New York International Antiquarian Book Fair: Five Rare Books for Collectors

Highlights from the exhibitors at the 2026 New York International Antiquarian Book Fair which runs April 30-May 3 include:

* Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961) 

Rare uncorrected proofs, spiral-bound from galleys, showing over 60 textual differences from the first edition. No other copy is believed to have come to market. Heller wrote the novel over the course of eight years while working in advertising and added the finishing touches while a manager for McCall’s magazine. He read the galleys while travelling by boat to the Bahamas, for a sales convention in Nassau. Offered by Peter Harrington.

* Album Amicorum/In Memoriam by Alfred Tennyson (London, Edward Moxon, 1860)

A copy of Tennyson’s In Memoriam employed by the naturalist and journalist William Bernhardt Tegetmeier (1816–1912) as an autograph book over a period of over forty years (1861 to 1903) containing signatures and sometimes sketches by, among others, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday, Ellen Terry, and Thomas and Anne Cobden Sanderson (who bound the book in 1903). Many figures have signed by apposite lines in the poem; Charles Darwin's signature is under Tennyson’s lines on fossils and the doubts to which modern science has subjected religion. Offered by Bernard Quaritch.

* Collection of illustrated periodicals and souvenir tournament programs documenting the African American National Bowling Association 

The NBA Bowler periodicals here were first published in Toledo, but by 1958 show headquarters in Chicago, all with the tagline, 'Promoting Sportsmanship, Fellowship and Friendship'. They are filled with news of the organization, schedules and locations for upcoming “classics,” other tournaments and meetings, as well as photographic features on teams and individuals from around the country with a noted emphasis on female bowlers. Records of the NBA are scarce. Offered by Langdon Manor Books.