Browse the latest catalogs, newsletters, and e-lists of rare books, fine bindings, incunabula, print ephemera, and much more from the members of the ABAA below. (Also includes podcasts, blog posts, and other digital formats.) *New* indicates any catalogs brought to our attention since the early October 2024. AARDVARK BOOKS/EZRA TISHMAN BOOK APPRAISALS SABF 2024 Highlights 16 Recent Aardvarkian Acquisitions Featured item: Delafield, Emily Prime (Illustrated by Bertram Goodhue) ALICE IN WONDERLAND : A PLAY : COMPILED FROM LEWIS CARROLL'S STORIES ALICE IN WONDERLAND AND THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE.; Originally presented, for the benefit of The Society of Decorative Art, at The Waldorf, New York, March thirteenth, 1897, and now for the first time printed. NEW YORK: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1898. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. 8vo. Lovely, paper-covered boards, brilliantly colored -- Bertram Goodhue's genius dances off the late nineteenth-century page, and still pops -- powerfully -- into our 21st century consciousness -- 125+ years later! 1-1/2-inch spot (spilled turquoise ink) to top left of rear board, and a repaired 1 1/2 in. x 1/2 in. closed tear to paper over spine. A play with characters from the Carroll classic,including of course Alice in Wonderland, The White Rabbit, The Queen of Hearts, The Knave, Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, The Cat, The Mad Hatter, etc., Gorgeous color Illustrations to both covers by the legendary typeographer and font-in... [more Latest Catalogs of Rare Books]
Our members list new acquisitions and recently cataloged items almost every day of the year. Below, you'll find a few highlights from these recent additions... The Runaway Bunny; Pictures by Clement Hurd by Brown, Margaret Wise New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1942. First Edition, First Printing. Cloth. Fine/near fine. The first edition, first printing of The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown, in the publisher's scarce first state dust jacket.. Octavo, , . Light green cloth, title stamped in red on cover. Stated "first edition," with "M-Q" date code below. Illustrated endpapers. Two unopened leaves within the text block. A fine example, free of notable wear. Housed in custom blue cloth clamshell, title in gilt over red morocco label on cover. In the publisher's first state dust jacket, $1.50 on front flap, advertisements for "The Runaway Bunny" on front flap, and "When the Wind Blew" on rear flap. Short closed tear to top edge of rear panel, small loss along top quarter of the spine, bright illustrations, a near fine example. The final manuscript for The Runaway Bunny was submitted to Ursula Nordstrom at Harper & Brothers in October of 1941. For the work, Margaret Wise Brown received an advance of $400. The manuscript was passed to Clement Hurd, the illustrator of Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon, who was unsatisfied with his final contribution to the book. He asked Harper & Brothers in 1966 for permission to re-illustrate the work, and a new edition was issued in 1... [more Weekly Highlights]
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. 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 Diversity Discovery Program offers stipends of up to $2,500 to two individuals to visit the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair during the week of the fair. Participants will be guided by an ABAA member and with an itinerary of multiple networking activities. The Fall 2024 ABAA Diversity Initiative Discovery Program selected Julie Browny and Patrick Matherly as recipients. The program successfully concluded on November 7th, 2024. Want to get to know Julie and Patrick and their program journey? Read their blog below! Read Julie Browny's blog here... Read Patrick Matherly's blog here... The program would like to thank the following libraries, private collectors, and ABAA firms for hosting the participants. John A. Buchtel, Lauren Graves, BOSTON ATHENÆUM John Overholt, Molly Schwartzburg, Mathew Wittmann, Houghton Library Victor Betts, Jenny Gotwals, Patrice Green, Schlesinger Library Alexandra (Allie) Alvis, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library Lisa Baskin Alan Klein Sandy Neubauer Brattle Book Shop Bernett Rare Books Bromer Booksellers The program would also ... [more 2024 ABAA Discovery Program Participant Experience]
Meet the latest booksellers to have been granted membership of the ABAA. Full Members Daylon Orr, Fugitive Materials, Brooklyn, New York Daylon is a bookseller, archives broker, and publisher with a focus on underground, oppositional, queer, and non-Western histories. Born in Tucson, Arizona and raised in Brooklyn, he graduated from Hunter College with a BA in Postcolonial Literature and Critical Theory. After nearly a decade as an archivist and rare bookseller, Daylon founded Fugitive Materials in 2020. Fugitive Materials specializes in radical, underground, and oppositional histories with a focus on the material cultures of resistance: the detritus of radical social movements; histories of labor; policing, and prisons; radical pedagogy; anti-colonialism and protest in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East; and underground art. Daylon is a member of the Bibliographical Society of America (BSA), and a graduate of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS). He is also the host of Fugitive Materials Radio on Montez Press Radio, exploring under-recorded histories through interviews with activists, artists, and intellectuals. Ernest Rodriguez, The Rose Books & Obscurities, Monterey, California Ernest J. Rodriguez, proprietor of The Rose Books & Obscurities, is a first-generation rare bookseller specializing in early 19th and 20th-century Western Esoteric literature and 17th-century Rosicrucian and Alchemical works. Ernest first started acquiring rare books some nine years a... [more Latest Members of the ABAA]
Armed Services Editions, small-format paperback books distributed to US servicemen during WWII, are credited with achieving a great deal: not just with improving morale among the troops, but also with revolutionizing the post-war publishing industry, making certain books into classics, and expanding the American middle class. The book When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win WWII, by Molly Guptill Manning, reveals the largely forgotten story of the Armed Services Editions. When the US entered the war after Pearl Harbor, librarians initially got behind a nationwide book drive, the Victory Book Campaign, which aimed to collect 10 million donated books and supply them to the troops. Although this campaign was eventually successful, it took time, and many of the donated books were too old or heavy to be of use. A group of publishers came together to form the Council on Books in Wartime, and resolved to produce a series of lightweight, durable books which reprinted popular novels and classics that would be of interest to the soldiers, sailors, and airmen serving their country. The format was innovative: paperback, stapled (later glued) on the short side, and printed in small type across two columns to fit more words on a page and make reading under battlefield conditions easier. The covers were thumbnails of the original hardcover jacket image, and carried lists of the other ASE titles released that month. The books were initially printed in two sizes, both designed ... [more Collecting Armed Services Editions]
