Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2007 Issue

"You Can't Stop Us": Walking Down a Dark Internet Lane

"You Can't Stop Us": Walking Down a Dark Internet Lane

by Renée Magriel Roberts A few weeks ago I was innocently searching for something or other on ABE, and quite by accident a doctoral dissertation by Renée Magriel Roberts called The Clock and the Rose: Time and Self--Transformation in the Romance of the Rose and the Divine Comedy turned up for sale. My doctoral dissertation that is. I was kind of surprised, since although we are publishers, we haven't gotten around to publishing my own work. Yet here it was, for sale on ABE, big as life. The seller goes by the name of "Discantus", gives his location as Majadahonda, Spain and give...

Have We Glimpsed the Future of Book Publishing?

Have We Glimpsed the Future of Book Publishing?

By Michael Stillman The future of book publishing may be on display at the New York Public Library through the end of August. We say "may" because no one really knows what the future holds. Per...

Books and Information Go Their Separate Ways

Books and Information Go Their Separate Ways

By Bruce McKinney Books until recently have been the primary form for preserving and distributing information. They were typically inexpensive, compact and easily organized. Society, to ensur...

Bookseller Sentenced to 15 Months for Theft

Bookseller Sentenced to 15 Months for Theft

By Michael Stillman A Philadelphia bookseller was sentenced to 15 months in prison on July 12 after pleading guilty to stealing 146 documents from the National Archives, where he worked part-ti...

Herschel V. Jones:  Documented Obsession

Herschel V. Jones: Documented Obsession

By Bruce McKinney Serious collectors of the century past seemed to live on a scale rarely approached today. Collecting books was one of their pursuits although often not their only one. Colle...

AE Services Part 3:  Current Price Estimator

AE Services Part 3: Current Price Estimator

By Michael Stillman This month we look at one of the Americana Exchange's most useful tools, its current price estimator. It updates values of prices in the 1.6 million-plus AE Database (AED) of ...

National Book Auctions:  It's all in the name

National Book Auctions: It's all in the name

By Bruce McKinney David Hall of CNY Book Auctions of Ithaca has announced that the firm, as part of a series of revisions, is changing its name to National Book Auctions. The firm was establis...

Deconstructing Twinkies: What's in those Things? - <i>A Book Review</i>

Deconstructing Twinkies: What's in those Things? - <i>A Book Review</i>

By Michael Stillman A recently released book -- Twinkie Deconstructed, by Steve Ettlinger -- will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Twinkies, those iconic symbols of modern, pr...

An Auction in Indiana August 9th

An Auction in Indiana August 9th

By Bruce McKinney Once in a while an unusual and entirely unexpected auction occurs in the world of books, manuscripts and ephemera. Even more unusually it occurs off the beaten track. An auc...

<i>Bookends</i>:  A Play About Two Booksellers

<i>Bookends</i>: A Play About Two Booksellers

By Michael Stillman It's not often that booksellers become the subject of a theatrical play, and a musical no less, so the production of Bookends by the New Jersey Repertory Company deserves a ...

Thirteen Book Catalogues Reviewed in Section Two.

Thirteen Book Catalogues Reviewed in Section Two.

You will find thirteen new booksellers’ catalogues reviewed in Section Two this month. The American West is presented by Old West Books, while Old World printings are available from Samuel Gedge, L...

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • 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.
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