A friend clued us in to this blog post on Flavorwire. The giggly, gleeful Ginsberg at age 16 is especially charming. Photos [more Famous authors as teenagers]

Today, the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America joined with the Authors Guild, the American Association of Publishers, and other organizations, objecting to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN's) plan to sell top-level domains to private companies. Online retail giant Amazon has bid to be the exclusive custodian of .book, .author and .read domains. ABAA President John Thomson called the move “anti-competitive” and a threat to the small businesses that make up the Association. “We count on there being a fair and level playing field for all,” Thomson said. “Amazon's actions are like the 800-pound gorilla, using their muscle to try to monopolize a marketplace." The ABAA is the largest and oldest association of antiquarian booksellers in the U.S., representing more than 450 member firms across the nation. The mission of the ABAA is to promote ethical standards and professionalism in the antiquarian book trade. As antiquarian booksellers, we strive to preserve, protect and bring the past to light. So let's look to our history and reflect on the wrongs corrected by The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which was passed to prevent market domination by a single entity, ensure a level playing field and equal access to free markets. Please consider doing one or all of the following: Send your own letter to ICANN objecting to Amazon's application Although the comment period online officially closed in September, you can still submit comments ... [more Amazon's Bid to Control Top-Level Domain Names]

This June, King's College at the University of Cambridge will hold a two-day conference on book collectors and collecting. The conference will commemorate the centennial birthday of the eminent bibliographer, A.N.L. Munby. Munby pioneered the historical study of British book collecting and the use of sale catalogues to trace the history of taste in books. He is best known for his accounts of obsessive book collectors of the nineteenth century, notably, Sir Thomas Phillipps. He worked in the antiquarian book trade before becoming a Fellow and Librarian of King's College, Cambridge, from 1947 to 1974. Munby was also Lyell Reader in Bibliography at Oxford 1962-63, a Founding Trustee of the British Library, President of the Bibliographic Society, and co-founder of the Cambridge Bibliographic Society. The conference theme is Floreat Bibliomania: Great Collectors and Their Grand Designs and will "provide an opportunity to map current and future developments in the study of collectors and collecting." The event will include presentations by distinguished speakers, visits to private exhibits, and a festive dinner in historic surroundings. Floreat Bibliomania will be held June 28-29, 2013. For additional details and to register, please visit www.kingsmembers.org/munby2013. [more Book Collectors' Conference at Cambridge University]

At the link you can watch the 2012 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest awards ceremony, which was held at the Library of Congress last October. The video includes a few remarks from the prizewinners on their collections and a talk given by Dr. Earle Havens entitled Caveat Emptor!: How to Build the World's Most Comprehensive Rare Book And Manuscript Collection of Literary and Historical Forgery. Dr. Havens is the William Kurrelmeyer Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Johns Hopkins University's Sheridan Libraries and is also an adjunct professor at JHU. (His talk begins at the 13:20 mark.) A transcript of the entire ceremony is available on the LOC's website and can also be found here. For information about the 2013 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, please visit contest.abaa.org. [more 2012 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest Awards Ceremony Video]

In the video below, ABAA member Dr. Sandra Hindman presents the world's only woven book of hours, produced by J.A. Henry in Lyon for the 1889 World's Fair. By programming the Jacquard loom, Henry was able to weave silk threads into punch-cardsapproximately 400 threads per square inch! In addition to being an interesting art object, the book also intrigues technology buffs and historians: the punchcards used are very similar to the method employed by Charles Babbage in the analytical engine, the prototype for the computer. (Here's some more information about both Jacquard and Babbage's inventions.) Dr. Sandra Hindman, Les Enluminures The Books of Hours website of Les Enluminures [more Woven Book of Hours]

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]

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]

ABAA member Ken Karmiole (Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller, Inc.) has generously given UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) a $100,000 endowment to support Archival Studies and Lectures. “This wonderful gift will greatly enrich our work by supporting a variety of high-profile programs such as symposia and visiting lecturers that will bring leading expertise from around the globe to UCLA,” said Anne Gilliland, Professor of Information Studies and Moving Image Archives and Director of the Center for Information as Evidence. “It will also highlight the ground-breaking contributions of our own faculty and students to the field of Archival Studies.” Ken said he wants to "see UCLA become a place for people interested in rare books and manuscripts and historical materials." "Archival material is going to become more and more significant," he continued. "University libraries want to differentiate themselves from one another by the unique material they have. Because UCLA already has a great facility in this area, they are one of the in the country." Ken is an alumnus of the GSE&IS's MLS program, and this is not the first endowment he's made to his alma mater. In 2002, he provided funds to establish a fellowship in his name that annually supports one student in the study of rare books and manuscripts. Ken then established the Kenneth Karmiole Endowment for Rare Books and Manuscripts in 2006, a gift that helps finance UCLA's acquisitions for special col... [more Member Ken Karmiole Founds Endowment Fund to Support UCLA's Archival Studies Programs and Lectu]

Residents of Malton, a market town located in North Yorkshire, banded together and raised funds for the purchase of a rare inscribed copy of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. A number of the characters in the classic tale, which Dickens wrote in 1843, are believed to be based upon residents of Malton. Dickens was very close friends with Charles Smithson, a respected Malton lawyer, and the author spent time in the town visiting with Smithson's family. According to local legend, Scrooge's office was even based on Smithson's office on Chancery Lane. Dickens presented this particular copy of the novel, which at the time was in its seventh edition, to Mrs. Smithson; Charles Smithson had recently died of tuberculosis. Dickens simply inscribed the novel, "To Mrs. Smithson from Charles Dickens April 18 1844", but the book was sent with a longer note. (Over the years the letter and the book were separated and the accompanying letter now resides at the Free Library of Philadelphia.) Writer and presenter Selina Scott, who lives near Malton, heard that the book was coming up for auction and decided that it should return to the town that helped inspire it. "We had the vision that this book could be a touchstone for Malton and offer a lasting literary legacy for the town," Scott said. Scott joined with local businessmen to spearhead a campaign to raise funds for the purchase and, after just two weeks, residents had chipped in $32,500 (�20,270). Unfortunately, the reserve price on the bo... [more Yorkshire Residents Purchase Rare Copy of 'A Christmas Carol']