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Most bibliophiles know the name Hay-on-Wye as the first 'book town.' Said to have thirty or more bookshops, it's a tiny Welsh town that transforms during its annual literary festival. The population swells from its usual 1,500 to 250,000 for one week -- this week. The festival is going on now through June 5. It may be the only place where one can see the literary side of both the Archbishop of Canterbury and actor Rob Lowe. Bill Clinton once called it "The Woodstock of the mind."

What might be unknown to some, however, is that the Hay Festival isn't just in Hay-on-Wye. In face, the Hay Festival is also going on in Belfast, Ireland, this week. Later in the year Hay festivals will occur in Kenya and Spain. In 2011, for the first time, the Hay Festival travels to Cape Town (South Africa), Xalapa (Mexico), and Merthyr Tydfil (South Wales).

It's amazing to see literary festivals making such an impact, particularly on such a global scale. As the Hay blogger put it after this year's events began: "There has been delightful evidence that dumbing down is dead."

Photo of Hay castle courtesy Wikimedia/Schuy 
Sometimes, battling sexism in the normal way just won't do. Sometimes, you must don a gorilla mask, adopt the name of a dead female artist and send estrogen pills to the White House. -- Heather Svokos, Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader.

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In 1985, a group of feminist artists in New York City formed Guerrilla Girls, a group dedicated to fighting sexism, discrimination and corruption in art, film, pop culture and politics.  It is a sign of how entrenched such attitudes are that the group is still fighting this fight a quarter-century later.

The group suggests that while its actions have had some effect, there is still much to do.  With respect to female representation in institutional art collections, for example,

there is decent representation of women and artists of color at the beginning and emerging levels of the art world. At the institutional level however, in museums, major collections and auctions sales, things are still pretty dismal for all but white guys. We believe that the economics of the art market is responsible for this. As long as art costs a lot of money and can be owned and controlled by individual collectors, it will represent the values of those people, not the larger art audience or the culture at large. We are still condemning the art world for its lack of ethics, tokenism and other bad behavior.


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The group's "agenda" has spawned a wide range of books, videos, posters, and related items.  These items make an interesting and important collection for anyone interested in feminism or modern social activism.

Understandably, the group's own titles are written to convey a particular point of view.  Among these are what are perhaps their two best-known titles, The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art (1998) and Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes (2003).

In 2001, three former members of the group organized Guerrilla Girls on Tour, a theater collective.  In that same year, a group devoted to sexism in the wired workplace, Guerrilla Girls BroadBand, also was formed.  Both of these groups are entirely separate from the original Guerrilla Girls.

More academic works about the group have only recently begun to appear (see Schechter, above).  Interested book collectors may want to set aside several feet of shelf space....

Catalogue Review: Blackwell's Rare Books: Catalogue B167

Blackwell's of Oxford, England, is a very well known bookshop that stocks 200,000 new titles, as well as having a large secondhand section, and a rare books department. It is located opposite the Bodleian Library. For those of you, like me, who are quite desperate to visit but must be satisfied for now with catalogues, fear not. Blackwell's produces the quintessential antiquarian book catalogue--one hundred pages showing a wide variety of antiquarian, modern, and private press books in a range of prices, with exceptional descriptions and enticing images that pepper the text.

In the first section of the catalogue, an extra-illustrated first edition of Ann Radcliffe's popular gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho: A Romance (£2,500), jumped off the page. The four-volume set from 1794 has some minor issues, but the small engravings of castles and landscape gardens  are "rather endearing," notes the catalogue.

In the second section of the catalogue--modern first editions and illustrated books--D.H. Lawrence, Ian McEwan, Somerset Maugham, and Iris Murdoch are dominating names in limited editions, first editions, and signed editions. I'm partial to Julia Margaret Cameron's Victorian Photographs of Famous Men & Fair Women (£800), which was printed by the Hogarth Press in 1926 and has an introduction by Virginia Woolf.

The third section contains a wonderful selection of private presses, from Golden Cockerel to Gregynog, Nonesuch to Old Stile. Swinburne's Dead Love and Other Inedited Pieces (£250), published by the Mosher Press in Portland, ME, in 1901 looks lovely. As does Loyd Haberly's Poems (£200), printed by Seven Acres Press in 1930. Haberly was a poet, a professor of English, a university dean, and a collector of books about book arts.

When I reached the end of the catalogue, a beautiful woodcut prompted me to turn back to item #100, one of the catalogue's big-ticket books. Passio domini nostri Jesu Christi... (£10,000), printed in Strasbourg in 1507, with woodcuts by Urs Graf. Aside from its beauty, the catalogue notes that this book is "covered in binder's waste wrappers, a middle eleventh century manuscript on vellum, written in a later Caroline minuscule bookhand..." What a treasure!

To find your own treasure, download this entire catalogue by clicking here
Thursday is auction day at PBA, and a big one is coming up one week from today. On Thursday, June 2, PBA Galleries in San Francisco is auctioning the Ross Runfola collection of Charles Bukowski and his circle, what PBA calls, "Undoubtedly the finest collection of works by Charles Bukowski ever to appear at auction."

