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Chris Scott
Inspector
Username: Chris
Post Number: 280
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 3:09 pm: | 
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This question is only out of academic interest but I just wondered if anyone knew what is the most sought after - i.e. rarest - book ever published about Jack? I am confining my question at the moment to non firction books which is why I have placed this thread here.
I do not for one moment think I have a copy hidden away in the attic!!! In fact I dont even have an attic! As far as I know the rarest one I have is a first edition hardback of Jack the Myth by AP Wolf:-)
Regards
Chris |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2757
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 3:15 pm: |
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Strictly speaking, I think the rarest book on Jack the Ripper would have to be "Jack the Ripper, or the Crimes of London" by W.J. Hayne, 1889. Up until last year it was generally assumed to have been "lost" forever (the only surviving mention of it was in the Library of Congress, which listed it as "lost" around 1919). Then, low and behold, a copy popped up on eBay last summer, and went for around $2400 US. Unfortunately it went to a private collector, so I'm not sure if the rest of us will ever be privy to its contents...
If we're talking hardback Ripper books, I think that honor has to go to William Stewart's "Jack the Ripper, a New Theory." That one can be a devil to find, even more difficult than a 1st Matters. Woodhall is rare as well, perhaps moreso, but I believe it was only published in paperback.
There a few such as those by Kwok and Mylechreest (search for both names on the Casebook and you'll find them) which were published in the 70s in such small numbers, that they've never been included in any proper bibliography. Both were only "rediscovered" over the past few years.
Stephen P. Ryder, Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 298
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 4:59 pm: |
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Chris
I have seen 'Jack the Myth' on some web site sales for an astronomical sum, and generally speaking the book seems to be highly over-valued from a financial point of view. This is probably due to the limited print run because the larger print run was curtailed due to the appearance of that damned diary - which cost me dearly - however I do remember the original print run on the hard back cover being halted suddenly because of a copy error, but about fifty review copies with the error did get out, so these would obviously be even rarer.
Perhaps even rarer are the 'Chivers Large Print Press' hardback books, one of which I use as my working copy on account of my failing sight.
I have yet to find another copy but I suppose they do exist.
I personally have never seen a 'softcover' version of the 'Myth' but as it has a ISBN number '0 7451 2336 8' I assume it must be out there somewhere. If it is I'd like to know as I never got paid for it.
I place a thousand curses on the publishing world.
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Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2761
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 5:03 pm: |
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Hi AP -
I've got a hardback and a softcover Jack the Myth - the softcover is the Chivers Large Print Press version. Hope you got paid for my copy! 
Stephen P. Ryder, Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 299
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 5:17 pm: |
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Greetings Stephen
then you have one I got paid for and one I didn't.
I honestly have never seen a softcover version, and didn't even know they existed until Chris posted his note and I checked the inside cover of my Chivers and noted the softcover ISBN number.
How ten years fly by.
And I place ten thousand curses on the publishing world.
I've a good mind to start my own publishing house specialising in this field and cut the rug under their feet. |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2762
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 5:18 pm: |
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According to OCLC there are only three versions of your book - hardcover by Robert Hale, and hardcover and softcover by Chivers Large Print Press.
It appears that the Chivers version is more widely available than the Hale - 38 libraries have Chivers, while only 9 report having Hale on their shelves.
For what its worth, my own softcover Chivers was a library discard.
________________
Title: Jack the Myth : a new look at the Ripper /
Author(s): Wolf, A. P.
Publication: London : Robert Hale,
Year: 1993
Description: 157 p., [4] p. of plates : ill., facsims., ports. ; 23 cm.
Language: English
Standard No: ISBN: 0709051514
Title: Jack the myth : a new look at the Ripper /
Author(s): Wolf, A. P.
Publication: Bath, [England] : Chivers Press,
Edition: Large print ed.
Year: 1994, ©1993
Description: 195 p. (large print) ; 22 cm.