Join the ABAA Gender Equity Initiative for a Networking Reception at this year's Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. The reception will take place on Saturday, November 9, at 7 pm EST, in the Rochambeau's Left Bank Room (2nd floor). Stop by for a quick refreshment before your dinner plans. Saturday, November 9, at 7 pm EST Rochambeau The Left Bank Room (2nd floor) 900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02115 [more Networking Reception]
Position Announcement: Rare Book Cataloger, Burnside Rare Books Burnside Rare Books is seeking a full-time rare book cataloger to join our small but growing team. Starting salary is in the range of $45,000-$75,000 commensurate with experience. All work is to be done in person at our offices in Portland, Oregon. Primary duties are cataloging and researching new inventory, maintaining inventory control, photographing books, working with customers to sell books, shipping orders, and basic office duties. This position may require travel to book fairs or to meet with clients, and other duties may be assigned. Qualified candidates will possess either an academic background in rare book cataloging, or practical experience cataloging for a rare book firm or auction house. This position requires attention to detail, excellent writing and verbal communication skills, strong research abilities, a demonstrated knowledge of book history and the care and preservation of rare books, a professional and client-oriented demeanor, and the ability to occasionally lift boxes of material up to 50 lbs. Please email cover letter and resume to info@burnsiderarebooks.com. No phone calls or visits please. [more Job Opening: Rare Book Cataloger at Burnside Rare Books]
The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (BIABF) has announced special events and programs at this year's fair; kicking off with an Opening Night celebration on Friday, November 8, from 4-8pm; and featuring in-person talks all weekend. With more than 100 rare book dealers from the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, the UK, and 19 U.S. states, an alluring treasure trove awaits seasoned bibliophiles and first-time attendees at the Fair. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8 4-8pm | Opening Night Get a first look at items for sale at this festive preview—an opportunity to browse the collections of U.S. and international dealers and to mingle with other bibliophiles, collectors, museum curators, and special collections librarians. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the event or online... Buy tickets here... SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9 12:00 pm | Boston Book Fair Tour Join Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) Executive Director Erin McGuirl for a walk-through of the fair, meeting BSA-member booksellers. This is your opportunity to learn about the book trade, best practices, and to get to know some of your fellow travelers and members of the book trade. Newcomers welcome, limited to 10 participants. Registration required... 1:00 pm | The Ticknor Society Collectors' Roundtable: Off the Beaten Track Many, if not most, collectors happily search among the mountain peaks, focusing on the high points in their chosen area. But some, for various reasons, venture off the we... [more Boston Book Fair Special Events]
As the current president of the ABAA, I have been attending the biannual Congress of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB), the umbrella organization that brings together national Associations from around the world. Our hosts in Amsterdam have outdone themselves! The main Congress was preceded by meetings to discuss official ILAB business. The protection of cultural property, while pursued for the noblest of reasons, can lead to incredible bureaucratic burdens and even become counterproductive if people familiar with the actual function of the book trade aren't involved in shaping policy. Fortunately, ILAB's Executive Secretary Angelika Elstner has been elected to the European Union's Art Market Expert Group to provide precisely this kind of input. Among other contributions, ILAB has shown that Interpol's figures for stolen library materials were wildly exaggerated. For example, it claimed that 472,933 pieces of “Library material” had been seized in the past year, which, if true, would mean that the book trade was awash in literal mountains of stolen goods. ILAB was able to show that almost the entire figure derived from a single 500-year-old family archive in Italy that was confiscated by the state as part of a dispute over legal ownership. In point of fact, ILAB and its affiliates are always eager to protect the integrity of institutional collections, and now ILAB has a voice in the European Union to help shape policies that sustain this goal withou... [more ILAB Congress in Amsterdam: Business and Pleasure]
Edit: The recording of this event is now available on our YouTube channel: The Brown Bag Lunch Series, presented by the ABAA Gender Equity Initiative, invites you to join on Zoom on October 22nd, 2024, at 2 PM ET for a Brown Bag Lunch Series with Jordan Ross, the first prize winner of the David Ruggles Prize. Ross will be presenting his collection of "Black Collegiate Textbooks and Histories" along with the prize administrator, Patrick Olson of Patrick Olson Rare Books. October 22nd @ 2 PM ET Collecting Black Collegiate Textbooks and Histories Register here... Jordan Ross Ross has been collecting for ten years, and his decade-long effort to build a "Black Collegiate Textbooks and Histories" collection is paying off. Ross provides not only a snapshot of African American history textbooks in use during the late-19th and early-20th centuries, but also the increasingly scarce histories of the HBCUs that taught with those same textbooks. It started in Fall 2014 with a visit to the campus bookstore at Morehouse College, where he had just started his first year. He asked staff for a history of the college, only to learn that the most recent one was some fifty years out of print. He walked up the street to Spelman College, asked for the same thing, and learned that its history, too, was out of print. Now numbering more than 200 books, Ross' distinctive engagement with a print culture specific to HBCUs aims to preserve these vanishing histories. While many of the judges' decisions are... [more October Brown Bag]