Arizona State University have announced the acquisition of the Robert Lawler Collection of English Renaissance texts, including significant works by Milton, Chaucer, Raleigh and Swift. The sale was made by Alcuin Books & Autographs, LLC., which had acquired the collection from Arizona businessman and book collector Robert A. Lawler. Discussing the collection, Richard Murian, owner of Alcuin Books described it thus: "Besides the 1550 Chaucer, there were also the 1598, 1602, and 1687 editions which according to Professor Richard Neuhauser (editor of the forthcoming 4-volume Chaucer Encyclopedia) adds greatly to the significance of the collection since in some cases it includes Chaucer apocryphal material that has never been recorded as existing in a single copy. The 1527 remarkable Polychronicon was a superb copy as were the Fabian Chronicle (1559), the Grafton Chronicles (1572), as well as three 17th Century editions of Milton including a beautiful copy of the first illustrated Milton (1688). Other important copies were the Beaumont and Fletcher, First Edition (second impression), Ben Jonson's Workes (1680), Sir Walter Raleigh's The Historie of the World (1628) and a very rare Italian edition of Plutarch (1568)." Commenting on the importance of the acquisition, ASU Librarian Jim O'Donnell said “Books like those in the Lawler collection give scholars and students a precious opportunity to see and touch and even smell the past. We can think better about the past and thus about... [more ASU Libraries Acquire Robert Lawler Collection]

The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America congratulates the 2016 winners of the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest: 1st Place: Luke Kelly. Harvard University. “A Collection of Eugene Walter, King of the Monkeys” 2nd Place: Megan Jones. University of Kansas. "The Life and Times of Sacco and Vanzetti” 3rd Place: Micaela Beigel. Goucher College. “Once We Were Dreamers: A Collection of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust” Essay award: Samantha Flitter. Princeton University. “The Sand and the Sea: An Age of Sail Library in Rural New Mexico” The winners will receive their awards during a ceremony on Friday, Oct. 14, at 5:30 p.m. at the Library of Congress, Montpelier Room, sixth floor of the Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. The event is free and open to the public. The special guest speaker is Toni Tipton-Martin, a food and nutrition journalist and community activist. She is the author of “The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African-American Cookbooks,” a James Beard Award-winning annotated bibliography that tells the story behind her rare collection of African-American cookbooks and food culture. The judges were impressed with the stories and thought that went into assembling these collections and wish to thank all who participated. The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (www.abaa.org) is a trade association of more than 450 professionals who specialize in fine and rare books and printed matter. Members are united in a... [more Press Release: 2016 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest Winners Announced]

This item is still missing as of 5/31/2019. The following item has been reported stolen: Title : Handwritten Civil War Diary of Arminius Wesley Bill Author : (Arminius Wesley Bill) Date of publication : Sep. 20 1861, to July 20, 1865 Description : The cover reads "Personal history during the Civil War. Arminius Wesley Bill DIARY Sep. 20 1861, to July 20, 1865. Three years and ten months." Also on the cover is a color drawing of two crossed flags and the quote "The flag I love shall float on high, and cover my coffin when I die." The book is heavily annotated with hand-drawn maps and newspaper articles. Contact : Wendy Connal Director, Bill Memorial Library 240 Monument St. Groton, CT 06340 Email : wconnal@billmemorial.org Phone : 860-445-0392 For full details, please click on the link to the www.stolen-book.org website. [more Stolen from Bill Memorial Library: Handwritten Civil War Diary of Arminius Wesley Bill]

Full Members Jennifer Johnson, The Book Shop, LLC Jen Johnson is the co-owner of The Book Shop, LLC in Covina, California, along with her husband Brad, a member of the ABAA Board of Governors. The Johnson's are celebrating their 10th anniversary of ownership of The Book Shop, a bricks-and-mortar store that has been serving Southern California for more than 35 years. Specialties of The Book Shop include California and the West, archives and ephemera, and heavy metal music. Jen is a native of Nebraska and a graduate of Pepperdine University. She is a former newspaper reporter and public relations executive. She became an associate member of the ABAA in 2010, serves as the co-chair of the Southern California Book Fair Planning Committee and was recently selected to receive a scholarship as the ABAA's representative to the 2016 ILAB Congress in Budapest, Hungary. Her favorite part of the book trade is the research and discovery that comes with working with archives. Duane Stevens, Wiggins Fine Books Curiosity about his mother's ancestors, led Duane Stevens into bookselling. He began acquiring books, maps, and other documentation related to the family's coming to New York in the 1640's, migration to Canada and their return. He grew up in Houlton, Maine, a border town where his grandparents had settled. After founding Wiggins Fine Books in 2007, he began doing book fairs that have since become his focus. Stevens look forward to making his ABAA book fair debut in Boston later this y... [more New ABAA Members]

Even when they're successful, some writers prefer to keep their day jobs. For example, Wallace Stevens was an executive at a Connecticut insurance company, and he believed that work kept the poetic spirit properly anchored. Goethe worked as an enthusiastic civil servant and administrator long after the smashing success of Young Werther. To this camp also belongs Geoffrey Chaucer, who stayed gainfully employed despite being a prolific poet. Chaucer's day job, however, was far from the typical cubical-and-office grind. He worked in the court of the King. Geoffrey Chaucer was born to a prosperous family. While no aristocrat, his father was a successful vintner and wine merchant. His mother inherited a large amount of property, including 24 shops, when her uncle died. The Chaucers would have been regarded as upper middle-class today, if not elite. This status helps, certainly, when you want to get your son's foot in the door of the professional world. The Chaucers' connections would get Geoffrey his first gig as a page for an aristocratic woman, and this position was the official start of Chaucer's career in the upper crust of government and society. It was a career that would take him through a long roster of roles. He was a diplomat, administrator, courtier, and bureaucrat. His work abroad was both dramatic and formative. In France during The Hundred Years' War, Chaucer was captured in the Siege of Reims. King Edward III paid his ransom. The ordeal did little to dissuade Chauce... [more Chaucer’s Day Job]

A quick look at the stories being discussed in book-collecting circles this week. The Highlights: ABAA-Members interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning Starting off with the news that's closest to home, ABAA-members George Koppelman and Daniel Wechsler were featured on CBS Sunday Morning recently. The booksellers' belief is that they may have identified Shakespeare's personal copy of John Baret's Alvearie; or Quadruple Dictionarie, and they have published a book, Shakespeare's Beehive, detailing their exhaustive investigation. Possible Napoleonic-War Journal Found in Second Hand Bookshop A customer rummaging through an old store cupboard in an Australian second-hand book shop unearthed a hand-written diary that appears to have been kept by a British Army officer serving under the Duke of Wellington between 1810 and 1812. Time to give a second glance to those out-or-reach corners in our local used bookstores, perhaps? New Fine Press Launched Wired magazne trotted out the tired "Print is Dead" line to frame a story about a former dot-com techie turned fine-press publisher who launched his new venture with a deluxe edition of Edwin A. Abbott's classic Flatland. Collectors already know print isn't dead, but the news of a new publisher with the goal of creative high-quality, well designed books as beautiful objects in their own right is always encouraging. Collecting the Easter Rising The world has been saturated with coverage of the 100th anniversary of Ireland's Easter Rising in 1916 f... [more Rare Book News]

