The Raab Collection this year marks its 35th anniversary in the business of discovering, buying, and selling important historical documents and autographs. Founded in 1989 by Steven S. Raab, an attorney and collector, the company has since grown into an international firm, serving both private collectors and major institutions around the world. To celebrate this milestone, Raab has updated and refreshed its notable website, and throughout this season will curate a collection and exhibition, “35 for 35,” that celebrates its role in uncovering pieces of history and unveils some documents never before offered for sale and others last on the market a century ago or more. It will also feature periodic articles on the history of the business written by Steven S. Raab. 35 for 35: Historical Discoveries Historical discovery is a key part of what they do at Raab. Much of what they offer has been acquired from prominent historical families, including descendants of presidents, Revolutionary War and Civil War figures, scientific greats, owners of old European chateaus, great generals from America and Europe, and Civil Rights trailblazers. Many of these items have not been on the market in a century, or, in some cases, have never before been offered for sale. With a nod toward this, The Raab Colelction are marking their anniversary with the launch of “35 for 35”: A selection of historical discoveries introduced in the past year, as well as some that will be revealed for the first... [more Raab Collection Celebrates 35 Years]
Countee Cullen's Color has been reported missing from the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center collection. The book appears to have been sold by an auction house, and the University seeks information about its whereabouts. Please contact us if you have any information. First edition, first printing in dustjacket of Harlem Renaissance author Cullen's first book, including more than 70 poems. Inscribed to Augustus Granville Dill. Copy contains bookplate of the Arthur B. Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature. [more Missing from Howard University: Countee Cullen’s Color]
Fall 2024 ABAA Diversity Initiative Discovery Program Program Overview The ABAA Diversity Initiative is proud to announce the first season of a guided discovery program for those historically underrepresented among workers in the trade—black, indigenous, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community. Designed to co-occur with annual ABAA book fairs, the program offers an introduction to antiquarian book fairs, career insight with ABAA members, visits to local ABAA member open shops/offices, networking with institution professionals, and more. This Fall Diversity Discovery Program offers stipends of up to $2,500 to two individuals to visit the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (November 8-10, 2024) during the week of the fair. Students will be guided by an ABAA member and with an itinerary of multiple networking activities. Program Date: November 6-10, 2024 Application Prerequisites Self-identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and/or person of color) and/or LGBTQ+. Minimum requirement of a high school diploma, OR currently enrolled student in any degree program (undergrads, Masters, PhD), OR recent graduate (< 1-year post-grad). Applicants must be passionate about books, archival/library sciences, and/or bookselling. Applicants must be able to travel and arrange their transportation and accommodation. Application: https://forms.gle/LCMMaS9Xqus2UG2P7 Application Deadline: August 16, 2024 *This application requires supplementary materials, so files will be uploaded ... [more ABAA Diversity Initiative Discovery Program]
The Booksellers Documentary producers Dan Wechsler (Sanctuary Books), D.W. Young, and Judith Mizrachy recently premiered UNCROPPED, which rediscovers the work of James Hamilton, one of the great photographers of the cultural history of America. For over four decades working on staff at publications such as Harper's Bazaar, The New York Observer, and most notably, The Village Voice, Hamilton captured remarkable people and stories of the last half-century. Hamilton chronicled the punk and jazz music scene in 1970s and 80s New York City, creating iconic images of musicians like Charles Mingus, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed and taking intimate portraits of everyone from Akira Kurosawa and Jean-Luc Godard. He eventually broke off to do set photography for George Romero, Noah Baumbach, and Wes Anderson. He pursued controversial assignments across the U.S. and the world, which, at times, reveal its seedy underbelly. He never stopped amassing a stunning visual love letter to New York City in all its grit and glory. Hamilton's story and vast archive offer a singular window into the heyday of alternative print media. Taking its name from Hamiton's assertions that publications never cropped his images, Uncropped's filmmakers detail Hamilton's process and his uncanny ability to know the precise moment to unfold a vignette in just two colors. Among the most poignant works are his sympathetic photos of drug-addicted sex workers in pre-gentrified Williamsburg, a young Patti Smith with Tom Verl... [more Booksellers Documentary Producers Premiere UNCROPPED]
May 1 marks the hundredth birthday of Agnes Dawson, a mainstay of the Southern California book trade for over seventy-five years. Agnes' career in the book world began when she met Muir Dawson in 1947. When they met, Muir and his elder brother, Glen, had recently taken over the management of Dawson's Book Shop from their father, Ernest, who had founded the business in 1905. Agnes married Muir in 1948 and became immersed in the book trade: in a profile of Agnes in Zamorano Celebrates 90 (2018), Elizabeth Pomeroy explains that Agnes, Muir, Glen, and other Dawson's staff traveled to Venice, to England, to Japan for the ILAB Congress, and to book fairs all over the world. By the late 1950s, Agnes was running the finances of Dawson's, a role she maintained for nearly fifty years. She was more than the bookkeeper, however. According to her son, Michael Dawson, Agnes was “an unsung hero” of Dawson's. “She understood the business, and she knew the clients,” Michael said, adding that Agnes was the “financial glue in the company.” It was Agnes who made, in Michael's words, “possibly the single most important” business decision in Dawson's history: she advised Glen and Muir Dawson to relocate the shop to the Larchmont neighborhood in 1968 after the closing of the downtown “booksellers' row” location. At the time, Glen and Muir wanted to stay close to downtown Los Angeles. Much of the area they were looking for a new location never took off for retail business. Larchm... [more Agnes Dawson Turns 100]
