FB&C readers will be pleased to learn that the new edition of Baldwin's diary is now available (it was excerpted in our spring issue). Titled A Place in My Chronicle: A New Edition of the Diary of Christopher Columbus Baldwin, 1829-1835, it is a diary of the American Antiquarian Society's first librarian. This edition includes more than 160 illustrations. In a blog post last week announcing the publication, co-editor Caroline Sloat wrote, "Baldwin took up his appointment as AAS librarian on April 1, 1832, and thereafter followed his passions for books, history, and collecting. He admired scholars such as the young Jared Sparks who was embarking on an edition of George Washington's papers. He happily labored in 90 degree temperatures in a smelly Boston oil warehouse to pack pamphlets and a missing volume of Cotton Mather's diary that would fill a wagon, only to be deflated when he returned to Worcester by the dismissive reaction of the Council to his treasure. (They later changed their minds.)"

This book is the first publication in honor of AAS's 2012 bicentennial. It can be purchased online at AAS or through Oak Knoll Books.  

Yesterday a birthday gift arrived, nearly two months late but well worth the wait. Two very thoughtful people (my in-laws) have given me the Oxford Companion to the Book, the two-volume reference published earlier this year by Oxford University Press (and reviewed in our spring issue by Jeremy Dibbell). Why the delay? My guess is Oxford underestimated the bibliophile market. My set was ordered in mid-April from a major online retailer that stipulated the book would ship within days, but the ship date kept changing and, eventually, the book was listed as unavailable. The publisher's website also categorized it as temporarily unavailable in early May. Around this time, a subscriber wrote in to FB&C to inquire about the Oxford Companion, asking why some online booksellers were now charging nearly double the original retail cost (he had seen our review and wondered about the disconnect between the price as printed and the current prices online). I did a bit of research for him, and it seemed likely that Oxford had sold its initial printing and was now scrambling to supply the demand; some booksellers saw an opportunity. The subscriber ended up ordering the book abroad for less than it could be found state-side. As for me, my in-laws were tired of waiting for the online retailer to fulfill the order it had promised to ship more than a month before, and they placed a second order directly with the publisher. Another month passed, and the publisher finally delivered. All's well that ends well? I'm thrilled to have a copy of this amazing book in my library, but surely there's a lesson (or two) here about publishing and bookselling. 

A fun Friday read about historian James Goode's bookplate collection, now on exhibit at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library and the Rare Book School in Alderman Library through July 29.

From the article in the University of Virginia Magazine:

Goode's exhibit, titled "Three Centuries of American Bookplates," opens a window on a pastime--and for some a passion--that dates to the immediate aftermath of the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. One of the prizes in Goode's collection is a circa 1500 bookplate by German artist Albrecht Durer. "He was one of the first professional designers to make bookplates, and he made about a dozen," Goode says.

There's also a neat 4-minute video clip of Goode describing his collection. Enjoy!

Today in New York more of James S. Copley's library went under the hammer at Sotheby's. The "big news," is that the July 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence came in under estimate at $572,500, and Mark Twain's unpublished "Family Sketch" (pictured here) came in way over at $242,500 (both numbers include buyer's premium).

Other highlights include a pen-and-ink portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald by Robert Kastor, with a signed quotation by Fitzgerald, which went for $98,500, even though its estimate was only $25-$35,000. A Charlotte Bronte letter sold for $68,500, and a group of manuscript letters and scraps from newspaperman William Randolph Hearst climbed over estimate to $40,625.

My personal favorite (of course) is a fragment of Thoreau's Autumnal Tints manuscript. Yes, just a fragment for $3,750.

Fine Books & Collections editor Rebecca Rego Barry noted last February that Mount Vernon announced a Donald W. Reynolds Foundation grant of $38 million to fund construction of a 45,000-square-foot library. What's also exciting about the new facility is that you don't have to carry $38 million in your wallet to be a part of George Washington's new library.

