This year the Caxton Club published Other People's Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell, a collection of essays about the stories behind a number of association copies. (An association copy is a book signed by an author and inscribed either to a personal friend or relation of the author, a colleague, or a famous figure.) The book is being distributed by Oak Knoll Books. From their website: Other People's Books provides stories of fifty-two presentation copies from 1470 to 1986, narrating how each book came to be inscribed. Containing 112 illustrations, this work is a lively historical account of the journey of twenty-four books from institutional collections and twenty-eight from private hands. Set in England, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States, these books range in topics from astronomy, ornithology, political science, and psychology, to art, film, history, and literature. While many of the books are presentation inscriptions directly from the author, others were inscribed by someone who was closely connected with the author. The book highlights the owners of these volumes now, many of whom are famous names in literature and history or book scholars and collectors. Click here to read a review of the book from Fine Books & Collections. Click to view an excerpt or to purchase. It sounds like a great read for any bibliophile! Endpaper: Stories with a personal history By Association [more "Other People's Books: Association Copies and the Stories They Tell"]

The following review of ABAA member David Bromer's Aun Aprendo: A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Writings of Aldous Leonard Huxley was written by fellow member Brian Cassidy. It appeared in the ABAA Spring 2011 e-Newsletter. Kudos, David! ********************************* Review: Aun Aprendo: A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Writings of Aldous Leonard Huxley by Brian Cassidy Aldous Huxley is primarily rememberedin the popular imagination at leastfor one book, his classic dystopia Brave New World. This is unfortunate. Huxley was one of the most prolific and versatile British writers of the twentieth century. He wrote on everything from philosophy to psychology, history to the paranormal. He was a pioneer in the field of drug literature, clearing the way for Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and other seminal figures of the counterculture. Huxley authored dozens of books and during his life published well over two thousand short stories, poems, dramas, screenplays, and essays. He worked as an editor, journalist, reviewer, and translator. In other words, any Huxley bibliographer has before him an enormous challenge. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that no comprehensive bibliography of Huxley has been undertaken since before his death in 1963 (Claire John Eschelbach and Joyce Lee Shober'sAldous Huxley: A Bibliography 1916-1959 ) and no descriptive bibliography since R. Duval's in 1939. As explained in James Sexton's foreword to the new Aun Aprendo: A Comprehensive Bib... [more Review: Aun Aprendo: A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Writings of Aldous Leonard Huxley]

UPDATE: The book has been recovered. The following item has gone missing during shipping between NYC and Toronto: GALILEI, Galileo. Dialogo di Galileo Galilei… sopra i due massimi Sistemi del mondo tolemaico, e copernicano. Florence: Batista Landini, 1632. Octavo, late 18th-century full vellum, burgundy morocco spine label. Identifying characteristics: Bauman Rare Books inventory #82805 Frontispiece in the fourth state (of four), as usual, with artist’s signature present. With pasted cancel slip correcting the shoulder note on page 92 and manuscript addition of letter H to diagram on page 192, both as usual. With errata leaf Ff6; without final blank leaf only (Kk4), often not present. Quires Bb3 and Bb4 misnumbered as Bb2 and Bb3, respectively. Paper repair to verso of dedication page; dedication and “Al discreto lettore” leaves remargined at top. Marginal paper repairs to leaves I6, O6, O7, Ee3, Ff6. Morocco spine label partially perished with some loss to lettering; only light soiling to vellum. Please contact Erik DuRon at Bauman Rare Books 212-751-0011 with any information [more UPDATED: Galileo Book Gone Missing During Transport]

Gordon, Grant.  Story of the Ship.  McLoughlin Brothers Inc: 1919.  First edition.  In very good condition. If you have any information regarding this book, please contact ABAA Headquarters at 212-944-8291 or hq@abaa.org. [more Stolen: Story of the Ship]

Watts-Dunton, Theodore. Christmas at the Mermaid, Flowers of Parnassus - XI.  London & New York: John Lane, 1902.  Leather bound.  The book is inscribed to Thomas Hardy (from the author). If you have any information regarding this item, please contact ABAA Headquarters at 212-944-8291 or hq@abaa.org. [more Stolen: Inscribed Copy of "Christmas at the Mermaid"]

