Rare Book Monthly

Articles - September - 2008 Issue

BookFinder Announces the Most Sought After Books of the Year

Marilyn still fascinates us today.

Marilyn still fascinates us today.


By Michael Stillman

Bookfinder.com recently released its fifth annual report of the most sought after old books on its book searching website. BookFinder's Top 10 reports are fascinating as the leading titles combine high interest with difficulty to find. The most sought after books on the listing sites tend to be common and recent publications, ones which people seek online for a cheaper price. However, when searchers go to BookFinder, which enables them to search many listing sites at once, the chances are good that they are attempting to locate a book that is hard to find. The desired, but hard to locate book, dominates BookFinder's Top 10 lists.

Not surprisingly, the hard to obtain titles often are ones that have a story behind them to explain their rarity. BookFinder's founder, Anirvan Chatterjee, noted, "Many of this year’s standout titles have fascinating stories, involving factors like suppression or controversy." Others simply have issues of demand outstripping supply. Some of these books show up on the list year after year, while others will experience 15 minutes of fame, and then again be relegated to the back shelves of disinterest. For now, here are what people who seek old books online were looking for during the past year.

Only one category has a perennial favorite, number one on the list every year since BookFinder began tallying its reports. In the category of Arts and Music, number 1 is again Sex by Madonna. Unlike many books on this list, Sex is hardly rare, 1.5 million copies having been sold within days of its release in 1992. However, the strange erotica for which the singer-actress posed seems not to have lost any of its artistic or whatever appeal. And, Madonna has not aged a day since 1992 on the pages of this book. This year, the winner of runner-up honors in Arts and Music goes to Bob Dylan, whose recent Drawn Blank consists of paintings created from sketches he had made on tour years earlier. His art, like his music, is far subtler than that of Madonna.

The Madonna of another generation tops the most sought after works in the field of Biography: Marilyn: A Biography. This 1973 book by Norman Mailer includes provocative photos of the great Marilyn Monroe, perhaps not as outrageous as those of Madonna, but as controversial in their day as was the Material Girl's photographs in hers. Mailer also posited a bizarre political murder plot for a death the authorities attributed to a suicidal overdose of pills. This list also includes autobiographies of the dearest of mommies, Joan Crawford, and wrongly convicted boxer Rubin Carter, who spent many years in prison for murder. However, Rin Tin Tin was unable to compose an autobiography, so James W. English filled in to write The Rin Tin Tin Story on his behalf.

In Children's Books, Robb White's The Lion's Paw completes its third year on top. Two titles from popular illustrator Tasha Tudor, who died just a few months ago, make their first appearance on this list.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Swann
    Printed & Manuscript African Americana
    March 20, 2025
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 7: Thomas Fisher, The Negro's Memorial or Abolitionist's Catechism, London, 1825. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 78: Victor H. Green, The Negro Travelers' Green Book, New York, 1958. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 99: Rosa Parks, Hand-written recollection of her first meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., autograph manuscript, Detroit, c. 1990s. $30,000 to $40,000.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 154: Frederick Douglass, Autograph statement on voting rights, signed manuscript, 1866. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 164: W.E.B. Du Bois, What the Negro Has Done for the United States and Texas, Washington, circa 1936. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann
    Printed & Manuscript African Americana
    March 20, 2025
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 263: Susan Paul, Memoir of James Jackson, Boston, 1835. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 267: Langston Hughes, Gypsy Ballads, signed translation of García Lorca's poetry, Madrid, 1937. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 274: Malcolm X, Collection from Alex Haley's estate, 38 items, 1963-1971. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 367: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, Auburn, NY, 1853. $2,500 to $3,500.
    Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 402: Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South, Xenia, OH, 1892. $2,000 to $3,000.
  • Koller, Mar. 26: Wit, Frederick de. Atlas. Amsterdam, de Wit, [1680]. CHF 20,000 to 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 26: Merian, Maria Sibylla. Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung, und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Nürnberg, 1679; Frankfurt a. M. und Leipzig, 1683. CHF 20,000 to 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 26: GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON. Faust. Ein Fragment. Von Goethe. Ächte Ausgabe. Leipzig, G. J. Göschen, 1790. CHF 7,000 to 10,000
    Koller, Mar. 26: Hieronymus. [Das hochwirdig leben der außerwoelten freünde gotes der heiligen altuaeter]. Augsburg, Johann Schönsperger d. Ä., 9. Juni 1497. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.
    Koller, Mar. 26: BIBLIA GERMANICA - Neunte deutsche Bibel. Nürnberg, A. Koberger, 17. Feb. 1483. CHF 40,000 to 60,000
    Koller, Mar. 26: HORAE B.M.V. - Stundenbuch. Lateinische Handschrift auf Pergament, Kalendarium französisch. Nordfrankreich (Rouen?). CHF 25,000 to 40,000

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions