A book of poetry written by Taliban fighters is about to released in Britain.  Entitled Poetry of the Taliban, the book is co-edited by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn and will be published by Hurst on May 17.  A U. S. edition from Colombia University Press will follow on September 25.

The book's pending publication has ignited some controversy in Britain -- controversy likely to be re-ignited with fervor when the book reaches U. S. shores later this year.  (Published, no less, by a university press in New York City).  The former commander for the British armed forces in Helmand was quoted on Friday in the Guardian, "What we need to remember is that these are fascist, murdering thugs who suppress women and kill people without mercy if they do not agree with them, and of course are killing our soldiers."  The commander continued, "It doesn't do anything but give the oxygen of publicity to an extremist group which is the enemy of this country."

Poetry of the Taliban features over 200 poems by Taliban fighters, mostly drawn from Pashtun backgrounds, a culture noted for its deep and vibrant poetic traditions.  While war and nationalism are the dominant themes, love and self-doubt are also present.

The website for the book strikes an odd balance between blatant promotion and elegant justification.  A gratuitous count-down clock, ticking away the days until the book's publication, meets the reader on the first page, but the carefully worded "About the Book" page provides a more nuanced backdrop:

"The contrast between the severity of their professed ideology and the license of the Taliban's aesthetic sensibilities - in which unrequited love, bloody vengeance and the thrill of battle, religion and nationalism, even a desire for non-violence, are expressed through images of wine, powerful women, song, legend and pastoral beauty - provide a fascinating insight into the minds and hearts of these deeply emotional people."

Regardless of opinion on its publication, Poetry of the Taliban will likely fill an empty space in a variety of personal and public collections around the U. S. when it arrives here this fall.

Just in case we biblio-folk needed some perspective: last week's sale of "The Scream" for $119.9 million was more than the totals realized over all the book auctions in 2011 for both Christie's and Sotheby's combined.

Before we get to May, some April sale notes:

- Doyle New York sold Rare Books, Autographs, and Maps on 23 April. The surprise top seller was a group of manuscript leaves, which fetched $86,500 over estimates of $2,000-3,000. was The first octavo edition of Audubon's Birds of America sold for $56,250.

- At Christie's Travel, Science and Natural History on 25 April, the total realized was £1,031,500. The 1794 W. & S. Jones orrery fetched £32,450, while the ~1705/15 German pocket globe sold for £18,750. The top lot was an Augustin Brunias oil painting, which made £87,650.

- The top lot at PBA Galleries' 26 April sale of Fine Americana, Travel & Exploration, and Cartography was a copy of the very rare American Bond Detector (1869), which sold for $5,700.

- Results for Bloomsbury's 27 April Bibliophile Sale are here.

And now, May:

- At Bloomsbury on 3 May, the Angling Collection of George Miskin sold, in 704 lots. The top lot was a copy of Frederic M. Halford's Floating Flies and How to Dress Them (1886), which fetched £6,000.

- At Sotheby's on 9 May, Travel, Atlases, Maps, & Natural History, in 212 lots. Top estimate goes to Linnaeus Tripe's Views of Burma, 120 albumen prints (£150,000-200,000).

- On 10 May, PBA Galleries will sell the Library of Michael Killigrew desTombe, in 233 lots. The top-estimated lot is John Dee's Monas hieroglyphica (1564), estimated at $50,000-80,000.

- Christie's Paris on 11 May has Importants Livres Anciens, Livres d'artiste et Manuscrits, in 227 lots. The top estimate goes to a ~1490 Tuscan Mahzor (est. 400,000-600,000 EUR).

- Bloomsbury sells Important Books and Manuscripts on 15 May, in 372 lots.

- At Swann on 15 May, Early Printed, Scientific, Medical, and Travel Books, in 400 lots. Lots include a Hebrew Bible signed by Increase Mather.

- Also on 15 May, Livres et Manuscrits at Sotheby's Paris, in 184 lots. A group of Guillaume Apollinaire letters rates the top estimate, at 150,000-250,000 EUR.

- At Christie's New York on 18 May, Important Printed Books and Americana from the Albert H. Small Collection, in 151 lots. Highlights include copies of the Second, Third, and Fourth Folios, a first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds with great provenance, a first octavo of Audubon's Birds in the original wrappers, and a Kelmscott Chaucer, among other fantastic lots.

- Another angling library: Bonhams sells the Angling Library of Alan Jarvis on 22 May, in 489 lots.

- A neat one at Bonhams on 23 May: the Stuart B. Schimmel Forgery Collection, in 253 lots. They're all here: Chatterton, Ireland, Ossian, Forman, Wise ... I wish this one was in New York and not London, but I suppose it's probably a good thing I can't go! I'll have a more detailed rundown of this one as we get closer to the date.

- No previews yet for the following: PBA Galleries Fine Literature & Books in All Fields on 24 May; Music and Continental Books & Manuscripts at Sotheby's on 29 May.

Catalogue Review: Jeff Weber Rare Books, No. 168

California bookseller Jeff Weber is known to many as an expert on fore-edge painting, but his 12,000-book stock also covers bibliography, California, medicine, natural history, science & technology. His latest catalogue contains the library of Dr. Harry Friedman, a neurosurgeon and collector of military history. The offerings are extensive -- 281 items, ranging from $10 reprints to a 1555 second edition of De Humani Corporis for $95,000.

I like medical books as an area of collecting. Pick a malady, any area of medicine, or a particular doctor, and a collection can be created that spans centuries, languages, and formats. For Dr. Friedman, head injuries are of particular interest. For example, Dr. Harlow's Case of Recovery from the Passage of an Iron Bar Through the Head...from 1850 ($750).

Bridging both his interest in neurology and the military, he also has several Army/Navy manuals pertaining to his subjects of interest, such as Manual of Neuro-Surgery from the U.S. Army, 1919 ($75). The rare first edition of the first American book on naval medicine is offered here: Edward Cutbush's Observations on the Means of Preserving the Health of Soldiers and Sailors...from 1808 ($4,000).

The works of Dominique Jean Larrey and Harvey Cushing are well represented in the collection, and, as for a surprise, how about Frederick Law Olmstead (designer of Central Park) compiling a book titled Hospital Transports: A Memoir of the Embarkation of the Sick and Wounded from the Peninsula of Virginia in the Summer of 1862 ($395).

For printed catalogues, contact the bookseller at his website: weberbooks.com. Mail-order clients get priority of selection.

Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Erin Barry-Dutro of Royal Books in Baltimore.

NP: What is your role at Royal?

EBD: Kevin calls me his shortstop. I was hired to do cataloging and book fair administration, but, as Royal Books has a pretty small crew, I also fill in for all the other positions as needed: running the front desk, shipping packages, and on special occasions helping out in the bindery.

NP: How did you get started in rare books?

EBD: My dad tells a mostly-apocryphal story about me growing up in which, while driving across country together in an RV, my parents had to continually tell me to stop reading and look around. I was one of those kids. I later received my BFA in Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, where as a student I worked repairing books in their Library Preservation department. I moved to Baltimore and found similar work at Johns Hopkins, until a particularly lucky Craigslist ad brought me to Royal Books.

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

EBD: I was especially excited to have had the opportunity to handle Peter Harrington's first edition copy of The Great Gatsby in an exceptional example of that iconic jacket, but there are lots of things from our own stock that I love as well. We had a copy of Rita Hayworth's calling card from when she was married to Orson Welles, and we currently have a particularly gorgeous copy of the paperback true first of One Hundred Years Of Solitude, A Computer Perspective signed by Charles and Ray Eames, and a handful of really awesome concert posters.

NP: What do you personally collect?

EBD: My dirty little secret is that I like to collect crummy paperbacks, including books that I term very loosely "Magical Realist," cheesy Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fairy Tales, and Young Adult fiction (which as a genre I think becomes increasingly exciting). I can't help it, I think paperbacks look really good on a shelf together. I also collect vintage sewing patterns, earrings, blue and white china, feathers, and by default my own artwork.

