What kind of a person would start a book blog, write it daily for over two years, build it to the point where it had accumulated a million hits (1,500 to 2,000 unique visitors a day, 40,000-50,000 hits a month) and only then begin to think that ……. well, maybe I have something here?
Talk about labor of love….meet Stephen J. Gertz, the founder and owner of Booktryst, an antiquarian blog with a populist touch.
“Tryst,” you remember, is defined as a lover’s secret meeting, and at Booktryst the reader finds that rare combo of affection, knowledge and the engaging voice of a story teller.
Hello, this guy can write.
He writes easily, well and with a solid grasp of the niceties of the antiquarian trade mashed up with a lively pop sensibility. What makes his site different from others is the content changes frequently, so it is seldom the same two days in a row.
At 61 Gertz is not exactly as stranger to the Southern California book scene. He started in the 80s as a collector, book scout, and then a part-time dealer. Later, faced with an urgent need for money, he sold his collection of erotica and drug related material to William J. Dailey and went on to work for Dailey in other capacities. Presently, his day job is executive director for David Brass Rare Books in Calabasas, CA (about 30 miles outside of LA).
Along the way he’s written for a variety of other blogs, other dealers and other media both popular and antiquarian such as Huffington Post and Fine Books & Collections Magazine and obscure as in “below the radar.”
Gertz had a prior incarnation as a big league television story editor, so it is not surprising that he can write. What is surprising is he can write so well, so much, and so nicely; merging a light touch with a firm grasp of a subject that is often considered arcane.
He has a dealer’s eye for what has (or will have) value, a cataloger’s feel for the important particulars, and a writer’s gift for making it pop -- day after day, week after week.
“I guess you could say we have a deep bench,” he commented, referring to Booktryst’s already impressive archive. He calls them “the gifts that keeps on giving,” because readers regularly turn up for many of his earlier stories, some more so than others.
Marilyn Monroe, Jack Kerouac, Dostoevsky & Peter Howard
Two that have been popular are the reading habits of Marilyn Monroe and a piece about Jack Kerouac’s annotated copy of Dostoevsky. (See links at the end)
In August of 2010 he grabbed the book world’s attention with a festschrift for Peter Howard, the legendary Berkeley owner of Serendipity Books, titled “Wake for the Still Alive.” The multi-part remembrance and tribute to Howard (who was then dying of cancer) ran on-line. Gertz also brought out 200 copies in a limited edition keepsake. It created, shall we say, a buzz.
The keepsake is long gone, but it’s not too late to read his series about Howard, a contemporary dealer who many admired (and secretly longed to imitate -- with brilliant taste, enormous knowledge, vast inventory, and a bookkeeping system he kept mainly in his head). Of course there were others who regarded Howard as a stinker and a crank, and their voices pop up here and there in counterpoint.
Gertz shows Howard in all his dimensions as seen through the eyes of those who knew him. This is a must-read for anyone who calls him/herself a dealer. (Link at the end)
Along with the three articles just mentioned there are 378 Booktryst entries for 2010, 267 for 2011 and 163 so far for 2012; all produced by Gertz and a handful of colleagues.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.