Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2019 Issue

Izzy Young, Founder NYC’S Folklore Center, Dead at 90

Izzy Young, Founder NYC’S Folklore Center, Dead at 90

Israel G. (“Izzy”) Young, noted bookstore owner and iconic figure in the folk music scene, died at his home in Stockholm on Feb. 4, 2019. He was 90. Izzy opened the Folklore Center at 110 MacDougal Street in New York City in the mid 1950s and within a few years it became a mecca for the folk scene. Personally, he was one of the book world’s most original, influential and at times irritating characters. Born in Manhattan in 1928 and raised in the Bronx, he was a little older than the youthful crowd that flocked to his shop, which by the early 1960s was a hangout and message central for all t...

Karl Lagerfeld, Fashion Designer, Book Collector Extraordinaire, Dies

Karl Lagerfeld, Fashion Designer, Book Collector Extraordinaire, Dies

When Karl Lagerfeld died at the age of 85 a few days ago, the world knew him as a fashion designer. He had been creating fashion designs since the 1950s and his reputation was second to none. Since...

The New York Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Armory

The New York Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Armory

The New York Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Armory on Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York City over the weekend of March 7-10.  This fair is perennially the most important rare book event in...

398 Reasons to Go to the New York Book Fairs March 7-10

398 Reasons to Go to the New York Book Fairs March 7-10

Three Rare Book, Manuscript, Map, Book Arts and Ephemera Fairs all over the same weekend in New York.  For those who love collectible paper and related materials this is your moment.   The Manhat...

Auctions in New York around the week of the Book Fairs

Auctions in New York around the week of the Book Fairs

The New York Book Fairs are honey to the book collecting community and the prospect of both three area fairs and four auction houses holding sales over the same period makes for an exceptional oppo...

Ephemera Fair 39 in Connecticut March 14-17

Ephemera Fair 39 in Connecticut March 14-17

Over the long weekend of March 14-17 in Greenwich, Connecticut there’s a fair that represents part of the future of the rare and collectible paper fields than generally gets as much attention.  How...

Marie Kondo Gets Herself in a Mess by Recommending Disposing of Books

Marie Kondo Gets Herself in a Mess by Recommending Disposing of Books

Marie Kondo, the "tidying up" expert, recently got herself in a mess of trouble with book lovers when she suggested books, like all the drek we keep around our homes, could use some tidying up too....

Remembering Arthur Walker, Sherlock Holmes Collector

Remembering Arthur Walker, Sherlock Holmes Collector

The Florida Bibliophile Society sadly announces the recent passing (February 9, 2019), in Tampa, Florida, of Arthur Thomas Walker, age 87. Art Walker was a respected collector of Sherlock Holmes an...

Dallas and the Maroons: God’s Will

Dallas and the Maroons: God’s Will

The Maroons were runaway slaves of the New World, who chose a life of hardship rather than of submission. In Jamaica, they fought against the colonists for decades, almost bringing the island to it...

Bodleian Library Asked to Return Stolen Books... Over Four Centuries Later

Bodleian Library Asked to Return Stolen Books... Over Four Centuries Later

Is there a point at which books, once stolen, no longer need to be returned, or is there no statute of limitations? Does the obligation to return literally last forever? Faro 1540, a group from the...

British Library Digitizes Its "Private Case" Collection, AKA Porn Books

British Library Digitizes Its "Private Case" Collection, AKA Porn Books

In the apparent belief that there is a shortage of digital porn available to the public, the British Library has digitized its infamous "Private Case" collection. You may have to go to the library'...

Eric Caren and Bonhams:  a fresh approach to auctions

Eric Caren and Bonhams: a fresh approach to auctions

Among the more than a thousand auctions in the books, manuscripts, maps, and ephemera auctions that take place every year there are some that are more important than others.  Eric Caren’s 7th aucti...

Mar 2: Books & Maps at Leland Little Auctions

Mar 2: Books & Maps at Leland Little Auctions

North Carolina-based Leland Little Auctions will be in short order hosting their Important Spring Auction. Scheduled for Saturday, March 2nd, the sale contains over 400 lots, of which just a handfu...

Two Textbook Thieves Sentenced to Prison

Two Textbook Thieves Sentenced to Prison

Two Texas men have been sentenced to prison for stealing textbooks, particularly in Wisconsin, though they are believed to have conducted their operations at colleges in Minnesota, North Dakota, Ar...

Booksellers with a Heart

Booksellers with a Heart

A bookstore owner was in the hospital. So his competitors came and kept his shop open.   Here’s evidence that book dealers have a heart and big ones at that.   In the Washington Post online rec...

A Major Break in the Case of a $1.4 Million Comic Book Theft

A Major Break in the Case of a $1.4 Million Comic Book Theft

Police got a major break in a large comic book theft case in Palm Beach, Florida, when a man walked into a comic book shop near Phoenix with four of the almost 450 missing comics. Sometime between ...

LiveAuctioneers Sees Enormous Growth in 2018

LiveAuctioneers Sees Enormous Growth in 2018

LiveAuctioneers reports that 2018 was another bang-up year in terms of growth for its auction platform. LiveAuctioneers is something of an auction listing aggregator. They bring together listings f...

Legally Binding: Book Bindings on Display at Yale Law Library

Legally Binding: Book Bindings on Display at Yale Law Library

The Yale Law Library is noted for its exhibitions of law books that are celebrated for attributes beyond their legal text. That may involve the physical appearance of the book, or the illustrations...

10 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

10 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

There are 10 new catalogues up for review this month. Librairie Métamorphoses has a selection of valuable and unusual books, autographs, music and photographs. Marilyn Braiterman Rare Books offers ...

Rare Book Monthly

  • SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ROALD AMUNDSEN: «Sydpolen» [ The South Pole] 1912. First edition in jackets and publisher's slip case.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: AMUNDSEN & NANSEN: «Fram over Polhavet» [Farthest North] 1897. AMUNDSEN's COPY!
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON [ed.]: «Aurora Australis» 1908. First edition. The NORWAY COPY.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON: «The heart of the Antarctic» + SUPPLEMENT «The Antarctic Book», 1909.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: SHACKLETON, BERNACCHI, CHERRY-GARRARD [ed.]: «The South Polar Times» I-III, 1902-1911.
    SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: [WILLEM BARENTSZ & HENRY HUDSON] - SAEGHMAN: «Verhael van de vier eerste schip-vaerden […]», 1663.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION | LIEUTENANT HENRY ROBERTSON BOWERS: «At the South Pole.», Gelatin Silver Print. [10¾ x 15in. (27.2 x 38.1cm.) ].
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ELEAZAR ALBIN: «A natural History of Birds.» + «A Supplement», 1738-40. Wonderful coloured plates.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: PAUL GAIMARD: «Voyage de la Commision scientific du Nord, en Scandinavie, […]», c. 1842-46. ONLY HAND COLOURED COPY KNOWN WITH TWO ORIGINAL PAINTINGS BY BIARD.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: JAMES JOYCE: «Ulysses», 1922. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.

Article Search

Archived Articles