The 39th annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair takes place in Boston, MA from November 13 to 15. The leaves are falling, Maine is experiencing its first snowfall, and the world series is upon us; It must be nearly time for the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. 2015 marks the 39th annual antiquarian book fair in Boston, MA, and more than 120 dealers from around the world will rendevous at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston's Back Bay over the November 13-15 weekend. Special Events Special events at this year's Boston Book Fair include a talk by Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster, about the 19th century dictionary wars; a behind-the-scenes look at Antiques Roadshow with the show's executive producer Marsha Bemko; the annual Ticknor Society Roundtable, a panel discussion of books collectors talking about their collections; and, the Boston debut of the Typewriter Rodeo, a group of poets who create custom poems on vintage typewriters -- you'll have to see it to believe it! Featured Items One of the oldest and most respected antiquarian book shows in the country, the Boston Book Fair is an event that offers the 'crème de la crème' of items that are available on the international literary market. This year's featured items includes rare and first editions of works by Erasmus, Ezra Pound, Winston Churchill, Aimé Césaire, Philip Levine, and J. M Barrie; an inscribed first-edition of Clement Moore's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas; signe... [more Coming Soon: 2015 Boston Book Fair]

Some brief history In 1824, land speculators John Allen and Elisha Rumsey founded Annarbour, Michigan. (They named the town after their wives, Ann Allen and Mary Ann Rumsey; history is silent on whether Mary angled for top billing.) In 1837, the University of Michigan was moved to Ann Arbor. And then in 1965 the proto-punk pioneer Iggy Pop graduated from Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School. Today, Ann Arbor still has its world-class university and punches above its weight when it comes to book shops and restaurants—it's a pretty good small city, even if the local Arbor Wiki project notes “here is no Iggy Pop museum.” But for bibliophiles of all stripes looking for something to do—even those at loose ends and nursing a grudge after a disappointed pilgrimage to the yet-unbuilt shrine to the genius of Jim Osterberg—the 37th Annual ANN ARBOR ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR celebrates its 39th anniversary in 2015, when it will be held from 11am to 5 pm on Sunday, May 17, 2015 at the Michigan Union on the campus of the University of Michigan. The $5 admission to the fair benefits the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, one of the best Americana libraries going. Ann Arbor itself—a suitably arboreal college town in the Midwestern mold, with a strong local food scene and an anachronistic wide range of open, street-level antiquarian, used, and new bookstores—is always well worth a visit in the spring; should the prospect of visiting one of the longest-running ant... [more Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair]

To mark UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day on April 23, 2015, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (an organization that encompasses twenty national associations representing antiquarian booksellers who sell books, manuscripts, prints, and maps in thirty countries around the world, including the ABAA) is sponsoring a series of Pop-Up Book Fairs around the world to raise awareness of their belief that "reading is a fundamental human right" and to raise money to support UNESCO's South Sudan Project. (link?) Why April 23rd? 23 April is a symbolic date for world literature. It is on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors around the world, such as Maurice Druon, Haldor K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. ILAB/ABAA members are organizing six Pop-Up Book Fairs in the US: Chicago, Illinois Location: Cliff Dwellers Club, 22nd Floor, 200 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago Time: 5:30-7pm Exhibitors: Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc.; Beasley Books; Bookleggers; Kurt Gippert Bookseller; Harlan J. Berk Ltd.; Jeff Hirsch Books; Powell's Bookstore; Garrett Scott, Bookseller; and Stick Figure Books. The event includes an array of hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. Donation to UNESCO $25 RSVP to cliffdwellers@cliff-chicago.org. More information... New Castle, Delaware Location: New Castle's historic Opera House Time: 1pm to 5pm Exhibitors: Oak Knoll Bo... [more ILAB Pop-Up Book Fairs]

