Fine Books News: Recent

Our Bright Young Collectors series continues today with 2025 David Ruggles Book Collecting Prize…
A Frederick Douglass signed letter from March 13, 1893, addressed to Frederick Perry Noble,…
Current Events & Trends
Finally clocking off for the day, leaving the dark satanic cotton mills of Manchester and Lancashire behind for a few precious hours, what were the options available for workers in Victorian times and the early years of the twentieth century to lighten the gloom and grimness of the daily grind?
News
Sotheby’s is to stage a one-off Coronation Sale which brings together a range of royal letters, fine manuscripts, jewellery, artwork, and objects that reflect upon Britain’s royal past from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The full contents of the auction,  include:
Book Reviews
This weekend there will be so many copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio on display around the world that you would be forgiven for thinking it’s actually as easy to find as Fifty Shades of Grey.
Fairs
Highlights from the private library of revered British actor Eric Idle, founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, will be on offer at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) by johnson rare books & archives.
News
Oxford University Press (OUP) has been commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury to produce the Coronation Bible to be used by His Majesty King Charles III at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023. The Coronation Bible will play a significant role in the ceremony, with the King set to place his hand…
News
Earlier this year, The Raab Collection offered for sale a newly discovered, unpublished George Washington letter. Found in a small private collection in rural West Virginia, the 1787 letter was addressed to Israel Shreve (1739-1799), a retired colonel who had served with him at Valley Forge.
News
Sixty years ago this month, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat in a Birmingham, Alabama jail cell, without a light or even a mattress on the bedsprings, and penned his Letter from Birmingham Jail, the most important written statement of the civil rights movement.
Auctions
Posters and handbills from the David Swartz Concert Poster Collection featuring the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, and Ray Charles go under the hammer at Heritage Auctions' May 11 Music Memorabilia & Concert Posters Auction.
Auctions
Childhood drawings by the Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret dating from 1938 will be put up for auction at Cheffins as part of The Library Sale on April 27.
Auctions
Freeman’s May 3 Books and Manuscripts auction is led by an exceedingly rare first edition of the King James Bible, printed in London in 1611 and one of only 114 known extant copies. Also under the hammer are illustrated books from the Collection of Nicholas Wedge, 17th and 18th century maps, a…