one book, $188.28

I just spent $188.28 for a book, which I know sounds ridiculous, but, well, there's a long story.

As a small child I really loved Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet (A Wrinkle in Time, etc., now considered a quintet, with An Acceptable Time), as well as her Vicky Austin books. Later on I discovered some of her "adult" fiction, and particularly enjoyed A Severed Wasp, A Live Coal in the Sea, and Certain Women, among others. I eventually read every one of L'Engle's non-religious books, except one. The last book, called Ilsa, was published in 1946, and has never been reprinted, due (at least in part) to the author's dissatisfaction with her own work.

Initially I didn't think this was a problem; I figured I could borrow the book from a library or something. When the Novato Library was unable to get the book, I figured their network was too small. A couple years later, I went to college, and tried again using MIT's Interlibrary Loan service. Still no dice. After that, I started to look for the book online. This was sometime in early 1997. Over the next few years I tried AbeBooks, BookFinder, Alibris, Powell's, Biblio, Amazon Rare Books and more. Finally, sometime in 2002, I gave up on everything else and pinned my hopes on eBay.

The thing about eBay was that every so often, a copy of Ilsa would surface. The problem was that it would generally sell for around $400, and I wasn't willing to pay that much for a book that I just wanted to read, not collect! Anyway, I set up an eBay alert, and waited. Between 2002 and 2008, I think I probably was notified about 10 or 15 times, and every time but one, the book sold for over $250. One time, about 2-3 years ago, a copy sold for around $185; I forgot to check the auction on the last day, and kicked myself for a week afterwards.

Madeleine L'Engle passed away late last year, which made me sad, but it also made me afraid that her death would drive up the price of Ilsa and make it impossible to buy. Yeah, I'm terrible. Alternatively, I thought perhaps the book would finally be reprinted, but it's been nearly a year, and I haven't heard anything yet.

Anyway, two weeks ago, a copy went on sale with no reserve price, so I bid $20 to remind myself to bid again later. I had dinner plans on the night that the auction ended, so I spent about twenty minutes debating a price and finally bid $212 before heading out. I was so used to losing these auctions that it was a surprise and a relief to discover that I had won the book for the low low price of $188.28. So, just a decade and a half after starting to look for it, I have my book. This morning, I cancelled my six-year-old eBay alert. I'm tempted to photocopy the whole thing and email it to myself, just in case.