Okay. Hang on to your hats. Here comes the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, presented by the ABAA. This is the Big Leagues, baby. The World Series of Book. From Thursday night through Sunday afternoon at the Park Avenue Armory, we'll be keeping company with some of the world's finest books and manuscripts – mindbogglingly rare and valuable items - sought by collectors of inestimable wealth (those unspeakably rich folks obvious to all but known by name only to Bill Reese, Don Heald, and their Continental cohorts); representatives of Institutions of Higher Learning whose annual budgets exceed those of many African nations; young men and women of good breeding who've attended the right schools and have decided to invest family millions in ruinous antiquarian ecstasy; smiling auctioneers and avaricious dealers cruising the floor like so many leopards, attended by their pimps and minions; suave counter monkeys contentedly grooming themselves, waiting for their chance; bloated industrialists, technocrats, and financial guys for whom “to want” = “to have,” and their pimps and minions. Yes, it's a jungle out there. A prize fight fought in silk gloves which, this year, has spawned two undercard events – satellite book fairs promoted by Impact Events Group and Flamingo Eventz, two promoters who are themselves engaged in a good old New York turf war. And somewhere down in the undergrowth lurks Ten Pound Island Book Co. and our several dozen peers. Creatures of ... [more That’s Why I Love My Job…]

Three years ago, I took part in one of the ABA's Book Collecting Seminars at the University of London: Book Collecting and the Web. Now, there are many different views about what the internet has done for booksellers (watch a few of the earlier interviews conducted by Michael Ginsberg) and for collectors (a very recent view here). For my part, I like the internet: it has given me access to a wealth of information previously unavailable to me to help me research the books I have for sale, and given me access to a much wider audience than before it existed. But what about you, the collector? Certainly, any worries you may have about buying books on the internet are nothing new. In the late 1990s, when people first began to look for books online and booksellers began listing their stock, the exact same concerns were voiced then as they are now: is the person with a PO Box address in the middle of nowhere a real shop, or just someone with a few books in his garage? Can you trust his description? Does he know anything about condition? Or rarity? Or price? (Of course, you can buy with confidence from any ILAB-affiliated bookseller.) And the websites which allow you to look for books haven't really changed, either. Facilities to search only for first editions can still result in first American, first illustrated etc etc. A description for a particular copy may appear twice (or more) on the results page. Browsing is still very difficult. Some websites have tried to increase the chanc... [more The Show is My Shop]

The 55th annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair takes place in New York City from April 9 to 12, 2015. Many ABAA member dealers will be exhibiting. Here are a selection of their featured items that will be available at the fair. Urban, Sylvanus (ie. David, Henry), ed. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE: AND HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. FOR THE YEAR MDCCLXXIV MDCCLXXXIII . London: Printed at St. John's Gate for D. Henry, 1774-1783. 120 issues plus 8 supplements as issued (no supplements issued in 1774 and 1783). Illus. with 164 engraved portraits, figures, maps, and plans (75 folding, 1 facsimile) plus numerous in text drawings. 8vo. Full modern brown calf, five raised bands, red morocco spine labels, gilt titles and rules, in period style. ($14,500) Offered by Kaaterskill Books (Booth B6) --- Bartolo of Sassoferrato . . . Collation: a10, b-z8, A-C8, D-E6. 221 of 222 ff. Final leaf, a blank, lacking. Folio (16-1/2" x 11-1/4"). Contemporary quarter calf with blind tooling over wooden boards, raised bands and later hand-lettered title label to spine, clasps (and buckles) lacking. Several tiny wormholes, a few cracks to spine, chip to foot of spine, Signatures a and E6 partially detached, bookplate of Robert Proctor and bookseller description from the Rosenbach company to verso of front board, pastedowns lacking (or never present). Text printed in 60-line gothic type on wide-margined paper, initial spaces filled in alternate red and blue, most with flourishes, seven-line initial "Q" at beginning o... [more NY Antiquarian Book Fair: Featured Items]

What could be more fun than spending two days pouring over old magazines, pamphlets, prints, letters, diaries, photos, advertising, account books, political fliers and broadsides, trade cards, baseball cards, posters, menus, valentines, historical documents, song sheets and songsters, alphabets, juveniles and primers, post cards, labels, stock certificates, passports and old newspapers – to name only a few? If your answer is “Nothing!” you needed to be at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Greenwich, CT this weekend, for the 35th annual Conference and Paper Show of the Ephemera Society of America. The theme this year was “The Sporting Life” and conference organizers provided a full slate of sports oriented lectures, presentations, book signings, social events, an auction and, oh yes, a paper and ephemera show. Of course, since we are still in the grips of the memorable “Winter it Snowed,” it snowed. Over six inches in as many hours – just like a Viagra ad! The white stuff brought its usual quotient of misery during load in but, interestingly, had little effect on attendance. Most of the attendees were there for the other Conference events, and were already ensconced in the comfortable Hyatt Regency hotel. For this reason, and because of continuity of venue and promoters, AND (big “and” here) because of the credibility provided by the Ephemera Society, this is the most stable of all provincial fairs. The benefits of stability are many – there are no unpleasant s... [more What Could be More Fun?]

