Why is it that we love tales of book heists? Two new films set in the world of rare books, both crime thrillers, are coming in 2018. The first trailer for "Can You Ever Forgive Me?", based on Lee Israel's career as a forger of literary letters was released this week, and the trailer for "American Animals" based on a 2004 robbery of the Special Collections Library of Transylvania University, in Lexington, Kentucky has been playing for a short time. The proximity of these two films may simply be coincidence, but the source material for these tales -- magazine articles about book thieves and true-crime accounts of heists succesful and unsuccessful -- are abundant. Perhaps it's simply an extension of the idea that everyone has a book in them -- which makes so many people think they could be an author "if they had the time" -- that draws people to these stories? Or, perhaps it's the popular "cash in the attic" idea that makes people think they might already possess some valuable books, and they can relate better to stories about book thefts than to thefts of say, gold bullion, plutonium, or casino profits? Articles declaring that rare books are the hot collector's item of the moment, or claiming that certain categories of books are somehow recession proof, do nothing to disabuse people of this notion. (For the record, the ABAA cautions against viewing rare books as financial investments, and encourages collectors to focus instead on their interests.) It's not news to book collecto... [more Hollywood Loves Rare Books]
Our monthly roundup of the stories bibliophiles are reading, sharing, and discussing. Kenneth Karmiole Establishes Research Fellowship at UCSB ABAA_member Kenneth Karmiole has established the Kenneth Karmiole Endowed Research Fellowship, which will support scholars working with primary resource materials and rare books in the University of California Santa Barbara Library. How a rare Revolutionary War-era document ended up in Utah “Who knows what's in anybody's garage, right?” Read more... 2018 Pulitzer Prizes Andrew Sean Greer won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel Less; Caroline Fraser won the Biography Price for her biography of Laura Ingalls WIlder, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder; and Frank Bidart won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his volume of Collected Poems, Half-light. Read about all the winners here... Police Recover "Potentially Stolen" Rare Books Here's a minor literary mystery that some book collectors might be able to help the Welsh police with. During a separate investigation, police found an old suitcase containing some "potentially rare" Victorian books and jewelry. The books, including a Bible and a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, were dedicated to a "Mary Elizabeth Taylor" and carried dates between 1892 and 1894. Anyone with any insight into the rightful owner should contact North Wales Police. Bromer Booksellers Temporarily Relocates If you are book-hunting in Boston, be advised that ABAA-member B... [more Rare Book News]
ABAA-member Raymond Smith has an exhibition of his black-and-white photography, "In Time We Shall Know Ourselves" running at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT through June 3, 2018. Inspired by the photographs taken in the American South in the 1930s by Walker Evans, a teacher and mentor of Smith at Yale University, as well as by Robert Frank's The Americans (1958), in the summer of 1974 Smith embarked on a photographic expedition of his own. Smith traveled with his Australian friend Suzanne Boyd in an aging Volkswagen from New England through the South and into the Midwest, photographing the people and places he encountered during the three-month journey. Lecture/Reception The Bruce Museum will host a reception and artist talk for the exhibition on Sunday, April 15, 3–5 pm. At 3:30 pm, Raymond Smith will present a lecture titled, “I Am a Camera,” which will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. The reception is free for Bruce Museum members and students (with valid ID); tickets for non-members are $15. Advance registration is required, as seating is limited. For more information, vist brucemuseum.org... Raymond Smith. Farm Worker's Family, Dillon, South Carolina. 1974. Smith collected some of these photographs into the book In Time We Shall Know Ourselves (which features perceptive essays on Smith's photography by Alexander Nemerov, Professor of Art History at Stanford University, and Richard H. King, Professor Emeritus American Intellectual History at the University o... [more In Time We Shall Know Ourselves]
