Last May I posted about the construction of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, a research library that will act as a repository for Mount Vernon's vast collection of books, manuscripts, and archival materials and will include a wing that replicates Washington's own library. Mount Vernon has been raising funds for the construction and maintenance of the library, making it the only presidential library to be built and sustained without government funding. The library is thrilled to announce that due to a $10 million donation from David Rubenstein, it has now exceeded its original fundraising goal of $100 million dollars and is on track to open in September. Rubenstein is a co-founder and co-CEO of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group and Chairman of the Kennedy Center in addition to being a devoted philanthropist. He has a particular fondness for Washington and has enjoyed visiting Mount Vernon since he was a child. Rubenstein characterized his gift as "patriotic philanthropy", saying that he tries "to give back to things that remind people of American history." (Cheers to that!) In 2007, Rubenstein purchased the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta for $21.3 million and put the document on public display at the National Archives in Washington, DC. Mount Vernon's president and CEO Curt Viebranz said that Rubenstein "shares our interest in ensuring that these rare Washington and founding era documents are there for the people." Fo... [more David Rubenstein Donates $10M to Mount Vernon Library]

The following item has been reported missing: . Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Being a Facsimile of the Original Ms. Book Afterwards Developed into "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." With Thirty-Seven Illustrations by the Author. London and New York: Macmillan, 1886. 8vo, original decorated red cloth, gilt lettering, a.e.g. First edition. Lewis Carroll Handbook 194; Williams 52; NCBEL III, 978. ¶ The facsimile of the manuscript that was the genesis of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, attractively produced in a format somewhat similar to the original Alice. ¶ Inscribed in purple ink on the half-title to a young girl "Dorothy Katherine Comyns Carr / From the Author / Feb. 2. 1888." Dorothy Carr's father, Joseph Williams Comyns Carr (1849-1916), was the well known theatre and art critic, gallery owner, editor, playwright and producer (see the DNB), while his wife Alice was a close friend and occasional costume designer for the actress Ellen Terry, the latter also a lifelong friend of Dodgson. Cloth slightly worn and soiled; rear hinge just starting, but sound; fine copy, enclosed in a quarter morocco clamshell box. If you have any information on this item, please contact John Crichton at 415-398-0414 or books@brickrow.com. Still missing as of 5/24/2019. [more Missing: Alice's Adventures Under Ground]

Update 5/24/19: This item has been recovered and is no longer missing! The following item has been reported stolen: Original Century Magazine cover artwork by Frederic Dorr Steele. Blue the predominate color, matted, ~ 20" x 16". If you have any information on this item, please contact Vic Zoschak at 510-814-0480 or vjz@tavbooks.com [more Stolen: Original Century Magazine Cover Artwork by Frederic Dorr Steele]

This item is still missing as of 5/28/2019. The following item has been reported stolen: Title : EVRIPIDIS tragoediae septendecim Authors : EURIPIDE Date of publication : February, 1503 Publisher : Aldus Manutius, Venice Description : XVIIIth century half calf over coloured paper boards, calf label and gilt-lettered title on spine, raised bands. Entirely printed in Greek type. This is the first volume of Euripides: a second volume was published by Aldus the same year If you have any information on this item, please contact Vincenzo Ferro at enzoferro@bibliopathos.it or +39 335 6327764 [more Stolen: EVRIPIDIS tragoediae septendecim]

The following item has been reported stolen: Title : Manuscript, one leaf, written in French. Date of publication : ca 1839 Description : A peace treaty that should put an end to the first Carlist War in the early 19th century. Contact : Librería Miguel Miranda at libreria@libreriamiranda.com or (+34) 914-294-576 [more Stolen: 1839 Peace Treaty]

