On the same day, Sotheby's will also have children's books and illustrations in its general literature sale.

WSJ: Collecting: Revisit Childhood Friends at London Auctions

In response, several bloggers have argued that these elasticities are underestimated, pointing to the unreliability of estimates of long-run price elasticity of oil demand in general and to other literature with higher estimates than the IMF study.

FORBES: Raising Gas Taxes Wouldn't Cut Consumption, But It Still Makes Sense

South African JM Coetzee was born in February 1940 and works as Professor of General Literature at the University of Cape Town.

BBC: Oxford honours arts figures