I don't often go to the movies, but last night offered that rare chance, and I went to see Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. I'm a big fan of Anderson's films (Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, etc.), and this film had that same 'dollhouse' quality, quirky plot, and amazing cast of characters.
 

large.jpgThe film is set in 1965, and one of the main characters, Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), is a twelve-year-old runaway. She meets up with her boyfriend, an orphaned 'Khaki Scout,' and they hit the trail and set up camp. Suzy has packed her suitcase with six books that she stole from the library, with titles like The Girl From Jupiter, The Francine Odysseys, and Disappearance of the 6th Grade. Throughout the film, she reads excerpts from some of the books. The books are fake -- props written by Anderson-- but it was great to see books with such a leading role. And, in what must be a first for modern film, the book jacket designers got a huge credit at the end.


When I got home, I did a little quick research on the books, and it turns out that Anderson had considered animating the reading scenes and so commissioned animations of all six books, later used separately in a supplementary video to promote the film. You can view them here.

Image: Focus Features.

 

 

One of our ongoing concerns here at Fine Books is the intersection of books and art.  In the midst of a digital revolution in publishing, I would like to start profiling small, independent publishers who produce fine editions of their books; those who relish in the artistic possibilities of the codex and create the collectable books of our age.

This new, occasional series begins today with Scarlet Imprint, a "talismanic publisher" in England who has been producing beautiful editions of occult works since 2007.  Operated by Peter Grey and Akistis Dimech, Scarlet Imprint was the first ever occult publisher to be shortlisted for the Book Design and Production Awards for their fine edition of XVI. But Scarlet Imprint is on a broader mission than simply producing beautiful books.  As their website reads, "We are committed to the fine book arts and the magick that can be bound into the book itself. Books are living things which can be consecrated and brought to life in order to manifest change in the individual who engages with them, and the wider world." In addition to producing fine editions in limited print runs, Scarlet Imprint also publishes paperback and digital editions of its books under its Bibliotheque Rouge imprint. 

I recently conversed with Peter Grey by e-mail:


scarletimprintbooks.jpgNP: What was the genesis of Scarlet Imprint?

PG: Scarlet Imprint began in order to publish Peter's book The Red Goddess, in a talismanic edition of 156 copies. We accomplished that and sold the copies largely through word of mouth. Howlings emerged from our work with the Goetia and was our next offering.

crossed keys.jpgNP: What is the publishing vision of the house?

PG: We intend to inspire and fuel the magical revival. We publish both established and respected writers and the radical young voices. We take risks with the material we publish, for example the poetry anthologies, as these are works which would not otherwise see the light of day. In this way we hope to raise awareness of the importance of creativity and craft in magical praxis. As a truly independent publisher we do not belong to any group, order or organisation. All paths can lead to knowledge, and a willingness to share, discuss and engage with others seems appropriate to the times we find ourselves in and the tools we have at our disposal.

snakeskin.jpgNP: Could you tell us about the process of producing your fine editions?

PG: You could see the fine editions as a way to manifest and convey the spirit of a book without the usual constraints. We have a very good relationship with our binder, as well as with artisans in leather and marbling, which has allowed us to explore the possibilities of expression in the medium of book binding. Naturally, the themes and spirit of a work direct and inspire the outcome. These are magical objects, not simply the standard edition with a leather spine. Every edition of our titles exposes a different facet of the spirit of the book itself.
 
NP: How do you decide on your limitations for each print run?

PG: Choosing limitation numbers is based primarily on the magical requirements of the task at hand.

rouge.jpgNP: Could you tell us about Bibliotheque Rouge?

PG: Bibliotheque Rouge is our propaganda wing. It references the bibliotheque bleue period where grimoires and other books were printed and distributed to the mass market, resulting in an explosion of interest in the occult arts. We do not believe in creating artificial scarcity. In a digital age, with the free flow of information, it is backwards to think otherwise. The world has changed. Though we feel that there is something particularly magical about the creation of books as objects of enduring beauty there are students who want the raw data and cannot afford either fine bindings or luxurious hardbacks. We want the information to reach people, regardless of the depth of their pockets. 

NP: How do you feel about the idea of "grimoire scalping" (borrowing the terminology from the recent post at the blog Balkan's Arcane Bindings) -- that is, people purchasing your fine editions solely to sell them at a profit soon after they've sold out from the publisher?