Don't miss Ralph Gardner Jr.'s fun little read in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about sleuthing for first editions at a country library book sale. An enticing excerpt:

I inherited the collecting, or at least acquisitory, gene from my father, who passed away in 2005. His collection included a first edition of "Huckleberry Finn," as well as the even rarer Huck Finn salesman's prospectus. We'd gone to auctions at Sotheby's during the '60s--it was then called Sotheby Parke-Bernet and was situated on Madison Avenue in the 70s--and I'd bid on Hemingway and Steinbeck first editions that I'd get for a few dollars. However, my greatest discovery was a first edition of "The Great Gatsby" that I found for $10 in the back of an old bookstore on a visit to Princeton when I was applying to college. It's worth about $5,000 today. If it had the almost impossible to find dust jacket, it could be worth more than $100,000.

It was reported in yesterday's Scotsman newspaper that Scotland has take steps toward repatriation of a 700-year-old 'medieval passport' believed to have been owned by Scottish hero William Wallace. The document has been in English hands since they hanged Wallace in 1305. It is currently held in the National Archives in Surrey, and many Scots are asking for its return to its homeland. From the article:

The medieval "passport" is said to have been found in a pouch on his belt prior to his execution. George MacKenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland, said: "It is remarkable how a 700-year-old document still stirs such emotion today."

According to the National Archives of Scotland, "An academic research group of distinguished historians and archivists from Scotland, England and France will study the document's provenance, to find out where and why it was created...The group will conclude its work with a seminar on the document at the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh in the spring of 2011 and present a report to Scottish and UK ministers. Based on this report, there will be an agreement on the future custody of the document...An exhibition on the document is planned in Edinburgh during 2012, to tie in with the culture and creativity focus of the Homecoming legacy. It will feature the latest virtualisation technologies allowing visitors to experience the document."

Back in January, I blogged about the lure of the antique typewriter. Last month, Nick Basbanes reported that New York's Writers Room had banned typewriters. Typewriters still fascinate us, and here's one that will thrill those that straddle the traditional/techie divide: a USB typewriter. An old-fashioned typewriter keyboard that can be plugged into a standard USB so you can view on screen and save the file. You get the comforting click-clack-click-clack and the assurance that you can modify and save your work as needed. You can buy one of these outright, or send your own in for customization. Neat!

One of the great stories in the annals of American juvenile publishing was the creation a century ago by Edward Stratemayer, founder of the Stratemayer Syndicate, a book-packaging firm, of Tom Swift, the boy inventor who appeared in 105 books written by various authors in five separate series over the years, and whose sales totaled in the many millions. His adventures coveted by collectors--none more desirable than the gee-whiz kid's first appearance, "Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle," 1910, at right--the iconic character has his own fan club, which will be mounting a centennial convention next month in San Diego that promises to be quite the bash.

Organizer of the event is James D. Keeline, for many years a bookseller with Prince and the Pauper Collectible Children's Books in San Diego, and now, with his wife Kim, crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's for what is being billed as the 100th Anniversary Tom Swift Convention (TS100), an ambitious get-together of kindred spirits scheduled for Friday, July 16, through Sunday, July 18, at the Sheraton Mission Valley Hotel in San Diego.

Activities include several tours that should be of particular interest to Tom Swift fans, the San Diego Automotive Museum and the San Diego Air & Space Museum. In conjunction with the convention, there will be what sounds like a terrific exhibition of books and artifacts at the Geisel Library at the University of California San Diego; programs at the fair include presentations on such topics as "How Tom Swift Invented Everything," "Tom Swift on the Silver Screen," "Tom Swift Science Vs. Real World Science," and "Artists of Tom Swift." There will be  round-table discussions for collectors, plus lots more--Tom Swift themed doo-dads and many books for sale, and great things on display--including a wood model of the Aeroship designed for an unproduced Tom Swift film that Twentieth Century Fox had worked on in the mid-'60s.

All in all, sounds like a great take-in. The convention's motto says it all: "100 Years of Making Science and Invention Cool."