Interesting article, touching on bibliophilia v. bibliomania. http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/26/2913876/auburn-collector-has-more-than.html
Auburn collector has more than 700 books -- all the same title By Sam McManis [email protected] Published: Monday, Jul. 26, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1D The extraordinary awaits in a modest Auburn home. You can tell by the knowing look Bill Ewald trades with his wife, Bonnie, as he leads a visitor toward The Room. "Wait," Bonnie says, scurrying from the kitchen to catch up. "I've got to see this." They relish the reaction that The Room – its contents, really – elicits. Visitors are promised a bibliophile's Disneyland, wonder and magic made real, courtesy of a book collection like no other. But many aren't prepared for the sensation. Ewald, 67, a retired Sacramento firefighter, opens the door. It creaks a bit, antiquarian-style. Then he and Bonnie step back to gauge the reaction. At first, it's just a handsome room: nearly 700 books on oak shelves and display tables, and in cardboard boxes tucked in corners. You smell the mustiness of antiquity. Your eyes catch the glint of gilt spines, the sad fraying of aging cloth covers contrasting with shiny, happy paperbacks. Then it hits you. These are all the same book. Every volume reads: "Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Henry Dana. Row after row, case after case, box after box, nothing but the 1840 true-life classic of the high seas, partly set in pre-Gold Rush California – a best-seller in the mid-19th century that collectors call one of the 80 seminal works of historic California. Some volumes can fit in your palm; others might rate their own viewing stand. You see comic-book versions, scholarly annotated tomes, foreign-language editions, mass-market offerings with elaborate dust jackets, pocket editions for schoolchildren. Seeing that his visitor has suitably soaked up The Room, Ewald turns to a table where some of the older, more valuable books stand, regal as sentinels, spines up. He lovingly reaches out with a curled index finger to pick up a copy, opens it gingerly and turns to the copyright information. "See that 'i' missing its dot?" he asks, pointing to the minuscule serif script. "No, right there. … See, the first edition has the dot! So that proves this is the second state (edition), the ones printed for New York state schools." He flips to Page 9. "See that broken 'i' in the word 'impressions'? The first edition has a complete 'i.' That doesn't make the second edition any more valuable than the first edition. But it is rarer. You'd only get a copy of the second (edition) if it was lost or stolen from the school district library. I've got three of them." Oh, he's owned scores of "Two Years" first editions, too. But Ewald, a seller as well as a collector, says he quickly "turns them over" – sells them – because they're worth about $10,000 and, frankly, he doesn't want to display them in The Room. Besides, first editions of "Two Years" are too common to keep. "Most major (educational) institutions have the first," Ewald says, almost dismissively. "I buy and sell firsts all the time." He stops, looks around. "The significance is all this other stuff." Ewald's mission is to collect these volumes in volume. By that measure, he is the nation's undisputed "Two Years" champ. At nearly 700 copies ("I haven't really counted since I hit 600 a few years ago"), he far outdistances Harvard University, which has 140 volumes donated by the Dana family. He's read "Two Years" several times, but his affection is more about collecting than history or literature. Ewald seemingly wouldn't bat an eye if someone bought The Room's contents, lock, stock and paperback: "I don't think I'd have any emotion. It's just been, you know, the idea of putting it together. I could part with it." ## Serious hobby or … That attitude might separate Ewald from other book collectors who have seen their bibliophilia spiral into bibliomania. As Nicholas A. Basbanes wrote in "A Gentle Madness," a 1995 history of book collecting, the line between the two "can be too blurry to discern." On one hand, Basbanes wrote, you have armchair collectors such as Winston Churchill; on the other, a Spanish monk named Don Vicente, who went on a killing spree in 1830 after being outbid on a rare book. At his sentencing, he said, "Every man must die sooner or later, but good books must be conserved." Sacramento tends to fall on the less-obsessive side, according to local book dealers. Still, said Richard L. Press, who owns an antiquarian bookstore at 18th and F streets in midtown, "Anyone who collects seriously is obsessive. … The impulse to collect is a psychological and emotional state. It's not just a business. … You have to have an intellectual curiosity. This stuff has to mean something to you. It's a lot more complicated than, say, collecting varieties of barbed wire." "Book people are a peculiar bunch," said Pat Bruno of Sacramento, who collects medieval theological books. "Some people are interested in one author. Some are interested in several authors or in one genre. But they all have one thing in common: love for the written word." Is it healthy or obsessive? Or a healthy obsession? Dr. Jay Zil, a Sacramento psychiatrist and vice president of the Sacramento Book Collectors Club, proudly flies the obsessive flag. A collector of the underground works of Nobel winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, he