How Much Did Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Personal Library Sell For?

Late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal library sold for $2.35 million at an auction this week. It was originally estimated it would sell between $300,000 and $500,000, Catherine Williamson, a specialist of fine books and manuscripts at the auction house Bonhams, told CNBC.

One of the most expensive items sold at the auction was Ginsburg’s copy of the 1957-58 Harvard Law Review, which sold for $100,312.50. The legal tome from Ginsburg’s time at Harvard is scrawled with her handwritten annotations in the margins. The book’s spine features “Ruth B. Ginsburg” lettered in gilt.

The auction began last week and ended on Thursday, the same day Ginsburg’s former colleague Justice Stephen Breyer penned his resignation from the high court to President Joe Biden.

NBC News reports all of the available 166 lots were sold, including books such as J.D. Salinger’s “Cather in the Rye,” David Herbert Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” and a signed copy of “My Life on the Road,” the memoir of Gloria Steinem. Steinem’s book, which sold for almost $53,000, includes a message from the famed feminist activist, reading, “To dearest Ruth — who paved the road for us all — with a lifetime of gratitude — Gloria.”

Personal copies of Ginsburg’s own collected writings and speeches bound especially for her by Simon and Schuster sold for $81,000, according to Williamson. The sheet music for “I’ll Fight," a song from the 2018 documentary about Ginsburg, sold for $35,000.

Ginsburg was a trail-blazer for women and she had become a pop-culture icon prior to her death in late 2020 at the age of 87. Ginsberg was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993 by President Clinton and delivered noteworthy opinions on United States v. Virginia, Olmstead v. L.C., and Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services.