The auction is broken down into six sections:
Section I: Books, Broadsides & other Printed Material by Bukowski, Lots
1-141
Section II: Original Art by Bukowski, Lots 142-157
Section III: Manuscript Poems & Stories by Bukowski, Lots 158-237
Section IV: Letters from Bukowski, Lots 237-276
Section V: Books about Bukowski, Bibliographies, Ephemera, Periodicals,
etc., Lots 277-325
Section VI: Books & Art by other Authors & Artists, Lots 326-343

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Certainly the rarity seen above will draw attention. This original oil painting of a man in a bow-tie signed "Buk" is tipped-in to a 1982 limited edition of Ham on Rye, published by Black Sparrow Press. Estimate: $3,000-5,000.

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The first story Charles Bukowski ever published is here in the legendary Story Magazine. "Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip" appeared in the March-April 1944 issue, and this copy, though sunned and slightly rubbed, is as fine as they come. Estimate $3,000-5000.

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7 Flowers Press published 103 copies of Bukowski's The Genius of the Crowd in 1966, but many were confiscated by the Cleveland Police Department. Called "a cornerstone piece of any collection," it seems no copy has sold at auction since at least 1975. Estimate $6,000-9,000.

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A special deluxe edition of Bukowski's short story, "Not Quite Bernadette," published by the Graybeard Press in 1990. With nine hand-colored etchings (and two extra of a "more erotic nature" in a hidden compartment...) by James W. Johnson and binding design by Joe D'Ambrosio. Signed by all three. Estimate $4,000-7,000.

View the entire online catalogue.

Want to read more about Bukowski's artwork? Check out our feature from earlier this year on Buk's lost drawings.

All photos Courtesy of PBA Galleries.

Are you one of those people who have always been intrigued by the idea of collecting old and rare books but who doesn't know enough about such things to even know where to start? Are you someone who finds the career of antiquarian bookseller intriguing but mysterious?  Are you someone who really loves books and just wants to know more about them?


Yes? I, too, was, until a few years ago, a person just like you. I've often lamented the fact that there was no major in college for antiquarian books.  Sure, there's the much more general and all encompassing "English" major, but other than teaching one to appreciate and analyze literature and how to write well, it really doesn't do the trick for those of us who love the smell of leather bindings or who want to know about how paper is made and what printing processes were used in the 18th century.


I am a firm subscriber to the belief that it's never too late to learn.  And, as my endeavor to become an antiquarian bookseller proves, indeed it's not. Below are links to various bookish educational programs for all levels of bibliophile, from beginning to experienced:


Do you wish to know about the defining characteristics of individual photographic processes? Being able to identifying such process can help in dating certain items.  Here's a workshop offered by Gawain Weaver.


Gawain Weaver provides, "conservation treatment and consulting services to museums, galleries, collectors, historical societies, libraries, and individuals. Our services range from the treatment of individual fine art prints, to the care of large print and negative collections.


We also offer a range of educational opportunities and products, including workshops, both online and in-person, and historic photographic sample sets."


Looking to travel somewhere in addition to learning about books? Then try the London Rare Book School.  According to their website, "The courses will be taught by internationally renowned scholars associated with the Institute's Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies, using the unrivalled library and museum resources of London, including the British Library, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the University of London Research Library Services, and many more. All courses will stress the materiality of the book so you can expect to have close encounters with remarkable books and other artefacts from some of the world's greatest collections."


Smith College offers a new Book Studies Concentration. (Ah, Smith College, where were you when I was an undergraduate?!)


Similarly, St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto in Canada offers either a major or a minor in Book and Media Studies.


And, of course, the California Rare Book School at UCLA has announced its 2011 courses here.


I've written about all the amazing things you can learn at both the California Rare Book School and its counterpart at the University of Virginia many times before.


Last but not least, and maybe the best place to start your education if you plan to enter the antiquarian bookselling trade, is the wonderful Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar.


If you click around on the website of each school, you'll find that many offer scholarship opportunities.


So, if you want to learn more about antiquarian books, what are you waiting for? Bookish educational opportunities abound!


See you in the stacks!

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Lambuth University, a small liberal arts college located between Memphis and Nashville, is closing after several years of economic struggle. Without much notice, the 168-year-old school is auctioning off its property this weekend in preparation for its closure. Stevens Auction Company of Mississippi will conduct the auction in the Wilder Student Union Building (705 Lambuth Boulevard in Jackson, TN) on Saturday. Alas, no Internet bidding is available, but telephone and absentee bids will be accepted.

Several treasures will be on the block, including a first edition of Mark Twain's Abroad (seen here at left) and about a thousand other books; artwork, including a piece attributed to Samuel Halpert; an 1832 bronze bell; several pianos, antique bookcases and furniture; Persian rugs; an entire collection of vintage wedding dresses; and a map of Tennessee that dates to 1796.

