Book market note: Books by Augusta Huiell Seaman

In the stack of used books that I'm getting ready for sale, I came across a book from 1947. It hasn't aged particularly well. The pages are still soft (flexible, not brittle), but they are browning. As far as the boards go, there's wear to the corners and the head and tail of the spine; not real bad, but enough to be unhappy about. If there ever was a dust jacket, it's long gone.

But this turns out to be one of the harder to find books by the prolific author Augusta Huiell Seaman (1879-1950), once quite popular with kids and teens, and now apparently popular with collectors. Even "reading copies" (i.e., ugly but all there) are selling for $25 and up. Hmmm. That's a nice surprise, from a seller's point of view.

I did a quick look around and it looks like several of her titles are scarce, well worth keeping your eye out for when you're at garage sales and thrift stores, etc.

For a lengthy article on the author and her work, plus a bibliography, see Nancy Drew for Smart Kids: Mysteries by Augusta Huiell Seaman by Christine M. Volk.