How many collectible books are in the Modern Library?
That, of course, depends on what you call “collectible” and how you count. The Modern Library is rich in variations, not just in major topic areas (novels, short stories, plays, philosophy, history, and so on) but in physical characteristics of books and dust jackets as well. So it comes down to how you define your collecting area. Some folks are completists; they want a copy of every title. Some folks restrict themselves to just the buckrams. Others want nothing but books with the pictorial dust jackets from 1928 through 1939, while others must have every dust jacket variation for a given set of titles. (For some suggestions on ways to collect, see the Collecting Areas section of the article “Collecting the Modern Library.”) Here are some approximate numbers for you. Up though 1970 the series consisted of: • about 750 unique titles • about 1000 titles including variations in translation, introduction, and content • 24 illustrateds, some in glassine dust jackets, others in a slipcase,
