The Long Island Museum presents: Photography and Genealogy with Ray Smith What’s in a Photograph? Sunday, September 18, 2011 • 2 p.m. ABAA member Ray Smith will be presenting a lecture and workshop on the interrelationship between photography and genealogy, and how research in both fields can compliment one another. Each program is different, depending on what audience members bring for examination. Students in the history of photographic portraiture are often confronted with the problem of identifying and dating portraits. Similarly, researchers in genealogy often have difficulty in attaching a picture to a subject while undertaking intense investigation into family history. The intent of the lecture / workshop is to to offer a bridge between the two fields by suggesting ways one can attach a name to a face (i.e., a photographic port... [more Member Event: Ray Smith on Photography & Genealogy]

The LA Times has a piece online about the top bibliophilic spots in New York City.  Please click here to read.  A glaring omission made in the article is that if you are planning your bookish journey in April, the NY Antiquarian Book Fair is a must!  (The 2012 Fair runs from April 12-April 15 and will be held at the Park Avenue Armory.) NYC is full of literary landmarks, and there are lots located in my neighborhood downtown.  Petes Tavern in Irving Place immediately comes to mind; its where O. Henry used to hang out reportedly penned The Gift of the Magi there.  Edith Wharton and Henry James both lived alongside Washington Square.  Mark Twain had a townhouse on West 10th Street where he liked to throw lavish parties.  Emma Lazarus (author of the poem The New Collosus, which is inscribed on the Statue of LibertyGive me you ti... [more NYC Spots for Books Lovers]

The September issue of Americana Exchange features an article on Vic Zoschaks (Tavistock Books) annual free workshop on bibliographic references.  Click here to read. Kudos to Vic for his generosity! Using Reference Works Can Help Enhance Value Tavistock Books [more Member in the News: Vic Zoschak]

Fine Books & Collections has a great interview with Norman Kane of The Americanist.  Please click here to read it. Congratulations, Norman! The Americanist [more Member in the News: Norman Kane]

Last week I posted a link to Lorne Bairs review of his experience as a faculty member for the 2011 Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar.  This week we have a brief and lovely essay from Zhenya Dzhavgova, a young bookseller who was able to attend CABS because of a scholarship she received from the ABAAs Elisabeth Woodburn Fund. Enjoy! *************************** One of the Best Decisions I Have Ever Made by Zhenya Dzhavgova It is Saturday night and the time has finally come - in just a few hours I will be flying out to Colorado to attend the highly acclaimed Antiquarian Book Seminar. Thanks to the generous ABAA scholarship I have won I am able to avoid the hassle of navigating cabs and buses in Denver and get a commuter flight into Colorado Springs. A decision, which later makes me rethink its merits when the little jet starts shaking vio... [more CABS from an Attendee's Perspective]

Brent Ashworth, a Utah rare book dealer and collector, claimed that he had found a 200 page manuscript proving Butch Cassidy did not die in a 1908 shootout, as historians believed, but lived to old age and penned an autobiography. The manuscript is entitled Bandit Invincible: The Story of Butch Cassidy and was written in 1934. It appears to be an extended version of an unpublished novella of the same title by William T. Phillips. Larry Pointer has been on Butch Cassidy's trail for 40 years trying to find out what really happened to him. Pointer had found the truncated version of Bandit Invicible in the 1970s and, although it was a fictionalized biography, there were a number of obscure details that led Pointer to believe that William T. Phillips was in fact Butch Cassidy. Pointer got in touch with Phillips' wife, who denied that Phillips... [more Supposed Butch Cassidy Autobiography Inauthentic]

Howard S. Mott, Inc. is celebrating its 75th Anniversary! Howard S. Mott, Inc. was one of the founding firms of the ABAA, joining in 1949 when the association was formed.  Proprietor Donald N. Mott took over the family business from his parents, who, as ABAA members have commented, would be proud of this landmark in the trade. In celebration, Howard S. Mott, Inc. is offering Catalogue 260, which is available in print or electronically.  If you are interested in receiving one, please click here to email the shop. Congratulations to Donald and all those at Howard S. Mott, Inc. for reaching this milestone.  We wish you another 75 years of success! [more Howard S. Mott, Inc. Celebrates 75th Anniversary]

A comic book collector and dealer, Gary Colabuono, displayed a number of very rare ashcan comic books last weekend at Chicagos Comic Con.  An ashcan comic is a hand drawn, unfinished version of a comic book that was produced for either legal purposes, such as securing trademarks, or to demonstrate publications for potential advertisers.  These comics were then intended to be thrown out, which is how they got their name, and makes them extremely rare.  (These ashcan copies would have been produced during the Golden Age of Comics, which lasted from the 1930s-1950s).  For many comic books, there are only one or two copies known to have survived. Among the ashcan copies that Gary displayed were Spierman, Superwoman, Superboy and Supergirl comics from the 1930s and 1940s.  Gareb Shamus, CEO of Wizard World, the company that puts on... [more Ashcan Comics Displayed at Chicago Comic Con]

The Victoria & Albert Museum has a neat video on their website that shows the process of creating a hand-printed and hand-bound octavo. Please click here to watch (Note: there is no audio on the video, only closed captioning). [more Video: Printing and Binding a Hand Made Octavo]

This item was still reported missing as of May 30, 2019. The following item was reported missing during transport: Eleonora Maria Rosalia, Herzogin zu Troppau und Jagerndorff. FREYWILLIG-AUFFGESPRUNGENER GRANAT-APFFEL, Des Christlichen Samaritans... Wienn in Oesterreich: druckts und verlegts Anna Francisca Voigtin. (Vienna): 1708. Fuller title: FREYWILLIG-AUFFGESPRUNGENER GRANAT-APFFEL, Des Christlichen Samaritans, Oder: Auss Christlicher Lieb dess Nachsten eroffnete Behaimbnuss Viler vortrefflichen, sonders, bewahrten Mitteln und Wunder-heylsamen Artzneyen... Auffs neue vermehrt, (sambt einer kleinen Diaeta, wie sich bey jeder Kranckheit in Essen und Trincken zuverhalten ; wie auch beygefugten neuen Koch Buch, in welchen allerhand rare und denen Patienten zu verschidenen Kranckheiten erspriessliche Speisen) nun zum sechstenmahl in offent... [more German Book by Duchess Eleonora Maria Rosalia Gone Missing During Transport]