To mark World Book and Copyright Day, April 23, ABAA booksellers had four “Pop-Up” book fairs around the country, donating the profits to UNESCO. We have reports and pictures from some of the organizers below. (Perhaps they will inspire other booksellers to get involved next year.) Chicago Greetings, Booksellers: I want you to know what happened at the pop-up bookfair the Midwest Chapter organized in Chicago in celebration of World Book and Copyright Day. Read on if interested! Our hard work and effort paid off, and we raised $800 for UNESCO. The venue was beautiful, and everyone seemed busy chatting, buying books from each other, and selling to librarians, Caxton Club members, and retail buyers. Parking kind of sucked for customers, but hey, this is Chicago. Quality fixings for sandwiches from a northwest-side European Deli were provided for dealers and attendees, as well as coffee and fresh baked pastries. Beer and wine was made available for a small donation to UNESCO. The Caxton Club contributed toward the cost of the food. While we had just over 100 visitors to our event, the quality of attendee was outstanding. Not only were there some new onlookers who may have been exposed to rare books for the first time, I met a number of librarians from Indiana, Wisconsin and the Chicago area that were new to me. Also, local folks that had only browsed my inventory at previous events became customers. Some entirely new book-buyers showed up and made off with some goods (after p... [more Pop-Up Book Fairs Raise Funds for UNESCO]

The classic Pauline Baynes' map poster of Middle Earth hung on many bedroom walls in the 1970s. Last year, a map annotated with the edits and instructions from J.R.R. Tolkien to Pauline Baynes while she worked on the illustrated map have come to light, revealing a host of interesting facts about Tolkien's vision and inspiration for Middle Earth. The newly discovered map with annotations by Baynes (blue ink) and Tolkien (green ink). (Source: Blackwell's Rare Books) Baynes was a frequent illustrator of Tolkien's books in the 1950s and '60s, but the map was perhaps their biggest collaboration. Blackwell's Rare Books in London sold a number of items created or owned by Baynes, and a map with annotations by both Baynes and Tolkien was found tucked into the artist's copy of The Lord of the Rings. Entries in Baynes' diary and letters between the two allowed Blackwell's to document the process of collaboration on the map, shedding new light on both an iconic picture and Tolkien's inspiration for Middle Earth. Read more on the discover at the Guardian newspaper... Letters and notes exchanged between Tolkien & Baynes while the later worked on the Middle Earth map. (Source: Blackwell's Rare Books) The classic map of Tolkien's Middle Earth by Pauline Baynes. Today, it has been announced that the map has been purchased by the Bodleian Library in Oxford, who own the largest collection of Tolkien papers in the world. The annotations are notable because Tolkien added places not mentioned in ... [more Bodleian Acquires Unique Map of Middle Earth]

Even if you didn't have the experience I had as a teenager going to summer camps where they sang the Internationale, the May Day demonstrations of 1886 and the subsequent Haymarket Riot have touched your life in ways you might not realize. The then-radical demand for an eight-hour workday gave rise to massive confrontations between activists and police, which exploded into violence on the third and fourth days of the strike. Like many romanticized events in our history, there are multiple angles of approach to understand what happened, and a wealth of material from which to build a reference library or collection. First, a quick recap: An amalgamation of anarchists, syndicalists and trade unionists had called for a strike to commence on May 1st in Chicago in support of demands for the eight-hour day. The strike involved tens of thousands of workers and shut down much of Chicago. On May 3rd a rally was held outside the McCormick Harvest Works, where strikers amassed outside to confront a group who had undermined the strike by going to work for the machinery manufacturer despite the strike. As the closing whistle blew and the strike-breakers emerged from the plant, words became heated and scuffles broke out. Police fired into the crowd, and after the dust had cleared two unarmed strikers lay dead from police bullets. August Spies, editor of the German-language Arbeiter-Zeitung ("Workers' Times") and one of the Chicago anarchists most involved in organizing the strike, fumed: "I... [more What’s May Day All About?]

To commemorate the day of Shakespeare's birth, and death, April 23rd, The Folger Shakespeare Library will host an international live streaming event from the historic Paster Reading Room at the Folger. Broadcast live via C-SPAN and live streamed at Folger.edu, a diverse array of actors, community leaders, artists and scholars will share their connection to Shakespeare through compelling performances and personal stories. Confirmed presenters include Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Chu; Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, William "Bro" Adams; actor and President Obama's appointed Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Kal Penn; Guggenheim Fellow and author, Francisco Goldman; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Clarence Page; and the Reduced Shakespeare Company, the hilarious comedy troupe behind The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). #MySHX400 [more Celebrate Shakespeare: The Wonder of Will Live!]