Although created almost a century ago, the art and writing of the Roaring 20's still captivates us today. Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald left behind some of the most iconic stories of this fascinating time period. The radical social change he wrote about was also evident in the art that adorned his dust jackets, as the artists who designed them had an uncanny ability to capture the zeitgeist of the era. Art imitated life, and Fitzgerald and his publishers knew how to captivate the attention of a younger generation, the ones who were behind all this change, like never before. Fitzgerald's first three dust jackets were designed by artist William E. Hill. Hill had made a name for himself illustrating for Puck magazine and the Sunday New York Tribune. His ability to depict everyday people in natural settings was well-known, so when Scribner's edi... [more The Artists Behind F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Dust Jackets: Part I (1920-1923)]

When I began selling rare books as a career, I specialized in English literature. More specifically, I specialized in Virginia Woolf and the eccentric writers, artists, and bohemians that made up her inner circle, the Bloomsbury Group. Mrs. Dalloway is, after all, my favorite book, and I dreamed of one day coming across a special association piece- perhaps something owned by a Bloomsbury group member, or a book from Virginia's own library. This dream came to fruition last fall, when I was able to purchase ten books from the library of Vanessa Bell, Virginia Woolf's sister. They came by way of Bell's two surviving granddaughters. Of association material, these are significant not just for familial and personal value, but also for literary value: Vanessa, Virginia's only sister and confidante, was also her chief dust jacket designer. This v... [more The Intrinsic Value of Association Material]

George Koppelman and Daniel Wechsler have been waiting for this day for six years– the day the world will discover they are in possession of a book they claim was owned by William Shakespeare. Koppelman and Wechsler purchased a copy of Baret's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionarie (1580), on eBay in 2008. While other books have more famously earned the designation of Shakespeare source texts, works by Florio and Holinshed's Chronicles of England (1587) among them, Baret's Alvearie has been somewhat overlooked. While they initially believed their dictionary to be important and valuable because of the Elizabethan-era annotations it contained, Koppelman and Wechsler soon found themselves making the case for Shakespeare himself as its owner and annotator. Knowing their find would be met with both excitement and skepticism at once, Koppelman a... [more Waiting for the Coming of Shakespeare]