It's back! The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Hynes Convention Center in Boston's beautiful Back Bay for its 42nd year, November 16-18, 2018. Special events at this year's event include documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman on the making of Ex Libris: The New York Public Library; political guru Michael Goldman on 1968: The Year of the Century; Sumio Yamazaki from the Kyoto Book Artists Society in discussion with Charles Vilnis on Japanese art books; Editor Peter K. Steinberg on Sylvia Plath; and the 17th annual Ticknor Society Roundtable panel discussion on starting a collection. One of the oldest and most respected antiquarian book shows in the country, the Boston Book Fair offers a top selection of items available on the international literary market. Attendees have the unique chance to get a close look at r... [more Boston Book Fair 2018]

A couple of literary first editions caught to eye this week, along with an original WWII propaganda poster, and an entertaining and very honest description of a first edition Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. THE COLOSSUS AND OTHER POEMS by Sylvia Plath New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 84 p. First American Edition. With this startling, exhilarating book of poems, Sylvia Plath (1932-63) burst into literature with spectacular force. In such classics as "The Beekeeper's Daughter," "The Disquieting Muses," "I Want, I Want," and "Full Fathom Five," she writes about sows and skeletons, fathers and suicides, about the noisy imperatives of life and the chilly hunger for death. This copy belonged to Anne Wilder, the confidant and lover of poet Anne Sexton, with Wilder's signature to the front f... [more Books of the Week]

The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest is sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), the Grolier Club, and the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division (the Library of Congress), with major support from the Jay I. Kislak Foundation. The 2018 winners are: First Prize: Samuel Vincent Lemley, University of Virginia: Biblioteca Genealogica: Sicilian Printing, 1704-1893 Second Prize: Paul T. Schwennesen, University of Kansas: Borderlands: A Manifesto on Overlap Third Prize: Hanaa J. Masalmeh, Harvard University: Far From the Eyes, Far From the Heart: My Life as a Syrian-American Muslim Essay. Ena Selimovic, Washington University in St. Louis: Ja, Ben, I, Je: A Book Collection in Translation We asked each some question... [more Meet the 2018 NCBCC Winners]

Books "catch the eye" for many reasons: a colorful cover, a pithy title, or that rare moment of synchronicity that seems to conjure the perfect book at the perfect time. This week, a 1926 biography of Walt Whitman caught our eye for its magnificent title and a rare cut-out book celebrating Walt Disney's Snow White invoked childhood very strongly. Browse these and other items that leaped off the virtual shelves at us below... The Magnificent Idler: The Story of Walt Whitman by Cameron Rogers; illustrated by Edward A. Wilson Garden City: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1926. First edition of this earnestly humanizing popular biography of Walt Whitman, which "seeks neither to whitewash its subject nor exhume old scandals." The double-page landscapes by illustrator Edward Wilson, which depict Whitman communing with nature throughout his life, matc... [more Books of the Week]

The ABAA Glossary of Book Terms defines a first editon, in part, as "all of the copies printed from the first setting of type," which can "include multiple printings if all are from the same setting of type." So, the term is rooted in the physical act of printing the pages of a book. But, the term also has a second meaning, specifically the first form given to a book, i.e. before any later changes (which could include corrections, additional copy, introductions, etc.) These changes, if minor, are referred to as the second (or later) "state" of the book, if major, they constitute new editions of the book. The phrase "modern" is more difficult to define, as it has been often used as a synonym for "contemporary," thus what was considered a modern first editon in the 1940s might not be regarded in the same way in the second decade of the 21st... [more Modern First Editions]

Among the eye-catching items newly listed on abaa.org or featured in members' catalogs this week are some signed first editions, an inscribed photo of everyone's favorite princess from a galaxy far, far away, and a clever artist's book that captures the Beaufort Scale memorably. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Scale] by Stephanie Wolff & Sir Francis Beaufort Norwich, VT, 2015. Artist's book, one of 13 copies, all on Somerset Velvet Radiant White paper, each copy hand-numbered and signed by the artist on the colophon. Page size: 5 x 9-3/4 inches; 26pp; + colophon. Bound by the artist: compound structure, primarily non-adhesive, tabbed single pages sewn onto a concertina of French paper and then inserted into strip of Tyvek folded into Hedi Kyle's crown binding structure, reinforced covers of white Somerset paper sewn onto the concertina and s... [more Books of the Week]

Longtime ABAA member Kenneth Karmiole continues to support research in the history of the book through a new endowed fellowship at the University of California Los Angeles' Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies & William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. Karmiole is a graduate of UCLA, and has supported the university with several contributions over the years. From The UCLA Center for 17th- & 18th-Century Studies & William Andrews Clark Memorial Library: Recently, UCLA's Center for 17th-&18th-Century Studies and William Andrews Clark Memorial Library received support for an endowed fellowship from antiquarian bookseller, philanthropist, and long time supporter, Kenneth Karmiole. The gift of $100,000 will establish the Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Research Fellowship, supporting an annual graduate fellowship at UCLA's William Andrews Clark Mem... [more Kenneth Karmiole Establishes New Fellowship at UCLA]

Owen Kubik, a long-time ABAA member from Dayton Ohio, knew it was too good to be true when he discovered a cache of 16th- and 17th-century books in a bulk shipment of used books. Kubik regularly buys large lots of old books from thrift store recyclers. The books are gathered from thrift stores across the country — which either don't want to handle used books in their stores or have too many — and then sold wholesale by the truck-load to book stores and paper recycling operations. Going through such large shipments can be time-consuming, but Kubik finds that this "is a good source for a large volume of general stock for my open shop. There is almost never anything rare or collectible, just good, decent everyday books." A lot sourced from the East Coast in March 2018 proved to be a little different, however. “Here I am, going through ... [more ABAA Member Recovers Books Stolen from Yale University]

ABAA members list new items on abaa.org almost every day, and publish catalogs and E-lists of new acquisitions almost weekly. Among the items that caught the eye this week, are first editions of Armistead Maupin's classic Tales of the City, A.A. Milne's Now We are Six, and Yoko Ono's Grapefruit, along with anti-fascist paper art, Nikola Tesla's John Hancock, and a first edition of John Gould's multi-volume magnum opus The Birds of Europe. Tales of the City First Edition Paperback by Armistead Maupin (Cover map by Phil Frank) New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1978. Paperback. 240p., 7.5x9.25 inches, lightly-worn first edition stated, number line ends in "1" trade paperback original in pictorial map covers with a key to locations of the story. Originally published serially by the San Francisco Chronicle. Made into a TV miniseries and being r... [more New Listings: Selected Highlights]

With the 50th anniversary of Desert Solitaire upon us, Back of Beyond Books has launched a unique publishing program to both honor the importance of Edward Abbey's book and continue the discussion surrounding Desert Solitaire. This November, Back of Beyond in partnership with Torrey House Press will publish Desert Cabal: a New Season in the Wilderness by Amy Irvine. In Desert Cabal, Amy Irvine admires the man who influenced her life and work while also examining "the inspiration of Desert Solitaire through the lens of 50 years of desert love and a contemporary, feminist vision." Back of Beyond will also publish a facsimile of the first draft of Desert Solitaire, with hundreds of handwritten manuscript changes by Abbey. This document has never been published before and only fifty sets of the facsimile will be made available. In addition, K... [more Celebrating 50 Years of Desert Solitaire]