Coming up this Friday, Dec. 2, at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia is a symposium on decorated commercial bindings (such as the beauty seen here designed by Margaret Armstrong for Scribner's in 1912). Our own Richard Minsky is one of three speakers at the symposium, along with Barbara Hebard of the North Bennet Street School of Bookbinding and Susan J. Isaacs of the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts.
Isaacs will also judge the accompanying exhibit of work by book artists who were invited "to explore and respond to book covers from the legacy collections of the Athenaeum" through "one-of-a-kind, artist books, book objects, altered books or zines." The exhibit will remain up through March 9, 2012.

Earlier this year, I wrote about collecting Obama's summer reading list. Well, he's at it again. The President visited Kramerbooks, an independent bookshop in Washington DC this past Saturday, along with his daughters Sasha and Malia. The Obama family was shopping in support of the second annual "Small Business Saturday", a move by the retail industry to help small businesses in the aftermath of big-retailer-dominated Black Friday.

And thus, here it is, Obama and family's winter reading list, with comments on the collectability of the titles:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, a children's novel about George Melies and his collection of mechanical figures called automata. It serves as the inspiration for the new Martin Scorsese film, Hugo, currently in theaters. Signed copies of the first edition with dust jacket start at $70.

Tradition has it that eighty-six years ago today, on 28 November 1925, 78-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson went into the 5th-floor radio studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in Nashville, TN, to help launch a new radio program, the WSM Barn Dance. (The station's call letters, WSM, were an acronym of the insurance company's logo, "We Shield Millions.")

Other acts followed in short order: George D. Wilkerson & His Fruit Jar Drinkers ... Dr. Humphrey Bate & His Possum Hunters ... the Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers. But it was not until a couple of years had passed that this radio show got the name by which it is known today.

On 27 December 1927, the WSM Barn Dance followed a radio program devoted to classical music. To contrast this program with what was to follow, WSM program director and announcer George D. "Judge" Hay told his listeners that [f]or the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on, we will present the 'Grand Ole Opry.'

Thus was born one of America's most iconic cultural institutions.

Every year FB&C publishes a holiday gift guide in its fall issue brimming with interesting book-related art, decor, and jewelry. There is always at least one book on the list, and this year, there were five! But that doesn't cover the great selection of bookish gift books out there this season (which means there are either more being published, or we're just paying closer attention). So here are eight more to entice you on, Cyber Monday and beyond.

Jack Kerouac collectors have a new volume to add to their shelves.  Kerouac's first novel, The Sea is my Brother, was published by Penguin last week, 70 years after it was written.  Kerouac wrote the novel after his (very) brief tenure with the Merchant Marines in 1942. He was twenty years old.

Kerouac would later refer to the novel as a "crock of sh*t as literature." He apparently never tried shopping the manuscript to publishers.

The Sea is my Brother was discovered by Kerouac's brother in law in the Kerouac archive and published by Penguin "to offer a unique insight into the young Kerouac and the formation of his genius." What little narrative exists in the novel centers around two young men in the Merchant Marines en route from Boston to Greenland. They spend much of the novel philosophizing and drinking.

Reviews of The Sea is my Brother have ranged from bemused acceptance to harsh dismissal. From the Guardian, "Sadly it would take another 15 years and colossal amounts of Benzedrine for the genius to emerge; there's certainly none here. The writing should be entered in a bad prose competition."

Nevertheless, Kerouac collectors and enthusiasts will undoubtedly want to pick up a copy for their collections. The book is available right now in the UK. It will be published on March 6, 2012 in the States.

Harry Potter fans will have t duke it out with medieval manuscript collectors for two educational manuals coming up for auction tomorrow at Christie's in London. The fourteenth century manuscripts are the only known survivors of the library at Lacock Abbey, aka Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. Classroom scenes from several entries in the movie franchise were filmed in Lacock Abbey's side-rooms and cloisters. In a pleasing coincidence, the manuscripts are educational in their subject matter, seeking to enlighten aristocratic children of the 14th century in the finer points of French.

Lacock Abbey, founded as a nunnery in 1229, flourished through the later Middle Ages. After the Dissolution, Henry VIII sold Lacock to Sir William Sharington, who converted it into a private residence. The Abbey passed down through Sharington lines until purchased by the Talbot family in the 18th century. William Henry Fox Talbot, founder of modern photography, conducted his experiments at Lacock. Talbot produced the earliest known photographic negative, which shows a window in the Abbey's south wall. The Abbey, and its surrounding village, were given to the National Trust in 1944.

There are times when booksellers' catalogues are more like limited editions, and such is the case with Glenn Horowitz's new catalogue, Virginia Woolf: The Flight of Time. And with good reason--this beautiful new catalogue chronicles the superb collection of William B. Beekman that is being offered en bloc for $4.5 million. An exhibition of the collection goes up tomorrow at the Forbes Galleries in New York City and will remain there open to the public until January 14.

The breadth of the collection is certain to appeal to Woolf enthusiasts. Beekman built this collection over forty years, and the highlights include an early, apparently unpublished photograph of thirteen-year-old Virginia, many of her letters, two unpublished poems by Vita Sackville-West written for Woolf ("Your darkened windowns numb my darkened heart" is intriguing...), plus inscribed editions of the books she wrote and published and books from her own library. Vanessa Bell's preliminary sketch for the 1930 limited edition of Woolf's On Being Ill, is particularly interesting to see, as is the dedication copy of The Village in the Jungle, from Leonard to Virginia.

The 134-page catalogue was printed in a limited trade edition of 500, featuring photography by David Levinthal. Twenty-five deluxe editions are specially slipcased with a signed print by David Levinthal. Levinthal's prints are delightful historical tableaux. For example, a setting of doll furniture with the Complete Catalogue of the Hogarth Press or Woolf's passport photograph against a black background with a old-fashioned camera in the distance.

Catalogue Review: Cohen & Taliaferro, #2

For this week's review, a look at a catalogue of antique maps and atlases. Cohen & Taliaferro is a New York City-based dealer under Richard B. Arkway, Inc. This catalogue shows a fine selection of beautiful and interesting cartography, from Munster and Mercator, Blaeu to Benzoni.
 
Since I am far from an expert on maps, I was glad to see something familiar. Last year, our Fine Maps columnist Jeffrey Murray wrote about The Atlantic Neptune, a monumental marine atlas created by J. F. W. Des Barres, a forward-thinking surveyor. Featured in this catalogue is "A View of Boston Taken on the Road to Dorchester" [From the Atlantic Neptune] ($22,500), as well as another Des Barres creation, an untitled map of Long Island Sound from 1781 ($8,500).

Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Matthew and Adrienne Raptis of Raptis Rare Books in Brattleboro, Vermont. They recently released their first catalogue, which we reviewed last week on the blog.

NP: How did you both get started in rare books?

AR: Matthew started collecting books when he was a young child. He was very interested in history, particularly the American Civil War, and started with a small collection of antiquarian books. His collection grew over the years to encompass many other fields, from literature to photography. The business in rare books was a natural development from his passions.

I came into the business by virtue of being married to Matthew, so it was less of a direct journey. My degrees are in the sciences, but I have always loved books and read voraciously. A funny thing is that I used to pretend when I was a child that I was a bookseller. We actually came across a photo this past year after we returned from the San Francisco book fair that shows me with my books fanned out in a very similar way to how our books our displayed when we are at a fair. It must have been destiny because I love this business and being surrounded by such amazing pieces of history.