First Edition (Short Story)

Part 2 The Collector

Jacob never realized that whatever books his literary mother would buy him all of those years always ended up in his bookshelf and that's where they would stay for many, many years. He never got rid of any of his books that he had acquired over time so his little childhood bookshelf eventually became his teenage bookshelves in which he stored and displayed all of the novels he owned. Jacob was extremely proud of the collection he had but he always wanted more.

When Jacob became an adult he started going to a lot of book fairs, second hand stores and rare\used bookstores in search of hidden gems that may have slipped through other amateur book collector's hands. Jacob started learning the ins and outs of the collector's world because he wanted to take his book obsession from just being a hobby to possibly taking it to a level where he could actually make pretty good money. Maybe at first it could actually make pretty good money. At first it could be a second income and then gradually he would learn more as he went along. Jacob really wanted to become a name in book trading and selling with better knowledge and experience to have better payoffs in the end.

Over time he started buying and adding precious first editions of quite a few contemporary novels and a few classic to his collection. His latest find was from his all time favorite author by the name of Edgar Allan Poe. He had managed to find a complete unabridged collection of his short stories and poems which turned out to be a rare first edition of that particular publishing of his entire works. He most definitely purchased that epic tome at a very affordable price. He also did manage to find an extremely ultra rare first edition printing of the first published release of "The Raven" in a collection of poems by Wiley & Putnam way back in 1845. Unfortunately, he couldn't purchase this book as it was way out of his spending limit. A few thousand dollars short. Dammit.

As his collection and experience grew through trial and mostly error and over time with some wins and A lot of losses, Jacob had acquired a very handsome library of very valuable and priceless times. He loved to look at his bookshelves with pride and take out each one of his treasures one by one to personally appreciate them. He often pondered that with each first edition printing of a novel that he gained seemed like traveling back in time, getting one step closer to the author's actual original manuscripts. Entranced in those moments, he was always left dumbfounded and completely overwhelmed with emotion at that single thought alone. Whoa.

As special as those moments were with his books in private, he couldn't help feeling that something was missing from his collection. Although he was very content with every book on his bookshelves something kept nagging at him and making him feel like there was one more important book that would ideally complete his entire collection of first editions, adding the most value and integrity to his bookshelves. He just couldn't put his finger on what novel it might be and he couldnt think of any author he really wanted to search for either. He was at a loss at the moment.

As far as he was concerned and according to his digital catalogue of book records, he wasn't actively searching for any more specific books per sè, Jacob was just randomly going to book stores and book fairs to see if there was any picks worth purchasing. He had already pretty much collected all of the first editions of most of his favorite authors who's books had become valuable collectibles but something kept forcing him to walk up to his bookshelves to painstakingly recheck his inventory of his entire collection. He would do this ritual to see if it would trigger memories of a possible forgotten book title or its author, but it was always all for naught.