COLLECTING THE BOOKER PRIZE

COLLECTING THE BOOKER PRIZE

1969 - 2007

Winners and short listed titles make a rewarding collection. For over 30 years, the annually awarded Booker Prize has been a focal point of autumn literary activity for publishers, readers and collectors alike. It has been exciting, stimulating, contentious and, just occasionally, down right dull.

There is a real challenge in collecting the 209 titles, which comprise the short lists and winners since 1969. They represent a test of searching and reading unmatched by single author or genre collecting, partly because although the theme of the Booker is the best literary fiction of its particular year, changes in reading and writing styles over nearly thirty years create an image of the major trends of a period that has seen enormous change.

Nowhere are these changes reflected better than in the fiction of the period.

In the list that follows, every book that has reached the short list stage and, of course, the winning titles are listed. Very probably, readers will already have some or many of these titles in first edition, as many authors have become household names through their Booker Prize involvement. Interestingly enough, as if to confound the decision of that year’s panel of judges, many of the now best-known titles were not chosen as winners at the time. Subsequent publicity, however, has proved that any publicity is good for an author in terms of books sold. The lists now also include, from 2002 onwards, 'Long List' titles.

Some note on the procedures for compiling the short list may now be of interest.

In February each year, the management committee selects the year’s panel of four judges and a chairman. The judges come from various walks of generally literary life and also include one `person in the street often an actor.

The important factor is that they are all readers and will read all the books submitted to them for consideration by the publishers. This leads to the next and difficult point for both publishers and judges. Each publisher can select two books from his year’s publications, along with one each by a previous Booker Winner (if published by that house). Every publisher can also bring to the panels attention further titles and the judges must call in books from these additional lists. This starts to accumulate a considerable total of books and to extend the sum further, judges can call in for reading titles not raised by the publishers themselves, although few extra titles appear via this route and ultimately 100 118 titles appear on a long list to be read by each judge. The panel will then meet to discuss arriving at a short list of 6 titles, following a long list published in August.

It is at about this time that activity by both dealers and collectors in assembling their own short lists is intense, as soon as the short list is announced that activity becomes frenetic! This is particularly so when, as often happens, an unknown or unexpected author appears on the shortlist. In this instance, the chances of a large initial print run are unlikely (the more so today with most publishers reducing hardback print runs). This creates a difficulty (or exciting challenge!) in tracking down what has overnight become a desirable book. Beware second impressions, later issue dust wrappers (with reviews) and/or endorsements printed following the Booker short list announcement.

Finally and not until the afternoon of the evening presentation dinner does the panel assemble to discuss and decide the winner. After some (I am sure) hard discussion and no doubt gentle persuasion the two hours of discussion leads to an announcement to an often surprised winner. At least reactions are genuine in this situation.

Despite the many hurdles (or perhaps because of them) in assembling a complete collection of these books, I believe that collecting and, of course, reading the full set of these titles is one of the most rewarding goals attainable by any collector of the past forty years.

Enjoy yourself, and don't be surprised if you meet me at a book fair reaching for that same elusive title. I do still have a few to find!

A COMPLETE LISTING OF BOOKER PRIZE WINNERS

AND SHORT LISTED TITLES 1969 2007

1969
P.H. Newby	Something to Answer For (Winner)	F/F	£200
Nicholas Mosley	The Impossible Object	VG/VG	£45
Iris Murdoch	The Nice and the Good	F/F	£50
Muriel Spark	The Public Image	VG/VG	£22
B. England	Figures in a Landscape	VG/VG	£50
G. M. Williams	From Scenes Like These	-	-

1970
Bernice Rubens	The Elected Member (Winner)	-	-
A.L. Barker	John Brown's Body	VG/VG	£40
Elizabeth Bowen	Eva Trout	VG/VG	£30
Iris Murdoch	Bruno's Dream	VG/VG	£30
William Trevor	Mrs Eckdorf in O'Neill's Hotel	VG/F	£75
T.W. Wheeler	The Conjunction	-	-

1971
V.S. Naipaul	In a Free State (Winner)	F/F	£65
T. Kilroy	The Big Chapel	VG/VG	£65
Doris Lessing	Briefing for a Descent Into Hell	NF/NF	£20
Mordecai Richler	St. Urbain's Horseman	-	-
Derek Robinson	Goshawk Squadron	F/F	£45
Elizabeth Taylor	Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont	VG/VG	£35

1972
John Berger	G (Winner)	NF/NF	£90
Susan Hill	Bird of Night	VG/VG	£35
Thomas Keneally	The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith	-	-
David Storey	Pasmore	F/F	£18

1973
J.G. Farrell	The Siege of Krishnapur (Winner)	NF/F	£75
Beryl Bainbridge	The Dressmaker	-	-
Elizabeth Mavor	The Green Equinox	-	-
Iris Murdoch	The Black Prince	F/F	£55

1974 Joint Winners
Nadine Gordimer	The Conservationist (Winner)	VG/VG	£50
Stanley Middleton	Holiday (Winner)	-	-
Kingsley Amis	Ending Up	NF/NF	£20
Beryl Bainbridge	The Bottle Factory Outing	F/F	£30
C.P. Snow	In Their Wisdom	F/F	£20

1975
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala	Heat and Dust (Winner)	F/VG	£45
Thomas Keneally	Gossip From the Forest	VG/VG	£40

1976
David Storey	Saville (Winner)	NF/F	£35
Andre Brink	An Instant in the Wind	NF/F	£30
R.C. Hutchinson	Rising	VG/VG	£45
Brian Moore	The Doctor's Wife	F/F	£35
Julian Rathbone	King Fisher Lives	F/F	£45
William Trevor	The Children of Dynmouth	F/F	£65

1977
Paul Scott	Staying On (Winner)	F/F	£50
Paul Bailey	Peter Smart's Confessions	F/F	£30
Caroline Blackwood	Great Granny Webster	VG/VG	£20
Jennifer Johnston	Shadows On Our Skin	-	-
Penelope Lively	The Road To Litchfield	NF/F	£70
Barbara Pym	Quartet in Autumn	NF/F	£45

1978
Iris Murdoch	The Sea, The Sea (Winner)	F/F	£80
Kingsley Amis	Jake's Thing	F/F	£20
Andre Brink	Rumours of Rain	VG/VG	£50
Penelope Fitzgerald	The Bookshop	-	-
Jane Gardam	God On The Rocks	F/F	£55
Bernice Rubens	A Five-Year Sentence	VG/VG	£25

1979
Penelope Fitzgerald	Offshore (Winner)	F/F	£65
Thomas Keneally	Confederates	F/F	£35
V.S. Naipaul	A Bend in The River	NF/F	£30
Julian Rathbone	Joseph	-	-
Fay Weldon	Praxis	F/F	£20

1980
William Golding	Rites of Passage (Winner)	F/F	£25
Anthony Burgess	Earthly Powers	F/F	£18
J.L. Carr	A Month in the Country	-	-
Anita Desai	Clear Light of Day	-	-
Alice Munro	The Beggar Maid	F/F	£60
Julia O’Faolain	No Country For Young Men	F/F	£50
Barry Unsworth	Pascali's Island	F/F	£80

1981
Salman Rushdie	Midnight's Children (Winner)	F/F	£800
Molly Keane	Good Behaviour	VG/VG	£18
Doris Lessing	The Sirian Experiments	F/F	£20
Ian McEwan	The Comfort of Strangers	F/F	£55
Anne Schlee	Rhine Journey	F/F	£50
Muriel Spark	Loitering With Intent	F/F	£20
D.M. Thomas	The White Hotel	F/F	£80

1982
Thomas Keneally	Schindler's Ark (Winner)	F/F	£100
John Arden	Silence Among The Weapons	F/F	£20
William Boyd	An Ice-Cream War	F/F	£30
Lawrence Durrell	Constance, or Solitary Practices	F/F	£20
Alice Thomas Ellis	The 27th Kingdom	F/F	£40
Timothy Mo	Sour Sweet	F/F	£75

1983
J.M. Coetzee	Life and Times of Michael K (Winner)	F/F	£70
Malcolm Bradbury	Rates of Exchange	F/F	£20
John Fuller	Flying to Nowhere	F/F	£20
Anita Mason	The Illusionist	F/F	£15
Salman Rushdie	Shame	F/F	£25
Graham Swift	Waterland	F/F	£120

1984
Anita Brookner	Hotel du Lac (Winner)	F/F	£65
J.G. Ballard	Empire of the Sun	F/F	£25
Julian Barnes	Flaubert's Parrot	F/F	£220
Anita Desai	In Custody	F/F	£30
Penelope Lively	According to Mark	F/F	£15
David Lodge	Small World	NF/F	£35

1985
Keri Hulme	The Bone People (Winner) (True First Larger Print)	F/F	£65
Peter Carey	Illywhacker	F/F	£30
J.L. Carr	The Battle of Pollocks Crossing	F/F	£16
Doris Lessing	The Good Terrorist	F/F	£20
Jan Morris	Last Letters From Hav	F/F	£15
Iris Murdoch	The Good Apprentice	F/F	£18


1986
Kingsley Amis	The Old Devils (Winner)	F/F	£25
Margaret Atwood	The Handmaid's Tale	F/F	£55
Paul Bailey	Gabriel's Lament	F/F	£20
Robertson Davies	What's Bred In The Bone	F/F	£30
Kazuo Ishiguro	An Artist of the Floating World (1^ST State)	F/F	£125
Timothy Mo	An Insular Possession	F/F	£20

1987
Penelope Lively	Moon Tiger (Winner)	F/F	£65
Chinua Achebe	Anthills of the Savannah	F/F	£20
Peter Ackroyd	Chatterton	F/F	£20
Nina Bawden	Circles of Deceit	F/F	£18
Brian Moore	The Colour of Blood	F/F	£20
Iris Murdoch	The Book and the Brotherhood	F/F	£18

1988
Peter Carey	Oscar and Lucinda (Winner)	F/F	£65
Bruce Chatwin	Utz	F/F	£18
Penelope Fitzgerald	The Beginning of Spring	F/F	£20
David Lodge	Nice Work	F/F	£16
Salman Rushdie	The Satanic Verses	F/F	£70
Marina Warner	The Lost Father	F/F	£18

1989
Kazuo Ishiguro	The Remains of the Day (Winner)	F/F	£125
Margaret Atwood	Cat's Eye	F/F	£18
John Banville	The Book of Evidence	F/F	£25
Sybille Bedford	Jigsaw An Unsentimental Education	F/F	£20
James Kelman	A Disaffection	F/F	£25
Rose Tremain	Restoration	F/F	£20

1990
A.S. Byatt	Possession (Winner)	F/F	£75
Beryl Bainbridge	An Awfully Big Adventure	F/F	£20
Penelope Fitzgerald	The Gate of Angels	F/F	£20
John McGahern	Amongst Women	F/F	£45
Brian Moore	Lies of Silence	F/F	£16
Mordecai Richler	Solomon Gursky Was Here	F/F	£18

1991
Ben Okri	The Famished Road (Winner)	F/F	£70
Martin Amis	Time's Arrow	F/F	£14
Roddy Doyle	The Van	F/F	£85
Rohinton Mistry	Such a Long Journey	F/F	£60
Timothy Mo	The Redundancy of Courage	F/F	£20
William Trevor	Reading Turgenev	F/F	£25

1992 Joint Winners Joint Winners
Michael Ondaatje	The English Patient (Winner)	F/F	£100
Barry Unsworth	Sacred Hunger (Winner)	F/F	£80
Christopher Hope	Serenity House	F/F	£15
Patrick McCabe	The Butcher Boy	F/F	£240
Ian McEwan	Black Dogs	F/F	£20
Michele Roberts	Daughters of the House	F/F	£20

1993
Roddy Doyle	Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. (Winner)	F/F	£70
Tibor Fischer	Under the Frog (P.B.O.)	-	-
Michael Ignatieff	Scar Tissue (P.B.O.)	F	£16
David Malouf	Remembering Babylon	F/F	£18
Caryl Phillips	Crossing the River	F/F	£30
Carol Shields	The Stone Diaries	F/F	£120



1994
James Kelman	How Late It Was, How Late (Winner)	F/F	£45
George MacKay Brown	Beside the Ocean of Time.	F/F	£50
Romesh Gunesekera	Reef	F/F	£30
Abdulrazak Gurnah	Paradise	F/F	£30
Alan Hollinghurst	The Folding Star	F/F	£20
Jill Paton Walsh	Knowledge of Angels	F/F	£40

1995
Pat Barker	The Ghost Road (Winner)	F/F	£65
Justin Cartwright	In Every Face I Meet	F/F	£18
Salman Rushdie	The Moor's Last Sigh	F/F	£18
Barry Unsworth	Morality Play	F/F	£18
Tim Winton	The Riders	F/F	£18

1996
Graham Swift	Last Orders (Winner)	F/F	£30
Margaret Atwood	Alias Grace	F/F	£25
Beryl Bainbridge	Every Man for Himself	F/F	£25
Seamus Deane	Reading in the Dark	F/F	£18
Shena MacKay	The Orchard on Fire	F/F	£20
Rohinton Mistry	A Fine Balance	F/F	£25

1997
A. Roy	The God of Small Things (Winner)	F/F	£50
J. Crace	Quarantine	F/F	£30
M. Jackson	The Underground Man	F/F	£18
B. Maclaverty	Grace Notes	F/F	£15
T. Parks	Europa (P.B.O.)	F	£15
M StJohn	The Essence of the Thing (P.B.O.)	F	£15

1998
I. McEwan	Amsterdam (Winner)	F/F	£30
J. Barnes	England, England	F/F	£20
B. Bainbridge	Master Georgie	F/F	£18
M. Booth	Industry of Souls (P.B.O.)	F	£15
M. Mills	Restraint of Beasts (P.B.O.)	F	£20
P. McCabe	Breakfast on Pluto	F/F	£18

1999
J. M. Coetzee	Disgrace (Winner) (Biddles Printing)	F/F	£65
A. Desai	Fasting, Feasting	F/F	£20
M. Frayn	Headlong	F/F	£40
A. O’Hagan	Our Fathers	F/F	£16
A. Soueif	The Map of Love	F/F	£20
C. Toibin	The Blackwater Lightship	F/F	£20

2000
Margaret Atwood	The Blind Assassin (Winner)	F/F	£30
Trezza Azzopardi	The Hiding Place (1^STNovel)	F/F	£20
Michael Collins	The Keepers of Truth (Sim. P/back)	F	£18
Michael Collins	The Keepers of Truth (Sim. scarce hardback)	F/F	£45
Kazuo Ishiguro	When We Were Orphans	F/F	£25
Matthew Kneale	English Passengers	F/F	£50
Brian O’Doherty	The Deposition of Father McGreevy (P.B.O.)	F	£20

2001
Peter Carey	True History of the Kelly Gang (Winner) With map	F/F	£45
Ian McEwan

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974 Joint Winners

1975

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

1992 Joint Winners

Joint Winners

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999