Bibliography Week Showcase 2024 Join us for an in-person Bibliography Week Showcase at the French Institute: Alliance Française on Monday, January 22, 2024 (10:30am-4pm). The Showcase features 30 dealers exhibiting printed and manuscript material from the Middle Ages to the present day. Admission is free! Browse exhibiting dealers below. Location: French Institute: Alliance Française 60th Street... [more]

Edit: The Fair is now open! Shop the Fair here... Don't miss the 2023 ABAA Holiday Virtual Book Fair! The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) will host a virtual book fair to kick off the end-of-year holidays at www.abaa.org/vbf from 12 pm ET on Thursday, November 30 until 7 pm ET on Saturday, December 2, 2023. Over ... [more]

ABAA members provide a few pointers for beginning collectors who might be considering attending an antiquarian book fair for the first time. Members Lorne Bair, Michael Hackenberg, and John Windle provide some advice gleaned from decades of book fair attendance. Ask Questions/Develop Relationships with the Dealers Veteran bookseller John Windle notes that "a good, close, trusting connection to a d... [more]

We hope you'll be able to join us at some of our upcoming book fairs this year. BIBLIOGRAPHY WEEK SHOWCASE January 25, 2023 Join 32 exhibitors offering books, maps, ephemera, and more for sale at the Bibliography Week Showcase. The Showcase takes place in conjunction with Bibliography Week. Learn more about the 2023 Bibliography Week Showcase... CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR Febr... [more]

The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (BIABF) is making its much-anticipated return to the Hynes Convention Center in Boston's Back Bay from November 11-13, 2022. The 44th Boston Book Fair is the annual fall gathering for book lovers and collectors, featuring the top selection of items available on the international literary market, sanctioned by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association o... [more]

Join us for the 62nd annual ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair in-person at the Park Avenue Armory, April 21-24, 2022! This year's New York Book Fair will feature 185 exhibitors, bringing a vast treasure trove of material to new York City, including rare books, maps, illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, fine bindings, illustrations, historical documents, rare prints and print epheme... [more]

The CA Book Fair is back! Join your fellow dealers and collectors for an in-person book fair February 11-13, 2022 at the Oakland Marriott City Center, Oakland, CA. For those unable to travel, there will be a simultaneous virtual book fair at abaa.org/vbf. The Virtual Book Fair: California Edition will begin at 9am PST on February 12, 2022 and doors will remain open until 5pm PST on February 14, 20... [more]

Virtual book fairs have been embraced by both booksellers and collectors as a way to share new acquisitions and bring the collecting community together during the pandemic. Our next virtual book fair will be the Transatlantic Book Fair -- jointly produced and promoted by the ABAA and our colleagues in the UK, the ABA. The Transatlantic Book Fair takes place from July 22 to July 27, 2021 at transat... [more]

The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair is going virtual this year! An alluring treasure trove awaits seasoned collectors as well as new visitors at the 44th annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, which will be held virtually November 12-14, 2020. The event will showcase the finest in rare and valuable books, illuminated manuscripts, autographs, ephemera, political and historic ... [more]

ABAA members will be exhibiting at the upcoming Brooklyn Book Fair in Greenpoint, September 8-10, 2017. Although not sponsored by the ABAA, this is a fast-growing book fair which attracts an eclectic range of active collectors. This year, ABAA associate member Rebecca Romney (you might know her from the History Channel's “Pawn Stars”) will give a talk on “The ABC's of Starting a Rare Book Co... [more]

The ABAA co-sponsors the three largest annual antiquarian book fairs in North America, the Boston, California, and New York Antiquarian Book Fairs. Antiquarian book fairs are the high points of the book collector's year, representing an unmissable chance to connect with other collectors and rare book experts from top libraries, universities, and other institutions, expand your knowledge of both yo... [more]

The 50th annual California International Antiquarian Book Fair will take place in Oakland, CA from February 10-12, 2017. Recognized as one of the world's largest and most prestigious exhibitions of antiquarian books, the California Book Fair gives visitors the opportunity to see, learn about and purchase the finest in rare and valuable books, manuscripts, autographs, graphics, photographs and more... [more]

ABAA members are participating in UNESCO's World Book and Copyright Day (April 23, 2016) by organizing several "Pop-Up" Book Fairs around the country. The Pop-Up Books Fairs are organized by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, the parent organization of the ABAA. From the ILAB: What do a film star, the children in South Sudan, and 1,800 booksellers on 5 continents have in common? ... [more]

ABAA members will be bringing their best items to the 56th annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair during the second week of April, 2016. Below, we have a few highlights from our members (in no particular order): exceedingly rare books, unique records, and one-of-a-kind ephemera to give a brief flavor of the treasures that await discovery in New York. Members submitted so many featured items that we... [more]

There are many rare book fairs of varying size taking place around the country in January and February. Whether you are a beginning collector of an old hand, book fairs are a great opportunity to inspect the offerings of a great many dealers, hunt for elusive books and ephemera, and meet like-minded bibliophiles. Papermania Plus Antique Paper Show When: Saturday January 9, 10am-5pm and Sunday Janu... [more]