PG: We do not suffer from this to the extent that other publishers do, as our books are neither self-consciously 'dark' nor cynically limited. Our readers are our friends and peers who will rarely part with our fine editions whose value is not in their price alone. We will also take payment in installments and reserve books when necessary so that our readers do not miss out on a book they have set their heart on.
As a problem we think grimoire scalping is overstated, the number of serious practitioners out there in the fine edition market is very small. Those who buy fine editions specifically for resale can be easily blacklisted, although this does not entitle anyone to conduct a witch hunt, as books do come to market for legitimate reasons. People are going to be out to make a quick buck and act opportunistically. Such are the supposed values of our culture.

xvi_fine_slice.jpg

NP: I know that XVI was nominated for the 2011 British Book Design Awards.  Could you tell us about that?

PG: We are the only occult publisher to ever be shortlisted. This shows that the artistry of our books is recognised beyond the narrow confines of genre. The bookbinders, artisans and printers we work with all deserve due praise. Our typography, design work and harmonious use of materials are acknowledged as superlative by those whose stock in trade is books. However, we do not seek mainstream or industry approval for the work that we do. The book industry is simply that, an industry, looking to sell more product in a collapsing marketplace. As artists we have a very different agenda. Books for us are living things that create change in people and in the world. 
 
NP: What's next on the slate for Scarlet Imprint?

PG: We prefer to play our cards close to our chest, but we can say that the next open objective is our Pleasure Dome festival in Brighton on July 21. At the Crossroads is our latest title exploring the new magic occuring as Western Magic enters into a fusion with the diaspora religions.

Ever more wild, challenging and radical texts are in development. Expect the unexpected.







You can experience fin-de-siecle Paris by visiting the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) this summer. Its exhibit, Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and His Contemporaries, celebrates the brightly colored advertisements by Pierre Bonnard, Jules Cheret, Edouard Vuillard, and Alphonse Mucha that graced the city at the turn of the twentieth century.

Bonnard-FranceChampagne.jpgPierre Bonnard, (French, 1867-1947), France-Champagne, 1889-1891. Color lithograph. Restricted gift of Dr. and Mrs. Martin L. Gecht, 1991.218, The Art Institute of Chicago. Image courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago.

Paris was plastered with paper -- creating what MAM refers to as an outdoor museum for the masses. The posters themselves were "objects of intense fascination, even mania, and a new term was invented to describe it: affichomanie (poster mania). They were so popular that collectors stole them from billboards almost as soon as they were pasted up..." The posters remain popular to collectors today, filling vintage poster auctions at Swann Galleries and Christie's and cropping up at Heritage Auctions too.

Cheret-LHorloge.jpgJules Chéret, (French, 1836-1932), L'Horloge: Les Girard, 1875/1878 or 1880/1881. Color lithograph. Collection of Jim and Sue Wiechmann. Photo by John R. Glembin.

The exhibit runs through September 9, 2012 and then heads to the Dallas Museum of Art from Oct. 14, 2012-Jan. 20, 2013.
bookstalls.jpg
Sales of eBooks in the United States now command 20% of the market.

Sales of eBooks in France account for a mere 3% of the market.

The Guardian reported yesterday that the French are largely ignoring the digital revolution in publishing, as the vast majority of French readers still prefer printed books.  And this is great news for French bookshops, who are also set to to benefit from a recent commitment by the Hollande government to rescind the VAT (value-added tax) increase on books introduced during Sarkozy's reign.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that the French state continues to fix the price of books.  Readers, therefore, pay the same price for books purchased on Amazon.fr as they do at their local bookshop.  Discounting is not allowed. (This price-fixing also applies to eBooks). So French independent bookshops are, if not thriving, at least able to compete in the marketplace.  Paris alone has a healthy 400 independent bookshops.  (London, the ancestral home of the bookselling world, has a scant 130).

France has a long and glorious history of fiercely clinging to its cultural traditions. As the sales of eBooks continue to rise around the world, it will be interesting to see how important printed books remain to French culture.

For now, however, the future of the printed book in France looks very bright indeed.

