"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.” -- Colette I readily admit that I am a fan of the badass literary woman. Give me Anais Nin, Marguerite Duras or Virginia Woolf any day – women who tell it like it is, who aren't afraid to examine deep parts of the psyche, of feelings on sex, attraction, anger… any and all of the above. It is no surprise, then, that when I first read works by Sidonie Gabrielle Colette (best known by simply “Colette”), I immediately was attracted to her matter of fact statements on such taboo (at the time) subjects, and the lyrical quality of her prose. Today being the 62nd anniversary of her death, I thought it high time a blog was written about this amazing female literary giant. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born in January 1873 to a tax-collector/war hero (bet you didn't think such a combo was possible…) and his young wife in the French region of Burgundy. Though at Colette's birth the family was significantly well off, by the time she was able to attend school the family's wealth had diminished substantially and she was only able to attend public school until she was 17. Though public school was not the ideal, it was still a reasonably substantial education for a girl in her social standing at the time. Shortly after leaving school, she married a well-known author of the day Henry Gauthier Villars (known as “Willy”) when she was 20 and he was 14 years her senior. Willy convinced her (as she later recollected) to beg... [more Colette]

Today is the third anniversary of the sudden death of Nobel-Laureate Seamus Heaney. A ground-breaking poet, his career sought to find parallels and common ground across many different traditions. Born of a Catholic family in majority-Protestant Northern Ireland, he rejected the violence of the 1970s, yet strongly claimed his Irish heritage and identify, politely refusing to be included in anthologies of British poets and declining the post of Britain's Poet-Laureate. His earliest poems, are described as naturalistic and explore his rural upbringing, celebrating the small comforts and familiarities of farming communities and considering his family heritage of agriculture on one side and industrialization on the other. As a fellow Irishman, his poetry was the first in which I found personal resonances, similarities to my own family stories, scenes that I could recognize from my own life, despite differences in age and geography. Over the years, I've become a huge fan and frequent reader of Heaney. Eleven Poems — His First Pamphlet (November 1965) Belfast: Festival Publications, 1965. First edition, first issue, with a nine-pointed purple sun illustration to the front cover, printed on laid watermarked paper. Original publisher's wrappers. An excellent copy, with a short closed tear to the spine head, light creasing to the front wrapper, some minor soiling to the wrappers, light pencil marking to the first poem, otherwise bright and clean pages. Overall, a near fine copy of an... [more Remembering Seamus Heaney]

I'm thrilled to announce the winners of this year's National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest: 1st Place: Luke Kelly. Harvard Unversity. “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 judges were impressed with the stories and thought that went into assembling these collections and wish to thank all who participated. The Awards Ceremony will take place at the Library of Congress on October 14th at 5:30pm. Our featured speaker is Toni Tipton-Martin. The event is free and open to public. Thanks to all who entered. [more 2016 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest Winners Announced]

The ABAA has recently approved several new members, all of whom have successfully proven themselves to be, in the words of the ABAA Guarantee, "established, knowledgeable, and of excellent reputation." These new members were sponsored by existing members, and have undergone a rigorous screening process. We welcome the newest members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. Full Members Nick Aretakis, Nick Aretakis Rare Books Nick Aretakis was born and raised in California, and attended the University of California, at Berkeley, where he received a B.A. in American History. He also has an M.A. in International Relations from the George Washington University, and spent a year in the American History Ph.D. program at the University of Virginia. In the mid-1990s he helped launch the “BookTV” series at C-SPAN television, after which he gravitated toward the world of rare and antiquarian books. In the late 1990s Nick worked part-time for Bartleby's Books of Chevy Chase, Maryland, after which he moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where for fourteen years he was an associate in the Americana Department of the William Reese Company. Nick and his family moved back to California in 2014 and he began his own firm, specializing in books, manuscripts, maps, prints, and photographs in American history. He deals in Americana of all regions and all periods, with an emphasis on Western Americana and the frontier, politics, law, social history, and diplomacy. Zhenya Dzhavgova, ... [more New Members]

Editor's note: Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016) was considered by many to be the finest poet writing in English of his time. His first poetry appeared in the early 1950s and his last book was published in 2012. His work is dense, lyrical, layered, scholarly, arcane, and sometimes not easily accessible, which makes the rewards of his poetry all the greater for those who take up its challenges. We asked Graham Shearing, an Englishman who has collected and read Hill for many years, to discuss his poetry, and Jett Whitehead, a specialist in modern poetry, to discuss editions of Hill's works. GRAHAM SHEARING: Around 1980 I was in a bookshop in Bath, England, when I first found Geoffrey Hill's Tenebrae, then two years since its publication. I was struck by the design of the wrapper and the magical word Tenebrae, with its liturgical associations. I bought one other book, of somewhat lubricious poetry, that day, by a now-forgotten poet (as is so often the case). But I devoured the Hill on the bus back to Downside Abbey, some miles away... the rattle of the bus drowned out in my mind by the force of his “Lacrimae, or, Seven tears figured in seven passionate Pavans” and its deliberate evocation of John Dowland's music. Tenebrae : Andre Deutsch, 1978. paper covered boards, dust jacket. 8vo. paper covered boards, dust jacket. 48 pages. First edition. Duff Cooper Memorial Prize winner 1979 wrap-around. Poetry Society leaflet loosely inserted. Fine. (Offered by Oak Knoll Books) I returned to ... [more Reading & Collecting Geoffrey Hill]