The 2015 Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair takes place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA, over the weekend of November 13-15. Many ABAA members will be exhibiting. Here is a brief selection of the special items they're planning on bringing to Boston. Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius a.d.480-525 Small folio 11 ¼ x 7 inches. First illustrated edition. In this copy ma... [more]

Some brief history In 1824, land speculators John Allen and Elisha Rumsey founded Annarbour, Michigan. (They named the town after their wives, Ann Allen and Mary Ann Rumsey; history is silent on whether Mary angled for top billing.) In 1837, the University of Michigan was moved to Ann Arbor. And then in 1965 the proto-punk pioneer Iggy Pop graduated from Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School. Today, Ann... [more]

Three years ago, I took part in one of the ABA's Book Collecting Seminars at the University of London: Book Collecting and the Web. Now, there are many different views about what the internet has done for booksellers (watch a few of the earlier interviews conducted by Michael Ginsberg) and for collectors (a very recent view here). For my part, I like the internet: it has given me access to a wealt... [more]

The 55th annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair takes place in New York City from April 9 to 12, 2015. Many ABAA member dealers will be exhibiting. Here are a selection of their featured items that will be available at the fair. Urban, Sylvanus (ie. David, Henry), ed. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE: AND HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. FOR THE YEAR MDCCLXXIV MDCCLXXXIII . London: Printed at St. John's Gate for D. H... [more]

The New York Antiquarian Book Fair will enthrall bibliophiles at the Park Avenue Armory from April 9 through 12, 2015. “The Best Book Fair in the World” This three-day event is one of the largest antiquarian book fairs in the United States, and draws over 200 rare book dealers from across the country and around the world. Sponsored by the Antiquarian Bookseller's Association of America and the... [more]

Exhibiting booksellers at the 48th annual California International Antiquarian Book Fair have announced some unusual and notable items that will be for sale at the fair (being held at the Marriott Oakland City Center, Oakland, CA from February 6 to 8, 2015). Some of these special items include: Overdue Bar Tab Invoice for Jimi Hendrix, 1969 “Even the world's greatest rock guitarist can forget to... [more]

We are just weeks away from the 48th California International Antiquarian Book Fair (February 6-8, 2015), the world's great Northern California rare book fair, and organizers have an extensive schedule of special events and seminars to surprise and delight both experienced collectors and those curious to begin. This year, the festival moves to a new location in historic Oakland, CA, affording easy... [more]

Things have changed in the Boston since the first ABAA Boston Book Fair was launched. And in a profession that deals in the old, change can be a good thing. There were shops that were within walking distance from each other. Others were a short subway ride or car ride away. And while we're going down memory lane, let's include Cambridge and a suburb or two. (Greg, Gloucester is not a suburb of Bos... [more]

I've been asked to dredge up a few memories about the Boston book fair, the venues it occupied prior to its current home at the Hines Convention Center, and some of the dealers who exhibited in Boston in previous generations. Our firm, Howard S. Mott, Inc., is one of six firms to have exhibited at every Boston book fair since its inception in 1976, the upcoming fair being the 38th Annual. The othe... [more]

Peter L. Stern introduces several notable characters in the Boston rare-book trade. I have been asked to write a blog for the ABAA along the lines of “characters in the Boston book trade.” I hardly know where to begin, but I'll give myself a pass and leave it to others to extoll my virtues and undisputed genius. My own career in the antiquarian trade started at the Starr Book Company on Kingst... [more]

Back in the 1990s event promoter Bernice Bornstein saw an opportunity and took advantage of it. Her husband Marvin owned a parking lot directly across the street from the Hynes Auditorium, where the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair was being held. “Why not have a smaller show for non-ABAA dealers that same weekend?” she asked. “We could use the basement of Marvin's garage.” Thus ... [more]

We asked Michael Hackenberg, Chair of the Northern California Book Fair Committee, to provide his personal perspective on the decision to move the ABAA-sponsored California International Antiquarian Book Fair from San Francisco to Oakland. (Our California fairs alternate between Southern California and Northern California.) Knowing the Concourse was no more, the Book Fair Committee basically had t... [more]

In the 1980s a buddy of mine who worked for a union in Manhattan got to know some people who knew some people who made it possible for him to purchase a three family tenement in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. This deal required some social engineering because Greenpoint was a very tight neighborhood. I used to hang out there when I had business in New York, and I remember it as tidy but bleak, sporting lo... [more]

I'm writing from the magnificent pile of stone and anguish known as Chapter 11 Books, situated between a Jiffy Lube and a drive-thru mortuary, and patronized primarily by people who'll have to come back when they've got more time. At the moment I'm wondering how one retires from a trade that most people take up after they retire. No answers are forthcoming. It's beginning to look as if I'll die wi... [more]

Start spreading the news: the 54th Annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair opens tomorrow! As I type, over 200 American and international exhibitors are converging on the historic Park Avenue Armory, unpacking crates of rare books, ephemera, maps, prints, manuscripts, and other gems. If you've never attended, you'll be amazed at the amount and range of material that our exhibitors have in each booth... [more]