Rare Book Monthly
Articles - October - 2005 Issue
Should This Book Be Sliced Apart?
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Ms. Schlie's copy of the first edition of the Book of Mormon, however, appears to have no such major defects. It is not perfect. Her description says the cover is badly worn, the binding has deteriorated. Still, none of this is surprising for a book of its age. Certainly, the pages appear to be in excellent shape. This book does not need to be torn apart.
From what I have been able to find, the leaders of the Mormon Church have declined to take a position on this action. Some commentators have expressed great disdain, others have said nothing. Ms. Schlie speaks of wanting the book to touch many more lives as a reason for dividing it into so many parts. If so, this feels like something of a Solomon like way of attaining that goal. However, instead of splitting the child in two, this book will be split into two hundred ninety.
Despite Ms. Schlie's noble stated purposes of enabling more people to be touched by her book than would be possible if it were kept whole, I am a bit suspicious. While the value of the first edition has been rising rapidly in recent years, it is not an unusually rare book, there having been 5,000 copies printed (no one knows how many remain). Recent auction prices suggest a value in the $50,000-$60,000 range. Ms. Schlie plans to sell the pages at $2,500 to $4,500 each. Even at the lowest price, that comes to $725,000 in total. Call me cynical, but I can't help but suspect Ms. Schlie is motivated primarily by financial considerations in her decision of how to sell this book. She could still obtain the complete book's value by selling the pages at $200 apiece, and this price would make pages available to many more believers, including those of modest means.
While there are no particular standards which prevent, or even condemn such cutting apart of books, it is a practice that has generally not been met with favor. It is usually acknowledged as acceptable with incomplete books. A book that is missing pages is normally not going to be of much value nor collectible. This is particularly true with a book such as this, which while uncommon, is still available. Evidently, damaged copies of this book have been split apart in the past.
However, I personally hope her plan fails miserably. Not because I have anything against Ms. Schlie, nor am I passing a moral judgment on what she is doing. Attempting to maximize your profits is a perfectly normal thing to do. Here is what I don't like. Even if Ms. Schlie sells only half the pages, and at half her minimum asking price, that is still over $180,000 in total. If successful, the financial incentive for cutting apart rare old books becomes overwhelming. If Ms. Schlie's copy of the Book of Mormon were missing half of its pages, but she sold the ones remaining for her minimum price of $2,500 apiece, she would collect $362,500. That's at least six times what a complete copy is worth. Who on earth would not cut their complete copies apart if keeping them together meant you could only realize one-sixth of what someone else collected for half a copy? Ladies and gentlemen, get out your razors. No, I hope Ms. Schlie's plan fails, for if it succeeds, it could open the floodgates to something I never hope to see. I hope her copy is the last copy of the original Book of Mormon to ever be sliced apart.
