Dayton, Ohio - Recognizing the power of literature to promote peace and reconciliation, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation today announced the finalists for the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and nonfiction.

Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The Prize celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, justice, and global understanding. This year's winners will be honored at a gala ceremony in Dayton on October 28th.

Writer John Irving, whose novels champion outsiders and often explore the bigotry, intolerance, and hatred directed at sexual minorities, will receive the 2018 The Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named in honor of the noted U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords.

The full list of finalists can be found below and at www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org.

"Many of this year's finalists explore the concept of 'home' at a time when more and more people find themselves forced to leave theirs, whether because of war, poverty, political turmoil, or dreams of new opportunities," said Sharon Rab, Chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. "These books help the reader cultivate their ability to understand and empathize with people from very different backgrounds than their own - an ability that is becoming increasingly vital in today's turbulent world." 

The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize fiction finalists are

• Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Riverhead): An astonishingly timely love story that brilliantly imagines the forces that transform ordinary people into refugees and the impossible choices that follow.

• Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck (New Directions): A scathing indictment of Western policy toward the European refugee crisis, but also a touching portrait of a Berlin man who finds he has more in common with his city’s African refugees than he realizes.

• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Grand Central): Exiled from a homeland they never knew, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destinies. 

• Salt Houses by Hala Alyan (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt): A heartbreaking story that follows three generations of a Palestinian family and asks us to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again.

• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Scribner): A family makes the trip from their Gulf Coast town to the Mississippi State Penitentiary, testing the strength of their emotional bonds and the pull of a collective history.

• Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfa? (Little, Brown): Raised in the Czech countryside by his doting grandparents, Jakub Procházka has risen from small-time scientist to become the country's first astronaut. A dangerous solo mission to Venus offers him the chance at heroism he's always dreamed of -- and a way to atone for his father's sins as a Communist informer.   

The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize nonfiction finalists are

• Enduring Vietnam by James Wright (St. Martin’s Press): A recounting of the experiences of the young Americans who fought in Vietnam and of the families who mourned those who did not return.

• Ghost of the Innocent Man by Benjamin Rachlin (Little, Brown): This gripping account of one man's long road to freedom provides a picture of wrongful conviction and of the opportunity for meaningful reform, forever altering how we understand our criminal justice system.

• Lolas’ House by M. Erdina Galang (Northwestern U. Press): The stories of sixteen Filipino “comfort women” are told in unprecedented detail in what is not only testimony and documentation, but a book of witness, of survival, and of the female body. 

• Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo (Random House): In this stirring memoir, Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of Patrick Browning, a teenaged student from one of the poorest counties in the U.S., and his remarkable literary and personal awakening.

• The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe (Scribner): Helen Thorpe’s intensive, year-long reporting puts a human face on the U.S. refugee population through an intimate look at the lives of 22 teenagers enrolled in a beginner-level English Language Acquisition class at South High School in Denver, Colorado. 

• We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World PRH): “Biting cultural and political analysis... reflects on race, Barack Obama’s presidency and its jarring aftermath, and [Coates’s] own evolution as a writer in eight stunningly incisive essays.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 

A winner and runner-up in fiction and nonfiction will be announced on September 18. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $2,500. Finalists will be reviewed by a judging panel of prominent writers including Lesley Nneka Arimah (What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky), Robin Hemley (Reply All: Stories, Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness, Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday), Susan Southard (Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War), and Alan Taylor (William Cooper’s Town, The Internal Enemy).

To be eligible for the 2018 awards, English-language books had to be published or translated into English in 2017 and address the theme of peace on a variety of levels, such as between individuals, among families and communities, or between nations, religions, or ethnic groups.

New York - Poster Auctions International, Inc., has unveiled its all-new Poster Price Guide, an expanded and revamped version of its poster-dedicated database, consolidating a full pricing history of over 40,000 of the rarest vintage posters sold in 75 proprietary auctions over the past 33 years. It’s a must-have reference tool for poster collectors and dealers worldwide.

The new Poster Price Guide includes a new, mobile-responsive database, larger images and links to auction listings, with all relevant details (to include references, sizes and printer and historical details). Poster Auctions International, Inc., has also redone the user interface, allowing for easier browsing and searching. Even the technologically challenged will find it very simple to navigate.

Access is competitively priced, at just $4.99 per week, $14.99 per month or $149.99 for a year. “It’s an essential tool for collectors, auctioneers, and scholars,” company president Jack Rennert said. “Since you have a full history - every poster, estimated price and final sale - you can learn about sales trends for individual posters, artists or the artistic movements, such as Art Nouveau.”