NP: What do you love about the book trade?

EBD: I like the freedom existent in the rare book world that encourages a bookseller to dig deeply, do research on things, and collect what you love. I like the moment when you sell something you're excited about to somebody who's at least as excited about it as you are. I like that it doesn't often require dressing fancy. I like that it feels like a big global community.

NP: Do you want to open up your own shop someday?  (And if so what would you like to specialize in?)

EBD: Who knows? The appeal of my own bookshop is certainly a siren call, but I have yet a lot of things to do in this world, many of which (I know this is blasphemous) probably have nothing to do with books at all. Were I to do so, it would probably include artist's books, limited editions, and modern fiction both for adults and otherwise.

NP: Thoughts on the future of the book trade?

EBD: I think that in some respects it's inevitable that the economy will shift and degrade further, however I don't think that this should be considered wholly negative. I think that there will always be a place for books and other works on paper; human beings love to use their sense of touch. I also believe that multiples and works on paper are especially culturally relevant right now. What remains for booksellers (and honestly, everyone) to figure out is how to navigate this territory. How I feel we best do this is what rare bookselling seems to me to always have had as its essence: sharing enthusiasm and knowledge of beautiful things with others who feel similarly.

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

EBD: The slightly absurdist nature of this question seriously appeals to me, but as a result it's the one I've had to think hardest about. The fattest? You'd have lots of space to move around. One with lots and lots of pictures? Also a good choice. I think probably a collection of Grimm's Fairy Tales, or Calvino's Italian Folktales, would work nicely to keep things exciting, though.

Yesterday was the official publication day for Alex Johnson's new book, Bookshelf. Some of you may know Johnson's long-running blog of the same name, which highlights interesting and unique bookcases around the world. This book is a beautifully illustrated version of that. Wooden, steel, or composite; single shelf or intricate unit; form or function -- this book lays out hundreds of options for those of us who are always running out of shelf space.

The Puckman from Studio Ginepro, below, is a whimsical shelf that pays tribute to one of our favorite childhood activities. It's available in white or black, but who wouldn't opt for the yellow?

The Ready Made from Amsterdam-based Next Architects is so called because it features a facade (leather, with gold tooling, no less) of one hundred classic books that one can gently press in and replace with real books. A cool idea, but perhaps best left to the couture crowd.

I couldn't quite get on board with the Library Bath from Malin Lundmark--it's an idea that is both so wrong and so right--but I did like the Book Case from Makeshift. Essentially it's a suitcase with three shelves inside. Heavier than your e-reader, but a much more civilized way to travel with your library.

As for me, I received a new bookshelf for my birthday this past weekend. I had been interested in something small that would fit next to my desk and hold all of the books I'm currently working on for several different projects. I imagined a library book truck with style. What I got was this Eiffel revolving bookstand, which is quite perfectly suited to the task and handsome, too.

 

 

The Guardian picked their top 10 first lines in fiction on Saturday and the list is still the most-read feature on the culture section of their website.  Who can resist a good list?

Two of my favorites are on there:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife." (Pride and Prejudice)

"There was no possibility of a walk that day."  (Jane Eyre).

The rest of the Guardian's list contains such luminaries as Joyce, Plath, Wodehouse, Twain and Stevenson.  But glaringly absent from the British newspaper's list is that quintessential British author: Charles Dickens.  Is there any writer with more consistently memorable first lines?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." (A Tale of Two Cities)

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show." (David Copperfield)

"Marley was dead, to begin with." (A Christmas Carol)

But my personal favorite first lines manage to condense, in a single sentence, the style, tone, and subject of the pages that follow:

The looming, Gothic drama of Rebecca:

"Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again."

The spiritual and stylistic sparseness of A Farewell to Arms:

"In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains."

Or the descent into vengeful madness of A Cask of Amontillado:

"The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge."

So, what are some of your favorite first lines?