Vive le livre.

powellyoungsevere.jpgThe Cleveland Plain Dealer reported last week that the complete diaries of novelist, playwright, and short story writer, Dawn Powell, spanning the years 1915-1965, are for sale. Not with Christie's, Sotheby's, or another of the major auctions houses or antiquarian booksellers -- the 43 volumes are being privately auctioned by the owner, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and biographer Tim Page, as a single lot. The required opening bid is $500,000.

According to the FAQs on the auction's informational website, DawnPowellDiaries.com, Page states, "The advancement of social media now permits a seller to bypass the auction houses and reach an interested audience without incurring prohibitive commission fees. Moreover, I like the fact that I can control the sale of these documents and make sure that they find a proper and respectful home." Page has owned the diaries for almost twenty years. He told the Plain Dealer that he purchased "her entire papers for about the price of an automobile" from Powell's cousin and literary executor.

Cover-1931-Diary-P01-16-400x600.jpgPowell's 1931 diary, referred to as "The first of Powell's great diaries" because it is meatier than her previous appointment-book like diaries.

Powell was born in Ohio but relocated to New York's Greenwich Village, where she spent the rest of her life. She wrote hundreds of short stories and more than a dozen novels in the mid-twentieth century. A revival of her work occurred in the 1990s, when Page edited and published her diaries and letters wrote a biography about her.

Terms of the forthcoming sale include ensuring that a full copy of all manuscripts "is available to scholars and to the public, through a library or research center." The diaries are currently housed at the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where interested buyers can view them by appointment. The buyer will not own the copyright to the material; that will be retained by the Estate of Dawn Powell.

Cover-1947-Diary-P03-08-400x600.jpgPowell's 1947 diary records her visit to John Dos Passos and a hospital stay.

Interested bidders who can agree to Page's terms and initial bid level are asked to contact him directly through his website. A legal process will narrow bidders by July 1, and final bids will be accepted until July 15, 6:00 P.M., EST. One final caveat: "The highest bid will not necessarily claim the Diaries: the owner reserves the right to place them in what he considers the most appropriate hands."

Images courtesy of Tim Page.
Thanks to Jeremy Dibbell/Philobiblos for the tip. 
Catalogue Review: Between the Covers, #176

As I considered catalogues to review today, I was thinking about a comment I read on Twitter yesterday. I've been following tweets from the 53rd Annual Preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Sections of the Association of College and Research Libraries in San Diego, CA, this week. The three most prominent voices I've heard are Molly Schwartzburg @bibliomolly of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia; Ian Kahn @luxmentis of Lux Mentis Rare Books; and John Overholt @john_overholt of Harvard University Library. (The hashtag for the conference is: #rbms12)

Yesterday one of them remarked that booksellers' catalogues have to be more varied to attract buyers, and he cited the most recent Between the Covers catalogue as an example. I checked my desk for the most recent BTC and found #176. I wanted to see for myself what the tweeter was referring to, and I did. BTC routinely produces excellent catalogues, and what they offer is variety: books, art, ephemera, manuscripts. From an illustrated broadside, "One Day Marriage Certificate" of Richard Brautigan ($3,500; sold) to original dust jacket art for Carl Van Vechten's novel, Spider Boy ($12,500) to an uncorrected long galley of the first American edition of Sylvia Plath's Crossing the Water ($2,000) to the more traditional first editions of modern literature. There are also fabulously fun 'book' finds like Confessions of a Lesbian Prostitute from 1965 ($225) and a first edition, limited issue, of Katherine Dunn's Geek Love ($1,200).

Not only does this make for fun reading, but the bookseller reaches a wide audience of collectors, with a broad set of interests.

(Previously reviewed: BTC #169)


Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Doug Flamm of Ursus Books in New York City.  Doug's father, Eugene, a prominent book collector and president of the Grolier Club, was profiled recently in our magazine. In addition to selling books, Doug brews beer and recently won a brewing award in Brooklyn for his Oyster Stout.

Douglas Flamm photo3.jpgNP: Since your father is a major book collector, you must have grown up around rare books.  Did you develop a resulting interest in rare books early in life?

DF: It is true, I did grow up around books and have always been interested in them. My father's love of books did manage to somehow seep through to me because here I am dealing with books. While my father's collection is focused primarily on 16th Century medical books along with a strong concentration on bibliography, I have been quite interested in art and illustrated books. This focus on art books stems directly from my background in photography and my strong interest in art history.

NP: How did you come to work for Ursus and what is your role there?

