NationStates Jolt Archive

What's the oldest book you have in our own personal library?
My is The Works of William Shakspeare, Complete. Accurately Printed From The Text Of The Corrected Copy Left By The Late George Steevens, Esq. published 1863 by Sheldon & Company of New York. With a memoir by Alexander Chalmers, A.M.

Mine would have to be the two:

"The Philadelphia Experiment" Published 1973

"The Holy Bible" Published thousands of years ago.

I have an original copy of The Hobbit, and as a family we have a 3 storey bookshelf with all the books pre-victorian. But its in a secure room, so don't try anything

My oldest book is my family bible, which has been in the family since 1690.

I have an original copy of The Hobbit, and as a family we have a 3 storey bookshelf with all the books pre-victorian. But its in a secure room, so don't try anything

Where do you live?

As far as when it was written (aside from relgious books, etc.) It's "Counterpoint" By Joseph Fux, written sometime in the 1600s, I believe.

I think as for print date, I think it'd be my copy of "Little Women" I think it's before 1900, maybe an original print. I'm not sure.

I have a copy of a children's limerick book, which was manufactured in 1932 (So 72 years old). Even some of the sellotape holding it together is decades old!

By print date of my edition it's a tie between Britain Long Ago (A book of English and Celtic stories) and A Book of Golden Deeds. The editions I hold were published in 1913

If you're going to go by original publishing date...well, I have the Odyssey and the Iliad and whilst they were originally oral and weren't written down for thousands of years, telling the story counts as publishing :p

History of the United States, Political-Industrial-Social 1917

Gotta love pre-revisionist history

I have a 1925 edition of Winnie the Pooh, as well as a 1935 20,000 Leagues. That, and a bunch of my parents' college textbooks from the 60s and 70s.

*sigh* The oldest book I have is a 1611 King James Bible. I have a helluva time trying to read it because being published in 1611 it is in like Old English.

I have a family bible used since the 1880's, and a copy of The Deluge, by Sienkiewicz from around 1890...

also a 1974 Guiness Book of World Records and a 1940's Brewers' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.. :p

If you're going to go by original publishing date...well, I have the Odyssey and the Iliad and whilst they were originally oral and weren't written down for thousands of years, telling the story counts as publishing :p


I call Epic of Gilgamesh. :cool:

Well, I didn't bring many books to college (3ish), so the oldest written is the Complete Works of Shakespeare and the oldest published the 1979 edition of The Elements of Style (Strunk and White). However, I have sitting on my desk from the library Upton Sinclair's Damaged Goods from 1913.

I honestly have so many books I couldn't tell you without checking, and I don't want to spend three or four hours doing it, so...a bunch of 'em, and they're some of them very old indeed. A lot of 'em are new, though. The newer ones smell nicer. The older ones feel nicer. It's a trade-off, I suppose.

I have a handwritten copy of Alice in Wonderland, whenever that was published (under the title of Alice's Adventures Underground ) I also have a type-writer copy of The Wind in the Willows .

My oldest book is a hymn book, I think, called Harmonia Sacra. Alas there is no publishing date, so I don't know whether I've got the 1753 edition or one of the later ones. But it's from the British publisher, so I'm pretty sure it's from the 18th century, even though there was an American reprint in about 1817.

Other than hymn books, I have some textbooks going back to the 19th century. Including one on electrical engineering, which is well weird!

I must say I'm well impressed with some of your offerings. A family bible from 1690 is fun, and useful for family history research! And a whole collection of pre-Victorian books - I feel myself turning green...

That said, my parents have a complete 1898 Encyclopaedia Britannica, and other things of that nature...

My oldest confirmed book is a first-edition copy of The Enochian Magick of Dr. John Dee. I most likely own an older book by Victor Hugo titled Things Seen, but there's no confirmed date anywhere in the book. It was most likely printed in the mid-1800's.

I would have to look, but the oldest printing I have is about 1960. BTW the king james version, published in 1604 *1604* is highly unlikey to be on anyones shelf as an original. And it should be under glass and well protected from the environment.

[font=comic sans ms][b]What's the oldest book you have in our own personal library?

Vashti, by Augusta Evans, G. W. Dillingham Publisher 1869

and

ENCYCLOPAEPIA OF WIT AND WISDOM : A Collection of Over Nine Thousand Anecdotes and Illustrations of Life, Character, Humor and Pathos, in One Hundred Classifications , by Henry Hupfeld, David McKay Publisher 1897

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, first print of 1894.

I own a copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare as well as the Bible, which is over 3,300 years old.

"The Holy Bible" Published thousands of years ago.
Then I would say mine is the Bhaghavad Gitah. Beats the Bible by a couple of thousand years at least. Plus it has more miracles.

By date of printing I don't have many old books, had to leave most behind when I moved :sigh: