Building a Reference Library for Book Collecting

A serious book collector needs books about books. A well-assembled reference library is the most important tool in the collector’s arsenal — more valuable than any price guide app, auction database, or dealer relationship. Reference works teach you what to look for, how to identify what you have found, and what it is worth. The investment in reference books pays for itself many times over in better buying decisions and avoided mistakes.

Essential Categories of Reference

General Guides to Book Collecting

John Carter and Nicolas Barker, ABC for Book Collectors — The definitive glossary of book collecting terminology. Now in its ninth edition. Every collector needs this book. It defines every term you will encounter in dealers’ catalogs, auction descriptions, and collecting literature. Compact enough to carry to book fairs.

Allen and Patricia Ahearn, Collected Books: The Guide to Identification and Values — The standard price and identification guide for modern first editions. Lists thousands of titles with identification points and value ranges. Updated periodically.

Jean Peters, ed., Book Collecting: A Modern Guide — Essays by leading authorities on various aspects of collecting. Excellent introduction to the field.

First Edition Identification

Bill McBride, Points of Issue — A compact guide to identification points for collectible books. Organized alphabetically by author. Essential for field use.

Bill McBride, A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions — Lists the first edition identification practices of hundreds of publishers. Indispensable for identifying first printings.

Author Bibliographies

Published bibliographies — detailed, scholarly descriptions of every edition and variant of a specific author’s works — are the most important reference for collectors who specialize in a particular author. Key bibliographies include:

• Matthew Bruccoli’s bibliographies of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and other American authors
• Peter Haining’s bibliographies of genre authors
• The Descriptive Bibliographies series from the University of Pittsburgh Press
• The Soho Bibliographies from Winchester

For any author you collect seriously, the published bibliography (if one exists) is the single most valuable reference work.

Condition and Grading

AB Bookman’s terminology guide — The standard condition grades (Fine, Near Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor) are defined by industry standards established through decades of use.

Auction Records

Rare Book Hub (online) — The most comprehensive database of auction results for rare books. Subscription-based. Essential for pricing.

American Book Prices Current — Annual compilation of auction results. Published since 1895. Available in print and online.

Specialized References

Depending on your collecting focus, you may need specialized references:

For children’s books: Peter Hanff and others have published standard references for specific children’s book illustrators and publishers.

For science fiction: Everett Bleiler’s bibliographies, Currey’s reference guides.

For mystery/crime: Allen Hubin’s comprehensive bibliographies of crime fiction.

For fine printing: The annual Fine Print and Parenthesis journals document the fine press world.

How to Build Your Reference Library

Start with the essentials

Buy Carter’s ABC for Book Collectors and McBride’s pocket guide first. These two small books will serve you for years and cost under $50 combined.

Add the Ahearns’ guide

Collected Books is the standard general reference for modern first edition values and identification. Worth the investment.

Acquire author bibliographies for your specialties

If you collect Hemingway, buy the Hanneman bibliography. If you collect Faulkner, buy the Petersen bibliography. These are often published by university presses and may themselves be collectible.

Build a dealer catalog collection

Dealer catalogs from major antiquarian booksellers are reference works in themselves. The descriptions, often written by expert bibliographers, provide detailed identification points, condition assessments, and pricing. Catalogs from firms like Heritage Book Shop, Between the Covers, Peter Harrington, and Bauman Rare Books are education in printed form.

Use your reference library

A reference library that sits unread is useless. Refer to your reference books before every significant purchase. Check identification points, verify issue states, and compare prices. The habit of research before purchase is what separates informed collectors from impulse buyers.

Digital Resources

While physical reference books remain important, digital resources have expanded enormously:

• Rare Book Hub: Auction records database
• viaLibri: Meta-search across multiple online book listing sites
• ABPC (American Book Prices Current): Digital access to decades of auction records
• WorldCat: Locate copies of reference works in libraries
• Google Books: Searchable full-text for many older reference works
• Dealer websites: Major dealers maintain detailed online inventories with condition descriptions

Digital resources complement but do not replace a physical reference library. Authoritative identification requires the depth and organization of a published bibliography, and printed references work when the internet does not.