Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's personal library is up for auction at Bonhams. Included are 1,000 books she collected throughout her entire career, photos, and ephemera. Along with annotated textbooks, classics like Catcher in the Rye, Lady Chatterley's Lover, and works by Nabokov, Tolstoy, and De Tocqueville, there's a slew of books written by her Supreme Court colleagues and inscribed to her, including works by Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Neil Gorsuch. Would be great if the collection ended up in a publicly-accessible library. Here are other highlights noted by Bonhams:
• Ginsburg's personal copy of the 1957-58 Harvard Law Review, the year that she was a member, heavily annotated by her. Estimate: $2,500 – 3,500.
• Ginsburg's personal copies of the Reports on the 1978 Equal Rights Amendment Extension Hearings before the House and Senate subcommittees. Estimate: $600 – 900.
• Offprints of Ginsburg's own articles, including "Women in the Federal Judiciary" (1995), inscribed by Ginsburg to Senator Nancy Kassebaum. Estimate: $800 – 1200. A Sandra Day O'Connor legal article "They Often Are Half Obscure: The Rights of the Individual and the Legacy of Oliver Wendell Holmes" (1992), a presentation copy from the Justice to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, just days before her nomination, and subsequently quoted from in her nomination acceptance speech. Estimate: $800 – 1200.
• Toni Morrison's Beloved inscribed by the author to Ruth and Martin Ginsburg. Estimate: $300 – 500.
• Books relating to important cases adjudicated by Ginsburg, including Citizens United (Estimate: $200 -300), Bush v. Gore (Estimate: $400 – 600), and Lilly Ledbetter's fair pay lawsuit (Estimate: $250 – 350), all inscribed to Ginsburg. A deluxe copy of Antonin Scalia's Reading Law, warmly inscribed to Ginsburg. Estimate: $600 – 900.
• Ginsburg's copy of her book, My Own Words, with her personal bookplate. Estimate: $1000 – 2000.
