Ten Most Expensive Books Sold in February 2008

Alice Cooper's Over Sea, Under Stone made AbeBooks' most expensive titles sold last month two times, with the first American edition selling for $4,800 and the first British edition selling for $4,000.

You can also see the ten most expensive books sold in 2007.

1. Sefarad: Revista del Instituto Arias Montano de Estudios Hebraicos y Oriente Próximo

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones

This journal deals with theology and textual criticism of the bible and its ancient versions, with the history and culture of the Jews in Spain. Vols. 1-63. Madrid, 1941-2003. With gene. Index Vols. 1-15 (1941-1955).

Sold for $7,265

2. Eloise in Moscow

Hilary Knight and Kay Thompson

Five volumes of the Eloise series. Limited editions, signed on limitation page by Hilary Knight (writer) and Kay Thompson (illustrator)

Sold for $5,852

3. Gone With the Wind

Margaret Mitchell

Signed 1936 first edition.

Sold for $5,500

4. Over Sea, Under Stone

Susan Cooper

First American edition from 1966. The first novel in the Dark is Rising series, inscribed by the author on the title page.

Sold for $4,800

5. Science and Health

Mary Barker Eddy

True first edition of this 1875 tome, the initial work by the founder of Christian Science.

Sold for $4,750

6. Le Centaure

Maurice de Guerin

Prose poem by French Romantic poet Maurice de Guérin. Limited to 133 copies, this book was the first published by Le Cercle Gryphe and includes 73 wood engravings by Art Deco metal worker Claudius Linossier.

Sold for $4,200

7. Lepidoptera, Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres, Indigenous and Exotic, with Descriptions

Herman Strecker

The first work on lepidoptery (butterflies and moths) by the leading entomologist in North America from 1872-1877. Includes plus 15 hand-colored lithographic plates.

Sold for $4,125

8. The Selected Writings

Dylan Thomas

First edition inscribed “Larry / Dylan / Santa Barbara / 1950”

Sold for $4,118

9. Over Sea, Under Stone

Susan Cooper

First British edition of the first book in The Dark is Rising series. This copy inscribed by Cooper “love from Susan/November 1965" on front free endpaper. The British edition preceded the American by about a year.

Sold for $4,000

10. Sketches in Architecture