How are the Library of America books?

[SirJazzHands]

My old Edgar Allan Poe paperback is pretty crappy and I was thinking about buying the LoA edition.
Does anyone have it, or any other books from their catalog?
Are the pages too thin, is the text too small, anything that would hinder purchasing the books?

[_Shannon_]

Ohhhh- those are purty books!! I love the paper and the typeface. I also think that they are sewn, rather than glued. We don't have the Poe, but do have a handful of others.

[stlukesguild]

I've found them to be quite excellent editions. The only complaint might be that they lack any introduction (although they have an appendix with chronology and some extensive notes) but then one can always find more than enough of an intro to any of the major writers included in the series online. I have the volumes on Longfellow, Poe (essays and poetry/fiction), Hawthorne, Emerson (essays and poetry/translations), Whitman, Thoreau, William James, Henry James (complete short stories- 2 vols.), Robert Frost, Mark Twain, Gertrude Stein, Herman Melville, and probably a few others I can't think of right now. The books are beautifully produced and bound, the paper light (almost like some of those old King James Bibles) but high-quality/non-acidic. They are absolute keepers for every author... to the point I doubt I will ever need to up-grade. Having purchased all of my volumes at a used book store for far less than the published price I am more than happy with the value of these editions, but I would certainly recommend them at full price.

[SirJazzHands]

Wait huh? they're that thin? Do they rip or tear easily then?

[stlukesguild]

The paper is thin but high quality. We are not talking newsprint or old wood-pulp paper here. The pages don't strike me as being overly fragile in any way... especially considering the use I've put some of the volumes... especially Emerson... through. No tearing of ripping... but they would certainly tear as easily as any other book if subjected to excessive abuse. No more/no less. The volumes are quite packed. My Poe essays (can't find the stories right now... that volume must be off over in a pile somewhere or placed out of order on one of my shelves) has over 1400 pages.

[aeroport]

I'm quite in agreement here with st. lukes. I have about twenty of these, and they are wonderful. I'm sad to have found errors in them (the Table of Contents page of Roth's 'Zuckerman Bound' volume actually has a hundreds-digit error on a page number), but I still highly recommend, if you're looking for something you won't have to replace.