The idea for Other People's Books was conceived in 2007 when Steve Tomashefsky, then President of the Caxton Club, actively supported a project to create a collection of essays revealing the stories behind association copies. Even earlier, Caxton Club members recognized the importance of provenance during its exhibition of "books interesting through their associations," in 1896. This enthusiasm for association copies continued to grow even outside of the Caxton Club as newspapers such as The New York Times began publishing articles related to these unique pedigree books.

Other People's Books provides stories of fifty-two presentation copies from 1470 to 1986, narrating how each book came to be inscribed. Containing 112 illustrations, this work is a lively historical account of the journey of twenty-four books from institutional collections and twenty-eight from private hands. Set in England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States, these books range in topics from astronomy, ornithology, political science, and psychology, to art, film, history, and literature. While many of the books are presentation inscriptions directly from the author, others were inscribed by someone who was closely connected with the author. The book highlights the owners of these volumes now, many of whom are famous names in literature and history or book scholars and collectors.

This book is a creation of the Caxton Club, an organization of collectors, publishers, designers, and librarians. Many Caxton Club members worked together to assemble this work, with a jury of members hand-picking the fifty-two essays seen in this collection. They edited, designed, and indexed the book. Submission requests were made to numerous book organizations across North America, as well as to curators of university library special collections. An introduction by G. Thomas Tanselle is included.