The New York Antiquarian Book Fair will enthrall bibliophiles at the Park Avenue Armory from April 9 through 12, 2015. “The Best Book Fair in the World” This three-day event is one of the largest antiquarian book fairs in the United States, and draws over 200 rare book dealers from across the country and around the world. Sponsored by the Antiquarian Bookseller's Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, the event is the centerpiece of Rare Book Week, a “coordinated effort to focus attention on the antiquarian book fairs, book & manuscript auctions, rare book & fine art exhibits, and bookish browsing available in New York City from April 7-15,” according to Fine Books Magazine. Where: Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue, NY, NY 10065 When: April 9 - 12, 2015 Friday: Noon-8pm Saturday: Noon-7pm Sunday: Noon-5pm Rare Book Week's events include two shadow shows, and numerous exhibitions and auctions of rare books and ephemera around New York City. Featured item: Allen, John Fisk. VICTORIA REGIA; OR THE GREAT WATER LILY OF AMERICA. With a brief account of its Discovery and Introduction into Cultivation: with Illustrations by William Sharp, from Specimens Grown at Salem, Massachusetts, USA. Boston: Printed and published for the author, 1854. A cornerstone of American color printing. These images were drawn on stone and printed by Sharp, America's first chromolithographic printer. This was the earliest example of large scale color print... [more New York Antiquarian Book Fair 2015]

Along with robins and daylight savings time, the Washington Antiquarian Book Fair is the harbinger of spring. In the old days, I'd drive down to the house of my friends who run Bartleby's Books, park my car in their driveway, and take a long, pleasant, shirtsleeved walk down Wisconsin Avenue to their shop in Georgetown, delighting in forsythias, daffodils, and short dresses along the way. But their shop has been closed for four years, and it's a good thing, too. Their business is thriving at home, and I would have needed skis to make the walk this year. As it was, finding our way across the Key Bridge to site of the book fair at the Holiday Inn in Roslyn, VA, was an arctic excursion, fraught with ice patches, snow banks and potholes. Promoter Beth Campbell and her helpful staff made move in a snap, but no one was too surprised that the line on opening night was shorter than usual. We'd just gotten several inches of snow – a blizzard in these parts – and DC officials were encouraging people to stay off the roads so that street cleaning could proceed. A word about Beth Campbell and the Washington Antiquarian Book Fair, if you will indulge me... The fair started as a fund raising event for Concord Hill School forty years ago. In its day it was, along with events in New York, Seattle, and St. Petersburg, one of the most successful provincial shows in the country. A bookseller could – and many did – make a decent living shuttling from one of these events to the next. All ... [more Frozen: Washington Antiquarian Book Fair]

Exhibiting booksellers at the 48th annual California International Antiquarian Book Fair have announced some unusual and notable items that will be for sale at the fair (being held at the Marriott Oakland City Center, Oakland, CA from February 6 to 8, 2015). Some of these special items include: Overdue Bar Tab Invoice for Jimi Hendrix, 1969 “Even the world's greatest rock guitarist can forget to pay his tab once in a while. Hendrix spent a Halloween evening at “The Scene” nightclub in New York in 1969, and apparently, skipped out on his tab. The invoice for $44.25 is from owner Steve Paul stating that “The Scene needs the money badly. Your beverage tab is Past Due.” Hopefully he left a tip!” (Schubertiade Music & Arts LLC, Booth 106, $1,200) The First English Sex Manual from 1684 “Entitled Aristotle's Masterpiece, although not written by Aristotle or a masterpiece, this 17th century primer provides practical advice on copulation, conception, pregnancy and birth. Needless to say, this was an extremely popular book in its time, going through more than 100 editions over two centuries. While not intended as pornography, the graphic nature of the book caused it to be printed and sold “under the table.” One wonders how many teenaged English boys kept a copy hidden under their bed!” (Jeremy Norman HistoryofScience.com, Booth 809, $65,000) Aristotle's Masterpiece Courtesy Jeremy Norman HistoryofScience.com, Booth 809, $65,000 The Heritage Edition of the St. John's... [more CA Book Fair 2015: Featured Items]