Edit: The recording of this event is now available: The April Brown Bag Lunch Series will feature a panel discussion with ABAA members on the Expansion of Materials of the Antiquarian/Rare Book Trade. The webinar will focus on unique and unusual items, dealers expanding the diversity of traditional materials represented as antiquarian books, and more. Please join the Gender Equity Initiative on Zoom on April 24th, 2024, at 2 PM ET for a panel discussion with Blank Verso Books, Munster & Company, and Toadlily Books. Click here to register Expansion of Materials of the Antiquarian/Rare Book Trade Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 2pm ET Mara Fath & Steven Hill, Blank Verso Books Mara and Steven met in a bookstore, not Steven's long ago store on Church Street, just some random old San Francisco bookshop, the kind that used to be a ubiquitous feature in the city. Their bookselling partnership began. Years later, they left the city and moved to Napa, where they have an online bookstore called Blank Verso Books. Recently, they got the opportunity to join the ABAA and participated in the SF Antiquarian Fair, which was amazing (in their own words!)! The ever changing landscape of rare book and ephemera selling is a bewitching challenge they tumble around with every day. Jon Munster, Munster & Company Jon Munster and his wife Jessie are the co-owners of Munster & Company, ABAA in Corvallis, Oregon. He first started in the book trade in 2001 as a clerk and buyer for The Book Bin, ABAA, and... [more Brown Bag Series: Expansion of Materials of the Antiquarian/Rare Book Trade]
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America is proud to announce sponsorship of the David Ruggles Prize. The David Ruggles Prize is an international book-collecting prize to encourage and support young collectors of color. The Prize honors the legacy of David Ruggles, an early American abolitionist, publisher, and Underground Railroad conductor. The New York grocery store he opened in 1828 soon became the country's first Black-owned bookstore. Beyond rewarding existing collectors, this Prize hopes to encourage young book lovers to become book collectors. The Prize awards three applicants annually whose collections are considered most outstanding by a panel of judges. Grand Prize: $1,000 Second Prize: $500 Third Prize: $250 Entry is open to anyone aged 35 and under, anywhere in the world. This year's deadline to enter is June 9, 2024. Whether it is comic books and graphic novels, zines, contemporary book art, or handwritten manuscripts—all are welcome to apply. Want more information? Click here to learn more about the Prize and past winners and meet the judging panel. Find the David Ruggles Prize on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter/X @rugglesprize. Submit your application today! [more David Ruggles Prize]
The ABAA Gender Equity Initiative is proud to announce the fourth year of the ABAA Mentorship Program, designed to further the ABAA's mission to promote ethical standards and professionalism in the antiquarian book trade, encourage the collecting and preservation of rare and antiquarian books and related materials, and facilitate collegial relations within the trade. Goals Further the mission of the ABAA. Provide dealers early in their careers with the opportunity to advance their professional development. Build a recruitment pipeline for the Association that enhances the number of qualified applicants. Advance the diversity of new members. Allow mentees to build a relationship with an ABAA member. Educate potential candidates about a career in the trade (for example, graduate students looking for a profession outside of academia). Structure With the assistance of the Gender Equity Initiative, mentors and mentees will be paired with consideration of a variety of factors such as any specific requests, specialization/area of focus, and business structure. Location could also be a point of consideration. Once paired, mentors and mentees will commence a one year period of mentorship (May 15, 2024-May 1, 2025). Over the course of the year, mentors and mentees are required to have face-to-face communication for a minimum of 1-2 hours each month (this could be completed electronically). The schedule structure to meet this requirement will be determined by the pair. We e... [more 2024 ABAA Mentorship Program]
The ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 4-7, 2024, for its 64th Edition. Here are some of the highlights that exhibitors will be offering at this year's Fair! Decorative Wood Panel with State Seal of Delaware. 7-1/2” x 10” x 1-1/2”; 2-1/2” metal connecting plate with screws on each side; dowl opening from top to bottom. Though in rough condition, it nonetheless carries emotional solemnity and significance as a witness to the Lincoln funeral journey, for it lay watch over Lincoln's coffin for the entire twenty days. Though a bit dulled, the panel still easily shows the seal for the State of Delaware; the panel must have aged gracefully, along with the car itself. The railroad coach that carried Lincoln's body from Washington to Springfield for twenty days in April 1865 was originally built as a private railroad car -- a “presidential coach”-- named The United States, for the use of the president and his cabinet. When the car was completed in early 1865, it had been more than a year in the making, and with its upholstered walls, wood paneling, decorative painted panels, and etched-glass windows, it was one of the most lavishly appointed railroad cars ever built. Its 16 broad-tread wheels could travel over nearly all gauge railroads, and its sides were ironclad, with armor-plating between the outer and inner walls. The car was 42.5 feet long and 8.5 feet wide and had a newly developed heating... [more New York Book Fair Highlights]
The ABAA is accepting entries for the 2024 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest where more than $6,000 in prizes will be awarded to student collectors! The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest is jointly administered by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), the Grolier Club, and the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. The contest is open to all prizewinners of college contests, whether or not first prize, and to interested students whose institutions do not offer contests. More information can be found here... All entries should be submitted here (in PDF) by June 10, 2024. For more information on the contest, please visit contest.abaa.org... 2023 NCBCC winners... [more 2024 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest]