Compelling Chords 



quoted at high prices. "Association" 

 books and "Presentation" copies are 

 held in greater veneration by your col- 

 lector "fan" than first editions. An 

 "Association" book may be one that 

 derives its special value from the fact 

 that it once belonged to some lion of 

 the literary world. It may not be of 

 any possible interest of itself, and it 

 may be in an uncertain state of preser- 

 vation, but if Wordsworth once owned 

 it, and after writing his name in it, 

 gave it away to his second cousin's 

 great aunt or something like that, it 

 may cost you $600 to place it on your 

 own book-shelves. You can buy 

 Thackeray's old school algebra, if you 

 want it, for $500. You can get the last 

 presentation copy Shelley made of 

 " Prometheus Unbound " first edi- 

 tion for $5,000. What the next to the 

 last one the poet gave away may be 

 worth deponent knoweth not. 



Far be it from me, however, to dis- 

 parage such evidences of interest in 



