2011_double.gifIn our winter issue, contributor Al Cunniff wrote an article about the controversy surrounding the authorship of the "Shakespearean" play, Double Falsehood. It's fascinating how Shakespeare continues to shape our literary world almost four hundred years after his death. Earlier this week I was pleasantly surprised to see an ad for New York's Classic Stage Company's production of Double Falsehood. I had no idea it was on stage here in the U.S. (opened on March 12 and closes this Sunday, April 3). Following this Saturday's matinee, Brean Hammond, editor of the Arden Shakespeare, will participate in a moderated discussion about the play's history.
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I scanned this paper company ad from the inside front cover of Book Business magazine. I think you can see why! (In case you can't read the fine print, it says "PAPER because/It'll be remembered longer on paper" and at the bottom "The first book ever published was the Gutenberg Bible. Printed in the 1450s, 21 complete copies still exist today, 500 years later. To learn more, please visit Paperbecause.com.")

Richard Minsky is on a roll -- in the last year alone he published a deluxe and trade edition of The Art of American Book Covers, produced three editions of the catalogue that accompanied a Yale Library retrospective of his work, and now we find out that he has been hard at work on yet another volume titled The Book Art of Richard Minsky. By the by, he also became our magazine's Book Art columnist.

It's enough to make the most productive person feel quite lazy!

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Minsky's newest book is a look at his most influential pieces (including those from private collections) together with a first-person narrative in which he discusses his influences, his methodology, and the principles that shape his work. It also features a foreword by book art scholar and curator Betty Bright.

From now through Thursday, March 31, a pre-publication discount will apply for the deluxe slipcase edition, which means it can be purchased for $100 instead of $175. The edition is limited to 150 signed and numbered copies. 

A trade edition of this book will be be published in June by George Braziller, Inc., the same company that produced Minsky's The Art of American Book Covers last year. (I raved about that one, so it's an understatement to say that I'm looking forward to the new one.)

To read more about Richard's work, click over to this interview I did with him last June just before Yale opened its exhibit, "Material Meets Metaphor: A Half Century of Book Art by Richard Minsky."
Rest easy, Washington -- one of our favorite bookstores has been saved. Politics & Prose owners Barbara Meade and David Cohen announced today that they have selected a pair of journalists and politicos as the new owners: Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine, who met while they were reporters with the Washington Post, expect to close the deal in about 45 days.

"Graham and Muscatine have the passion and wisdom to further strengthen Politics & Prose as a community institution that disseminates ideas and stands as a respected and revered public space," Meade and Cohen said in a statement released on the Politics & Prose Web site. "We are confident that they have the wherewithal and vision to sustain Politics & Prose for many years." 

The new owners agreed.

"We understand that Politics and Prose is much more than a bookstore," Graham told store staff, according to a Washington Post report. "It is an integral part of the Washington community, a community that Lissa and I have served for much of our careers already as journalists, authors and, in Lissa's case, a senior government staff member. It is a very special culture here, a culture we want to see survive."

Book lovers across the District couldn't agree more.
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An important collection of papers and portraits goes on the block at Bonhams London tomorrow. Part II of the Roy Davids Collection consists of five hundred-plus lots of manuscript material in the fields of literature, history, travel and exploration, art, science, and more. From a photograph of English novelist Julian Barnes (estimated at £400-600) to the exceedingly rare autograph signed letter from John Keats to Fanny Brawne (seen here, estimated at £80,000-120,000) to a series of twenty-one autograph letters of William Morris (£8,000-10,000). Kings, queens; Pepys, Austen; Bacon, Ralegh -- it's an astounding collection.

Over at the ILAB website, an essay by Roy Davids on "Manuscripts and the Worthiness of Collecting" is well worth a read on this exciting occasion. Writes Davids, "Collectors pass on something for their successors to absorb, and to be absorbed by, and to build upon. And with their own reflections, research and books and catalogues, they can make important contributions to knowledge and civilised life."

The New Orleans Tennessee Williams Literary Festival was a huge success staying true to  Williams' relentless drive for perfection. One of my favorite sessions are the master classes where experts from around the country offer their expertise in various literary genres. Jane Ciabattari, president of the National Book Critics Circle, award-winning fiction writer, prolific book reviewer, widely published journalist and occasional literary blogger has watched the transformation of book review mediums from a front row seat. Inside the Historic New Orleans Collection on Royal Street, lovers of the written word gathered for a lesson on how to cut through the clutter and keep abreast on new books hitting the literary market.
 