Language: English
Standard No: ISBN: 0745123252 (U.K. hardcover); 0745123368 (U.K. softcover)
Stephen P. Ryder, Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Robert Charles Linford
Inspector
Username: Robert
Post Number: 348
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 5:48 pm: |
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Hi all
I suppose it's possible Jack himself may have bought a copy of the 1889 book. Any chance of marginalia turning up?
Robert |
Wolf Vanderlinden
Sergeant
Username: Wolf
Post Number: 30
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 2:34 pm: |
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Hi all.
I would have to agree with Stephen's choices. The 1889 "Jack the Ripper, or the Crimes of London," by W.J. Hayne, would be my personal choice for rarest edition. I have believed for a long time now that a copy would eventually surface and so one has. I have always considered Richard K. Fox's December 1888 pulp book "The History of the Whitechapel Murders" to be under appreciated in that it should perhaps be considered the first real Ripper book as it tells the story of the murders and also offers a suspect, Nicolas Vassili. The line of suspect driven books on the Whitechapel murders starts here. I suppose my first edition copy of this work is the rarest in my collection.
Wolf.
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 300
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 01, 2003 - 2:41 pm: |
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Yes, Stephen, you are quite right.
The library thing is funny... my local library has one copy of the Hale version and it is always out. I got my hands on it once and it has been scribbled on to oblivion, all sorts of obscure data and facts added which I have never had time to look at properly. I think it has now gone missing... someone must have seen the price tag on the net.
I must look through my stuff and see if I can't find some of the original covers with the copy error.
As I said, original untouched copy with true signature is up for grabs for the best poem this year and I expect you to be the judge.
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Jack Traisson
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, June 30, 2003 - 9:41 pm: |
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Original copies of Muusmann, Robinson, Dorsenne are difficult to obtain. Even the reprints are scarce.
I have a hardback book made by a lady in N.Y. State for dollhouses. I believe she had to stop making them because of copyright infringement.
Another rare item is an uncorrected proof copy of 'Letter's From Hell' (sic). I point attention to this one because of the simple grammar error.
And A.P. Wolf may have the rarest book of all, but only if his copy of 'Who Was Jack the Ripper?' is signed. 
Cheers |
AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 301
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 02, 2003 - 3:20 pm: |
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Greetings Jack
I still haven't signed it yet...
Perhaps I will next year and throw it in as first prize for the 2004 JtR poetry thread.
Then what about the original manuscripts?
I'm not so sure about these books that are actually manufactured to be collector's items and I'm afraid I treat them with a certain amount of contempt - even my own, it sits on the shelf gathering dust and in the sunlight, but having said that there is a certain joy in the art of collection and I too am seduced by it.
As I've said before the idea of republishing the new version of the Myth does appeal to me and I might well do it yet.
Limited edition etc.
It would be nice to exact a pound from the publishing world before I depart this mortal coil.
Not greedy, just would like some of my investment back... I spent ten long years in the garden shed.
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Jack Traisson
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 4:40 am: |
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Hello again, A.P.!
You are right: many booklets and other items are manufactured to be collectables, but many limited editions are of genuine value.
I am not a collector by nature but there is a contradiction in that I must purchase most of the new material to keep up to date and in-the-know about my little hobby. This does afford me the advantage of saving alot of money by not having to acquire the material later.
Martin Easdown and Linda Sage produced 'Jack the Ripper in a Seaside Town', which is a look at the case through the Folkstone newspapers. It is an important research tool to someone like me. It was never commercially available to the public as only 100 copies were printed, yet it sold for a mere £5.
Even your book, 'Jack the Myth', which a few people balked at when initially available, thinking it a bit pricey at £16, are now kicking themselves. Both of the books I mentioned are now selling at ten times their original value if one can find a copy.
The proliferation of Ripper material started around the centenary and has not shown any signs of abating. Most of the material is put out in small runs, quickly goes out of print, and becomes very valuable.
My advice is simply to buy it when you see it for anyone thinking of delving more deeply into the subject of JtR, otherwise you will regret it. People always want to know where they can find a reasonably priced copy of this title or that, and most often one can't unless they bought it new. It will not be long before Shelden's indispensable trio of booklets (among a few other important titles) is beyond the reach of most people. Except for the older volumes in my collection (pre-Rumbelow), I have spent a modest amount building up my collection by just purchasing early.
If you do put out another printed edition of your book, make sure the resellers don't make more profit than you 
Nice talking to you again, A.P., I enjoy your poetic SSB inpired view of the world.
Cheers, |
AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 302
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 2:52 pm: |
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Thank you, Jack, you say the nicest things.
I agree with you about the collectables really, there is just a feeling of being used - as an author that is - but what the hell, that's the norm today.
Although part of my nature is agin self-publication, I do feel in certain circumstances that it is justified, but as you do point out the resellers control the market. However with the advent of the internet I do believe this can be successfully sabatoged. I have been experimenting for some three years now with internet publishing and distribution - in the Egyptology and fiction department - and have enjoyed some small success... enough anyway to show me that the usual resellers can be excluded from the market place. And what a joy that is!
So, yes, I might go that way yet.
Yes, you are right, the original price of the Myth was prohibitive and even I couldn't afford the bloody thing. Lucky I got seven free copies, one of which is left for the poetry thread.
What about a poem from you then? |
Christopher DiGrazia
Sergeant
Username: Cmd
Post Number: 13
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 14, 2003 - 2:20 pm: |
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Interesting thread. I'm afraid I own none of the truly rare books (a bit out of my pocketbook, though one would think being a Ripper press baron would pay better), though I do have a hardback Wolf (for which I paid full price, A.P.), the Seaside Town booklet and Shelden's trio. I would suppose the rarest items in my collection are Patricia Cory's dreadful An Eye to the Future, the omnibus commentary Who WAS Jack the Ripper (with signatures), Peter Hodgson's JtR: Through the Mists of Time (a limited print run and publisher receivership), a first edition hardback Knight and a galley of Eddleston's Encyclopaedia. I've long wanted a Matters and Whittington-Egan's Casebook (both of which kind folk have photocopied for me), but have yet to find them in my price range. |
Martin Fido
Detective Sergeant
Username: Fido
Post Number: 91
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 8:47 am: |
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Hi AP Wolf!
Check your contract and write your publishers a stiff letter! I did this when I found that Octopus, or whoever had inherited my old Hamlyn's titles, had issued a new edition of my Oscar Wilde under an unheard of imprint behind my back a few years ago. (The second time they'd tried it). They produced their usual phoney whinge that they didn't know where I was living or they'd have contacted me... but they coughed up what they owed.
Remember Byron's profoundly truthful adaptation of scripture: "Now Barabbas was a publisher."
All the best,
Martin F |
Saddam
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 1:14 am: |
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In terms of JtR books, the most valuable to me have been the ones I've ruined though use and had to have replaced. My first and second AZs were reduced to the consistency of toilet paper by the serine in my hands. I've got Begg's 'Uncensored Facts' pretty well composted too, and that's a strongly made paperback.
Saddam
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 308
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 3:38 pm: |
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Martin
Thank you for the sentiment and advice, but my agent retired last year and so did I. I have washed myself clean from the publishing world and now enjoy respectable revenue from my own immediate writing without the diabolic influence and percentages of those varmits.
I have recently discovered that one of my volumes - unrelated to the Ripper saga - has been translated and published in Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian and French and I have yet to see one red cent.
I am slightly humoured by such a situation.
Ah, Byron. 'Mad, bad and thoroughly dangerous to know'.
So they say about me good self too.
I thank you again, and have to say I enjoy your posts. |
Kevin Braun
Sergeant
Username: Kbraun
Post Number: 47
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - 3:55 pm: |
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Well David, love the use of serine. Most hands are neutral and genetically coded. Try baking soda every other day to reduce the amino acid. Books may last longer.
Take care,
Kevin |
Martin Fido
Detective Sergeant
Username: Fido
Post Number: 97
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 6:10 am: |
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Hi APW!
