For those of you who have read through the FB&C spring issue, you'll have noticed a wonderful article by Suzanne Karr Schmidt, the Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. She wrote about her experience curating the current exhibit, Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints in Daily Life. A 112-page exhibition catalogue with 98 illustrations (shown here at left) is now available.

For non-subscribers (shame on you!), here's a snippet from our spring article:

This exhibition--containing over one hundred printed objects and objects with printed components--focuses on how early print owners physically manipulated these ephemeral artworks. As such, it is an unusual theme for a museum show. Books are notoriously difficult to exhibit in this type of setting, and yet they are intrinsically important to the topic at hand. Altered and Adorned therefore includes eleven bound volumes and albums, while at least six of the single-sheet prints were once book illustrations, four others were intended (and in two cases, used) as bookplates, and two remain attached as frontispieces for the books that originally housed them.

As any aficionado of old books might infer, many types of evidence of hands-on treatment endure, for owners routinely annotated prints. They also cut and pasted them everywhere--onto books, boxes, furniture, and walls, and sometimes they went even further and transformed them into three-dimensional objects. ...

Rulon-Miller Books' latest catalogue bears the dedication "to young booksellers everywhere" and the following on the front cover:

LO AND BEHOLD, LO AND...Oh never mind. You are looking at yet another catalogue, extensively illustrated with words [...] being number 142 in the sequence. The books herein are priced under $500, and have been recently checked against others on line (where there were others on line) and the prices reduced, often comically. Yet, the books remain as good (or even fine) as they ever were, and the knowledge and learning they impart seem, in this turbulent era, even more alive and true than they might have seemed last century.

This is not a catalogue review (though there are many excellent items, over 1000 [!]; the catalogue -- and the cover -- can be viewed here). Rather, the mixture of market realism and bibliographic optimism expressed in the above paragraph simply struck me as particularly emblematic of this particular moment in bookselling. For both the "young bookseller" and the collector, the balance Rulon-Miller describes suggests (at least to me) the proper path forward: with an understanding of how the internet (and e-readers, and...) are influencing the trade, but also with a vision of and appreciation for the book's continued vitality.

Nigel Beale is a writer and broadcaster who specializes in literary journalism. He hosts a radio program called The Biblio File, in which he interviews authors, publishers, booksellers, editors, and others in the book trade. This week Beale launched Literary Tourist, a web-based community where book lovers can plan trips to bookshops, festivals, libraries, etc., and also exchange their experiences with other biblio-travelers. This sounded amazing to me, and I wanted to learn more, so I asked Beale a few questions about his new project. Here is our Q&A.

RRB: Literary Tourist is such a fabulous idea but also quite a large undertaking. How and when did you decide to pursue it?

NB: I'll start with the HOW: The idea took hold about a year and a half ago, when I first learned that the Book Hunter Press (BHP) was for sale. Since 1993 owners Susan and David Siegel had been producing their Book Lovers Regional Guides which listed all of the used/antiquarian bookstores in North America.

This, I thought, might fit very nicely with what I was doing at the time, namely pursuing an interest in books, collecting, hosting a radio program, and traveling around visiting and photographing bookstores - sort of a mid-life folly I called it.  I'd been working, quite successfully, in the media/public relations business for  more than 15 years, and had decided that it was time to follow my passion full-time, for as long as the money held out that is!

I soon came to realize that this wasn't a folly, it was something very important to me.  I loved doing it, and the idea of making money at something you love is very appealing; wedding passion with business. And besides, BHP sort of retroactively explained to me why I was fanatically taking all of these photos! So I went down to visit the Siegels one day in December 2009, and we came to an agreement.

As for the WHY... Partly the same answer: the appeal of getting paid to do what you love, but, on a more fundamental level, I was concerned about the alarming number of used bookstore closures, and saw BHP as an opportunity to help slow the trend.

RRB: Is the ABAA or ILAB involved? Have any booksellers offered feedback?

NB: Funny you should mention ABAA. Susan Benne, its executive director,  was the person who initially put me in touch with Brendan Sherar at Biblio.com. He was the one who told me that BHP was for sale. Biblio, incidentally, is partnering with Literary Tourist to help bookstores promote themselves.

While there is nothing formal in place with ABAA yet, they are supportive, and we are currently talking about ways we might jointly work to increase open bookstore traffic. As for ILAB, I haven't formally approached them, however, they have been keen on the radio work I've been doing, promoting my Biblio File interviews. I'm hopeful, once we move into other parts of the world (we're currently covering North America with plans to open the U.K. later on this year), that we'll do something together.

As for feedback, we've had positive response from everyone we've spoken to so far; not surprising I suppose, given the fact that our goal is to generate more business for used bookstores. The test will come in the next few weeks when we launch the site; we'll be emailing thousands of booksellers inviting them to claim and update their listings.

