Let's love ex-library first editions (Pt 1)

Buying a Bond book that’s ex-library is considered to be a waste of money. I say not, and that it’s time collectors embraced the former library-life of James Bond first editions:

The sheet that spoils your Ian Fleming first edition? Maybe we shouldn't be so snobby!

There’s plenty of snobbery in the book collecting world that I don’t particularly like.

Some people, for example, look positively mournfully at books that have messy-looking bookplates inside them, or show small bookseller stickers (see my alternative view that argues seeking perfection isn’t always perfect).

Others will look down and discount the very many interesting inscriptions left by former owners that tell you much more about the ownership of a book.

But if there’s one area of superciliousness that trumps all of these, it’s the book world’s pervading view that ex-library books should somehow be considered the most unworthy tomes of all. After all, these have been through the public borrowing system, handled by many unsophisticated fingers. How thoroughly horrid!

But I’ve always felt uneasy about this.

Yes, I admit that books offered at www.jamesbondfirsteditions.co.uk are predominantly books where the closest any of them has come to a library is a private one.

Where I do sell ex-library books, they’re often restricted to being in my reprints section – as most of the later impressions of the Bond books tended to go straight to public libraries. [Coincidentally the Public Libraries Act – which placed a statutory duty on local authorities to provide a "comprehensive and efficient" library service for all persons – was passed in Parliament in the same year Fleming died].

But there’s a few reasons why I think snobbery surrounding ex-library books really is just that – snobbery.

1) Let’s not ignore the (print run) numbers:

Suppose you came across an ex-library example of a first edition, first impression of Casino Royale. Would you really turn this down because it was once housed (and stamped) in a public library?

With just 4,728 copies ever printed – the smallest Bond print run – I would argue not.

In fact, in the case of Casino Royale, it’s probably worth mentioning that you’re actually more likely to find one that is ex-library than one that is not.

According to Biondi & Pickard, less than half of the first impression print run of Casino Royale was actually available to be sold to the public.

In other words, for first impressions of Casino Royale, you could say them being ex-library is actually the norm – ie their normal, widespread state of being.

Sure, this does then mean that the minority that aren’t ex-library are a step-up in terms of perfection, but is that a reason not to put a decent value on an ex-library one?

Of the 'sold' Casino Royale first impressions that I have seen that are ex-library (and with their jacket still), the discounting impact of them being a former library book seems to be about 50% or maybe more.

This example of Casino Royale (pictured left) – sold in June 2024. It was ex-library and sold for £10,100.

However, I personally think the fact this example was in its first state jacket probably bumped this final price up higher than it might ordinary have been.

Also, let us not forget, Ian Fleming [a passionate book collector in his own right], was himself a member of The London Library (his membership sheet is shown below), and this library holds what looks like a proof copy of Casino Royale - see pictures below:

Fleming even featured the same historic library in On Her Majesty's Secret Service - where Bond borrows its copy of Burke's Heraldry, to expose Blofeld's fake aristocratic persona.​ Libraries run through Fleming, and his books!

2) Library books are amongst the very earliest of the bound-up copies

There’s other ways I think we need to respect ex-library books more.

Second is the fact that more often than not, ex-library books are the very earliest Bond books that were bound up. For some collectors this matters greatly, because knowing they’ve got an early print-run book is something that sets it apart from being ‘an-other’ book.

What do I mean? Well, normally, unless a Bond book sports a known printing error (that is rectified mid-way through a first impression print run), it’s impossible to tell whether your Thunderball (for example), is amongst the first, or the very last of its 50,000 first impression print run.

Books earmarked for public libraries however, were bound-up far in advance of the public trade copies, in order to allow enough time for distribution and to enable libraries to add them to their systems, catalogue them, and create records of them etc.

Some libraries received ‘advanced library’ bindings done by Cape itself – which are a whole other area of collectability – but even normally bound books will still be amongst the earliest first impression books of a particular title ever bound up.

Very occasionally, these earlier-bound books leave evidence of this – as shown here by this library copy of Live and Let Die (above).

Note how it’s stamped with a date that is actually ahead of the official publication date of this particular book. The book is dated 2nd April 1954 - which is actually three days earlier than this book's official publication date of 5th April.

3) Library books are often in very good condition

Surely not, you must be thinking.

Most library books are borrowed to death, and only replaced when they’re literally falling apart.

That may well be the case, but in my experience, if you look hard enough, library books are actually a very good source for getting very good condition dust jackets.

For while the boards and the inner pages of library books ‘do’ tend to get mistreated, libraries often made very sure that the jackets stayed nice by covering them with thick plastic removable sleeves.

So, while the books themselves often got battered and bruised during their borrowed life, and are often found with marks, poor hinges, and blemishes, in my experience, those that had protected jackets will – a good 90% of the time – have much better jackets than usual.

There’s been plenty of times where I’ve released a jacket from its sun-damaged, browned, sometimes disintegrating sleeve, to reveal a silk purse underneath. Take a look at these pictures below if you don't believe me. Outwardly the book looked dirty, and browned, and yellowed. But this was just the decaying protective sleeve. What was revealed inside was a stunningly preserved jacket. The sleeve had very much 'done its job':

Not only do the library protective sleeves prevented chipping, and tears and marks to the jacket, they also guarded them against spine fade damage – the biggest visual problem James Bond first editions suffer from.

So, if you spot a first impression ex-library book with an industrial-looking protective covering, it’ll usually contain an non-sunned, near flawless jacket.

You can use this, to swap onto (and improve) an existing first impression book with a bad jacket. As long as the jacket is correct for the impression of the book, I’m largely agnostic about jacket swapping. If a better DJ can improve a poor book. It’s something that just happens.

4) Library books are books that have had a ‘life’

To me, the bookseller trade (rather than collectors), generally under-value the ‘life’ that a book often demonstrates.

Things that make it more interesting are chided for ruining it, or de-valuing the book, and while scrawls may indeed rid a book of its as-published purity, one can’t say they don't contribute to the wider ‘story’ a book has.

Library books (to me) are interesting, because by looking at the borrowing dates, they tell a lot about how popular a book was, or indeed how ‘unpopular’ it was. And, a long gap between lends might well have spelled the beginning of the end of a book's library life, with librarians then deciding it needs taking off the shelves.

We can see this with the example to the left. Here we see busy library sheet in a ‘last impression’ example of You Only Live Twice I recently sold.

There’s a mini mystery in that this book originally came out in 1979, but the library has stamped its ownership as being from April 1982. A bit of a gap!

Lending then started from May 1982 onwards – assuming this library pocket is the only one it had (there’s no evidence of prior ones underneath).

What we can see however, is that this was a book that was already not that well borrowed – only being taken out six times in 1982. In 1983 it got eight borrows – it’s pinnacle year.

But thereafter we see its popularity decline: six times in 1984, to three times in 1985, and then just once in 1986 before that seemingly saw the end of its life. It’s final (January 1986) borrow was itself some nine months after the last time it had been borrowed (in April 1985). The decline of its borrow rates in its final few years is apparent – and perhaps this reflected the popularity of the rest of the Fleming books by the mid 1980s.

By comparison though, below is a picture of another copy that I currently own – this time a third printing of the same title – You Only Live Twice. With this book, the publication date is March 1965 – so just one year after it was published for the very first time.

But in what I believe is an example of almost impossible longevity, we can see the ‘withdrawn’ stamp isn’t until 1^st September 1997.

That’s an incredible 32 years’ of library service!

Alas, the sleeve showing the borrow dates has been removed, so we don’t know its exact lending frequency, but for a book to have lasted this long is practically unheard of.

Have you got a book with a later library date?

We really wouldn’t have any of this information in clean, pristine copies.

5) They might make you smile!

Finally, here's a reason that you might not have thought about - the oddity factor.

Books have the power to enlighten, entertain, anger, engross and much more else besides.

But here’s an Ian Fleming ex-library book (I’m presuming), that first made me want to acquire it, and then made me chuckle at the same time.

Now, I’m guessing this is ex-library because of the binding cloth – and it’s one I’ve seen used lots on other library binding.

However, I could be wrong, as there area actually NO library stamps in the book (again, I have seen other ex-library books without stamps).

What’s definitely the case though, is that whoever rebound this book either had a mischievous side to them, or mis-read or mis-understood his/her binding instructions.

Because this – as you can see on the spine – it reads ‘Live and Let Live’ , rather than the correct Live and Let Die!!

These little quirks amuse me greatly, This is a first edition, first impression.

Now, it ‘may ‘not’ be ex-library, as the pages have not been trimmed (something library bindings are normally associated with) – but in the absence of anything to the contrary I’m saying it might be here. But the misnaming of the book certainly makes it a one off.

This first edition, first impression of Live and Let Die is for sale!

If you are interesting in purchasing email me at: enquiries@jamesbondfirsteditions.co.uk

PS If you've enjoyed this look at ex-library book examples of James Bond books, make sure you read next week's - part 2 - blog, where I look into the evolution of ex-library Fleming titles..