The annual National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles. This year's winners have built up fascinating collections on topics as diverse as formalist Russian composers, women in the Spanish Civil War, and 20th Century Southern Literature. We asked the four winners to tell us more about their collections... 1st prize: Alexander P. Ioffreda (Harvard University) Formalists! Musical Scores of Repressed Soviet Composers ABAA: Could you give us a brief description of your collection? Alex Ioffreda: My collection explores the conflict between musical expression and state ideology in the Soviet Union through rare period sheet music and associated ephemera. Thematically and historically, it centers on the Zhdanovshchina, the traumatic 1948 campaign to repress “formalists” and instill the doctrine of Socialist Realism into music. The story is told through 70 items dating 1931-1971: 59 musical scores – nearly all first editions – representing 9 composers, and 11 articles of ephemera. ABAA: What first interested you in Soviet-era Russian composers? Alex Ioffreda: I discovered Soviet composers concurrently with my foray into Russian literature and history at age 13. I was captivated by the emotional depth of their music, which both encapsulates the Soviet experience and transcends it. I connected with their music further as I performed it in concert as a classical flutist, researched its history in an academic co... [more Interviews with the 2015 NCBCC Winners]

By Jeff Weber, with contributions by Merle Bobzien, Ryan Parks, Paul Naiditch. With deep appreciation to Elizabeth Krown Spellman. Franklin Victor Spellman was born August 15, 1945 in Stamford, Connecticut, moving to the Bronx, New York, at 8 years. He is named in honor of Franklin Roosevelt and his middle name was in celebration of V-J day. Although Jewish, he was born in a Catholic hospital where the nuns prevailed upon his mother to give him a middle name of Victor. He was not a fan of Roosevelt, but Franklin did love his name. He has an older brother Douglas Spellman, and a younger sister, Jill Polan. Frank married Elizabeth, née Krown, March 15, 1969, the Ides of March, they were married close to 47 years. Frank got his start in bookselling at Pageant Book Co., NYC, at 13 years of age, working on weekends, holidays, and summer vacation. As a child he loved science fiction, fantasy and horror literature. He wrote and produced with some schoolmates stories in these same fields. He even corresponded with the founder of Arkham House, August Derleth (1909-1971). He fostered friendships with several well-known writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy literature. He started collecting Lord Dunsany (something he continued collecting throughout his life), took his Bachelor's degree in History and English Literature at City College of New York, then continued at CUNY and earned his Master's degree in English Literature. In 1970 Frank moved to Los Angeles, matriculatin... [more Franklin Victor Spellman (1945-2015)]

This item is still missing as of 5/31/2019. Missing from Boston Book Fair. Please contact Josh Mann if you are offered this item. The Dharma Bums Kerouac, Jack Hard Cover. New York: The Viking Press, 1958. 1st Edition. Fine / Dust Jacket Included. First edition, first printing. Publisher's black cloth, lettered in metallic green and silver; in the original dust jacket designed by Bill English, with an illustration of two mountain climbers to the front panel, portrait photograph of Kerouac by Keith Jennison to the rear panel. A fine copy, with a hint of wear to the spine ends, some light toning to the front endpapers, otherwise bright and fresh pages; unclipped dust jacket, with a hint of wear to the extremities, minor rubbing to the hinges, bright and clean panels with much less rubbing than usual. An excellent copy and very scarce in this condition. Joshua R. Mann B & B Rare Books, Ltd. Office: (646) 652-6766 Mobile: (917) 673-3439 jmann@bbrarebooks.com [more Missing from the Boston Book Fair: The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac]

The 2015 Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair takes place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, over the weekend of November 13-15. Many ABAA members will be exhibiting. Here is a brief selection of the special items they're planning on bringing to Boston. Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius a.d.480-525 Small folio 11 ¼ x 7 inches. First illustrated edition. In this copy many of the seventy eight woodcuts have very nice original color, it is bound in full blind stamped calf over wooden boards. It is also rubicated throughout. (Offered by James Gray Bookseller) Cicarelli's rare treatise on the truffle, Opuscule sur les Truffes (1813). Ciccarelli believed he had identified the seed of the truffle and lays out a method for its propagation. Ciccarelli, Alfonso; . Opuscule sur les Truffes, trad. libre du Latin, d'Alphonse Ciccarellus, auteur du XVIe siècle ; avec des annotations sur le texte, et un préambule historique par Mr. P.-J. Amoreux. Montpellier: J.-G. Tournel,1813. Octavo, 180 pages. Pages uncut. Some light wear to wrapper edges, other wise very good. Rare. 9OCLC locates eight copies only, none in the US; not in Volbracht, Myko Libri) (Offered by Rabelais Fine Books on Food and Drink) LELAND, Charles F. (attributed to). ''F.A.T.'': HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPT OF WEEKLY HUMOR PERIODICAL WITH COLOR DRAWINGS. A total of 6 issues, 12 pages each, bound with original wrappers in cloth (4-1/2" x 7"). Handwritten in ink throughout, with many watercolor drawin... [more Featured Items: Boston Book Fair]

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]