RRB: As I've read on your 'About Us' page, you began updating the BHP database in 2009. Had it been nine years since the previous update? What did you notice in that process?

NB: BHP put its data online in 2000. In fact, they were updating their databases right up until I took over in 2010. Still, it is a challenge to keep up with all the closings and start-ups. This is why we are inviting all used booksellers to visit www.literarytourist.com to claim, add, update and maintain their listings.

What I've noticed in the process is that although there have been quite a few closures, the information we have on existing stores is surprisingly accurate.

RRB: The site offers collectors a place to plan a trip to book shops, landmarks, festivals, libraries, and other places of bibliophilic interest. Members will have the opportunity to 'review' these things, such as we see on typical travel websites, is that right? That's an interesting aspect to this.

NB: Yes, we've provided space on the site not just for members, but for all visitors to review bookstores and other destinations. This, in addition to our own in-house reviews and comments, is I think a strength of the site: accurate, useful assessments that will help book lovers to spend their time most profitably.

As things progress, we want to create a community of traveling book lovers where participants can exchange thoughts about their experiences. The idea is that this input, along with an 'events and sales' feature, will make literary trips that much more fruitful.

RRB: I'm interested to read that a new set of printed regional Book Lover's Guides will also be published. What are your plans there?

NB: Although the Internet, ebooks, iphones, and similar innovations, provide all sorts of convenience and benefits, I like the idea of providing book lovers with something tangible and tactile; to use or abuse as they see fit as they travel along literary highways and bi-ways. So, two things: one, we will be introducing downloadable pdf State Reports for $.99 (members), $4.99 (non-members) which will include state maps and listings of all in-state destinations; and, as you say, we'll be re-introducing the seven printed regional guides which, in addition to all the bookstores, will also now include all kinds of other literary destinations, events and activities. These will be printed on demand.

I should mention too, before closing, that we plan to offer a discount program where participating dealers will offer a percentage off their books to customers who present one of our Guides or State Reports. Again, the idea behind this is to get more people into the physical bookstore in hopes that this will help keep more of them open.

Our thanks to Nigel Beale. Best of luck with the new endeavor!

The final round of the sale of the James S. Copley Library will be held at Sotheby's New York on 20 May, in 252 lots.

A major highlight will be John Lansing's notebooks from the Constitutional Convention, covering 25 May through 10 July, 1787. These are estimated at $600,000-900,000. See the full description here [PDF].

An impressive archive of Dwight Eisenhower letters to his wife Mamie, totaling 240 pages, is estimated at $400,000-600,000. A complete copy of the first book edition of The Federalist(New York: 1788) in contemporary boards, could fetch $200,000-300,000. Several other significant archives will be offered: a collection of materials related to John Charles Frémont is estimated at $100,000-150,000, while documents about the 1865 Hampton Roads peace conference could bring $80,000-120,000. Letters and documents about the assassination of President Garfield and the trial of Charles Guiteau are estimated at $50,000-80,000.

Three major single letters for sale include a 21 July 1788 George Washington letter to Nathaniel Gorham celebrating the ratification of the Constitution (est. $80,000-120,000); a letter from Abraham Lincoln to the House of Representatives from May 1864 (being a transcription in his hand of a letter sent to Montgomery Blair on 2 November 1863), estimated at $70,000-100,000; and an August 1808 letter from Thomas Jefferson to NH governor John Langdon (est. $60,000-90,000).

Having just returned from a long weekend in Cambridge and Boston, I realize I should have planned better when I booked months ago and scheduled my visit to coincide with the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Antiquarian Booksellers Association's annual book and paper exposition which happens NEXT weekend on Saturday, May 7, in Wilmington, MA (just outside Boston). Here is sampling of some of items you can see (and buy) next weekend.

In addition to the seventy-plus dealers, there will be several talks, demonstrations, and exhibits to enjoy. John B. Hench, a retired curator from the American Antiquarian Society will be there to present a talk and sign copies of his Books as Weapons: Propaganda, Publishing, and the Battle for Global Markets. Boston book artist Laura Davidson (whose 'tunnel books' we admired recently in NY) will be there with her artistic decks of cards, pop-ups, and accordion books. With talks on counterfeiting, postage stamp design, the origin of paper, historic photography, and bookbinding, it seems you could easily spend an entire busy day at the fair.

Dealer Greg French will  present Women of the Civil War, a collection of photographs of female participants in the war. The one seen below is of  Frances Clayton, a woman who fought in the Union and served in the cavalry and artillery units as a man named Jack Williams. She and Elmer L. Clayton, her husband, enlisted together in a Missouri regiment the fall of 1861.

Show hours are: Saturday May 7, 10-5pm, and admission is $7 for adults. The Shriner's auditorium is located at 99 Fordham Road in Wilmington, MA. More information can be found at www.bookandpaperexpo.com. Enjoy!