I mentioned recently, in my post about curating a library, that I treasure a few books passed on to me by people I love. I thought I’d share them with you, since treasures, after all, are meant to be shared.
My dad received a copy of Shakespeare’s Wisdom & Wit from a favorite junior college professor. (I think this was the same guy who’d put a totally random question on every test, and say with a smile, “Just pull that one out of your universal body of knowledge.”) It ended up in my Christmas stocking a few years ago – I think Santa and Dad knew how much I would love it. The inscription is wonderful:
I’ve loved the Betsy-Tacy series since I was a child – my sister is named after Betsy Ray, and I read and reread the first four books (though I don’t know where those copies are, actually). But my mom had an old library edition of Betsy and the Great World, and somehow it found its way from her bookshelf to mine, when I was in high school or college. I have the whole series now, the last six in HarperCollins’ gorgeous reissued paperbacks, but I cherish this copy, with its charcoal cover illustration depicting Betsy on her way to Europe and adventure.
After my sister and I outgrew naptime, we still had “quiet time” each afternoon during our summer visits to Mimi’s house in rural Missouri. I discovered No Children, No Pets in the hall closet one summer and curled up on the bed to read it – and giggled until my mom came in to ask what was so funny. I reread it every summer for at least 10 years, until Mimi finally gave me the book for my own. (I wouldn’t let her give it to me when I was younger – I wanted to keep it at her house. That was part of the magic.) I still reread it every year or two, always in the summer, and smile at the adventures of Jane, Betsy, Don and Mike in 1950s Florida.
Similarly, Neno’s house (that old blue farmhouse in Ohio) held some bookish treasures, including the entire My Book House collection, twelve volumes of nursery rhymes and fairy tales, folklore and Bible stories and adaptations of Dickens and Shakespeare (among others) for young readers. I fell in love with A Midsummer Night’s Dream because of these books, and read some of the fairy tales over and over again. They got packed in a box when my grandparents moved to Texas, but Neno pulled them out of a closet a couple of years ago, and passed them on to me. So precious.
Finally, when my great-grandma Ada (my mother’s grandmother) passed away, my grandparents gave my mom a few of her books to send to me. Some belonged to Ada, some to her mother, who I never knew. They are beautifully old, with spidery inscriptions in the handwriting of long-lost friends and relatives. I keep them on a table in the living room, and sometimes I wonder about the girls and young women who carried them, read them, wrote in them and loved them enough to keep them safe all this time.
Your turn. Any heirlooms – books or otherwise – that you treasure?
Those books are beautiful things. You’re very lucky, I would love to browse your collection. My grandmother gave me a really old penguin edition of a book about extinct animals recently then told me not to throw it in the bin. I nearly choked with shock! Who would throw a book in the bin?!
I have some of my Grandma’s old books that are pretty special. I also have a hardcover copy of Betsy’s wedding that is very important to me. I spent $50. on it because I just had to have it!!!
You’ve just given me a very good reason to hang onto some of my favorite books 😉
How I envy you the Betsy-Tacy book. I never owned one, just kept renewing them from the library (over and over and over…)
I’ve a few “heirloom books” – I love that term !
One of the oddest is called “V1” by the Commander of the Peenemünde works where the weapon of the same name was developed during the war. It’s a very factual account in English and fascinating to read because it’s a story we know written from the enemy’s point of view.
While I won’t in any way condone what went on there, I would still recomend it as a reminder that there are two sides in any conflict and on both side people suffer. The description of an Allied bombing raid from where the bombs were landing is fascinating. By this point in the narative you almost hope they miss whilst knowing the best thing that could happen would be for the factories to be destroyed.
That’s the thing about books. They can take you to places you can never go and probably wouldn’t want to.
(Sorry if this isn’t the happy sort of book most sensible people recomend. It’s just one of those that affected me greatly)
Oh, how it stirs my soul to see those old books. And I agree with Phil: love the term “heirloom books.”
My favorite heirloom books are my mother’s old Bobsey Twins and Nancy Drew books that kept me company during many summers of my childhood. An older, if newer to me, book that I treasure is a 19th century edition of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility given to me by a former student who knew of my love for all things Jane.
Lovely post. Thank you for sharing it.
It’s beautiful that you have some family history within these books. More than a connection to the writer and their world, you have a whole field of relation with this collection. Best of all with these books are the inscribed notes. A little reminder of those who are dear to you and seeing how loved they are by others. Books can be bought anywhere, but the meaning behind the gift and the love within each note is priceless.
I have loved passing my books from my childhood — a few of which were from my parents’ childhood — down to my own children. They are at an age where they can appreciate the image of me flipping through the pages with tiny little fingers … just like theirs.
Heirloom books: such a special term, and a wonderful gift to future generations. We should all save the books that touch us and think of how much they could touch the future!
When I was growing up, both my grandmas still had books from when my parents were little. One was a funny story about 3 boys who lost a cat and tried everything to find her. (Turns out she had kittens and was just hiding in the barn.) It was my dad and his brothers to a T. I’d love to buy it someday but can’t remember the title.
Books that you read when a child are like childhood friends.
I’m not sure, but I believe they belonged to my Grandpa Holmes (my dad’s father) who i never got a chance to know because he passed away when i was 1, but we have a series of classic novels. One of which i’ve adopted, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, when studying english lit in my undergrad. I love this book so much, and I loved brining this old- falling apart put together with glue, and yellowing pages – copy. Now my notes are added to this edition, and I will always treasure it.
It’s nice to know other treasure keepers like me are out there. Though I haven’t received heirlooms from relatives, I’ve begun a collection of my own to pass down some day. Thanks for sharing. Congrats on making Freshly Pressed!
I’m surrounded by my books and treasure those that are my “heirloom” books as you so perfectly referred to. Mostly I own cookbooks but those found with handwritten notes I cherish; I think about who was baking this bread, who shared in these meals and how this book was passed on. Older cookbooks that stress the importance of being a good housewife/hostess amuse me the most!
What treasures! My husband’s grandparents have some old poetry books from their country school days, with markings and notes on the pages. My own Dad often reminds me of my destiny to inherit his thousands of baseball cards 🙂
I love all your books!!! especially for their status being “heirloom books”
My books are my treasure!!! very few could be placed in that category!
But more or less I feel great to have them around me all the time!!! 🙂
I haven’t given any of my books away 🙂 I still have my childhood ones, but when I do have children they are going to be right in their bookcase 🙂
I love this post,I have fallen in love with books over and over again. the books that make me nostalgic are the books I read to my children who are just growing into young men, 15 and 17, and it is strange that one of the most helpful things to help me with the transition of them ‘leaving ‘me, is how I go back to their childhood, and their books. And my very special hero is Shakespeare. I never get over how much truth he had in him. Marvellous. Check out my thoughts on Montaigne in my blog, you may enjoy!
this is incredible – thank you for your inspiration. such a beautiful post; thank you for sharing your treasures with us! wow.
love the word : heirloom books !
I have to select my books to spare my space in room. such a pity !
My copy of “Under the Magic Umbrella.” I checked that book out of our local little library a million times when I was a kid, and always remembered it fondly. Then in 1995, when Amazon.com was just getting off the ground, I put the title in on a lark and asked them to look for it for me … and I still remember the day I got the e-mail that said that they had located a copy for me. I couldn’t order it fast enough.
I’ve got my copy now, and I handmade a quilted book cover for it when it arrived. Best of all, it’s an old library book itself, with a paper pocket glued to the inside back cover, and an old check-out ticket still in it with a date stamped on it of 1945.
I’ve got ALL of the “Umbrella” books now: Magic Umbrella, Green Umbrella, Stars and Stripes, Christmas Tree, Silver Umbrella, Blue Umbrella … But the first one is hands-down my favorite book on Earth.
Enojy books while we still have them. Great posting. Thanks for sharing.
I have a copy of the Hunchback of Notre Dame (my favourite book) that I found with my friend in a second hand bookshop for a pound. I persuaded my friend to buy it but she didn’t like it so she gave it to me.
When I opened it later that evening I discovered something that I hadn’t noticed: my great-grandpa’s signature. I was overjoyed and now this is one of my most treasured possessions.
“Heirloom books” is a great term. Get the copyright on that if you can! Sometimes the place you read a book is special, making it a receptacle for memory as much as the place itself. The same is true for the people you read a book with. There’s so much more to them than paper pages and printed fonts! Thanks for reminding me of that fact today.
There really is just something about old books. My father-in-law gave me one on housekeeping from the 1950s…. hmmm. Maybe that wasn’t a joke…. Great post and congrats on being Freshly Pressed.
love old books! there isn’t really a good place in my city to pick up things like that, so when I travel i try to keep my eyes open at markets and little shops. thanks for sharing.
http://www.icouldntmakethisshitup.wordpress.com
Great post. I too love old books and those with meaning. I actually love buying used books at Goodwill and second-hand stores. You can find the best treasures. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed today!
I love heirloom books. Thanks for sharing yours. I always like reading what’s written in the margins, the signatures…..Nice post.
Here’s a link to one of my favorite heirloom books from my grandmother and some marginalia:
http://tostir.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/day-8-marginalia/
Wow! I’m kinda jealous of your collection. I probably haven’t read any of those books, but they surely sound worthy of reading. Your collection is really precious indeed! Take good care of it! 😉
I have always loved books so I have tended to amass them, especially as I was, for a time, a book reviewer. I was intending to re-read many of them but I doubt if I’ll have time – they keep printing more! I’d love to pass some of them on, if they’d be appreciated and cared for – even read once in a while! Any ideas – that wouldn’t break the bank in postage. Betty
OMG! I loved the Betsy Books! There were so many … I think about them ever so often and can never remember who wrote them!
A friends grandmother had a set and we reread them every summer for years. I never thought to ask if I could have them … now that I know WHO and WHAT I’m looking for I’ll be scouring Ontario for a set.
Thank you thank you!
Oh, how wonderful! There’s something about books that have been loved over and over again. The character in 84 Charing Cross Road showed it perfectly. I love all the books I’ve inherited, too, knowing that loving hands were all over them. E-books have their place, but who will ever have that tacit feeling in future generations?
We have so many books we have to keep some in boxes in the attic and basement – I think have a fixation – but my favorite “heirlooms” are ones we read to our kids when they were little, especially Goodnight Moon, Where the Sidewalk Ends and Curious George.
Fun! I love antiques and books, so maybe that could be my new niche?
The only heirloom book I have isn’t even mine, as much as I hate to admit it… my friend loaned me her mother’s childhood copy of “The Secret Garden” and I forgot to give it back to her before my family moved. Whoops.
Oh, no one I hold dear can bear to part with an old book; regardless the content we look and see history, fantasy, dreams even in the tattered edges! Your photos are heart-warming and beautiful!
~Salem
https://sites.google.com/site/ancientarbor/salemwilliams
What precious treasures!! I don’t have any books that belonged to any of the people I love (and isn’t that odd, considering how much I love books?), but I do have a couple of quilts, one that my grandfathers mother hand quilted and the other that my grandmother made. It was on her bed when I was a kid, and she knew how much I liked it. She always told me someday it would be mine, and now it is. I also have a huge crock that she made pickles and sauerkraut in…I don’t do anything with it, but it reminds me of summers on the farm. Congrats on being freshly pressed!
I love the covers of vintage books! I love your Betsy-Tacy book, I adore that series. I believe my most treasured books would be my Anais Nin Diaries that are 1st editions which I found in a book store. I love them so much I can hardly bring myself to read them!
The first books is lovely!
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed! I have a treasured heirloom book: Gone with the Wind. It is not a first edition and in fact it was in poor repair. We took it to be fixed and it was pointed out that it wasn’t “worth fixing”. But I pointed out the inscription from my great grandfather to my great grandmother from before they were married and had it fixed anyway.
What an awesome post. My husband and I have quite a few “heirloom” books – some of them first editions, passed down from various family members. And I so enjoy sharing my favorite childhood books with my daughter. It’s a delight to get to enjoy them all over again and see them from a child’s point of view.
Books were rare and special when we were growing up. Re-reading favourites was as good as reading them for the first time. Books are so plentiful nowadays my grandkids have a room full of books and although they love books they are just another commodity…of which they like variety and lots of new ones.
Weren’t we lucky!
I have a first edition Bobbsey Twins. It makes me remember what a wonderful childhood I had. 🙂
What a fun thing to do–especially in an age where a lot of the good books we once loved are going out of print and are especially hard to find. My parents have a collection of the old Reader’s Digest books from the 1960s that I love.
-Lis at the Book Table
Beautiful and clearly meaningful…thank you for sharing these special pieces of your life with us! I personally have a few books I keep sacred. One of which is indeed an heirloom; it’s a beautiful siddur (Jewish prayer book) covered in a silver casing with the most gorgeous outline of Jerusalem. It used to have a few turquoise stones on them, but though they’ve all since fallen off it’s what I treasure most. The other I suppose I made an heirloom for myself….it’s a very early printing of Pride & Prejudice that I bought at a used book sale at my library for $1, that has the suggested price of 49 cents on the cover. It smells and feels like a book should, not to mention it’s one of my favorite novels. All the best to you and I look forward to reading your posts in the future! Feel free to take a look at my blog as well. 🙂
Beautiful and clearly meaningful…thank you for sharing these special pieces of your life with us! I personally have a few books I keep sacred, one of which is indeed an heirloom; it’s a beautiful siddur (Jewish prayer book) covered in a silver casing with the most gorgeous outline of Jerusalem. It used to have a few turquoise stones on it, but though they’ve all since fallen off it’s what I treasure most. The other I suppose I made an heirloom for myself….it’s a very early printing of Pride & Prejudice that I bought at a used book sale at my library for $1, with the suggested price of 49 cents on the cover. It smells and feels like a book should, not to mention it’s one of my favorite novels. All the best to you and I look forward to reading your posts in the future! Feel free to take a look at my blog as well. 🙂
I love heirloom books and I have quite a few on my bookshelf (they’re becoming one of my favourite things to collect!). Some I bought from a second hand bookstore and some once belonged to my Grandparents. They’re old, a few are falling apart and have been mended with tape or fabric, the pages are thicker and yellowing and sometimes there’s wonderful writing on the inside indicating who they once belonged to. They’re well-worn and probably well-read too. I guess that’s why they seem so magical to me. 🙂
beautiful. Unfortunately my grandparents didn’t pass down any books, but I love buying from second hand stores and imaginging the relationship between the enscriber and the recipient. Thanks 🙂
Antiquarian books have been my hobby for years. I have a first American Edition Peter and Wendy (which became Peter Pan) that is over 100 years old and many more from my childhood like the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew. A good book to collect now is Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, I have my originals as a kid and soon these editions will be no more as all the so called”offending” language is slowly being removed. Great post.
Love it. And you are a treasure yourself. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed again, you little star!
This is so great! Extremely lucky!
Love this post.
[…] post from katieleigh’s blog cakes, tea and dreams. I saw her ‘Freshly Pressed’ post the heirloom books and thought why not do one for my blog? So, thanks to katieleigh for her wonderful […]
Great post! Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
I was inspired by your post and made a post of my own. Please feel free to check it out here,
I have a century-old copy of Les Miserables that belonged to my Great Aunt. I have been a fan since I was about 10 years old, so I really treasure these books. Also, a copy of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I love knowing these books have been in the family and they have so much character.
I have several books written by Kathleen Thompson Norris, who was a prolific writer in the early 1900s. She wrote novels about the lives and relationships of women and wove such rich detail into her stories. They are amazing to me, a bit quaint in some ways, read from the perspective of current times, but each one I’ve read is a treasure to me.
I also cherish the few books I have from my childhood, and I kept the special books from my children’s early years, (keeping them until I pass them on to grandkids one day).
Thanks for sharing, and congratulations on being Freshly Pressed!
Sheila
When my great grandmother died I was given her recipe book. I love just sifting through it and making things I remember her making when I was really little.
Some of the recipes in it are from her grandmother, which makes it all the more amazing. I plan to type it up one day and print it out, give it to my family members.
aaaah thanks for this lovely post. i could feel your love for books. i have an entire room stacked with books that mean so much to me. i guess the one that means the most to me is a very old dictionary my dad gave me many many years ago when i started out my career as a journalist. it’s still there, still used, and his simple inscription: Viv, we love you, Keep on writing”, still keeps me going back to the page.
That was such a beautiful post. I’ve been an avid reader since I was a child and I wish I had heirlooms in this form from my parents/grandparents…but we were a family that moved a lot, even the earlier generations. Not just that but my parents/grandparents spent most of their lives in the Middle East and wars and political problems gave rise for them to move without such possessions. It’s sad, but it’s also amazing to be able to share in your stories and treasures. Thanks for that! (Oh and congrats on being Freshly Pressed!)
What a great post! How cool that it was on Freshly Pressed so that I got a chance to read it! Two posts ago, I wrote about my five most meaningful books, so this is kinda in that vein as well 🙂
There are almost no books I love as much as my heirloom books. Here are a few I really, really treasure:
1) Beloved Infidel by Sheilah Graham – this one was given to me by Dad, last year for my birthday. He hunted down a first edition of it! He has never done something like that before and since he’s got cancer and I never know which birthday will be the last I get to spend with him, such a gift was extra special. I always washed my hands before touching it, for fear of it getting dirty or smudged!
2) Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind – another one from my father, albeit one he loved himself and then gave me his copy of. It reminds me of the intense love for film we both have and that bonds us
3) the Comtesse de Ségur series – my mother gave me those French noblewoman children’s books to learn to read with, I still reread them every year when I visit my parents
There are many, many more, but these are the few I could think of ad hoc!
I’ve loved old copies of my mother’s classics. Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I always used to read Jane Eyre, Little Women and Lorna Doone. These were what I could reread with love.
What a lovely post, I found you from Freshly Pressed. You have given me such a great idea for a post. I have a bookshelf that holds precious books such as yours, someday I will share them on my blog.
I have many books that hold special memories, and inscriptions.
In fact my daughter (who is 11) and I often rescue books from yard sales and thrift stores if we find an inscription inside. We find it so sad to see one sitting on a shelf, when it should have a home.
I will be coming back to read more. Thank you so much.
Shera
http://www.onehundred80days.wordpress.com
very detailed and interesting post, I don’t read that many books but think I should really start the joy that people get from it, I doubt movies can beat that…:)
http://vasare.wordpress.com/
I usually prefer to sell or give my books away when I am done, it takes a very good book to make me want to keep it. I haven’t really received any books passed down from family member to family member, but I will always keep my set of Harry Potter books. I have all of them in hardcover, and some are falling apart because I read them so many times, but I hope one day when I have children they will be able to enjoy them as much as I did.
Great collection!
You love of old books is clear in your blog. I, too, treasure the old books I have collected or have been given through the years.
Wow…… books are a treasure indeed! It’s great that you have preserved it very well.
Often, i have felt that books, especially old appear shabby, but the knowledge contained is not accountable.
I have a small apartment but an enormous library.
Some of my favorite individuals are a first edition of Mark Twain’s ‘Following the Equator’, as well as a pair of lovely Shakespeare editions from the 1880’s. They are beautifully crafted books. One of my more recent favorites is an enormous collection of old Buck Rogers comic strips that was published in 1969 with an excellent foreword by Ray Bradbury. I’m no luddite, but there is something about books that cannot be replaced by electronic readers and pads; these are things that have their place and function, but the book will remain with us as long as fire and the wheel. Great post. Love the title.
I have been an avid reader most of my life and have a now small collection as I have whittled down my library due to downsizing my life. However, among my books is a first edition of “Sons & Lovers” signed not by D.H. Lawrence but by T.E. Lawrence better known as “Lawrence of Arabia.” To me it’s like holding a piece of history in my hands.
i have a book titled greek heroes that my dad used to read to me. i dont know where he got it from but its old and battered and reminds me of my childhood
I have in my possession an old family cookery book, begun well over a century ago, by my great-grandmother. It consists of an old, leather-bound tax ledger and consists of recipes, both handwritten and cut from ‘Womens Magazines’. There are also fashion articles, home ‘remedies’ and the ubiquitous advertisments. I am currently posting it, piece-meal onto my own blog along with other stuff that interests me. You should take a look sometime.
My family has a bunch of very old, religious books, passed down from my great grandmother…..but they’re all in Czech!
What a wonderful collection. My father and I used to browse old books at library sales and our collection is just massive now. My grandfather gave me a signed copy of Robert Frost’s New Hampshire that is very treasured. Thank you so much for sharing your collection. It’s lovely.
I enjoyed reading this post… Great report.
I love old books and I think I want to steal these from you! I’m not surprised you fell in love with them!
[…] yes! Just a few weeks ago I was inspired by katieleigh’s ‘Freshly Pressed’ post the heirloom books from her blog cakes, tea and dreams. She had written about how she treasures a few books passed on […]
Is that blue book a poetry chapbook? My family doesn’t have heirlooms 😦
Neat collection 🙂
[…] quite a library of books over the years. Books I’ve read for school, received as gifts or heirlooms, read for review or just picked up somewhere. My library, though always too large for my […]
[…] I am the only true bookworm in the Noah family, and these books will join the ranks of my treasured heirloom books and young adult […]
[…] book of love poetry from a long-ago afternoon in York. A book of Shakespeare quotes handed down from my dad (who received it from a favorite professor). A copy of Gift from the Sea, picked up at […]