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Today is the centennial of the birth of playwright Tennessee Williams. There's still time to visit the exhibit at The Bookshop in Old New Castle in Delaware (where the selection of materials above will be). There's a major celebration happening in New Orleans. Or, if you happen to be in Florida, there's an exhibit in the Keys. Or one at the Ransom Center in Austin, Texas (which we wrote about extensively in our winter issue). So far as I can tell, there isn't one in Tennessee, though!  

Catalogue Review: Ars Libri 158

158a.jpgSince 1976, Ars Libri of Boston has built up an incredible stock of rare and out-of-print art books, including topics related to art history, architecture, archaeology, photography, and the decorative arts. Its newest catalogue, #158: 33 books from a private collection is but one small, select sampling.

Two unrecorded advertising papillons (posters) for a German Dada exhibit are here ($9,500) -- excellent examples of the focus on modern art and the avant garde for which Ars Libri is known by collectors. There's also a fine first edition of L'amour fou by Andre Breton with photographs by Brassai and Cartier-Bresson, published in Paris in 1937 ($950).

Several Max Ernst items are likely to draw attention. The catalogue calls the rare original limited edition of Les malheurs des immortals by Paul Eluard and Max Ernst, "one of Ernst's greatest achievements in collage and book illustration" ($7,500). Cubist Fernand Leger is also represented with three editions for which he provided illustration.

A complete run of Wendingen, an art and architecture journal published from 1918-1931, housed in six fitted clamshell cases ($30,000) brings this slim and colorful catalogue to a powerful close.

Download a PDF of the catalogue here, or contact Ars Libri for a print version.

Many of you will recall our attention to the recently produced documentary Typeface. We also featured prints from the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in last year's gift guide.

Now for the update. The filmmakers announced that Typeface will be broadcast on PBS stations across the country beginning April 4. (Check your local listings.) They have been holding successful screenings here and abroad for more than a year (Spain, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, & Tulsa next month).

They've also posted a short interview with the museum's Moran brothers, who talk about the effect the film has had on the museum and the letterpress renaissance. 

Largely a calendar of things to keep an eye on, with some highlights noted:

- On 24 March, PBA Galleries sells Property of a Gentleman: Modern Literature, in 279 lots.

- Also on 24 March, Bloomsbury London hosts a sale of books in Food & Allied Subjects, including the Cookery Library of the late Alan Davidson, Country Pursuits and Natural History, in 469 lots.

- Swann will sell Printed and Manuscript Americana on 31 March, in 362 lots. Highlights include an archive of 16 documents by and related to Jonathan Edwards (est. $10,000-15,000) and a copy of Judah Monis' 1735 Hebrew grammar with early ownership notes (est. $15,000-25,000). Quite a few other pieces with interesting provenance here as well.

- Christie's London hosts a Travel, Science and Natural History sale on 6 April, in 213 lots. Some really interesting globes, orreries and other scientific instruments here, including a~1690 French microscope. Several important printed books will also be sold, including a copy of Jacques Le Hay's work on Turkish dress (est. £6,000-8,000); Maarten Houttuyn's 1791-95treatise on woods (est. £3,000-4,000); and Lyell's Principles of Geology, est. £3,000-5,000.

- Swann also has a Fine Books and Manuscripts sale on 7 April, in 136 lots. The top lot here is expected to be a deluxe copy of the Golden Cockerel Press Gospels, one of twelve copies printed on vellum and this copy inscribed by Eric Gill to Virginia Woolf. It's estimated at $60,000-75,000.

- Heritage Auctions (which is now holding weekly online book auctions) will hold their first New York rare books sale on 7-9 April. It will include artwork from the Garth Williams estate, the Victor Gulotta collection of Charles Dickens materials, a 16th-century illuminated Book of Hours, a first edition Book of Mormon, and a Kelmscott Chaucer, among other interesting lots.

- On 11 April, Sotheby's New York will sell Original Illustration Art from the Collections of Kendra and Allan Daniel, in 193 lots. The top-estimated lot is Jessie Willcox Smith's "How Doth the Little Busy Bee," which could sell for $200,000-300,000. Illustrations by Arthur Rackham, Beatrix Potter, and Edmund Dulac also feature prominently.

- Also on 11 April, Swann sells Early Printed Books, including Armenian Books, in 273 lots. The top-rated lot is a 1621 Armenian manuscript of the Gospels, which is estimated at $18,000-20,000.

- Bloomsbury London will hold a Bibliophile Sale on 14 April, in 384 lots.

- Doyle New York will sell Books, Photographs and Prints on 20 April. Watch for my preview of this sale in the Spring Fine Books & Collections.