Because as you hold in your hands the first edition of any great book you hold something of its history, that moment when it was first presented to the world, new, original, without commentary or judgment. And in the book you hold you can acknowledge the trials it survived, everything from intentional destruction through censorship and burnings to the more mundane years of handling and simple neglect.

The pleasure of rare book collecting lies not only in each book’s impact on the world and our own lives, but in our understanding of the random chances that produced it and allowed it to survive.