realize that the first folio was not contemporary with Shakespeare. It was published after his death. So no signatures, no blurb about how thrilled he is to have all his plays in a single collection for you the reader, nothing. Except for it being first, it's no different from the Complete Works you can buy on Amazon except that it's less complete. By contrast, Birds of North America is right from Audubon's hand.
 
billdorr
2010-09-10 01:39:07 PM
Cowboy Spencer: Why don't you try W.H. Smith's?

I did. They sent me here.
 
Persnickety
2010-09-10 01:42:01 PM
billdorr: Cowboy Spencer: Why don't you try W.H. Smith's?

I did. They sent me here.

Did they?
 
TypoFlyspray
2010-09-10 01:46:33 PM
GoodyearPimp: TypoFlyspray: "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying"?

It's here somewhere.

But I ust remembered, I can't Read!

/ Not as effective in print, that.
 
Pants full of macaroni!! [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 01:47:33 PM
I CAN'T READ!!!!
 
Pants full of macaroni!! [TotalFark]
2010-09-10 01:48:17 PM
Dammit! Poached by a whole minute!
 
Bondith
2010-09-10 01:48:26 PM
Devolving Spud
Anyway, I came for the Python references and to see if you had a copy of "Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying".

We don't, and I should also like to point out that we also don't have Rarnaby Budge by Charles Dikkens, the well known Dutch author

/completely screwed that up
 
Gullyborg
2010-09-10 01:49:27 PM
Steve Gutenberg wrote the Bible?

Seriously though, the price of a Gutenberg Bible is only a potential price. They can estimate one would sell for that amount, but unless one actually goes on the market and does sell for that amount, it can't earn the title of "most expensive book."

As to Shakespeare: the issue is supply, not demand. Plenty of people would prefer to spend a million on a Shakespeare folio than on a book about birds. Fortunately for them, there are more copies in print.
 
JohnBigBootay
2010-09-10 01:50:05 PM
The English Major: Huh. Were Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child onto something? (new window)

I know it's crap... but I love the pendergast series. fun book.
 
jshine
2010-09-10 01:50:56 PM
Does it have the boobies?
 
Displayed 50 of 112 comments

First | « | 1 | 2 | 3 | » | Last | Show all

Redisplay/refresh comments

This thread is closed to new comments.

Continue Farking
Submit a Link »
From the Fark Shop:
More from the Fark Shop »