Hunting for old or rare books is like a treasure hunt – sometimes all you have is a title and a dream. I’m very proud of my small Pompeii collection, and each one required a different method to find. Your own journey will also depend on whether you want to own an item or are content to borrow it or read a digital copy.
Finding a Book
Ebay and AbeBooks are a good first port of call, depending on the language/origins of the book (try ebay.it for an Italian work, for example). Otherwise, Googling with what information you have may lead you to other used book sellers.
WorldCat lets you search for a book by year and category, and then tells you which libraries that book is held in. A great starting point for finding information, plus libraries may be open to queries or even digitisation requests if you aren’t able to visit in person.
Archive.org may already have a digital copy of the book available to read if it is in the public domain. Some books require you to make a free account so you can borrow them.
Goodreads is good for more modern works (say 1970s onwards) but pretty terrible for earlier niche works. Worth a try, though.
Websites
19th Century Juvenile Series – Vast database of 19th century juvenile works, often including cover images.
The Lucile Project – “Recovering the publication history of a single 19th century book”. Also helpful for identifying publisher editions of other 19th century works.
Collecting Everyman’s Library – A visual guide and printing history of the Everyman’s Library series.
The Charles Pearce Project – Collecting the works of Charles Pearce and his son. Also includes some editions of the Young Folk’s Weekly Budget newspaper.
Edward T. LeBlanc Dime Novel Bibliography Project – “Aims to create a comprehensive online database of dime novels, story papers, reprint libraries and related materials.”