6 Centuries of Scientific Books to be Sold
Associated Press
Jun 13, 2008
NEW YORK - More than 300 books, including the only known copy of the first telephone book, will be auctioned next week in New York City.
The collection, which spans six centuries, contains works by Nicolaus Copernicus, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sir Isaac Newton and Johannes Kepler. It's expected to bring $6 million Tuesday at Christie's New York auction.
A copy of Copernicus' "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), printed in 1543, is expected to bring the highest price, between $900,000 and $1.2 million. It puts forth the theory that the sun - not the earth - is at the center of the universe.
The sale also includes the only known copy of the first phone book, issued in 1878, two years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
The 20-page, pamphlet-size book, published by the Connecticut District Telephone Co., contains the names and numbers of 391 New Haven-area subscribers. It also provides some helpful hints to callers: "Should you wish to speak to another subscriber you should commence the conversation by saying 'Hulloa!'" It could fetch $30,000 to $40,000.
Einstein's own set of reference copies, including key papers on the theories of special and general relativity, quantum theory and unified theory, is estimated to bring $150,000 to $250,000.
The collection is being sold by Richard Green, a retired physician and amateur astronomer from Long Island.
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