cagard wrote:
>I just wish i had a rule of thumb to use.
The guiding principle is that the value of a secondhand book depends on
how scarce it is, how much demand there is for it and what kind of
condition it is in. You know the condition if you have the book in your
hand, but you have to turn over all possible stones if you want to
establish its scarcity and the possible interest anyone might have in
it.
A search of library catalogues and a search on Google should give a
pretty fair idea of how scarce it is. I turned up just one copy on the
Karlsruhe metacatalogue
(http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/hylib/en/kvk.html), which suggests
that it is pretty scarce. There was no mention at all on Google of the
1935 edition of this book, which not only confirms that it is scarce,
but also suggests that it isn't anyone's holy grail. Helena Blavatsky
was the founder of theosophy, and one would expect some mention of this
book by theosophists, but there is nothing specific.
I just found one indication that theosophists are interested in this
work. That was a web page of the Canadian Theosophical Society,
containing the following entry:
"Memory and its Nature [Looking for it] Annie Besant"
(http://www.theosophical.ca/AdyarPamphlets.htm)
There is no mention of the date of publication or of Blavatsky's
co-authorship. Still, one might try contacting them.
The other search results on Google all seem to be references to the
1980 reprint (mostly copies for sale, rather than anyone showing any
particular interest in the contents).
Given that there is scant reference to this work, one needs to get an
idea of what kind of value is attached to comparable works. Tying
together bibliography and biography, Blavatsky had died long before
this book came out, and Besant herself had died two years previously. A
search for works by Besant published by Adyar during the years
following her death turned up a dozen entries on ABE
(http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry) at prices between
about $3 and $100.
The most expensive item is a set of a dozen issues of a periodical. The
highest price for a single work (The High Value of War) is $50. There
is a reference to the contents of that book (or pamphlet) at
http://www.theosophical.org/theosophy/questmagazine/septoct03/ellwood/,
suggesting that the contents are of some interest to theosophists. On
the other hand, your book has been reprinted, whereas that one
apparently hasn't.
If you were that bothered, you could check up other Besant titles and
see which ones have been reprinted and how that affects the price of
original editions, but if it was me I'd leave it at that and just
conclude that is that this is a scarce but comparatively insignificant
publication, of little interest to anyone except a theosophist
book-collector, who would probably be happy to add it to his/her
collection for a few dollars, but not something anyone would break the
bank for.
John
http://rarebooksinjapan.org >> Stay informed about: Another Rare book, hard to value 
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