Meet the latest members of the ABAA. Andrea Peacock, Elk River Books Andrea Peacock is an author and former newspaper journalist who took up bookselling when she and her husband built a new house and didn't have enough room for all their books. She teamed up with Marc Beaudin and in 2011 launched Elk River Books, an open shop in the small town of Livingston, Montana, which sits along the big bend of the Yellowstone River. After a few years, she tired of selling $7 paperbacks to tourists, and attended CABS on a friend's recommendation. That changed everything. They moved from their tiny storefront into an enormous building in Livingston's arts district, and refocused on antiquarian and collectible books. She took classes at Rare Book School, and began specializing in works by the Montana Gang and “outdoor literature”—a catchall that includes adventure, Western and Native American history, hunting and fishing, natural history and anything else fun that comes in the door. Marc Beaudin, Elk River Books Marc Beaudin is a poet, publisher, and theatre artist living in Livingston, Montana -- dubbed “America's finest open-air asylum” for multiple reasons. In 2011, he added “bookseller” to his stack of hats with the founding of Elk River Books with co-owner and cousin Andrea Peacock. He specializes in outdoor literature, Montana authors, poetry, and work by and about James Joyce. His latest book, a travel memoir called Vagabond Song: Neo-Haibun from the Peregrine Journals... [more New ABAA Members]
A selection of rare books and print ephemera newly listed or catalogued by members of the ABAA. Micky Maus: Die Größte Jugendzeitschrift Der Welt (First Edition/First Printing) Schweiz, Österreich, et al. Very Good+. 1969. First Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. First edition/first printing Micky Maus magazines in overall very good+ condition. The seven issues each have some light soiling. Heft 15 has slightly looser binding and some foxing to the covers and Heft 8 has some edgewear including a tear that can be seen on the outer corner of the pages. Otherwise lovely collectibles; Issues of Micky Maus magazines from 1969 including the titles Heft 3: 18. Januar; Heft 8: 22. Februar; Heft 10: 8. März; Heft 11: 15. März; Heft 12: 22. März; Heft 13: 20. März; and Heft 15: 12. April. (Offered by Books Tell You Why, Inc.) The Blind Men and the Elephant By John Godfrey Saxe (Book design and binding by Carol Schwartzott) Niagara Falls, N.Y.: Lilliput Press, . Offset edition of 500. Letterpress edition of 100. Offset Edition: 2.8 x 2.8" accordion-fold flutter book. Printed offset with hand-colored illustrations. Bound in paper wraps with elephant illustration on front cover. In matching paper slipcase with paper title label on spine and elephant illustration on cover. Book design and binding by Carol Schwartzott. Signed and numbered by the artist. Letterpress edition: 1.5 x 1.5" accordion-fold flutter book. Bound cloth with patterned end-papers. Card slipcase with image of ele... [more Books of the Week]
I've been a full-time antiquarian bookseller for over two years now, specializing in selling original materials that tell interesting American stories, with an emphasis on social movements. So my every day involves intellectual adventure as I make a living helping to preserve bits of history. Until the first week of January though, I hadn't quite experienced anything like I'm about to share, so with all due respect to Mr. Everitt, I couldn't think of a better title. I hope you'll keep reading and agree. It started the morning of Christmas Eve a couple weeks ago, when an eBay seller listed several books by the important civil rights activist, W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois was a prolific writer, and his books are not uncommon. But, what made these special was they had their dust jackets -- which I knew were rarely seen for these particular titles. The seller also listed a few other scarce African-American pieces, so I sent an email asking if there was anything else. 90% of the time I send an email like that the answer is "no." The other 10% will occasionally involve interesting pieces. I was having dinner at a restaurant with my family later that evening when I heard back from the seller, and his response almost caused me to choke. The seller had bought a storage unit that included the contents of several generations of a black family from Ohio, where at least two women attended Wilberforce University (the first black-owned-and-run university in the United States) and one of the men ... [more Adventures of an Absent-Minded Treasure Hunter]
Love old books, book stores, or just a good story? Tune in to Brattle Book Shop's well-produced podcast: BRATTLECAST! At one of America's oldest bookshops, there are just as many stories to be told outside the pages as in them. Join bookseller Kenneth Gloss and co-host Jordan Rich as they share entertaining conversations and histories surrounding Brattle Book Shop, one of Boston's favorite spots for bibliophiles. Recent episodes cover questions about the care and preservation of books, the day in 1980 when Ken learned his shop was burning, and behind the scenes reveal of Ken's best and worst segments from his time as an expert on the Antiques Roadshow! (Photo credit: Jeffrey Dunn) Don't miss an article from The New Antiquarian blog. Subscribe to the ABAA email newsletter! * indicates required Email Address * Email Format html text #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; width:420px;} /* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ [more Ken Gloss Launches Rare Books Podcast!]
