One of the more remarkable comeback stories of the 21st century has been the rebirth of the vinyl record. Once the most-common form for sales of popular music, the vinyl record was consigned to the dustbin of history by the late 1980s thanks to the rapid adoption of new formats (first 8-tracks, then cassettes, and finally CDs), along with the accompanying miniaturization of the playback machines t... [more]

Every week, ABAA members issue new catalogs of rare books and ephemera. Most of the items featured therein are not-yet listed on abaa.org (but there are exceptions, as you'll see below). We scoured the most-recent batch of catalog to bring you a few highlights from within their pages... A HANDSOMELY ILLUSTRATED REAL GRIMOIRE FOR FANS OF HARRY POTTER FAUST, Johann; SCHEIBLE, Johann. Doktor Johannes... [more]

During this month of February, in the second year of observing the centennial of World War I, it is particularly gladdening to know that during the cold winter of the final year of brutal fighting, there were brave, bare-bottomed Cupids who delivered valentines to our soldiers in the trenches. In The Eberly Family Special Collections Library at the Penn State Libraries there is a series of broadsi... [more]

I've been reading a fascinating book about how humans have exchanged news and views through the centuries, and the changes printing made possible. In Writing on the Wall: Social Media The First 2,000 Years, Tom Standage, the digital editor of The Economist, traces the history of social media through the last 2000 years, highlighting how the last 150 years of broadcast media are in fact an anomaly ... [more]

The box containing letters apparently taken by unknown persons from outside residence: John Muir ALS August 2, 1908 to Mr Young August 20, 1904 to Mr Ray April 11, 1909 to W G Chapman Feb 9, 1910 to H L Abbott April 12, 1906 to an editor If offered, please contact ABAA Member George Houle. [more]

Bookplates are fascinating corner of the literary world. If your only exposure to bookplates are the rather anodyne mass-produced examples some modern bookstores sell, you may not appreciate the individuality, wit, and artistic skill that went into bookplates in years gone by. A new exhibition attempts to showcase the best examples for bookplates from centuries past. The Rosenbach of the Free Libr... [more]

What could be more fun than spending two days pouring over old magazines, pamphlets, prints, letters, diaries, photos, advertising, account books, political fliers and broadsides, trade cards, baseball cards, posters, menus, valentines, historical documents, song sheets and songsters, alphabets, juveniles and primers, post cards, labels, stock certificates, passports and old newspapers – to nam... [more]

The Vietnam War was America's most influential event from 1950 to 2000. The conflict, more than any other contemporary occurrence, changed American society, foreign policy, politics and the military. Although I grew up after the war ended, I have always had an interest in the conflict and how it affected the United States. I wrote my college thesis on the use of Old Glory before, during, and after... [more]

Printed American broadsides of the 18th and 19th centuries—what we might think of today as “posters”—were an important public means of spreading news and information within a community. A broadside might print a political manifesto, a religious sermon, a military declaration, news of a great battle, or a Presidential proclamation. A broadside might advertise a newly arrived shipment of goo... [more]

ABAA Member Marc Selvaggio recently spoke at the opening of an exhibition he curated at Southern Methodist University's DeGolyer Library on Parables of Promise: American Advertising Fiction, 1856-2014. The exhibit aims to cover how American companies have used fiction and storytelling in this genre to sell "material goods, whether plows, windows, patent medicines, cereals, the telephone, bicycles,... [more]