Gearing Up for the Boston Book Fair
Boston-small.jpgBooksellers (and book collectors) are getting ready for this weekend's book fairs in Beantown. The ABAA's International Antiquarian Book Fair will be held Nov. 16-18 at the Hynes Auditorium.

Priscilla-Laura D.jpgI have enjoyed the work of book artist Laura Davidson at a few past fairs and am glad to see her work among the highlights that Priscilla Juvelis has packed for Boston. Every Nib, an artist's book made in a limited edition of 18, is a new work from Davidson (seen above). "The five pages each of five pen nibs are woodblock prints, each on a different colored ground, all in shades of buff, each nib with the catalogue information about the nib written in ink. On each of the five pages there is a silverpoint drawing with ink wash of a different pen." $1,850

AntiquariaatForum.jpgOutline history of an expedition to California, a satirical comic book on the California Gold Rush of 1848/9, is one of the items that Laurens Hesselink of Antiquariaat FORUM BV promises to bring to the fair. This one looks very cool -- anonymously written by someone calling himself XOX, it features swindlers, Indians, pirates, and others on their way to the gold fields. "In its graphic form this curious work is clearly a very early predecessor of the modern comic book." (??6,500; $8,250).

Jeff Hirsch Books will offer a selection of signed first editions, including Gwendolyn Brooks' In The Mecca ($150), Don Delillo's Underworld ($100), and Arthur Miller's After the Fall ($250). Quill & Brush will have the first edition of the first American textbook of gynecology, William Dewees' 1826 Treatise on the Disease of Females ($1,250). And speaking of females, Brian Cassidy says he'll bring "binders full of women," -- you can't miss that!

If you go, don't forget that the Boston, Book, Print & Ephemera Show (a.k.a the 'shadow show') will be open on Saturday at the nearby Back Bay Events Center. More than seventy dealers will be there -- including B&B Rare Books, Peter Masi, and James Arsenault & Company.

Images courtesy of (top) Commonwealth Promotion, Inc.; (middle) Priscilla Juvelis; (bottom) Antiquariaat Forum BV.

ABAA, antiquariaat forum, antiquarian book fair, antiquarian books, artist's book, book collectors, boston book fair, brian cassidy, comic book, jeff hirsch books, laura davidson, laurens hesselink, priscilla juvelis, quill and brush, rare books, signed first editions
20,000 Rare Books at Benburb Priory
benburbpostcard.jpgIn proof that hidden libraries and forgotten cellars are not merely fodder for Gothic novels, the abbot at the Benburb Priory in Northern Ireland discovered a treasure trove of rare books stashed away deep inside his priory's cellars earlier this year. Father Chris O'Brien, of the Servite Priory, has since applied for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a significant funding source for British cultural projects, to conduct preservation on the library and re-house it in a modern building.  The library was originally culled from a variety of monastic Servite libraries throughout Europe in the middle 19th century on the heels of a wave of anti-clerical sentiment.  The Benburb Priory, following a rich Irish tradition, (see: How the Irish Saved Civilization) retrieved the books from its brother monasteries around Europe in order to safely house them during a time of political upheaval.  The library was then forgotten about sometime in the next century, gathering dust for years in a dark cellar behind a locked door.
 
The library, which is currently closed to public access, contains a variety of medieval treatises and is particularly rich on Christian writing from the early Renaissance era.  It also contains a strong Irish literature collection and some odds and ends such as original Dickens novels bound in parts. It total in contains approximately 20,000 books and manuscripts.
 
The Heritage Lottery Fund announced last week that the library had gained its initial support in its request for almost £773,000 for restoration work and to build and develop a new library at the priory to house the collection, which would be open to public access.  If the funding is finally allocated toward the Priory library, a significant new archive of rare books will be open to the public in Northern Ireland.
 
Let this serve as a reminder for everyone to go ahead and break through that locked door in your cellar.  You never know what you might find inside.

dungeon.jpg
(Images from Wikimedia)
 


Heritage Lottery Fund, History, Libraries, Library, Listed building, Manchester, Manchester Central Library, Northern Ireland
Tim O'Brien's Archive
Screen shot 2012-11-11 at 9.16.58 PM.pngIn honor of Veterans Day, I want to share with you an excellent essay about Vietnam War memorist and novelist Tim O'Brien, written by Sarah Funke Butler of Glenn Horowitz Books. It's a look inside O'Brien's archive, now at the Ransom Center in Texas, that pulls at the strands of his beginnings as a writer, from a stint at an Army newsletter to his stunning novels Going After Cacciato (which won the National Book Award) and The Things They Carried, which was a World Book Night pick last year. Read it in the Paris Review. 
Going After Cacciato, Paris Review, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, Vietnam War, ransom center, sarah funke butler, war archives
Auction Report: November Sales

- Bloomsbury held a Bibliophile Sale on 1 November, in 415 lots.


- Doyle New York sold Books, Photographs & Prints on 5 November. A letter from George Washington to James McHenry sold for a whopping $362,500. An 18th-century tract volume from the library of Joseph Sewall sold for $28,125. Elizabethan titles went for pretty hefty prices as well.


- Leslie Hindman sold Books and Manuscripts on 7 November. A first edition in book form of the Gettysburg Address sold for $20,000.


- On 8 November at Bloomsbury, Sporting Books, in 488 lots. The top lot was a copy of the second issue of Blacker's Art of Angling, and Complete System of Fly Making (1842), which made £15,000.


- PBA Galleries sold Fine & Rare Books on 8 November. Results are here.


- Bonhams sells Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs on 13 November.


- Bloomsbury sells Maps & Atlases, Watercolours and Prints on 14-15 November, in 583 lots.


- On 15 November, PBA Galleries sells Important Manuscripts and Archives, in 174 lots.


- Sotheby's sells Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History on 15 November, in 342 lots. An amazing collection of 18th-century ornithological watercolors is estimated at £300,000-500,000.


- Skinner, Inc. sells Books & Manuscripts on 18 November, in 698 lots. Watch the next FB&C for my take on this sale. Some really good bookseller and auction catalogs up for grabs here.


- At Sotheby's Paris on 19 November, Livres et Manuscrits, in 192 lots. A copy of Catesby rates the top estimate, at 280,000-320,000 EUR.


- On 21 November at Christie's, Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books, in 162 lots. A ~1530 Paris Book of Hours rates the top estimate, at £250,000-350,000. A first edition Hypnerotomachia could fetch £80,000-120,000.


- At Bloomsbury on 27-28 November, Important Books & Manuscripts, in 413 lots. Some big-ticket items of early printing here, including a few copies that came through the Doheny sale. Also quite a selection of Nabokov works and some manuscripts.


- Bonhams sells Printed Books and Maps on 27 November, in 693 lots.


- On 27 November at Christie's, Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, in 395 lots. 


- Sotheby's sells Music, Continental and Russian Books and Manuscripts on 28 November, in 159 lots. Many interesting music manuscripts, and a first edition of Vesalius, which could fetch £120,000-180,000.


- Also at Sotheby's on 28 November, a collection of manuscripts, letters, and memorabilia from the family of Alberto Toscanini, in 87 lots.


- At Christie's on 29 November, An Important Collection of Russian Books & Manuscripts, in 149 lots. Quite an impressive selection of items here.


- PBA Galleries will sell Fine Americana on 29 November.

Raptis Rare Books, #3
Catalogue Review: Raptis Rare Books, #3

Screen shot 2012-11-08 at 5.09.10 PM.pngAlmost exactly one year ago I reviewed Raptis Rare Books' catalogue #1. It has been my pleasure over this past week to page through their newest release, #3. What I liked then, I still like; i.e., Raptis offers a range of amazing books, but I most enjoy the focus given to the fine books not often seen.

The inscribed first edition of Zora Neale Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine fits into that category ($6,000). What an amazing original jacket, too! Or a signed first American edition of Jose Saramago's The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis ($1,500). Or a signed first edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Angels in America by Tony Kushner ($3,750). Or a signed first edition of Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine ($400).