DF: In the late 1990's, after having worked for an art gallery for years, I developed my own art book business. I handled a lot of conceptual artist books of the 1960s (a personal interest of mine) which included such artists as Sol LeWitt, John Baldessari and of course, Ed Ruscha. While the business was still quite young, the catastrophe of 9/11 occurred and business completely fell off. With a young baby girl at home I felt the need to have something a bit more stable and began to talk to Peter Kraus, the owner of Ursus Book, for advice. He offered me a position where I could continue to work with artist books/livres d'artistes of the 20th century through today. I also do all of the purchasing of the out-of-print art reference books for the shop. In addition I work with clients directly to help them find specific books or to help them develop their own collections - something I greatly enjoy.

NP: Favorite or most interesting book you've handled?

DF: Between my own shop and working for Ursus books I've had the amazing opportunity to handle a diverse group of many very exciting books. These include anything from Bruce Nauman's LAAIR and CLEARSKY to Matisse's Jazz.  And as I think about it, my mind begins thinking of Hans Bellmer's La Poupe, Ansel Adam's Taos and Ollafur Elliason's Your House. There are really so many great books out there.

NP: If you could live inside the pages of any rare book, which would it be?

DF: Such a difficult question - and I suppose it is an evolving list depending on my interests at that time. And while that may seem like a big cop out, I think it stems from always being surprised by the unexpected in unknown and/or new books.

NP: What do you love about the book trade?

DF: I very much like being able to see and handle a vast array of books and interact with collectors and customers - all of which make this field so exciting. It does feel like a very small world - where book dealers and collectors all seem to have connections - this is a very nice aspect of the business.

NP: What do you personally collect?

DF: While I still have many of the books from my original enterprise of Flamm Books, I no longer actively search or buy these books for myself. My collecting these days seems to be limited to helping my son develop his baseball card collection, and I suppose I would also have to say that my increasing interest in beer brewing has led to my buying books on beer and brewing as well as brewing equipment in a never ending fury.

NP: You recently won a brewing award. Tell us about that and your brewing hobby:

DF: Most of my free time in the last couple of years has been devoted to learning how to make beer. It has been exciting to learn the process, technique and science behind the brew - and then you get to drink your creation. What could be better? It has been an amazing undertaking. In April I was lucky enough to win the Judges Choice at the Brooklyn Wort homebrew competition. I brewed an Oyster Stout that my son named 'Moyster'. It was a somewhat chocolately stout with nice roasted flavors complemented by a dry mineral finish. The oysters in the beer help add to that quality - they do not make the beer taste "fishy" but really add an extra layer of complexity to the taste. Winning the contest was extremely rewarding. I put a lot of time and effort into this and it feels great to recieve such praise. If anything, it certainly fuels the fire!

NP: Do you want to open a micro-brewery/rare book shop someday? Because I'd be one of your regular customers.

DF: Although in theory the idea of brewpub and rare bookshop sounds fun, I don't think it's practical in the real world.  Spilled beer and rare books do not make a good combination!  

NP: Thoughts on the future of the trade?  

DF: The book trade is vastly different in this age of the internet - but there is still something very solid about a book in your hands.



Palatium_Paradisi_Libro.jpgPaul Johnson's vivid pop-up, Palatium Paradisi Libro.
Photo credit: Charles Byrne.

The San Francisco Center for the Book is hosting an ambitious summer exhibition, featuring the work of more than forty book artists from the collection of the organization's co-founder Mary Austin. The name of the exhibition is apt: Exploding the Codex "explores the theater of the book and storytelling through structure." Which is to say, many of these books aren't contained within the physical form we often associate with books--folios, quartos, octavos.

Horse_Soul_Book.jpgJudy Serebrin's Horse Soul Book. Photo credit: Charles Byrne.

Curated by Daisy Carlson, the exhibit allows viewers to appreciate the size, shape, and dimension of each book, and ask themselves how that form adds meaning to the information being presented. Each piece celebrates the drama of book art: the wild, the abstract, the secretive.

Silverberg-Black_Torah.jpgRobbin Silverberg's Black Torah brings us back to the pre-codex scroll.
Photo credit: Charles Byrne.

Exploding the Codex runs through August 31, at the Austin/Burch Gallery at the San Francisco Center for the Book, 300 De Haro Street, Suite 334, San Francisco, CA.