Friday, October 16 marks 161 years since the birth of Oscar Wilde. In that time be became the toast of the literary scene in 19th-century London, an international pariah, and finally, decades after he died, one of the most well-known poets and dramatists in history. No well-rounded collection of rare books should be without some of Wilde's work. Below, we collect some of the most-interesting items by Oscar Wilde currently being offered by ABAA members. Signed Books Anything with an author's signature is almost always more highly prized that something without a signature, and the general rule of thumb is the more writing by the author the better. (For example, a book annotated or inscribed by the author with a personal message would likely be more interesting to collectors than one with a simple signature.) There are several signed books and other items by Wilde currently available on abaa.org: An Ideal Husband London: Leonard Smithers and Co., 1899. First Edition. Hardcover. Slight browning to the endpapers, as customary, otherwise a clean copy with mild bumping to the corners and spine tips, some fading to the spine with a rather faint stain, and mild soiling to the covers. Near Fine. Small quarto (7-1/4" x 8-7/8") in original gilt-stamped and decorated lavender cloth with gilt designs by Charles Shannon. Copy #21 of only 100 SIGNED by the author. Wilde's third comedy, very scarce in the limited signed edition. The Balled of Reading Gaol London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. Third... [more Rare Items by Oscar Wilde]

Looking at the history of book banning worldwide, from Henry VIII's destruction of Catholic iconography and religious books during the dissolution, to Hitler's famous bonfires of any work deemed insufficiently Germanic in the 1930s, and up to today's over-zealous parents eager to shield children from whatever they imagine was absent in their own childhoods, some books simply appear to attract more negative emotion than others. These challenges usually cite the same few justifications: sex, violence, racism, or the presentation of facts or theories outside of mainstream belief. To mark Banned Books Week, we pick out a selection of the most-frequently challanged books, and a couple whose publication spawned landmark freedom-of-speech cases. Almost anything by Judy Blume Before the young adult genre became best known for daring fiction that pushes the envelope, Judy Blume was one of the most-challenged authors in America because she wrote honestly about adolescent sexuality before it was trendy, with novels like Tiger Eyes, Forever, Are You There God It's Me, Margaret, Deenie, and Blubber appearing on the annual lists of frequently challenged books throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Deenie by Judy Blume (First Edition) Scarsdale, NY: Bradbury Press, 1973. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding/Very Good dust jacket. A clean First Edition with no marks of any kind. Like many of Ms. Blume's young adult novels, this one has been banned in schools for dealing openly with topics ... [more Infamous Banned Books]

Today's entry has to do with the way Tahiti looked to Gauguin, but it is also about colleagues, and buying things, and about surprises – about whether or not they can be surprises if we expect them. Last week at the Brooklyn Book Fair my cellphone went off. It was colleague John Thomson calling me from across the room. He'd found something in DeWolfe & Wood's booth. I scooted over for a look. It was a lot of 24 cabinet photos of Tahiti. About a dozen of these had captions on the back; just enough info to assure me they were actually photos of Tahiti. I bought them because I'd never seen their like before. As I wrote somewhere else, this becomes more and more a reason for buying something. If it's new to you – buy it! I also asked John if he wanted to go in on the photos with me. Not because I didn't have the money, but as a courtesy of the trade. He'd scouted it up for me, so he was entitled to a share. I own tens of thousands of dollars worth of things with other people – some of which, I'm sure, will disappear without a trace. No matter, buying things together is a good way to network and, like the old New England ship captains, who seemingly always owned things together, it's an excellent way to share the risk. In this case there was little risk. We were sure to sell the photos for at least what we'd paid and almost certainly at a modest profit. Because we'd paid a healthy sum to obtain them, the ceiling on this lot didn't seem high, but there was always a chance tha... [more Gauguin’s Model]

The second installment of Kaitlin Manning's new series on taking better pictures of rare books and ephemera. (Review the first part here...) Setting up a home studio does not need to be an expensive affair. Besides your camera, there are two basic elements to a studio: a backdrop and lighting. For the backdrop, the simplest and most effective method is to create a “scoop” background (sometimes called an endless background) where there is no visible horizon line. This effect can be created very easily: place a box or other upright, sturdy object (even a folding chair will do) on your workspace and drape a large piece of paper or fabric over it so that it curves gently down onto the surface on which you will place your books. I find that a large roll of butcher paper works quite well – simply roll out a fresh background whenever it gets dirty or wrinkled (black, white, or a neutral grey are best). You can find this at arts and crafts shops or specialty photography shops for a very reasonable price. Lighting your workspace will take a little more effort and experimentation, but shouldn't be intimidating. The basic idea is to fill your background with a soft, diffuse light in order to capture every detail and avoid any harsh shadows. This effect can be achieved in several ways: you can buy several desk lamps (the clip-on kind works really well), or a couple of entry-level, standing flood lamps at a photography shop ($100 will get you a fine set at B & H Photo). Set these li... [more The Savvy Bookseller: A guide to taking better photos, part II]

One reason books have not been replaced by electronic approximations -- despite many predictions of doom -- is the appeal of the physical objects themselves. Lavish illustrations, careful design, and artistic typography elevate a book from text to art. A page from the Kelmscott Chaucer (to give just one example) will never look as good on your phone. Long before pixels and digital everything, publishers understood that books should be works of art, and worked to create illustrations to compliment the prose. Some works lend themselves to being illustrated better than others, and Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market has proven irresistable to artists since its first publication. (Of course having a famous artist for a brother, it was perhaps inevitable that her work would be richly illustrated.) Here are a few of the beautifully illustrated editions of her classic work Goblin Market currently available from ABAA members. Rossetti's more-famous brother, the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, contributed two illustrations for the first publication of Goblin Market & Other Poems in 1862 (a second edition followed in 1865). Goblin Market and Other Poems Cambridge: Macmillan, 1862. First. hardcover. good. With Two Designs by D. G. Rossetti. Small 8vo, blue cloth stamped in gilt. Cambridge: Macmillan, 1862. First Edition. The binding is lightly rubbed; inner hinge cracked, one signature spring, corners bumped. Housed in a blue, half morocco solander case. (Offered by Argosy Book ... [more Illustrating Goblin Market]