Rare Book Monthly Articles - June - 2023 Issue

Remembering Hot Metal

When you pick up a newspaper you simply see the public face.  They have long been complex institutions.  My family had a history in the business.    During the early 1950s my father was publishing a group of five weekly newspapers in southern Ulster County.  He bought them for $2,500 in 1951 from a motivated seller.  He had been the general manager for the Hudson Valley Newspapers that had a plant on River Road in Marlborough.  It was a ramshackle place but had a deep history in that community.  If he could move the plant from Milton to Highland they were his.   It’s long been known tha...

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Rare Books, Rare Tortoises, and a Rare Theft

What do rare books and Galapagos Tortoises have in common? Not much, but according to a story reported by the St. Petersburg (Florida) Police Department, they do share a home with collector/dealer/...

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Welcome to the New World!

What was not so long ago called book collecting has been transforming into the field of collectible paper.  What kept traditional book collecting understandable were the fixed boundaries provided b...

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The Torah had a Good Day

At Sotheby’s in New York on May 17th the Codex Sassoon was sold to the American Friends of ANU – Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, made possible by a donation from Alfred H. Moses for $38,12...

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Literature and Landscapes:The Bobins and Lisman Collections come to Christie’s

It’s all about American history this month at Christie’s New York as they sell two iconic book collections at auction: that of Bruce M. Lisman of Burlington, Vermont and that of Norman Bobins of Ch...

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Overdue Library Book Returned a Mere 96 Years Late

On February 7, 1927, someone borrowed a copy of A History of the United States by Benson Lossing, a notable 19th century American historian. It was due two weeks later, but was never returned, at l...

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John Marra, or the Crooked Cook Book

John Marra was a very good sailor, when sober. Captain Cook enrolled him a first time in Batavia in 1770, on his way back from his first voyage—he’d just deserted a Dutch ship; then two years later...

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A Pre-Gutenberg Book Printed with Movable Type Being Exhibited at the National Library of France

An exhibition at the National Library of France is displaying the oldest known extant book using movable metal type for the first time in 50 years. You may be thinking they are displaying a copy of...

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1898: US Imperial Visions & Revisions

Smithsonian exhibit examines U.S. expansion into Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam and Intervention in Cuba 1898: US Imperial Visions and Revisions is at the National Portrait Gallery i...

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Book Banning Is Not New, But It's Still Ugly

The recent rash of book bannings in America has prompted us to take a look back at the past. They were once widespread throughout the western world. The Church had its Index Librorum Prohibitorum, ...

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Here Are the Top 10 Most Censored Books in America

We often print top 10 lists, on such topics as the most expensive sales at auction, or most expensive sales on the AbeBooks website. These are positive lists to be on. This one is not. It is of the...

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One More Book Shop Scaling Back: The Book Press Ltd.

The Book Press Ltd of Williamsburg, Virginia has announced they are about to close their public shop at 1304 Jamestown Road effective June 15th.  Book stores in well-travelled areas have long resis...

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Interpol Seizes 77 Stolen Antiquarian Books

Interpol recently announced the results of its operation against international art theft and trafficking. Code named Pandora VII, this was the seventh of these integrated international arrest and s...

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Six New Catalogues Reviewed for June

This month we review six new bookseller catalogues. Jonathan A. Hill Bookseller offers Chinese, Japanese, Korean books, manuscripts, and scrolls. Michel Bouver presents a diverse selection. Forest...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

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