Images courtesy of the SFCB.  
We recently spoke with Tim Yancey, a master bookbinder, and one of the founders of the Lost Gutenbergs project. After discovering a lost cache of Cooper Square Bibles, (famous facsimiles of the Gutenberg Bible printed in 1961) Yancey and Michael Crisman of Bookbinders Workshop decided to bind the loose sheets into 15th century-style codices. These newly fashioned, beautifully constructed Gutenberg Bibles have since become the closest things to the originals that you can own. Yancey spoke with us about the project, recreating period bindings, and old German recipes for pigskin.

timBibles.jpgNP: How did you discover the lost Cooper Square Bibles?

TY: The Bibles belonged to the Estate of Henry Shelley, Founder of Landmark Books in New York.  Shelley had a business relationship with Cooper Square Publishers and acquired a significant number of the bibles.  He sold them in Landmark Books' catalog and from his Manhattan showroom.  However, after his death the remaining bibles were never bound.  

I learned of a single unbound copy being offered for sale and bought it from John Prizeman, Shelley's son-in-law.  My intention was to bind the text in a historically correct manner and thus have my own "Gutenberg Bible."  Upon completion of the sale, John mentioned that he might have more copies available if I was interested.  John was simply trying to help Shelley's widow settle the Estate but he was in New York and Shelley's warehouse was in Connecticut so the number is copies available was unknown.  We were later able to confirm the existence of over 160,000 pages of text.  They were in deteriorating boxes, wrapped in plastic and covered with decades of dust.  128 complete copies were salvaged form the cache.

lg011.jpgNP: After you unearthed the lost Bibles, were you hoping from the start to recreate a period binding for them? Or did you consider other alternatives?

TY: The Cooper Square (Pageant Books) Facsimile was the first facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible ever attempted outside of Germany.   Nearly 60 years earlier Insel-Velag, a German publisher had successfully printed 300 copies - of which virtually none were available.  Cooper Square begin a five-year process to recreated the famed 42-line bible and make it available to the world again.  Their intent was to create an American tribute celebrating the 500th anniversary of the printing of the Gutenberg Bible.  Only the best of American craftsmen and technology would be employed to complete the project.

I really consider the Cooper Square printing to be a national treasure.  From the first day I discovered the bibles, the only real option was to treat them as such and create the very best historically correct binding possible.  It is a mission that will likely take 10 years to complete.

lg007.jpg

NP: What's the most challenging aspect of recreating a 15th century binding?


TY: The research and development of all the components - each one individually crafted.  There is nothing about the Lost Gutenbergs that could simply be purchased.  Everything had to be designed and made to our specifications.  Even the heavy cord was made from individual strands of thread in order to obtain the proper diameter, strength and flexibility needed to bind the massive tomes.  Each volume (of the two-volume set) consists of 600 pages and weighs about 25 pounds.

pigskinbinding.jpg
NP: Tell us about the 200 year old recipe for the pigskin binding and how you found it.

TY: It was Michael Chrisman's idea to explore the idea of using alum-tawed pigskin as the covering material.  We knew that A/T pigskin was certainly an appropriate material for the time period and geographic region of Gutenberg - however the material had not been produced in any significant quantity for decades.  In 2007, Michael contacted Thomas Schmidt of Frans Hoffman Leathers, Stuttgart, Germany and inquired about the possibility of reproducing the skins.  With the aid of the Leather Institute of Bavaria, a 200 year-old recipe was found.  As soon as possible we attempted some test runs but were not satisfied.  Over time, Frans Hoffman continued to adjust the process until the desired results were achieved.  The finished product sparked a marvelous rebirth of A/T pigskin and it is now available for book restoration and conservation around the world.  Allowing for waste, The Lost Gutenbergs will require over 2000 square feet of A/T pigskin to complete the 256 volumes.

NP: How many hours does it take to complete a single binding?

TY: It's a great question but one that is very difficult to answer.  Countless hours have gone into making the wooden boards, cord, brass bosses, clasps, and sewing before any assembly begins.  The best answer I can give is that we estimate the research, development, testing, manufacturing of components and binding process will take about 10 years to complete.  In short, hundreds of hours are required to complete each two-volume set.

NP: What's been your favorite part about working on this project?

TY: When we started our research I gained permission from an institutional library here in the US to examine a genuine Gutenberg Bible. (I was also asked not to disclose the location on our website or publications for fear of being inundated with additional requests from others.)  Having personal access to perhaps the world's most valuable and influential book was an experience that I will never forget.  It was truly awe-inspiring.  From that moment - I knew the Gutenberg Bible was like no other book in history and the methods we would use to bind the text would have to be worthy of its significance.

Genesis_BerlinCooper.jpgNP: Do you have a favorite leaf from the Gutenberg Bible?

TY: Genesis - The title page of Genesis is illuminated with a 15-inch-tall capital "I" in deep blue and gold.  Within the illumination are six miniatures depicting the six days of creation.  In the background, the image of GOD can be seen overlooking the work of His hand.  It is one of the most famous and beautifully illuminated pages in the world.

lg237_lrg.jpgNP: How do you order a copy of the Bible?

TY: Through our website.

Once you enter the site there is a tab that will direct you through the process of reserving your own copy and acquiring pricing and shipping information.   

Or use this direct link.





- Bonhams London sold Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs on 3 June, the top lot being Francis Frith's Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem (1858), a collection of twenty albumen photographs. It sold for £337,250. A collection of Howard Carter's papers fetched £109,250.

- On 7 June at PBA Galleries, Rare Americana, Travel & Exploration with Manuscript Material, Maps & Ephemera (results here).

- Swann Galleries sold Maps, Atlases, Natural History and Ephemera on 7 June. The top lot proved to be a copy of the first printed sea chart of New England/New Netherland, printed at Florence in 1647, which sold for $31,200.

- Bloomsbury had a Bibliophile Sale on 8 June; full results here.

- Christie's London sold Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts on 13 June, for a total of £3,175,987. Top lot was a Bach manuscript, which sold for £337,250. A ~1504 antiphonal created for Elisabeth von Gemmingen made £289,250, and a Richard III letter fetched £109,250. A second edition Copernicus sold for £85,250. Lots of other interesting lots in this sale, too.

- Results for Bloomsbury's 14 June sale of Books, Manuscripts and Photographs are here.

- The 15 June Sotheby's sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana, made a total of $2,671,067. The top lot was an original Apple I computer, which sold for $374,500. A lovely copy of Antonio Fracanzano de Montalboddo's Itinerarium Portugallensium e Lusitania in Indiam et inde in occidentem et demum ad aquilonem (Milan, 1508) fetched $212,500. The original subscription book for the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts made $37,500.

- Bonhams New York will sell Fine Books and Manuscripts including Russian Literature on 19 June, in 450 lots. Some of the material is from the stock of Serendipity Books, including the Russian library of London bookseller Alec Flegon (est. $15,000-25,000). A very nice copy of the first de Bry edition in German of Le Moyne's Florida could sell for $25,000-35,000. The important Revolutionary War diary of Timothy Newell rates a $50,000-80,000 estimate. But it is a manuscript draft of Lincoln's amnesty policy which rates the top estimate, at $200,000-300,000.

- Christie's London will sell Fine Books and Manuscripts, in 459 lots.

- Also at Bonhams New York on 20 June, The Gentleman's Library, in 534 lots. Mostly non-book things, but the catalog makes for a fun browse.

- PBA Galleries sells Rare Books & Manuscripts, Fine Press and Illustrated Books on 21 June, in 354 lots. A 15th-century manuscript of Fasciculus temporum (the only known manuscript of this work in private hands) rates the top estimate, at $100,000-150,000. A first edition in English of Homer's works is estimated at $30,000-50,000.

- Swann Galleries will sell 19th & 20th Century Literature on 21 June, in 323 lots.

- On 22 June, Christie's New York sells Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, in 295 lots. A copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle in German with contemporary coloring is estimated at $250,000-350,000. What the auction house is calling the largest Jefferson manuscript ever offered at auction, a small collection of documents relating to his suit against the Rivanna Company, could fetch $250,000-400,000. Also on 22 June, in a single-item sale, a copy of the first collection of the Acts of Congress, bound for Washington and with marginalia in his hand. It is estimated at $2-3 million.

- On 26 June, Bonhams Oxford sells Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs, in 784 lots, and at San Francisco the Serendipity Shelf Sale, in 631 lots.