Over the past 50 years John Zubal’s Zubal Books has been providing a service to institutions and buyers – handling large quantities of books and pamphlets, acquiring, describing and selling them first via printed catalogs and later via the internet. He has long provided a valued service. He has retired but it’s his voice on the telephone message you hear.
Most of 20 years ago he mentioned he had stacks of auction catalogues and suggested I fly to Cleveland to see them. In time I literally bought them all in time converting them into at least 2 million of the records that ultimately became part of Transactions+. I was grateful then and remain grateful today.
These days Zubal Books posts 500 to 1,000 items a day and the descriptions are brief to the point of being laconic. You get the idea but it’s useful to know what you are looking for.
These days the Zubals in Zubal Books are his sons Tom and Michael and they are carrying on their Pop’s enterprise. I mention this because I received a mailing recently from them about one of their quarterly sales. Out of curiosity I ran some of my personal search terms New Paltz and found a temperance pamphlet dated 1852. What did this gem cost? $32.96.
John’s retired and he’s still making good things happen.
![Sotheby’s: Ernest Hemingway. Three Stories And Ten Poems, [Paris], (1923). First edition of Hemingway’s first published book. $75,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/acf970a0-a15d-4c79-aa24-5e8e414cb465.png "<b>Sotheby’s:</b> Ernest Hemingway. <i>Three Stories And Ten Poems,</i> [Paris], (1923). First edition of Hemingway’s first published book. $75,000.")
