While every newspaper is publishing appreciations of the late James Salter, who died last week, few of these pieces mention his exemplary short fiction, instead focusing on the novels. Fewer still wil... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
Entries from June 2015
UPDATE: RECOVERED, 6/29/15 Reported missing from a private library in Walnut Creek, California -- James Joyce's serialized Ulysses in the LITTLE REVIEW, housed in what sounds like a custom grayish-blu... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
Randolph Caldecott was born in March of 1846 in a city called Chester, England. He left school at the tender age of fifteen and went to work in a bank branch. In 1861 he saw published his first drawi... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
National newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic were abuzz over the weekend with the news that a first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit had sold for a record price at auction. The book sold fo... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
Another controversy over Shakespeare erupted recently. By itself, this fact would not be worth reporting, as controversy swirls around the legacy of William Shakespeare like that of no other writer. H... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
Items of interest for the week beginning June 1, 2015. Beatles' Autographs The Beatles are on people's minds -- and radios -- this week because on June 1, 1967, they released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hear... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
June 18 2015 marks the the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. Bestselling historical novelist Bernard Cornwell has spent years researching the antagonists and walking the battlefield; the fr... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
A roundup of the latest news from the rare book world. Rare Proof Copy of The Bell Jar Found A rare 1962 pre-publication proof copy of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar -- then attributed to Plath's pseudon... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
Entries from May 2015
Back of Beyond Books in Moab, UT, have awarded their second annual literary scholarship to support a local high school graduate starting college. Owner Andrew Nettell explained that he started the sch... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]
Over eight years ago, Vagabond Books, located in Pasadena, CA, got a call from a woman named Ellen. She explained that she was the Propmaster for a new show, Mad Men, on AMC and asked if we could find... [more {visitor:mbr_blog_screenname}]