Book collectors and fans of experimental musician and artist Bill Drummond (The KLF, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu) are engaged in a fascinating scavenger hunt for 32 copies of a limited-edition book hidden around Ireland. Among Drummond's many, many projects is The Curfew Tower, a 19th-century tower originally built as a jail in the town of Cushendall in Country Antrim, Northern Ireland. Drummond owns the tower and has run it as an artist's residency since 1999. He originally purchased the tower intending to use it to house the one and only copy of his book Bad Wisdom; intending that would-be readers would need to travel to the tower in order to read the book as a sort of secular pilgrimage. That project was eventually published more traditionally by Penguin Putnam in the UK, so Drummond had to find another use for his tower. In 2015, Drummond published a book compiled from the work of the artists who lived in the Curfew Tower during 2014, The Curfew Tower is Many Things. It was published in a limited edition of 1000 copies by Drummond's press, The Penkiln Burn, most of which were distributed to the various stakeholders in the project, while 250 copies were sold to the public. Drummond initially reserved almost one third of the print run to be distributed anonymously by leaving the copies “randomly in bars and cafes across the island of Ireland” over a period of years. It's not known whether the 32 copies he hid around Ireland are the last available copies, but as the ... [more A National Scavenger Hunt for 32 Books]

The ABAA is pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 National Collegiate Book Collecting Competition. 1st Place Alexander M. Koch, The Breath and Breadth of the Maine Woods Unity College 2nd Place Mark Gallagher, A New Spirit of Truth: The Writings of the American Transcendentalists UCLA 3rd Place Xavier González, “Books That Count” Books and DVDs Calculated to Inspire Children and Young Adults to Explore the Wonderful World of Mathematics Harvard University Essay Winner Sarah Linton, “THE FICTION WE HAVE BECOME” William Gibson's Uncertain Future and the Cyberpunk Revolution Johns Hopkins University The judges were very impressed with the submitted collections and wish to thank all who participated. The Awards Ceremony will take place at the Library of Congress, James Madison Building, Montpelier Room on Friday, October 20th at 5:30pm. The event is free and open to public. The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest was established in 2005 by Fine Books & Collections Magazine to recognize outstanding book collecting efforts by college and university students, the program aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles. The contest is now administered jointly by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), the Grolier Club, and the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division (the Library of Congress), with major support from the Jay I. Kis... [more 2017 NCBCC Winners]

Q: What stopped me in my tracks as I perused this week's batch of new catalogs? A: Everything from the national importance of a presidential inaugural address to the particulars of a menu from a dinner in 1959. Menu: A Dinner in Honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1959) Given that I am a sucker for The Crown, Downton Abbey, and most other British television shows, spotting a menu from a formal dinner with Queen Elizabeth II in Rabelais' Books latest e-catalog instantly evoked various celluloid memories. This would be an nice addition to any collection focused on the British monarchy or culinary pursuits. "This is an unforgettable day - a day I will never forget." ; Queen Elizabeth II; Mayor Richard J. Daley. A Dinner in Honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Given by the Honorable Richard J. Daley, Mayor of the City of Chicago. Chicago, Ill.: July 6, 1959. Menu and program (25 x 19 cm.), pages; in gilt-stamped white cardstock boards, with decorative gold elastic cord. A dinner to mark the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to Chicago. The visit was made while the Queen, along with President Eisenhower, attended the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, part of a larger 45-day trip to visit all Canadian Provinces, much of it made aboard the Royal Yacht, H.M.S. Britannia. While in Chicago, The Queen and Prince Philip visited the International Trade Exhibit at Navy Pier and later the Museum of Science an... [more Books of the Week]

Over the course of my week, I read through most of the new catalogs published by ABAA member and survey items newly listed on abaa.org. The books detailed below are the ones that caught my eye this week for various reasons. Le Temple de Jérusalem et la Maison du Bois-liban : Restitués d'Après Ézéchiel et le Livre des Rois Chipiez, Charles; Georges Perrot Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1889. First edition. Hardcover. Elephant folio (28 1/4" x 23"). , 86, p., leaves of plates. Contemporary 3/4 calf over marbled paper covered boards, with gold lettering on spine. Top edge gilt. Marbled endpapers. Ribbon marker. Original wrappers bound in. Decorative head- and tailpiece. Remarkable work by architect and architectural historian Charles Chipiez and archaeologist georges Perrot which shows a theoretical reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. The authors present their imagery as a restitution of Ezechiel's vision. This book contains 38 b/w in-text illustrations and 10 leaves of plates (plates measuring 28" x 22 1/2", with illustrations in various sizes.) The plates are engraved after Charles Chipiez's designs by Guillaumot père (i.e. Auguste Alexandre Guillaumot) and Auguste Hibon. Plate X is a line photogravure, signed "Heliog. Dujardin" (Louis Dujardin). Plate no. XI is a hand-colored lithograph by Joseph Isnard Louis Desjardins and was displayed as the final work of the 2008/2009 "Reflections of the Temple" exhibit (Israel Museum, Jerusalem). This exceptional work is a Delux... [more Books of the Week]

We're debuting a new recurring feature this week, in which I detail the top items that caught my eye as I perused new listings on the website and new catalogs announced by members. This is no more than a reflection of my idiosyncrasies, interests, and unfailing ability to be distracted by colorful photos and vintage adverts, but hopefully they will highlight the range of amazing books and other items you will find when you examine our members' listings carefully. Let's lead off with something I think is utterly spectacular: an original copy of Alexander Hamilton's infamous “Reynolds Pamphlet” (featured in the latest catalog from Nick Aretakis). From the catalog copy: The Infamous “Reynolds Pamphlet,” in Which Alexander Hamilton Admitted to Adultery in Order to Preserve His Public Virtue Hamilton, Alexander: OBSERVATIONS ON CERTAIN DOCUMENTS CONTAINED IN NO. V & VI OF "THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE YEAR 1796," IN WHICH THE CHARGE OF SPECULATION AGAINST ALEXANDER HAMILTON, LATE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, IS FULLY REFUTED. Philadelphia: Printed for John Fenno, by John Bioren, 1797. 37,,lviii pp. Gathered signatures, string-tied as issued. Early ink ownership signature on titlepage. A few small closed tears in the foredge of the titlepage, old stains along the gutter. Light, even tanning, occasional foxing. Two and a half-inch closed tear in the first text leaf, intruding into the text but with no loss. Final four leaves with an old stain. A good copy, in origi... [more Books of the Week]

As a child, I was required to listen to many different things. Classical music, for one. Teachers getting annoyed with me for asking too many questions, for another. And… The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy quotes, for a third. For that last particular factor I have my father to thank. (Though actually, now that I think about it, he seems to have had a major hand in all three of those particular life events… but I digress.) Douglas Adams may be best remembered for his humorous saga The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a “trilogy” of five books which sold over 15 million copies during the author's lifetime, but he was much more than a simple humorist (or was he?). He was a script writer, a lover of Doctor Who (he wrote and edited for the show on more than one occasion), and a self-proclaimed radical atheist (as in… if you asked him if he meant agnostic he may have attacked you with a wet towel). By adulthood Adams stood at 6'5″- but his stature was far from the only thing that set him apart from the crowd! Adams was born in March of 1952 in Cambridge, England. Though his family only lived there a few short months after his birth, where he then moved a couple times throughout his childhood – first to East London and then, once his parents divorced, to Brentwood – a small city in Essex. By the time the young Adams reached age 12 he already stood at (nearly) his full height – his early growth spurt only rivaled by his short stories, poems & essays as for what ... [more The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Douglas Adams]

There have been many authors over the past century that have been considered forerunners in the art of the Modern Novel. As a matter of fact, we have written about quite a few of them in the past. Some tell-tale signs of modernist literature are a few literary techniques like a stream-of-consciousness voice or interior monologue, and even numerous points-of-view within one work. These techniques are used by a great deal of modernist authors, but perhaps none so pointedly as the creator of the complex Mrs. Dalloway, feminist thinker and free spirit Virginia Woolf. Virginia was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on January 25th, 1882 in Kensington, London. She was born into a mixed family – both of her parents having been married previously with sets of children on both sides. The family was extremely literate – both parents being well connected in the artistic and literary worlds. In 1895 when Virginia was only 13 years old her mother died, followed closely by her half-sister, Stella and brother Thoby. At this point Virginia began to suffer from the nervousness and had the first breakdown of many she would suffer from throughout her life. Despite her nervous nature and brief periods of institutionalization, Virginia began to spend a significant amount of time with a group of writers and artists that was known as the Bloomsbury Group. By 1910 they were thick as thieves, and Virginia and her sister Vanessa along with writers, editors, and artists Leonard Woolf, Lytton Strachey, C... [more An Introduction to Virginia Woolf]

A look at some of the items currently offered by ABAA members can present a partial, but nonetheless illuminating, history of various editors' attempts to complete, "improve," or make Shakespeare more accessible over the centuries. For a guy who's been dead for 400 years, Shakespeare gets more press than many movie stars. Every week there's another theory about what he looked like or whether he was high while writing his plays. This week, the headlines are driven by British designer Jamie Rector, who created a series of new conceptual covers for several plays by Shakespeare, attempting to summarize the plays in a series of emojis. Although this was a concept design, the images caught the eye of Creative Review magazine, who are now using them for a series of posters aimed at attracting new design talent -- evidence that Shakespeare's work still remains vital today. London daily paper Metro speculated that if Shakespeare were alive today “chances are he would have been writing his plays in emoji.” I'm not sure if I can agree with that statement -- not least because Shakespeare wrote for the stage, not the smartphone screen -- but adapting Shakespeare for modern audiences is hardly a new idea. Nicholas Rowe got the ball rolling with his critical editions in 1709. While later scholarly editors sought to gloss obscure words and add historical context, Rowe, a poet himself (and evidently not devoid of ego) tried to improve and modernize the text. Alexander Pope took a similar ... [more Editing Shakespeare]

Belle da Costa Greene Scholarship With the goal of actively working to achieve a more diverse and inclusive community of booksellers and librarians, thanks to the generosity of Lisa Unger Baskin, The Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminars (CABS) is pleased to offer a 2017 scholarship for $2,000 to cover the cost of tuition, room and board ($1,646) with the additional $354 intended for travel or incidental expenses. The scholarship is intended for a bookseller or a librarian from an historically underrepresented community. We encourage applications from booksellers and librarians from the African American, Latino/a/x, Asian American/Pacific Islander, LGBTQ+, working class, persons with disabilities, or other self-identified communities of booksellers or librarians who might benefit from this scholarship. Applicants should submit a short 1- or 2-page essay on why they want to attend CABS. They should include in the statement a brief personal and professional history, and something about their relationship to books and the book trade. We also ask for a CV and one letter of support from a member of the book trade, a professional librarian, or another member of the antiquarian book world. This scholarship is named for Belle da Costa Greene, the African-American librarian, bibliographer, and director of the Morgan Library. The deadline to submit your application is May 1, 2017. We will notify the winner by or before May 15, 2017. Submit your application by mail or by email to Garrett S... [more Belle da Costa Greene Scholarship offers Tuition-plus for Underrepresented Peoples to CABS]

While the week after the New York Antiquarian Book Fair is generally a week of rest and recuperation for booksellers and collectors alike, there was still plenty of news happening in the rare book world last week. Bright Young Booksellers: Alexander Akin ABAA-member Alexander Akin of Bolerium Books was interviewed as part of Fine Books & Manuscripts ongoing "Bright Young Booksellers" series. Read more... Lou Reed Archive Goes to the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center Rock and roll legend Lou Reed left a personal archive of unsurpassed detail that will give researchers great insight into both the mundane details of life as a touring musician and Reed's development as an artist. Comprising over 300 linear feet of correspondence and documents as well as over 600 hours of recordings, many unreleased, the archive will be a place of pilgrimage for both musoic scholars and music fans. Read more... ILAB Launches Mentoring Program to Supoport the Next Generation of Booksellers The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (to which the ABAA belongs) has launched an innovative new international mentoring program to assist young booksellers entering the business. Read more... Kevin Young Named Poetry Editor of the New Yorker There was great excitement last week when it was announced that noted poet Kevin Young, who's also the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, has been appointed as the new poetry editor at the New ... [more Rare Book News]