What about India for pirated editions? Ever looked through "Books in Print" to see how much of your work is floating around the sub-continent at no benefit to yourself?
All the best,
Martin F |
Monty
Inspector
Username: Monty
Post Number: 177
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 11:47 am: |
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"So erm...out of interest...how much is my 1st edition Jack the Myth worth then Mr Neagus ??""
Monty
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 311
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 5:01 pm: |
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Martin
Not just India, from the Middle East to the Far East there is no legal framework for copyright.
It has been my great fortune and pleasure to settle myself into a first class sleeper seat on Air India with a gin in one hand and the in-flight magazine in the other and then read one of my stories in the mag which they have simply poached from elsewhere. One Indian publisher of my work even had the gall - and late courtesy - to send me five free copies of the book.
I am abjectly in love with the publishing world, so much so that I plan to make it my next venture. |
AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 312
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2003 - 5:08 pm: |
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Monty
you are sitting on about $375 at the moment according to internet auction price.
I'll give you $400 for it.
And the postage. |
Monty
Inspector
Username: Monty
Post Number: 178
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 7:36 am: |
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AP,
 ..........you winding me up ??...you think ol' Monty is a bit slow ?????...away with the fairies ????
The thing is that its a darn good book.
I have a Peter Underwood....interested ?
Monty
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 313
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 1:44 pm: |
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Monty
No wind up.
You see if I buy it off you for $400 and then sign it I can resell it for a lot more.
As far as I recall there are no signed copies of the first edition.
'Tis but a wicked world.
Thank you for your kind words. |
Bob Hinton
Detective Sergeant
Username: Bobhinton
Post Number: 106
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2003 - 3:02 pm: |
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This is getting good! What am I offered for a large print ex library copy of Jack the Myth. With usual discreet library stamps otherwise in first class condition!
Bob
PS Jennifer. Will you be at the conference? |
Monty
Inspector
Username: Monty
Post Number: 183
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 12:15 pm: |
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Please delete or ignore...
....I posted on the wrong thread.
Sorry to be a pain
Monty
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Monty
Inspector
Username: Monty
Post Number: 185
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 12:22 pm: |
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AP,
Throw in a camel and two female lapdancers and you have yourself a deal.
Monty....who is hoping AP doesnt have a camel & 2 female lapdancers cos he really likes his book !
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 314
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 5:19 pm: |
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Bob
No, I will not be at the conference on account of the fact that I will be in Mauritius attending a conference on how to drink a lot of gin whilst laid on a beach.
My original offer stands. 400 bucks.
Plus postage.
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AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 315
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 5:23 pm: |
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Monty
there was a time when I had more camels and female lapdancers than you could shake a pope at, but these days I'm short in that department.
So rest easy.
Offer still stands. |
Bob Hinton
Detective Sergeant
Username: Bobhinton
Post Number: 108
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 7:56 pm: |
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Dear AP Wolf,
Is that $400 for my book or Monty's?
Bob |
AP Wolf
Inspector
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 316
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2003 - 2:53 pm: |
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Bob
any book. |
Gary Alan Weatherhead
Inspector
Username: Garyw
Post Number: 256
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2003 - 8:49 am: |
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Hi Bob
Did your edition sell on e-bay and if it did not reach the minimum bid do you still have it in your hot hands?
I put out a search for that book among others which I don't expect to ever see.
Neal's first two books are long gone, at least I got the one on Kate.
All The Best
Gary |
samantha maybury
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Saturday, January 01, 2005 - 5:44 pm: |
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Hi Everybody, I'm new to this site..I was just wondering how much the Original "The Illustrated Police News" of Jack the Rippers Murders go for ? and how to sell them..published in 1888, Sept to Nov ..I've got five..everybodys seen them in the books. Please Email if you know. Cheers. sam.maybury@btinternet.com |
Matt Humphreys
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 - 5:25 pm: |
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Hello AP,
Out of interest what was the copy error on the first copies of your book?
Thanks, Matt |