The following book has been reported missing: CRANE, STEPHEN. The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War. New York: D. Appleton, 1895. 8vo, original tan buckram with red and black decorations and lettering. Four pages of publisher's terminal advertisements. First edition. BAL 4071, printing 1; Starrett 3, first state; Wright III, 1257. Inscribed on the front blank by Elbert Hubbard to his wife: "Bertha E. Hubbard / November 21, 1895 / from E. G. H." On the front paste-down is an original ink invitation in a calligraphic hand: "Come & take Pot Luck at the Sign of the Lanthorn and meet Stephen Crane - Tuesday Evening April the seventh at Seven o'clock - One Twenty Six William St. New York." Above the invitation is an ink drawing of a lanthorn. Later bookplate of San Francisco collector William M. Fitzhugh on the verso of the front free endpaper. Apparently other mementoes were once tipped into this copy: something was once removed from the front and rear paste-downs, leaving the usual marks. Cloth a little soiled; very good copy. If you have any information on this item, please contact John Crichton at (415) 398-0414 or books@brickrow.com. Still missing as of 5/24/2019. [more Missing: First Edition of 'The Red Badge of Courage']

The following item has been reported stolen from Ft. Lauderdale, FL: MALTA, Knights of.  Statuta Hospitalis Hierusalem.  Giovanni Battista Rondinelli, editor.  , , , 203, pp.  With an engraved title-page and 38 full-page engraved plates, including thirteen with four portraits each (three in one case) of Grand Masters of the Order plus 21 with a large narrative scene enframed by woodcut borders. Folio, 325 x 220 mm, bound in full 17th-century vellum, gilt central arabesque and fillets on both covers, spine gilt in compartments, leather label lettered in gilt, a.e.g.  . If you have any information on this item, please contact Peter Kraus at (212) 772-8787 and reference Beth McGowan. [more Stolen:Knights of Statuta Hospitalis Hierusalem]

This item is still missing as of 5/28/2019. The following item has been reported stolen: Title : The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters Authors : Goya Description : Goya etching: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, approx size in frame 45cm x 35cm If you have any information on this item, please contact Alix de Francia at alix@alixpdf.plus.com or +44 (0)7890 365407. [more Stolen Goya Etching]

Robert Frost enthusiasts have reason to celebrate this week, as it was announced that a collection of rare Frost material was donated to the State University of New York at Buffalo. The donor Jonathan Reichert is a professor emeritus at the university and his father was close friends with Frost. Even though Frost was sixty years older than Reichert, he still formed a friendship with the young man and engaged Reichert in earnest conversations. "He was always wrestling with big ideas&and what was interesting is later on you discovered that that talk appeared in poems," Reichert said. "Conversations in our schoolhouse in Vermont, long evenings of conversation&and then later, a new poem would be published, and there would be lines you'd swear you'd heard before." The collection is comprised of letters, books, audio, and photographs and "chronicles a 24-year friendship between the beloved American poet and Victor Reichert, a Cincinatti rabbi who summered with Frost in Vermont." The items interest scholars because they provide some information about Frost's religious beliefs, which has been the subject of debate for years. Jonathan Reichert says that Frost characterized himself as an "Old Testament Christian." Reichert interprets this to mean that Frost "saw that the laws that Judaism had built up really were not the essence, and that Jesus was a great prophet, rather than seeing Jesus as the son of God, or the savior." Michael Basinski, curator of The Poetry Collection of the Univ... [more Rare Robert Frost Collection Sheds Light on His Religious Beliefs]

You have until the end of April 2013 to submit a book to this prestigious bibliographic contest! A prize with prestige and tradition, a strong support for scholarship: The ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography of $10,000 US is awarded every fourth year to the authors of the most outstanding works on the history of the book. Famous scholars like Jean Peeters-Fontainas, I. C. Koeman and Anthony Hobson belong to the prize winners alongside Lotte Hellinga and Jan Storm van Leeuwen who were honoured with the 15th Prize in September 2010. Both Lotte Hellinga's monumental "Catalogue of Books printed in the XVth Century now in the British Library, BMC. Part XI – England" and Jan Storm van Leeuwen's opus magnum on "Dutch Decorated Bookbinding in the Eighteenth Century" are shining examples for the enormous amount of knowledge - and work - which stands behind such brilliant studies in a scientific field that is essential for every kind of academic research, and for the rare book trade. The 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography will be awarded in 2014 to one or more books about books published in any language and in any part of the world between 2009 and 2012. Publishers, librarians, collectors, antiquarian booksellers and all book lovers are very welcome to submit books to the prize until the end of April 2013 by sending a single copy to the Prize Secretary: Arnoud Gerits (Distelvlinderweg 37 d, 1113 LA Diemen, Netherlands). Any aspect of bibliography (e.g. enumerative, textual,... [more ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography]