Rare Book Monthly Articles - May - 2022 Issue

Fifty Years a Bookseller:  or, The Wolf at Your Door

Fifty Years a Bookseller: or, The Wolf at Your Door

Rare books of all kinds can be found online, at libraries and at fairs somewhere, some place every minute of every day around the world.  What were once called rare books has evolved into collectible paper and now subsumes every manifestation of paper and ink, into a single field and today databases aggregate most of the offers into an answer proffered in a fraction of a second.  Presto everyone with an iPhone is an expert.   So what happens then when someone who has spent his life, over the past 50+ years working in the trade and now, ambling into his dotage, remembering the many interes...

The Reese Americana Collection Appears

The Reese Americana Collection Appears

The life of Bill Reese ended 3 years ago, but his discernment, judgment and collecting acumen continue to be admired. His name will soon be illuminated on the marquees at Christie’s in New York.  O...

Extraordinarily Valuable Missing Darwin Notebooks Recovered

Extraordinarily Valuable Missing Darwin Notebooks Recovered

One of the most important documents in scientific history, missing for 20 years, has been found. More accurately, it has been returned. For 20 years, librarians at Cambridge University have been un...

The Library of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven to be Sold at Sotheby’s

The Library of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven to be Sold at Sotheby’s

May is going to be a busy month in the auction rooms at Sotheby’s as The Library of Henry Rogers Broughton, 2nd Baron Fairhaven, will be sold in London on 18 May, 2022.  Auctions are commonplace bu...

In Short Order Charlotte Brontë's Last Privately Held “Little Book” Sold for $1.25 Million

In Short Order Charlotte Brontë's Last Privately Held “Little Book” Sold for $1.25 Million

Charlotte Brontë and her sisters have been in the news a lot lately. It's nice to be remembered as they all died over a century and a half ago. It's also interesting to note that the stories have b...

Christopher Coover:  Remembered and Appreciated

Christopher Coover: Remembered and Appreciated

Christopher Coover recently passed away, leaving a remarkable history with Christie’s, richly detailed in the many important sales he catalogued as a team member.  Collections and collectors tend t...

AbeBooks Top 20 Highest Prices Paid in January-March

AbeBooks Top 20 Highest Prices Paid in January-March

Here is a list of the twenty most expensive books purchased on the AbeBooks website during the first three months of 2022. There are books old and recent, in English and Latin, fiction and real, sc...

Jon Buller, Master Hand Bookbinder (Detroit area)

Jon Buller, Master Hand Bookbinder (Detroit area)

On May 1st, 2022, the Book Club of Detroit (founded, 1957; current president, novelist Charlene Kull) hosts Master Hand Bookbinder, Jon Buller. As founder of Bessenberg Bindery, he served Detroit-a...

MacKenzie: the More Mediocre, the Healthier!

MacKenzie: the More Mediocre, the Healthier!

I had a headache the other day so I took a tablet and was fine again. Ordinary miracle in a world now able to modify a rat’s cells so it can live 30% longer! But mankind’s come a long way! This I r...

Book Banning – The New York Public Library Is Trying to Counter It

Book Banning – The New York Public Library Is Trying to Counter It

Banned Books Books For All.   The long arm of censorship has been bearing down on America in ways I've not seen in all my (many) years. Books are being banned from public and school libraries not...

The Bibliophilegroup Celebrates 25 years with Grand Poohbah Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson at the Helm

The Bibliophilegroup Celebrates 25 years with Grand Poohbah Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson at the Helm

The Bibliophilegroup Mailing List, headed by Lynn DeWeese-Parkinson, 79, celebrates its 25th anniversary next month. Though not exactly a household name, this subscription only group, ($30/yr/ 2 we...

ABAA Virtual Book Fair: New York Edition will take place May 4 and 5, 2022 at abaa.org/vbf

ABAA Virtual Book Fair: New York Edition will take place May 4 and 5, 2022 at abaa.org/vbf

Although the U.S. may be out of the acute phase of the pandemic, one trend that has emerged in the rare book field is that virtual book fairs continue to be put on. While many organizations are run...

Ukrainian Publisher Issues Edition of Go the F*** to Sleep

Ukrainian Publisher Issues Edition of Go the F*** to Sleep

In the midst of the terror and killing that is Ukraine, a book is being published. It is, perhaps, not what you would expect, Adam Mansbach's Go the Fuck to Sleep. It has been translated to Ukraini...

May 4-11: Fahrenheit 451 and other signed material at AntiquarianAuctions.com

May 4-11: Fahrenheit 451 and other signed material at AntiquarianAuctions.com

AntiquarianAuctions.com, an online rare book auction house, has been in business since 2010 under the leadership of antiquarian bookseller Paul Mills. In spring 2020, just as the pandemic was promp...

Peter Harrington:  An Archive of James Bond Treasures is up for Sale

Peter Harrington: An Archive of James Bond Treasures is up for Sale

Blockbuster Set of Original James Bond Screenplays, Film Scripts and Story Boards to go on Sale for £500,000 to celebrate the Iconic Spy Film Franchise 60th Anniversary   The collection of approx...

Ashley Tisdale Reignites the Controversy Over Books as Decor

Ashley Tisdale Reignites the Controversy Over Books as Decor

“These bookshelves, I have to be honest, actually did not have books in it a couple of days ago. I had my husband go to a bookstore. I was like, ‘You need to get 400 books.’ Obviously my husband is...

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Five New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review five new catalogues from booksellers. Parisian bookseller Michel Bouvier has a catalogue of books and autographs. Whitmore Rare Books presents a collection of fine literature. ...

Rare Book Monthly

  • High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare.
    The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens.
    A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Golding.
    Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll.
    Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien.
    The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: John Milton.
    Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD

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