Richard Murian recently slipped away at 87. An active Arizona book dealer over much of his life, he was a friendly and reliable source who bought and sold stock and provided help to those who posed complex bibliographical questions.
Richard was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, on September 17, 1937. He lived in a small apartment with his mother, but books were always present. He would go on to earn several degrees, work as a librarian, and in an unusual step for a bookseller, also serve as a minister. Minister isn't the highest paying job, so he sold scholarly books on the side. That b...
Opponents of library censorship lost an important case we have been following the past two years from rural Llano, Texas. A group of citizens petitioned the county commissioners with a list of 17 b...
June 30, 2025. As I write this note the ALA’s (American Library Association) annual fair is wrapping up in Philadelphia. Soon visitors and exhibitors will make their high-speed descent down the es...
It's been a long time since Oscar Wilde has been able to read a book at the British Library. Of course, a major reason is that he is dead, as he has been for over a century. However, there is a rea...
Copies of two of the most important documents in American history brought in record prices at Sotheby's June 26. One was a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln ...
John Shelton Reed (born 1942) is an American sociologist and essayist, author or editor of 23 books, most of them dealing with contemporary America. And at 82 he still has some projects to keep him...
Coming soon is one of the biggest and most successful book sales in the entire country. It's time for the annual C.H. Booth Library Sale. This is the one the Boston Globe called “one of the largest...
2025 Detroit Book Fair
Detroit Festival of Books, Sunday, July 20th, has expanded to over 250 book vendors from 15 different states and Canada. Matching its earlier attendance records, the upcomi...
Most people know there is no standard path to becoming a bookseller. Some people, like this writer, are born into it; others work at a shop or library or buy too many books, or sell for a while on ...
In the first court ruling of the legality of using copyrighted books to create answers for chatbots such as ChatGPT, the bots have won and the authors lost. The chatbots need to have access to huge...
A large source of additional information for AI (artificial intelligence) chatbox programs, like ChatGPT or Microsoft's Llama, has been opened. Those are the online search programs that answer just...
Would you like to live in a library? What could be more of a dream for the avid book-reader! Well, there is one for sale now, and it is one of classic construction, no less. It is a Carnegie Librar...
The World's oldest auction house has undertaken a major expansion by acquiring one of its closest competitors in terms of age. Stockholms Auctionsverk has acquired Uppsala Auctionskammare. Both of ...
Princess Lamballe was Queen Marie-Antoinette’s close friend, who was put to death during the Révolution. After reading about her terrible execution, I decided to follow her bouncing severed head fr...
This list shows 22 auction houses doing business in five Northeastern states whose records are archived by RareBookHub.com It is not comprehensive, but as a survey of New England auction houses it...
This month we review four new dealer catalogues. The William Reese Company offers new acquisitions in Americana. David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books also has a new selection of material in the f...
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.
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, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/64dbb393-4712-4536-a1a6-26d823c523dc.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Ending July 10:</b> John Gould. <i>The Birds of Europe,</i> [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.")
![DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/4ce5fa1d-1943-4413-a80d-7b5c75383e7e.jpg "<b>DOYLE, July 23:</b> [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.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/fa635c85-6b12-44f2-8832-2087579574d9.jpg "<b>DOYLE, July 23:</b> [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. <i>Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions.</i> 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](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/af9f4e1a-90c2-428c-8d49-9624b070c7a9.jpg "<b>DOYLE, July 23:</b> TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. <i>Anna Karénina ... in eight parts.</i> New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600")