Then there are the heavy hitters, like an inscribed first edition of The Catcher in the Rye ($200,000). As the catalogue notes, it is "one of the true rarities of twentieth-century American literature." A near fine first edition of The Hobbit in a near fine dust jacket is further enhanced by its "brilliant custom full morocco box, with the front panel mimicking the frontispiece" ($50,000). A first edition of Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust, signed by the author, in the rare dust jacket ($38,500) comes just before its prettier sister, Helena--also a signed first edition and inscribed to fellow novelist J.F. Powers ($2,500).  

There are great galleys to be had in this catalogue, too, including an uncorrected proof of The World According to Garp, signed by the author ($2,250); a signed uncorrected British proof of Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist ($1,250); and a collection of eleven signed, uncorrected proofs of Steven Millhauser's books ($3,500).

James Bond collectors should take note of an entire Fleming section. Plus, sets of fine bindings, some sci-fi, economics, and poetry. One last pick: how about an association copy of Daniel J. Boorstin's The Discoverers, signed to Caspar Weinberger and bearing his bookplate ($450) -- that's the Librarian of Congress to the Secretary of Defense. Pretty neat.

The catalogue can be downloaded here.

See also Raptis Rare Books in our Bright Young Things series.
antiquarian bookseller, booksellers review, catalogue review, frist editions, modern firsts, raptis rare books, rare books, salinger, the hobbit, uncorrected proofs
Emir Donates 4,000 Rare Books to Egyptian Library
Description_de_l'Egypte,_1823(1).pngLast year, the library at the Institute of Egypt in Cairo caught fire in the midst of revolutionary fighting.  Several thousand rare books and manuscripts were burnt beyond repair.  In an effort to amend the loss, the Emir of Sharjah Emirate, part of the United Arab Emirates, will be donating 4,000 rare books from his personal collection to the Cairo library.

Dr Shaikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, the Emir of Sharjah and a historian himself, announced his decision on Wednesday at the opening of the 31st annual Sharjah International Book Fair.  He made his donation in honor of the major role played by the Institute of Egypt, since its founding by Napoleon, in the dissemination of scientific knowledge across northern Africa and the Middle East.

Among the donations are a copy of Description de l'Egypt, written during the French expedition to Egypt between 1798 and 1801, and published between 1809 and 1829. The massive, multi-volume work was an all-encompassing scientific description of modern and ancient Egypt, complete with generous illustrations. Description de l'Egypt was written collaboratively by about 160 scientists who accompanied Napoleon on his Egyptian expedition.  Approximately 2000 artists were also involved in its production.

desegypt.jpgThe Institute's original manuscript copy of Description de l'Egypt was one of the casualties of the 2011 fire. 

A variety of other rare maps, journals, and books - many from before 1860 - will also be included in the Emir's donation.

(Images from Wikipedia and OpenLibrary)
Al Qasimi, Arab world, Cairo, Egypt, Emir, Napoleon, Sharjah International Book Fair, United Arab Emirates
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Penumbra,jpgA typographical thriller? Who would have thought. And from the hands of a 32-year-old "media inventor" and former Twitter manager who by all rights shouldn't care a whit for paper and ink. But he does! Robin Sloan's new novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (FSG, $25), is a buoyant tale of black-robed bibliophiles and Google code-breakers.

The novel's main character, Clay Jannon, takes a job at a San Francisco bookshop where, he discovers, the real business is a lending library of leather-bound books for a crew of odd readers. Once he begins snooping around a bit and applying his techie skills--hacking, data visualization--to the mystery, he discovers that his boss, Mr. Penumbra, is a disenchanted leader in a "bibliophile cult" called the Unbroken Spine.

Following Penumbra to New York City, Jannon finds the object of the Unbroken Spine's desire: a codex vitae printed by Aldus Manutius (founder of the cult) in a typeface called Gerritszoon at the end of the fifteenth century. The problem is, the book is in code; Jannon and his Silicon Valley friends aim to break it open and free the text, as it were.
 
