Best book at the fair period was a copy of Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry. For whatever reasons, this book, given its classic status, has never gone for very much money. One could always get an okay copy for around five hundred bucks or so, and much nicer ones for a thousand up to about twenty-five hundred. The dust jacket is fragile and rarely seen in collector condition. Well, this dealer I know named Peter Stern had a copy - I looked at it and couldn't believe my eyes - it literally looks like the book has never touched human hands, as if it just came out of a time machine (rather like the books in my short story called The Book Scout). As new wouldn't even describe how pristine this book was - the back of the jacket is white, and this copy is WHITE, rather than the usual yellowed and smudged thing you usually seen. There was not a mark, not a blemish on the book anywhere. His price? 15K. That's about quadruple what any normal person would pay for the book, but then again, I'd bet that this is a one-of-a-kind copy the likes of which will never be seen again. If I was a millionaire I would have bought it.