Personal confession: normally I am a proponent of all types of blogging. Though I believe the (not-so-old) adage “Don't believe everything you read on the internet,” I also find the internet to be a most useful place for information. Some of it genuine… some of it not quite so genuine… some of it kind, some of it negative. In any case, the internet is a fount of information. And I do use it – boy, do I use it! However, that being said, there is one thing that I cannot make up my mind on how I feel about it. The internet is partially responsible (in my own humble opinion) for making one particular genre of published book not quite as popular anymore. Travel Writing. Nowadays, just about anyone can and does post just about anything they want online. They went on a hike with their girlfriend and found a killer “secret” camping spot? Let's tell the entire online world! (Not so “secret” anymore – so much for skinny dipping!) Did you travel to Versailles with your parents and take pictures of every single item of gold you saw? Post them to Facebook! Gone are the old days where someone went on adventures that others might never experience and went home to write colorful and descriptive tales about their travels. Travel writing had to be good enough, exciting enough and gripping enough to spend money to publish it – it had to appeal to the masses. Now don't get me wrong – I love to travel and always want to write about my “adventures” – but I would rathe... [more Has Blogging Killed Travel Writing?]

I first met the poet Frank O'Hara in the early 1990s. I was in the process of abandoning the writing program I was enrolled in at a local university for the much less muddied waters of the religious studies department; and, for his part, Frank had been dead for a little over twenty-five years. Frank O'Hara died at 8:50 p.m. on July 25, 1966 at Bayview General Hospital on Long Island. Mark Ford, editor of O'Hara's Selected Poems (2008) , succinctly describes the events of the previous evening, a night O'Hara spent with his friends Morris Golde, J. J. Mitchell, and Virgil Thomson clubbing on Fire Island. “The beach taxi in which he and his friend J. J. Mitchell were traveling broke down. As they waited for a replacement to arrive, a Jeep approaching from the opposite direction swerved to avoid the stranded taxi and travelers, and it struck O'Hara.” Frank and I met in a seedy bookshop on campus, a second floor walk-up promisingly dubbed Ice 9. In the airless front room of the shop were displays of toe-curlingly pornographic photo collections, dusty issues of Re/Search featuring Throbbing Gristle and Brion Gysin, and excitingly garish works by Kathy Acker, Jack Black (hobo author of You Can't Win fame), and J. G. Ballard. Perusing the makeshift shelves in the smaller rear room I came across a small display of poetry titles including a healthy dollop from the City Lights Pocket Poets Series. Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Kerouac, I ran my finger across the familiar spines. But ho! W... [more Frank O’Hara in 1966]

The Lilly Library, Indiana University, has announced its summer exhibition. “Eat Your Vegetables! Five Centuries of Vegetarianism and the Printed Word” will survey the history and impact of vegetarian movements on society, and it will also contain a variety of cookbooks that emphasize vegetarian cuisine. The materials in this exhibition are drawn from many of the Lilly Library's collections, most notably the collection of books, pamphlets, and other materials on the history of vegetarianism formed by ABAA-member William Dailey (William Dailey Rare Books Ltd), as well as the Dr. and Mrs. John Talbot Gernon Cookbook Collection. The exhibition will be on view in the Main Gallery of the Lilly Library from July 21 to September 10, 2016. The Library will formally open the exhibition on July 21 at 5:30 p.m., with a talk by William Dailey entitled “Pythagoras to Gypsy Boots: Collecting Vegetarian Literature, 1547 to 1967.” Mr. Dailey's presentation will be followed by a reception featuring a variety of tempting vegetarian food. William Dailey, a native of Evansville, Indiana, is a noted antiquarian bookseller and collector, and his gift to the Lilly Library of materials from his collection provided the inspiration for this exhibition. Learn more about the exhibition... [more William Dailey on Collecting Vegetarian Literature]

Reported missing: a first edition of LOLITA, likely removed from its custom box and taken from RLD Books in Kennett Square, Penna. on either 16 June 2016 or 17 June 2016. Nabokov, Vladimir. LOLITA. Paris: Olympia Press, 1955. First edition. 12mo. Original green wrappers. 188/223 pages. Very good. Prince on back of vol. 1 has sticker with new price 1200 fr. Prince on vol. 2 is 900 fr. indicating title is correct first edition. Light edgewear to spines and previous owner's name on ffep of vol. 2. Some pencil notations to penultimate end paper in rear of vol. 2. Top half-inch corner of vol. 2 back cover is missing. Overall an attractive set of this fragile classic. (Protected by Mylar jackets. REMOVED from custom box.) If you are offered the book, please contact Roz duPont RLD books 111 S. Union St Kennett Square PA ph (610) 444-8334 roz@rldbookstore.com [more Missing from Kennett Square, PA]

If someone says “Children's Books” to you, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Picture books? Perhaps here is the better question… what author first comes to mind? I would venture to bet that at least 90% of you come up with the same name. However, did you know that the name you come up with is not his true name? (Probably most of you do, since you are members of the book world or bibliophiles and would know something like that… but humor me!) Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2nd, 1904 to a German family in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father ran a family-owned brewery in Massachusetts (well, until the Prohibition did away with that). Geisel went to school in Massachusetts until he went to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, graduating in 1925. During his time at Dartmouth, Geisel first showed skill and interest in humorous literature as rose to the role of editor-in-chief of the literary magazine the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern before graduating. Unfortunately, one college incident threatened to end his early literary career – when Geisel was caught drinking gin (the Prohibition was in effect) in his dorm room with some of his friends. In punishment for this crime, Geisel was forced to resign from his position at the magazine. In order to continue publishing his work at the Jack-O-Lantern, Geisel began writing under the pen name “Seuss”, his middle name. The beginning of Dr. Seuss was underway. Once graduating from Dartmouth, Geisel began his... [more Dr. Seuss: Rare Books & Ephemera]