To read more about this sale, see the university's press release. The Antique Trader also has more information & images from the auction.
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Today the NYPL's iconic Fifth Avenue building turns 100. Did you miss this weekend's stack tours? Last year rare materials cataloger Kathie Coblentz posted this digital tour, a transcript of the tour she gave last year for donors. The pictures are great--perhaps the more so because places like the Information desk and the Reading Room haven't changed all that much. The stacks are depicted here in Scientific American magazine, May 27, 1911.

P.S. Our own Richard Goodman went behind the scenes of the NYPL's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers in our spring issue -- you can read his article here.

Okay, where to begin? The 18 May Sotheby's Paris sale of Books and Manuscripts brought in a total of ??2,022,300; full results are here. The Robespierre and Philippe le Bas papers were pre-empted by the Archives Nationales de France, for a combined bid of ??979,500; a news release reports "tumultuous applause" when the documents were saved for the nation. Marcel Pagnol and Jean Cocteau manuscripts were also pre-empted, by the BNF and Paris History Library respectively.

Andy Warhol's 1¢ Life (1964) fetched ??108,750, while the typescript copy of Le Petit Prince(1943) brought in ??70,350.

The Printed & Manuscript Americana sale at Christie's New York on 19 May brought in $1,103,125, with 159 of 210 lots selling. The top lot ended up being a collection of Jackie Kennedy Onassis letters, which sold for $134,500. The Peter Force Declaration of Independence made $17,500. The Breeden-Raedt aende Vereenichde Nederlandsche Provintienand Franklin's copy of Dryden and Lee's Oedipus (1735) did not sell.

The Sanford B. Dole family archive archive of letters and clippings made $9,000 at PBA Galleries on 19 May.

And now on to yesterday's event: the third round of Copley sales at Sotheby's New York. The third selection of American Historical Documents brought in a total of $2472,28; full results are here. Many of the top-estimated lots didn't meet their reserves: the Dwight Eisenhower letters to his wife Mamie, as well as the archives of material relating to John Charles Frémont, the 1865 Hampton Roads peace conference, the assassination of President Garfield and the trial of Charles Guiteau all failed to sell, as did the first edition of  The Federalist (New York: 1788) in contemporary boards.

Washington's letter to Nathaniel Gorham celebrating the ratification of the Constitution did better than expected, selling for $182,500, and the Lincoln letter to the House of Representatives from May 1864 made $68,500. Three copybooks kept by Tobias Lear during his time as U.S. Consul at Algiers fetched $80,500.

Last but certainly not least came the two John Lansing notebooks from the Constitutional Convention, which ended up selling for $902,500 once premiums are factored in. I was watching the sale online, and the buyer appeared to be in the room, but no word has yet come through on the identity of the notebooks' new owner.
Catalogue Review: John Howell for Books, #1

Screen shot 2011-05-20 at 8.24.23 AM.pngI couldn't pass up the opportunity to review a bookseller's very first catalogue. John Howell, newly minted ABAA member, recently published Catalogue 1, containing 113 items issued by the Book Club of California. The Book Club of CA, as he notes in the catalogue, was founded in 1912 by a group of San Francisco bibliophiles.

His selection runs the gamut from the Club's first publication, Robert Ernest Cowan's A Bibliography of the History of California and the Pacific West, 1510-1906, published in 1914 ($450) to the latest project, not even available until June, Peter Hanff's Cyclone on the Prairies: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Arts and Crafts in Publishing in Chicago, 1900, designed and printed by Peter Koch ($375).

The Club's 1925 edition of De Bury's Philobiblon--said to be the first book about book collecting--is tempting. This one is No. 204 out of 250, printed at the Grabhorn Press. In good condition for $150, you wouldn't feel too bad about reading it before shelving. Same goes for Christopher Skelton's The Engraved Bookplates of Eric Gill, 1908-1940 ($75).

Another cool title here: The Diary of Patrick Breen, Recounting the Ordeal of the Donner Party snowbound in the Sierra 1846-1747 ($250). It was printed in an edition of 300 by the Club in 1946.

Howell's thirty-nine-page color catalogue is available in PDF format. It is pleasantly designed and clearly written. It's no wonder -- according to the catalogue, Howell is an old hand at catalogues, having worked on them for eight years at Jeff Weber Rare Books prior to striking out for himself in the business.

With prices affordable to most, Howell's books should appeal to any collector with an eye for California, Western books, printing arts, or fine press. Congratulations to him on such a strong start!
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I sit in my living room and watch the Corps of Engineers open the Morganza Floodway releasing the swollen Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya Basin inside Louisiana's Cajun Country. The Basin is the largest river basin swamp in the country and just a month ago I spent a weekend there with my sister and brother-in-law, Misha and Ed Guirard, when Ed's uncle, Greg Guirard, stopped by to give me his book Atchafalaya Autumn II published last October.