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...
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 well-worn roads, explore lesser-known byways, and even forge new paths through uncharted territory. Join the annual Ticknor Society Roundtable and hear from collectors including Gerald Prebble, who collects Little Magazines of the 1920s and 30s. Hear panelists tell their stories, why they left the regular paths, what they found along the way, and what it has added to the larger historical narrative in their area of collecting.
2:30 pm | Subverting Expectations: the Contemporary Dimensions of a Rare Book Collection
Ruth R. Rogers | Curator of Special Collections | Wellesley College
Acquiring artists’ books for a college’s liberal arts collection implies risk and obligation with every decision. Will they be used? Is the maker’s intent clear? Will they continue to resonate over time? These works demand skilled interpreters who will present them as hybrid book-objects that merge language, material, and visual presence as metaphors. An academic library provides outstanding opportunities to integrate artists’ books with historical collections of rare books and manuscripts—to remind the viewer that they are not separate from earlier forms of the book, but relatives in a long evolutionary line of human expression. Join Ruth Rogers as she discusses a curator’s challenge of discerning from the vast range of possibilities and imagining how one’s choices will become a permanent part of teaching and learning at their institution.
4:00 pm | Women as Writers, Readers, and Owners of Medieval Manuscripts
Lisa Fagin Davis | Simmons University School of Library and Information Science, Rare Book School, and the Medieval Academy of America
From Italian-born French writer Christine de Pizan and German abbess Hildegard von Bingen to the anonymous nuns of Dalheim, many medieval women can be identified as authors, scribes, artists, and readers. What is the evidence for women's literacy and participation in the crafts of book production? How can modern scientific analyses help recover the previously-hidden stories of these women and their books? In this lecture, medieval manuscript expert Lisa Fagin Davis will introduce a few of the women who wrote, read, and owned handwritten books in the later Middle Ages and some of the modern women who treasured them, such as Boston's own Isabella Stewart Gardner.
5:30 pm | Collecting Trash: Wastepaper in Early American Bindings (sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America)
Ashley Cataldo | Curator of Manuscripts, American Antiquarian Society
Bear, fox, skunk, raccoon, and muskrat bones. Earthenware vessels and ceramics in shards. Tobacco pipes. Clam and mussel shells. These are the typical contents of an 18th-century trash pit from New England. But there are never any books. Instead, printed waste was part of the larger ecosystem of 18th-century printing, binding, and bookselling. It was incorporated into the bindings of many early American books, just as it is today embedded in the very fabric of life around us. In this talk, Ashley Cataldo introduces the many uses of printed waste in early American bookbinding, drawn from the collections of the American Antiquarian Society, from the 1640 Bay Psalm Book to 19th-century printed books from Hawaii.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10
12:00 pm | Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby Dick
Dan Lipcan | Ann C. Pingree Director, Peabody Essex Museum’s Phillips Library
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is the most persistently pictured of all American novels, and its timeless themes continue to inspire creatives of all types. Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby Dick, now on view at the Peabody Essex Museum, is the first exhibition focused on the book arts of the hundreds of editions and adaptations published since 1851. Drawn almost entirely from PEM’s Phillips Library collection, Draw Me Ishmael explores decades of approaches to interpreting the novel visually, in book form. Dan Lipcan, curator of the exhibition, will provide an overview of the show and bring examples for the audience to examine!
1:30 pm | Collecting on a Shoestring Budget: Books, Sports Ephemera, and Original Art
Richard (Dick) Johnson | Curator, The Sports Museum
Over the past six decades, Richard Johnson has collected, both as an essential part of his duties as a museum curator and as an expression of his passion to search for additions to an eclectic personal collection he started in grade school. In due course, he has assembled one of the best libraries of sports publications in America while also seeking out affordable pieces of original art by artists such as Winslow Homer, Thomas, Nast, Andre Gill, and John Held, Jr., among others. This presentation will focus on the means by which to collect in a multi-dimensional, ever-changing marketplace and, most importantly, the thrill of the hunt.
2:30 pm | Boston Book Fair Tour
Join 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...
The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (BIABF) celebrates its 46th year November 8-10, 2024, at the Hynes Convention Center in Downtown Boston. This three-day event welcomes the top international dealers offering the most sought-after collections of fine and rare books, maps, illustrations, and ephemera on the global market. In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), a series of special events and programs will be presented in Boston.
For information, visit www.abaa.org/bostonbookfair or call 617-938-8879.
HOURS & ADMISSION
Friday, November 8, Opening Night, 4PM-8PM. Tickets: $25 (available online or at the box office)
Saturday, November 9, 12PM-7PM. Free admission.
Sunday, November 10, 11AM-4PM. Free admission.
LOCATION
Hynes Convention Center (Hall A), 900 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02115
The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair is sponsored by the New England Chapter of the ABAA.