More Daring Twins

In my posting for the Daring Twins series, I forgot to mention a collecting incident that happened to me - at least, I suppose you might call it that. It's one of many stories that come under the heading of "the ones that got away", a topic familiar to any collector of anything.

There is a local antiquarian book fair every summer, and for a few years it expanded to a smaller sale in the fall as well. At one of these fall sales, maybe ten years ago now, I arrived to find a certain amount of buzz going on among the dealers. As it turned out, a copy of The Daring Twins, signed by Baum and in its dust jacket, had been making its way around the floor from dealer to dealer. It was a copy in the secondary binding, (shown at right). I believe the original price had been a couple hundred dollars, and it had worked its way into thousands. I never did actually see the book, and all the buying and selling had happened before the show opened, strictly among the dealers. Whoever ended with the book had it packed away to try and sell out east.

As it happens, I did eventually see the book at a New York book fair. As of now, it still has not made its way into a collection - and is priced at a point that makes it impossible for an average collector to purchase. It's still sitting on a dealer's shelf!