Vintage & Collectible

I've always found the below introduction amusing and am loathe to get rid of it, but it doesn't really tell you our goal of this category. You'll notice many of these books are not in-stock. It's unlikely we'll ever have very many at a time, but we're building it with the intention of helping you find the information you need to collect these series and volumes. We plan to continue adding more titles primarily from the 1960s and before, pictures, copyright dates, illustrators, ISBNs (if they exist), and more, to help you track down these awesome books from the past. If you like this section and want more, we'd like to commend the Facebook group Reshelving Alexandria, where you'll find a community of people passionate about books like these!

To see ONLY books that are actually available, use the filter below to look for in-stock books!

For some, book collecting is like African big game hunting—taking down the animal is pretty satisfying, but the real excitement is in tracking the beast, following it for hours or even days, picking up sign as it melts into the horizon until finally you get it in your sights. Eli is that kind of book collector. It's the thrill of the chase that drives him; once he completes a set or finds a particular volume it's a bit of a letdown.

That's not to say Eli doesn't love books (he owns a bookstore, after all). It's just that collecting them is something different altogether from owning or reading them, something almost primitive and instinctual, drawing on skills that lie dormant in most of us. The book collector's skills are the same that help a man on safari smell his prey in an old footprint or see a clump of fur caught in the bark of a palm tree or simply see the animal in the distance.

These aren't just any kind of books we're talking about collecting. Anyone can procure each volume of their favorite new fiction, or each year's New York Times bestsellers. They're everywhere, and they don't take much effort to find. The kind of books collectors go for (especially collectors like Eli) are hard or next to impossible to find, typically old, and just plain cool.

Exactly the kind of books we've put in this category, in fact. "Vintage & Collectible" isn't just some goofy title we came up with to generate interest; although most of these books are not technically "rare," and only occasionally expensive, they aren't at every street corner bookshop and they're typically titles appealing to a very specific readership (or ownership, if we're going to be entirely accurate). There's plenty here that the more average library compilers among us will find interesting.

As you scan the titles below, imagine you're in some mahogany-lined old bookstore in an old city and that a whispy-haired old man can tell you the history of each volume in his collection. Or just look for the book you're after, it might be there. Whatever you do, give these books a good home and help us perpetuate one of the most exciting and underappreciated sports in the world.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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Parent Categories
Vintage & Collectible
Subcategories
600 Items found Print
Active Filters: Biographies
Abe Lincoln
by Hilah Paulmier (compiled and edited by), illustrated by Lee Ames
First Edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$11.00 (1 in stock)
Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance
by Frances Cavanah
from Rand McNally
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by Al Schmidt
from Harcourt, Brace & World
Biography for 6th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abe Lincoln Grows Up
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by James Daugherty
from Harcourt, Brace & Company
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Abe Lincoln's Other Mother
by Bernadine Bailey, illustrated by Howard Simon
from Responsive Environments Corp.
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin to White House
Landmark #61
by Sterling North
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abigail Adams
A Discovery Book
by Helen Stone Peterson, illustrated by Betty Fraser
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln
Weekly Reader Heroes of the Civil War
by Susan Dye Lee, illustrated by Ralph Canaday
from Children's Press
for 3rd-4th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Abraham Lincoln
A Discovery Book
by Anne Colver
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln
by James Daugherty
1st edition from Viking Press
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln
Initial Biography
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 3rd-6th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln in Peace and War
by Earl Schenck Miers
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln's World (pictorial hardcover)
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Historical Non-fiction for 7th-10th grade
1945 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
by Samuel E. Morison
from Atlantic Monthly Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures and Discoveries of Marco Polo
World Landmark #3
by Richard Walsh
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Adventures of Davy Crockett
by David Crockett, illustrated by John W. Thomason
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Adventurous Life of Winston Churchill
by Geoffrey Bocca
from Julian Messner
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Aku-Aku
by Thor Heyerdahl
from Rand McNally
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
Landmark #85
by Russel & Anna Crouse
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Alexander the Great
World Landmark #2
by John Gunther
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
All Hands Aloft!
by Lou A. Schmitt
from Howell-North
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
from Appleton-Century-Crofts
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Amelia Earhart
Lives to Remember
by Burke Davis
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
by the editors of Country Beautiful Magazine
from Country Beautiful
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
America's Abraham Lincoln
by May McNeer, illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
America's Mark Twain
by May McNeer, illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
America's Robert E. Lee
by Henry Steele Commager, illustrated by Lynd Ward
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
American Heroes of the 20th Century
Landmark Giant #14
by Harold & Doris Faber
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in Landmark Giants (Location: VIN-LAN)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
American Sports Heroes of Today
Landmark Giant #22
by Frederic Katz
from Random House
for 4th-8th grade
in Landmark Giants (Location: VIN-LAN)
And Long Remember
by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats
from E.M. Hale and Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Andrew Jackson
Initial Biography
by Genevieve Foster
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Andrew Jackson: Pioneer and President
by John Parlin, illustrated by William Hutchinson
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Andrew Jackson: Soldier and Statesman
by Ralph K. Andrist
from Harper & Row
for 5th-8th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Angel of Mercy
by Rachel Baker
from Julian Messner
for 3rd-7th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank, translated by B. M. Mooyaart-Doubleday with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt
Book Club Edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Antonin Dvorak
Julian Messner Shelf of Biographies
by Clair Lee Purdy, illustrated by Edgard Cirlin
from Julian Messner
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Apprenticeship of Abraham Lincoln
by Olivia Coolidge
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Biography for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Armed with Courage
by May McNeer, illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Abingdon Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Around the World with Nellie Bly
North Star Books #9
by Emily Hahn
from Houghton Mifflin
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin, illustrated by William Sharp, with an introduction by Carl Van Doren
from Easton Press
for 10th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
from Spencer Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador
World Landmark #25
by Felix Riesenberg, Jr.
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Beethoven
by David Jacobs
from Harper & Row
for 4th-8th grade
in Horizon Caravel Books (Location: VIN-HOR)
Ben Franklin
See and Read: Beginning to Read Biography
by Estelle Friedman, illustrated by James Caraway
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia
Landmark #28
by Margaret Cousins
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Benjamin Bonneville, Soldier-Explorer
from Julian Messner
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Benjamin Franklin
Makers of America
by Ruth Cromer Weir, illustrated by Rus Anderson
from Abingdon Press
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Benjamin Franklin
by Carl Van Doren
from Library of America
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin
by Marguerite Henry & Wesley Dennis
from Bobbs-Merril Co
Biography for 1st-6th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Betsy Ross and the Flag
Landmark #26
by Jane Mayer
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Betsy Ross: Girl of Old Philadelphia
Childhood of Famous Americans
by Ann Weil, illustrated by Al Fiorentino
from Bobbs-Merril Co
Biography for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Better Known as Johnny Appleseed
by Mabel Leigh Hunt, illustrated by James Daugherty
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 5th-9th grade
1951 Newbery Honor Book
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Black Courage
by A. E. Schraff
from Macrae-Smith Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Black Panther of Sivanipalli
by Kenneth Anderson
1960 printing from Rand McNally
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Boat Builder
by Clara Ingram Judson, illustrated by Armstrong Sperry
from Charles Scribner's Sons
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Bombs and Blessings
by Retha Hazel Eldridge
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Book of Famous Explorers
Young Folks Library
by Edwin Erle Sparks, editor
from Auxiliary Educational League
for 3rd-9th grade
in Vintage Anthology Collections (Location: VIN-ANTH)
Booker T. Washington
A Discovery Book
by Lillie G. Patterson
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Booker T. Washington
by Shirley Graham
from Julian Messner
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763
by Frederick A. Pottle
1st edition from McGraw-Hill
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Boyhood Adventures of Our Presidents
by Frances Cavanah, illustrated by Genevieve Foster
from Rand McNally
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Boyhoods of Great Composers
Young Readers Guides to Music
by Catherine Gough, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
1961 Reprint from Henry Z. Walck, Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
by Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright
Reprint from International Cody Family Assoc.
for Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Buffalo Bill's Great Wild West Show
Landmark #73
by Walter Havighurst, illustrated by John C. Wonsetler
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in American Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAND)
Buffalo Bill's Life Story
by William F. Cody, Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Cabin Boy to Advent Crusader
by Virgil Robinson, illustrated by Harry Baerg
from Southern Publishing Association
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Caesar
by Irwin Isenberg
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in Horizon Caravel Books (Location: VIN-HOR)
Camels West
by James Ralph Johnson
from David McKay Company
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Captain Cook Explores the South Seas
World Landmark #19
by Armstrong Sperry
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Captain Edward L. Beach: Around the World Under Water
by Beril Becker
from Kingston House
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Captain John Paul Jones
by Ronald Syme
from William Morrow & Company
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Captain Marryat
by Tom Pocock
from Stackpole Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
by Jean Lee Latham, illustrated by John O'Hara Cosgrave II
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 5th-9th grade
1956 Newbery Medal winner
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Catherine the Great
World Landmark #29
by Katharine Scherman
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Champions of Freedom Every Child Should Know
The "What Every Child Should Know" Library
by Marion Florence Lansing, illustrated by Henry Pitz
from Doubleday & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species
by Walter Karp
from Harper & Row
for 4th-8th grade
in Horizon Caravel Books (Location: VIN-HOR)
Charles Lindbergh
A Discovery Book
by David R. Collins
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
from Dial Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces
by Shannon Garst, illustrated by Douglas Gorsline
from Julian Messner
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Children of the Northlights
by Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, Ingri d'Aulaire
1962 Reprint from Viking Press
for Preschool-4th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$28.00 (1 in stock)
Children of the White House
by Frances Cavanah, illustrated by Genevieve Foster
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Chord of Steel
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Christopher Columbus
Follett Beginning-to-Read Level 3 reader
by Clara Ingram Judson, illustrated by Polly Jackson
from Follett
for 1st-4th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Christopher Columbus
Makers of American History
by Calista McCabe Courtenay
from M. A. Donohue & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Christopher Columbus and His Brothers
by Amy Hogeboom
from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Citizen Tom Paine
by Howard Fast
from Duell, Sloan and Pearce
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Clara Barton
Landmark #58
by Helen Dore Boylston
from Random House
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Cleopatra of Egypt
World Landmark #50
by Leonora Hornblow
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Colonial Governor
by J.G.E. Hopkins, illustrated by William Wilson
from P.J. Kenedy & Sons
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Combat Nurses of World War II
Landmark #116
by Wyatt Blassingame
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Come By Here
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
Novel for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Come on Seabiscuit
by Ralph Moody
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Commodore Perry in Japan
by Robert Reynolds
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 4th-8th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Cortes and the Aztec Conquest
by Irwin R. Blacker
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
for 6th-10th grade
in Horizon Caravel Books (Location: VIN-HOR)
Count Luckner, the Sea Devil
by Lowell Thomas
from Garden City Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
Cross Creek
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Daniel Boone, Wilderness Scout
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Stewart Edward White, illustrated by Henry C. Pitz
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 4th-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
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