At 288 pages, it is difficult to escape the feeling--especially when the flap copy compares it to "young Umberto Eco"--that the novel lacks depth, and the main plot feels formulaic at times. After all, we do find ourselves in a subterranean library vault pouring over an antiquarian book said to contain the key to immortality. But Sloan is very bright, and that shines through -- even to his glow-in-the-dark dust jacket. Plus, if he entices even a handful of younger readers to the coolness of rare books, well then, all is forgiven.

Incidentally, Sloan was pictured in the New York Times last month hiding away in the Grolier Club stacks, where he poured over Aldines, printed by the real Aldus Manutius.

Read an excerpt here.
Aldus Manutius, Grolier Club, Mr. Penumbra, Robin Sloan, book review, books about books, rare books
New Offerings for Gorey Collectors
Edward Gorey died in 2000, but twelve years later publishers are still working to release some of his unpublished work.  Gorey illustrated books for 50 years and his distinctive style - both whimsical and Gothic - has spawned an entire sub-genre of collecting: "Goreyana."  Three new (or re-printed) Gorey stories have arrived in bookshops this fall, just time to fill the Christmas stockings of Gorey collectors.

thoughtfulalphabets_gorey.jpeg From Pomegranate Press comes "Thoughtful Alphabets: The Just Dessert & the Deadly Blotter" (64 pp., $14.95).  "Thoughtful Alphabets" collects two previous Gorey publications which were only available if you managed to track down one of the out-of-print limited editions.  "The Just Dessert" was published by Fantod Press in a limited edition of 750 copies in 1997.  Today, copies of "The Just Dessert" command $200 and up.  The other story collected in "Thoughtful Alphabets" was also originally published by Fantod Press in 1997, again in an edition of 750 copies.  "The Deadly Blotter" retails for $200 and up from online booksellers.  Both stories are typical Gorey-esque plays on children's alphabet books.

osbick.jpgPomegranate Pres also released "The Osbick Bird" (32 pp., $12.95), originally published in 1970 by Fantod Press as part of a small collection of books housed in a pink envelope entitled "Three Books from the Fantod Press: The Chinese Obelisks, The Osbick Bird, Donald has a Difficulty."  "The Osbick Bird" was also included in the omnibus collection "Amphigorey Too."

melissamottled.jpgThe other new Gorey publication comes from Bloomsbury.  "Saint Melissa the Mottled" (48 pp., $12), is a previously unpublished story that Gorey penned but never illustrated.  The publishers are supplementing the text - in a welcome creative move or a cynical money-making ploy, depending on your point of view - with images from the Gorey archive.  Some of the illustrations have also never been published before.

And so the shelves of Goreyana around the world must expand to include a few more volumes. 

(Author's note: My personal Gorey collection focuses on his wonderful covers for the John Bellairs books, some of my favorite reads from childhood).



Alphabet book, Amphigorey, Bloomsbury, Edward Gorey, Gorey, Illustration, Osbick Bird, Publishing, John Bellairs
Titles Inc. Auction
SHAY FLORENCE - LH.jpgFlorence Shay managed to maintain a thriving, open rare bookshop in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park for forty years. When she passed away last August at the age of 90, Titles Inc. lost its center. The much beloved bookshop is now facing its inevitable demise, too--being auctioned off book by book.

Einstein-LH.jpgOn Wednesday of this week, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will offer 178 lots from Titles Inc., in Shay's favored subjects: nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, Americana, art, children's, and fine press. Most hold estimates in the low-to-mid hundreds, but there are a few stand-outs, such as a presentation copy of Selig Hecht's book, Explaining the Atom, gifted to John Nuveen from Albert Einstein, containing Einstein letter's (seen here at left) to Nuveen written from Princeton on April 29, 1947 praising the book. The estimate is $4,000-6,000.

The remaining inventory of Titles Inc. will be sold on-site at 1821 Saint Johns Ave. in Highland Park on December 6-9. Books there will be offered at 40-50% off listed prices.

As the auction proceeds--there are 650 lots in total--buyers can lookout for a first edition Encyclopaedia Britannica (1771). This set was owned by the publisher and advertising executive William Benton, who was president and chairman of Encyclopedia Britannica from 1943-1973. His business card is tipped into each volume. The estimate is $10,000-15,000. An autographed manuscript of Emily Dickinson's poem "If what we could/were what we would;/Criterion be small - It is the Ultimate of talk/the impotence to tell", written circa 1863, and later given as a wedding present to Mr. and Mrs. Franklin H. Mills from Dickinson's niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Nice gift! This week it is estimated to reach $15,000-20,000. 

