Cost of a Hardcover Book in 1956.

I was reading sales listings for the book On a Darkling Plain by Clifford Irving. One of the listings mentioned that the price printed on the dustjacket was $3.75. My first thought was how good a deal people received on hardcover books in 1956. Then I remembered that I should take inflation into account. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis has a Consumer Price Index Calculator on their page. Use it to find what $3.75 in 1956 is worth in 2007 dollars. You will see that a hardcover book was not cheap. The Consumer Price Index Calculator is a good tool for librarians to know about. I have used it to answer several reference questions.

April 8, 2007 by Uncategorized 1

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1 Response

  1. Anonymous Patron says:
    April 8, 2007 at 5:30 pm

    And the answer is:
    $28.33 in 2007 dollars.

    However… that’s not taking into account taxation, even assuming the same tax rates (which is/was not the case), at a 10% tax (here it’s only 8% or little less/more, depending on the locality – but other places are more, like say Minneapolis… So in 1956 you paid $.37 in tax, whereas now you’d be paying $2.83 – assuming that you could get that hardback for $28 (maybe yes, maybe no – dunno what type of HB we’re discussing – many HBs are $30-$40+… and not textbooks/speciality).

    Also, in order to have that $28 dollars jangling around your jeans, you had to earn a substantial 2007 income. That $28 is after-tax money, so you’re also losing more to the income tax (progressive taxation (well, some of the time), remember?) than you were in 1956. Percentage-wise, and how-much are open to some debate…

    I’ve been trying to find the historical tax rates and median incomes, to run a calculator for that – but so far I’ve not been having any luck. I’d also love to get average home-ownership stuff into the mix as well, as typically many families are and have been doing that route…

    — Ender, Duke_of_URL

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