finds that the vast majority of book collectors have not plunged into bibliomania. "It's a very complex issue: 'Why am I doing this?' " Zil said. "It probably has some survival value. Collecting things and organizing things, I mean, we evolved with that trait. … As a physician, I can say that the best doctors, indeed, are obsessive-compulsive. They're organized and detailed and keep track of dosages and orders. My patients are served well by my being a book collector." ## Had 15 copies, read one Yet Ewald seems to be in a league of his own. Press and Bruno said few collectors concentrate solely on a single title. It's a practice that not even Basbanes, in his definitive history of collecting, touches on. Ewald shrugged and said he's heard of people collecting and selling hundreds of copies of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Robinson Crusoe," but nothing like his "Two Years" collection. "I've always understood bibliomania and kept it in check," said Ewald, a firefighter for 33 years who retired 14 years ago. "I never let it interfere with my life. I've seen obsession interfere with lifestyles and marriages. I've always stepped back from it. In fact, it's been a tremendous adventure and enjoyment in my life." That enjoyment stems in part from what "Two Years" has taught him about early California history. Before starting the collection in 1985 at the suggestion of his mentor, now-deceased Argus Books owner Herb Caplan, Ewald hadn't read Dana's adventure. "But I knew the book was one of the Zamarano 80 (the 80 most important books on California history, compiled by antiquarian booksellers), so it was important," he said. It wasn't until Ewald's collection totaled 15 that he read the book. He loved the story, Dana's style, the glimpse of an untamed California. That love only strengthened his resolve to collect. By 1990, the 150th anniversary of the book's publication, Ewald's collection had grown to 150. He nearly sold it to the University of California's Bancroft Library, but that fell through. So on he went collecting. The advent of eBay and Web commerce made it easier, and Ewald found himself buying about 10 copies a month for many years. Sometimes, the copies were worth less than the postage it took to obtain them. Other times, they were valuable. Five years ago, Ewald came upon another find – Bonnie, now his wife. They met while taking contra dance classes in Auburn, hit it off and decided to get married. "I never heard of the book before we met," she said. "He lent me one of his copies – a cheap one – and I read it and, wow, it was a really good story." Bonnie is accepting of Bill's other love. "You know," she said, "we all have our … things. It's fine." Not so fine, at least at first, was the completion of The Room in the house the couple bought. "I mean, he took over a whole room!" she said. "I had no idea there were so many in all those boxes he had." Now she relishes The Room. She enjoys watching the dawning realization in people that this room full of books contains a single title. Call it a parlor trick. WANT TO COLLECT BOOKS? AN EXPERT'S TIPS Jim Bowling, a noted book collector from Dallas, has launched www.book-collecting-tips.com to help novices get started. Here are his top 10 tips: 1. For a book to be collectible, it must be a first edition (also called first printing). Check the copyright page for the number "1." 2. A book's condition has a big impact on its value. Just reading a book once can result in stains, tears or rubbing that can reduce its value by 30 percent to 50 percent or more. 3. An author's first book will usually be the most valuable book she or he writes. 4. Collect hardcover books. They have a much greater longevity than paperbacks, which will turn yellow over time and whose pages will become brittle. 5. Select books from these book genres: literature, science fiction, fantasy, mystery. 6. Books that have won book awards are often very collectible and valuable. In particular, be on the lookout for an author's first book that has won an award. 7. Books that are generating buzz may be worth collecting. Consider collecting books that have received good reviews, have been mentioned positively in Publisher's Weekly or are being made into a movie. 8. When a book has been signed by the author, the value generally increases by 20 percent to 100 percent. 9. A book will be more collectible if it is from the country where it was first published. 10. Valuable first editions can be found on the bargain shelves in major bookstores. Publishers discount books that have stopped selling well or have been reprinted too many times. First editions of authors' first or second books can sometimes be found.JOIN THE CLUB The Sacramento Book Collectors Club meets at 7 p.m. the second Friday of the month, September through June. Meetings are at local venues including libraries and community centers. The next meeting is Sept. 10 at Arcade Community Branch Library, 2443 Marconi Ave. For more information, contact club president Daryl Morrison at [email protected] or (530) 752-2112. Or visit www.sacramentobookcollectors.org. GET IN THE HUNT Here is a sampling of Sacramento used-book stores where collectors can search for treasures: • Beers Books, 915 S St.; (916) 442-9475 • Time Tested Books, 1114 21st St.; (916) 447-5696 • Book Collector, 1008 24th St.; (916) 442-9295 • J Crawford's Books, 5301 Freeport Blvd.; (916) 731-8001 © Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
