AbeBooks Top 10 Most Expensive Sales for the Third Quarter of 2020
- by Michael Stillman
Stars of Photoplay.
The third quarter of 2020 may have been a difficult quarter for most everything else, but it didn't discourage AbeBooks' higher-end buyers. The effect the pandemic would have on in-store sales was always obvious, but its impact on online sales was not so clear. Would people stuck at home buy more things online? Would job losses prevent them from buying? We don't know how Abe's overall sales have been doing, but a guess here is that people who can afford to pay five-digit book prices aren't hurting that much. Here are the Top 10 prices paid on AbeBooks for the months of July-September.
10. The Works of Sir Walter Scott. This is a set of 61 volumes printed in French and English at the Galignani Press in Paris that belonged to the Duchess of Berry in the 19th century. Scott may no longer be as popular as he once was, but he is hardly forgotten. This is price proof positive. $13,875.
9. Ulysses, by James Joyce. This is a Shakespeare & Co. first edition, fourth printing, from 1924. The copy was signed by Joyce at a dinner in 1927 and given to English journalist Eyre Macklin. $14,775.
7 tie. Limited editions of John Grisham novels. All signed by the author, published from 1993-2018. $15,000.
7 tie. Stars of Photoplay. Published in 1930 by Photoplay Magazine, it contains photos and biographies of 250 early movie stars. What is amazing is that its owner, radio singer Janice Clutterham, got 124 of the stars to sign their page. Among the signers are Jean Arthur, Mary Astor, Lew Ayres, Charlie Chaplin, Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Marion Davies, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Laurel and Hardy, Myrna Loy, Paul Lukas, Jeanette MacDonald, Mary Pickford, William Powell, Will Rogers, Lillian Roth, and Eric von Stroheim. Wow! $15,000.
6. Emma, by Jane Austen. An 1816 first edition, bound by Zaehnsdorf. $16,750.
5. On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. A 1957 first edition of the beat generation's defining work, with a laid in signature from Kerouac. $17,500.
4. Guggenheim, by Richard Hamilton. A piece of Hamilton's pop art, spray painted white and designed to mimic the front of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum. $18,000.
2 tie. The Vegetable, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not Fitzgerald's best known work, nor a successful one. A comedic short story that was developed into Fitzgerald's only play. It bombed before ever reaching Broadway. This copy is signed and inscribed by the author. $20,000.
2 tie. Linda McCartney Life in Photographs. Published in 2011, 13 years after Linda McCartney died, this retrospective of her life and art was produced by her more famous husband, Paul McCartney, and her children. It was signed by McCartney (Paul naturally). $20,000.
1. The Lost World, by Michael Crichton. An unread 1995 first edition, signed by Steven Spielberg and ten actors from the film adaptation. $25,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