We have received a report that these items were “purchased” with a stolen credit card. The fraudster will likely attempt to sell the items on eBay. Please contact us (hq@abaa.org or 212-944-8291) if you are offered any of these. Catcher in the Rye, first issue dust jacket A Separate Peace, first American edition, first printing, in dust jacket, published by Macmillan (New York), 1960 Theory of Relativity, first edition in English, in dust jacket, Methuen 1920 – purchased Feb 27, 2018 Power and the Glory, first edition, in dust jacket, inscribed to Clive Hirschhorn The Great Gatsby, no dust jacket (facsimile or otherwise), first issue text, green cloth [more Missing/Stolen highspots from NYC area]
I met Helen in 1998, while I was still an undergrad living in Washington, DC. I was dating her son and invited to New York to meet the family during a Passover seder, a holiday I had never observed. David warned me that his mother could be opinionated, was intelligent, and very well read. We immediately bonded over our mutual enjoyment of a made-for-TV movie starring Lynda Carter we had both just seen. This movie was so bad, we were probably its only two viewers. Through dayenus and certainly more than four questions, we became friends. Her vast knowledge of the realm of children's and illustrated books was enthralling. As an introverted child, I enjoyed visiting the used book stores around Maryland, but I had never been exposed to fine, collectible material. It wasn't until I began working for her a few years later that I fully grasped her position and knowledge in the trade. Helen's own entrée into the trade was by circumstance. She was born Helen Batkin in Brooklyn in 1949, and made the exodus to suburbia in a new development in New Rochelle a few years later. The last home in the development to be completed belonged to Paul and Gloria Younger. The Batkins and Youngers became friends. Helen graduated high school early and attended Washington University in St. Louis. After graduating, she backpacked throughout Europe and spent several months on a kibbutz in Israel. She once told me she became lost while walking through the groves of avocado trees. She was so scarred by the... [more In Memoriam: Helen Younger]
The 2018 New York International Antiquarian Book Fair is behind us, and the reviews have been very positive. Several magazines ran previews focusing on dealer's highlights in the weeks before the fair, and many carried enthusiastic reports after the fact. Here are a few highlights of the media coverage for the fair: The Paris Review focused on some "unexpected highlights" from the fair... (But, if they didn't expect to find rare books at the fair, just what were they expecting?) ABAA-member Jonathan A. Hill was interviewed by Bloomberg (audio)... Barron's (naturally) focused on the most-expensive item exhibited at the fair: "Rare Book By Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus Being Sold for $2M" Atlas Obscura covered the other end of the spectrum, interviewing ABAA-member Sunday Steinkirchner (B&B Rare Books) about appraising books during "Discovery Day": "How a Rare Book Appraiser Passes Judgment in 30 Seconds or Less" Hyperallergic: Culinary Delights and Other Fine Finds at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair New York was not the only place that rare books were in the news, on the West Coast, the recent California International Antiquarian Book Fair and the ILAB Congress have also been making headlines. ilab.org: "Looking back at the 43rd ILAB Congress" Fine Books & Collections: "Frankstein Fanfare at the CA Antiquarian Book Fair" Video: Antiquariat Botanicum at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair Not all the recent news of rare books was good, however, with news brea... [more Rare Book News]