Coming of Age Stories flourished in the March 2025 meeting. Bildungsroman, as a literary genre, traces the moral and psychological growth and change of the story's protagonist, usually from childhood to adulthood, as the character is confronted with the hard realities of life through knowledge, experience, or both, and often through a process of disillusionment. Coming of Age stories generally follow the protagonist through one of five developmental shifts. The character moves:
q from a state of naiveté to a state of knowledge;q from a state of idealism to a state of realism;
q from a state of inexperience to a state of experience;
q from a state of immaturity to a state of making mature responses and decisions;
q from having a false view of the world to having a more realistic view of the world.
The collectors easily situated each of their books—from classic
literature to modern science fiction—within one of these developmental shifts.
The books are shown here in chronological order of their original
publication date.
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| Candide |
Voltaire, Jean François Marie Arouet de. Candide. New York: Random House, 1975. Illustrations by Rockwell Kent. Issued in an illustrated slipcase. Candide was first published in French as Candide, ou l'Optimisme in 1759, and translated into English as Candide: or, All for the Best the same year.
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| Oliver Twist |
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1950. The Novel Library edition with an introduction by Graham Greene. Oliver Twist was first published in 1838.
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| Jane Eyre |
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. London: The Folio Society, 1995. Jane Eyre was first published in 1847.
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| Wuthering Heights |
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: The Folio Society, 1975. Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847.
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| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1885. First edition, early issue.
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| The Red Badge of Courage |
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1979. Collector's edition. Illustrated by John Steuart Curry. The Red Badge of Courage was first published in 1895.
 |
| The Catcher in the Rye |
Salinger, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. New York: Little, Brown, 1951. Thirty-second printing. The Catcher in the Rye was originally serialized in 1945-1946 and first published in book form in 1951.
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| To Kill a Mockingbird |
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. Slipcase edition. To Kill a Mockingbird was first published in 1960.
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| Something Wicked This Way Comes |
Bradbury, Ray. Something Wicked This Way Comes. Springfield, PA: Gauntlet Publications, 1999. Signed by Ray Bradbury, one of 500 numbered copies in a slipcase. Something Wicked This Way Comes was first published in 1962.
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| Dune |
Herbert, Frank. Dune. New York: Ace Books, 1999. Dune was first published in 1965.
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| Frank Herbert's Dune: The Graphic Novel |
Herbert, Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, adapters. Frank Herbert's Dune: The Graphic Novel, Book 1. New York: Abrams Comic Arts, 2020. Illustrated by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín.
Herbert, Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, adapters. Frank Herbert's Dune: The Graphic Novel,
Book 2, Maud'Dib. New York: Abrams
Comic Arts, 2022. Illustrated by Raúl
Allén and Patricia Martín.
Herbert, Brian and Kevin J. Anderson, adapters. Frank Herbert's Dune: The Graphic Novel,
Book 3, The Prophet. New York:
Abrams Comic Arts, 2024. Illustrated
by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín.
 |
| Rite of Passage |
Panshin, Alexei. Rite of Passage. New York: Ace, 1968. First edition in wraps.
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| Rite of Passage |
Panshin, Alexei. Rite of Passage. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1969. First hardcover edition.
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| Rite of Passage |
Panshin, Alexei. Rite of Passage. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1976. First US hardcover edition (no dust jacket).
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| Maurice |
Forster, E. M. Maurice. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1971. First American edition. Maurice was originally written in 1913-1914, revised in 1932 (with help from Christopher Isherwood) and again in the 1950s, and finally published in 1971.
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| My Name is Asher Lev |
Potok, Chaim. My Name is Asher Lev. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972. First edition. This copy is signed by the author.
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| Ender's Game |
Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1993. Ender's Game was first published in 1985. This copy is signed by the author.
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| Hatchet |
Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Twentieth anniversary edition. Hatchet was first published in 1987.
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| The Captain and the Enemy |
Greene, Graham. The Captain and the Enemy. Toronto: Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1988. Uncorrected proof. The Canadian edition precedes the American and British editions.
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| The Border Trilogy |
McCarthy, Cormac. All The Pretty Horses. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Uniform series.
McCarthy, Cormac. The
Crossing. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1994.
McCarthy, Cormac. Cities
of the Plains. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1998.
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| Uprooted |
Novik, Naomi. Uprooted. New York: Del Rey, 2015. First edition.
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| Uprooted |
Novik, Naomi. Uprooted. Battle Ground, WA: Grim Oak Press, 2015. Signed, limited edition; one of 750 numbered copies in a slipcase.
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| Sing, Unburied, Sing |
Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing. New York: Scribner, 2017. First edition.
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| Young Mungo |
Stuart, Douglas. Young Mungo. New York: Grove Press, 2022. First edition.