Bibliofile, Yale's dedicated site for Book History, has announced the publication of “Rare Book Photography: An Introduction”. This free guide “explains the handling and photographic practices that support libraries' preservation aims and the needs of researchers in clear language accompanied by many illustrations from Yale's Medical Historical and Law Libraries.” Click here to view or download the guide. Bibliofile notes that a larger pdf version is available if anyone would like to have copies printed professionally; email photo.design@yale.edu with your request. Training Manual: Rare Book Photography [more Yale's Free Introductory Guide to Handling & Photographing Rare Books]

Dr. David Culpin of St. Andrew's University came across a rare piece of travel literature while studying at the library of Sir George Grey, who was governor of Cape Colony (today's Capetown) between 1854 and 1861. The book was written in French by Charles-Etienne Boniface and published in South Africa in November 1829. The title has been paraphrased as Account Of The Wreck Of The French Ship The Eole In April 1829; as the title states, it tells the story of the Eole, a French merchant vessel that sank off Africa's coast, and of its eight survivors, who were forced to walk barefoot for three weeks in search of safety. After months of research, Dr. Culpin was able to confirm that the story was true and based on the survivors' accounts. The Eole was a French trading ship which sank during its return voyage from Calcutta. Eight of the 20 passengers and crew survived, and they spent three days with the Xhosa people before their long trek to the nearest European settlement. The book is considered rare for several reasons. It is believed to be the first book published in French and the first travel narrative published in South Africa. The description provided in the book is also of importance. Dr. Culpin notes that "the text offers an eyewitness account of contemporary Cape Town, and describes places like Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth just a few years after these settlements had been established." In addition, although travel literature was a popular genre in the early 19th century... [more Rare South African Book Discovered]

The New-England chapter of the ABAA is pleased to invite members of the ABAA, the trade in general, and all interested observers to a special one-day "unseminar" entitled "New Tools: Marketing Approaches, Platforms, & Technologies for Antiquarian Booksellers," to be held Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. We plan a full day of presentations, speakers, and open discussion. Since all of our distinguished panelists are either active book dealers or people serving the larger community of antiquarian booksellers, we are calling "New Tools" an "unseminar" to emphasize the participatory and "bottom-up" character of the event. Participants include Dan Gregory of Between the Covers, who will deliver two full presentations during the morning session. First up is "Rare Book Photography for the Busy Professional Bookseller" which is very similar to the same talk Dan gives every August at the famed Colorado Antiquarian Rare Book Seminar in Colorado Springs. Following a short break Dan's second presentation will be "The Printed Rare Book Catalog in the Digital Age - New Tech Tools for an Old Sales Channel," a highly-praised talk that he delivered last year at the ILAB Congress in Bologna, Italy. Following lunch on your own at any of our local restaurants, our afternoon session will feature three highly successful and innovative booksellers, and a web designer known to many in the ABAA: 1. Greg Gibson of Ten Pound Island (and "Bookman's Log") on b... [more New England Chapter “Unseminar” on New Tools: Marketing Approaches, Platforms, & Technology]

Click here to view a photos of "five architecturally impressive libraries". I was especially intrigued by the fact that Yale's rare book collection is housed in a building built with "marble sliced so thin that it allows filtered light into the interior of the building, while protecting the stacks from harmful ultraviolet radiation." Pretty cool stuff! I would love to see it in person. Houses for Books: Five Architecturally Impressive Libraries [more Curbed Presents Five Architecturally Impressive Libraries]

The Burns Library at Boston College has made a surprising discovery in their own Yeats archiveYeats' unpublished first play, Love and Death, written in 1884 when he was only 18 or 19 years of age. The play was hidden among boxes of journals, notebooks and correspondence that had been long overlooked. It was only last year when the play was re-discovered by the library as part of an in-house project to find "'high impact' candidates for digitization" in BC's archives. A team of more than 15 librarians, archivists, photographers, literary experts and a dedicated transcriber, began working on digitizing the play and taking extra precaution to "present the whole object as if you can hold it in your hands". To accomplish this, the team presents the transcribed text alongside of high-resolution photographs of the handwritten pages. Click here to view the Love and Death website. Regarding digitization, Jane Morris, BC's scholarly communication librarian who is also leading the school's digitization project, says, "It's more than a trend. This is the new work of libraries, to make these things digital and available and discoverable, instead of having them closed off to the lucky few who have the means to travel here.'' This viewpoint echos the idea of the "democratiz access to knowledge", which Robert Darnton spoke about in the Q&A that was previously posted. Boston College gives unpublished Yeats play new life online Love and Death Manuscript Archives [more Burns Library 'Finds' and Digitizes Unpublished Yeats Play]