DALLAS, TX.- When Heritage Auctions closed the book Thursday afternoon on The William A. Strutz Library, Part I, Rare Books Signature® Auction, the total read $5,655,439. Inscribed inside the historic event were the signatures of the 730 bidders who participated worldwide, bought every single one of the 226 books, letters and manuscripts on the shelf and helped set numerous auction records.

Chief among the event’s historic lots was an extraordinary inscribed copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that realized $425,000, now the world’s most valuable copy. Not far behind was what is now the most valuable Hobbit in the world, a presentation copy of J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel that realized $300,000. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; or Life in the Woods also set an auction record, selling Thursday for $275,000.

Towering above them all was a copy of Frankenstein that realized $843,750, befitting one of only three known first editions in the original pink boards (and the only one in private hands).

“This auction establishes Heritage as the premier destination for rare books and manuscripts,” says Francis Wahlgren, Heritage Auctions’ International Director of Rare Books & Manuscripts. “This was a single-owner sale 60 years in the making, and the results are a true testament to a great collector and a market that recognized the treasures assembled by William Strutz.”

Strutz’s breathtaking library, built within his Bismarck, North Dakota home, consisted of some 15,000 books, which the attorney began assembling while in college in the late 1950s. He focused on books of great literary significance, in superb original condition and with important provenance, which accounted for the profusion of presentation and association copies found in this auction — the first of a series of auctions Heritage will hold throughout this year and next.

Strutz, who said he collected because he was “a reader,” wanted more than just a copy of the book. He sought out copies held by their authors, books presented from one notable to another. As a result, Strutz assembled what Wahlgren calls “one of the most important collections of English and American literature that has come on the market in decades.”

On Thursday, collectors responded accordingly.

“We want to thank Heritage, especially Francis and Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena, and the bidders who made this auction such a success,” says William’s son Colin Strutz. “We so appreciate everyone who helped make this a record-setting day. This auction honored my father’s passion, and we look forward to working with Heritage as we continue to tell Dad’s story through the books he collected and loved.”

William Strutz acquired his first-edition copy of Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus in 1975 and had the foresight to obtain the only known copy in the original pink boards in private hands. The other two known copies in pink boards reside in the Pforzheimer and Berg Collections at the New York Public Library.

The tome opened live bidding at $300,000 Thursday, then, almost instantly, skyrocketed to its final price of $843,750. Said auctioneer Mike Sadler when introducing Strutz’s Frankenstein, “Every signature sale has a signature lot.”

As it turned out, this one had many. No less extraordinary was Strutz’s copy of 1925’s first printing of the first edition of The Great Gatsby, which boasts a superior dust jacket featuring perhaps the most famous book cover of all time: Francis Cugat’s painting Celestial Eyes hovering over an illuminated cityscape. Inside, the author wrote a note for its recipient: “For D. L. Shelton / from his Sincerely / F Scott Fitzgerald / Feb 1927.”

Before Thursday, no other copy of The Great Gatsby had ever broken the $400,000 barrier.

Bidders also fought over a first edition presentation copy of Tolkien’s 1937 The Hobbit, featuring a dust jacket — likewise the creation of Tolkien — so brilliant-bright its snow-capped mountains seem to burst out of its famously verdant landscape. Tolkien gifted this copy to dear friends, writing inside, “Charles & Dorothy Moore / from. / J.R.R.T / with love / September 1937.”

There are but 2,000 copies of the first printing of the first edition of Thoreau’s masterpiece 1854 Walden; or Life in the Woods, but only one inscribed to the author’s literary executor (and hiking companion) Harrison Gray Otis Blake. Hence its record-setting price of $275,000.

Bidding wars abounded throughout the event, with numerous lots exceeding their pre-auction estimates, among them the first edition of John Milton’s 380-year-old prose polemic Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton For the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, To the Parliament of England, which argues for freedom of the press, speech and expression — an essential document no matter the moment. Only twice before has a copy reached the auction block. No other copies have ever sold for more: $93,750.