Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2016 Issue

A Year Like No Other

Bruce McKinney, fine with some wear and tear

Bruce McKinney, fine with some wear and tear

A year ago, in December, I had elective open-heart surgery.  Congenital issues were in play and my doctors felt they could intervene to alter the pattern of early death by heart disease that is epidemic among men in my family.  The procedure was partially successful and I’m reporting in from the warm side of the mortal coil.

 

Then in September, as if to pack as many difficult situations as possible into a single year, I was hit by a car while walking.  So much for stop signs and crosswalks.  The low speed, reported as 15-17 miles an hour, saved me.  The driver was distracted and did not brake until I was thrown onto the hood of his taxi.  He then jammed on his brakes, throwing me a dozen feet ahead.  Over the next 6 days a debate raged as to what action should be taken.  The triage center at San Francisco General found I was substantially intact except for my left leg that was broken in six places.  Such multiple fractures can be complicated and my HMO declined to advocate a surgical solution.  Another surgeon, introduced by a friend, suggested a complete recovery was possible using screws, ultimately 9, to put the leg and ankle back together, then to be followed by a month strapped to a motion machine to kept scar tissue from reducing the range of motion.  This worked and 4 months later I have substantially resumed my daily walking regime.  I’m walking 3 miles a day and hope to be back to 5 by spring.

 

As if in compensation for the car accident a long-time member of AE/Rare Book Hub, in late September asked what it was I most hoped to accomplish with the site, and I said “completeness”, the building of a complete record of book and manuscript auction lots back to the American Civil War.  He then said he thought he had many early catalogues, they among material purchased in 1948 at the dispersal of unclaimed goods at a public warehouse in New Jersey.  You see, he’s 84 and has been at this for close on seventy years.

 

A few days later he confirmed he still had them and they are now ours.

 

The health issues have been difficult but that chance conversation has set the course for an extraordinary 2016.

 

So I’m grateful.  2015 was a difficult year and ’16 is encouraging.  What else can you ask for?

 

Best wishes for the New Year;

 

Bruce McKinney

Rare Book Hub / AE

bmckinney@americanaexchange.com

877.323.7273 or 415.823.6678


Posted On: 2016-01-01 07:06
User Name: aeg

Sorry to hear about your health problems, Bruce, but I do understand how your passion for "completeness' in your chosen area of interest can be a valuable diversion. I have now hit 70 and am still adding books to my collection (for that illusive completeness).
I enjoy your monthly commentary and wish you a healthy, prosperous and peaceful 1916
Paul Craft


Posted On: 2016-01-02 22:08
User Name: TwelfthStreetBo

I was dismayed to read of your 'annus horribilis' ! It must have been awful. Yet, every first day of every month, Rare Book Hub/AE promptly appeared with its interesting and important material that I enjoy and look forward to. How did you do it??? Hopefully you have recovered and have now set the bar impossibly high for we bibliophilic walkers. Bruce, I remember a phone conversation with you several years ago, and I've never forgotten what a warm and interested and kind person you are. I wish you a very Healthy and Happy and wonderful 2016.


Rare Book Monthly

  • 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, 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.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    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, 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.

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