A significant archive from Howard Hughes' around-the-world flight will also come in for a landing, followed by some intriguing aviation prints by Frank Lemon.

Images courtesy of Leslie Hindman Auctioneers. 

Albert Einstein, Emily Dickinson, Florence Shay, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Titles Inc., William Benton, aviation archive, book auction, einstein letter, encyclopedia britannica, frank lemon, howard hughes, john nuveen, presentation copy, rare bookshop, selig hecht
Auction Report: October Wrapup


Here's how the October auctions shaped up:


- Results for the 4 October Bloomsbury Red China, 1921-1976 sale are here.


- The top seller at Bloomsbury's Bibliophile Sale on 5 October was something of a surprise. Two copies of Siebe, Gorman & Co.'s Illustrated Catalogue of Diving Apparatus, Diving Bells, ...  (from ~1898 and ~1908) sold for £2,300; they'd been estimated at £150-200. Full results here.


- Christie's London sold Travel, Science, and Natural History on 9 October, in 341 lots. The thermometer signed by Fahreinheit was, as expected, the top lot, at £67,250. But it shared the podium with a collection of letters from a member of the British Antarctic Expedition to his mother. An Enigma machine fetched £58,850. The total for the sale was £1,269,412.


- At Bonhams San Francisco Fine Books and Manuscripts sale on 10 October, a copy of the eight-volume Watson and Kaye photographic collection The People of India (1868-1875) sold for $80,500. The typescript of an unpublished Timothy Leary work did not sell.


- Andy Warhol carried the day at Swann Galleries' 11 October Art, Press and Illustrated Books sale. A copy of his 25 Cats Name Sam and One Blue Pussy sold for $52,800.


- Results for PBA Galleries 11 October sale of Fine Literature, Americana Bibliography, and Fine Books in All Fields are here. Two lots sold for $3,300: a mixed set of the Encyclopedie and a signed copy of Bukowski's At Terror Street and Agony Way.


- Bloomsbury sold Literature, Manuscripts, Travel and Natural History Books on 18 October. The top lot was a 1733 John Pine engraving of the Magna Carta, which sold for £19,000. Full results here.


- It was quite a day at Swann Galleries on 23 October for their sale of Aldine Imprints & Early Printed Books from the Library of Kenneth Rapoport, in 119 lots. Almost all of the lots sold, with three fetching more than $40,000: a copy of the 1525 Galen ($48,000); the 1513 Plato ($45,600); and the 1517 Musaeus and Orpheus ($43,200).


- Sotheby's sold items from the estate of Robert S. McNamara on 23 October, for a total of $1,008,571.


- Also some hefty prices at Bloomsbury's Modern First Editions: The Collection of Clive Hirschhorn sale on 25 October. A first edition of The Great Gatsby was the top lot, at £50,000.


- On 25 October PBA Galleries sold California & Its Ranchos: The John C. Broome Library. Results are here.


- Christie's Paris sold Emilie du Chatelet manuscripts and books on 29 October, for a total of ??3,289,875. The partial manuscript of her translation of Newton's Principia did even better than anticipated, selling for ??961,000.


- Also at Christie's Paris on 29 October, Importants Livres Anciens, Livres D'Artistes et Manuscrits, which brought ??1,314,225. The top lot sold for ??481,000. Redouté's Les Roses failed to sell.


- On 30 October at Christie's London The Le Vivier Library of Sporting Books and Modern First Editions brought in £734,087. Wynken de Worde's 1518 The boke of hawkyinge and Huntynge and fysshynge bettered presale estimates and fetched £193,250.


- At Christie's Paris on 30 October, Collection d'un Amateur Bibliophile sold for a total of ??1,914,550. A first edition of Proust's Á l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (1920) sold for ??145,000. A copy of John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1749) fetched ??115,000