Since the late 1980s, Poster Auctions International, Inc., has held 3-4 auctions a year. Poster aficionados, enthusiasts, collectors, galleries, and leading art museums around the world value it as one of their most trusted venues for successful consignments, unique buying opportunities, an unequaled experience in the field, and an impeccable source for top quality in original poster art.

Poster Auctions International, Inc.’s gallery, located at 26 West 17th Street in New York City, hosts rotating exhibitions of original poster art. Additionally, it offers for sale a wide catalogue of “Contemporary Classics” poster originals from the 1960s to the 1980s, with specialties in local New York topics, plus late 20th-century Polish, Japanese, and Israeli designers and more.

The gallery is also a veritable bookstore of research and coffee-table volumes on poster art, as well as an extensive research archive, open to the public by appointment. Poster Auctions International, Inc., regrets that it can sell, and accept for consignment, only poster originals.

Jack Rennert is regarded as one of the world’s foremost authorities on rare vintage posters. He’s authored (either solo or in collaboration,) two dozen books on poster art, including catalogue raisonnés for Leonetto Cappiello and Alphonse Mucha; studies on bicycle and circus posters; and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. His book Posters of the Belle Epoque has sold over 30,000 copies.

Rennert is currently at work on the definitive catalogue of Edward Penfield’s graphic art. He was a consultant at Time-Life Books for the poster section of the Collectibles Encyclopedia and has organized poster exhibitions around the country, including the Lincoln Center Museum for the Performing Arts, Radio City Music Hall, the French Embassy and banks and corporate buildings. 

To learn more about Poster Auctions International, Inc., visit www.posterauctions.com. To schedule a gallery appointment, call (212) 787-4000, or e-mail to info@postersplease.com.

“It’s alive, It’s alive! cried the crazed scientist, Dr. Frankenstein, looking up from his operating table and exulting at the success of his scientific experiment.  And, in fact, the hated and lonely, yet fabulous creation of the mad scientist is alive and thriving in 2018 - two hundred years later!

Mary Godwin Shelley’s iconic novel, Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus,” written when she was just 21 years old -  a remarkable literary feat for a young woman just finding her way in the world-- is 200 years old this year.   It’s an anniversary that is soon to be the subject of a major exhibition this Fall at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, appropriately titled, “It’s Alive:  Frankenstein at 200.”

A special preview of this exhibition, will be featured at the upcoming Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, September 8 & 9 at the Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint - a not-to-be-missed event for all those who continue to be fascinated  and drawn to this world classic novel.  The exhibition’s curators,  the Morgan Library’s John Bidwell, and New York Public Library’s Elizabeth Denlinger, are scheduled to present a talk on Sat. Sept 8th at 5pm that previews the Morgan exhibition and looks at the enduring legacy of Mary Shelley’s novel.  It is a wonderful opportunity to sample some of the excitement of the upcoming exhibition a month before its actual opening at the Morgan Library.

Mary’s own life echoed some of the estrangement of the monster she created.  The wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of England’s most renowned 19th century poets, Mary was the daughter of philosopher and political writer, William Godwin, and early feminist writer, Mary Wollstonecraft, who died shortly after Mary’s birth in 1797.  Mary was raised  in London by her father and stepmother.  It was a difficult childhood, not much enlightened by love nor formal education.  Mary escaped her challenging home life by reading and daydreaming.

At age 17, she entered into a relationship with Shelley, a devoted student of  Mary’s father.  Although still married to his first wife, he and the teenaged Mary fled England to travel throughout Europe for the next two years.   Perpetually poor, they ended up in Switzerland with a group of similarly poor friends, including Lord Byron, who had rented a house at Lake Geneva.  The friends entertained themselves one rainy summer day by reading a book of ghost stories.

“Let’s write our own ghost story,” Byron suggested.  This was the impetus for Mary to begin work on what would become her most famous novel, the incomparable “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.” Thus,  the legend of this frightening, yet very human monster was born.  The book, published anonymously in 1818,  proved to be a huge success  and is read world-wide to this day. 

The struggle between a monster and its creator has been reincarnated in the theatre, other books, comic books and especially in film (the iconic Boris Karloff movie of 1931; Gene Wilder’s spoof, Young Frankenstein;” Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation in 1994; and the modern thriller, “I, Frankenstein” in 2015).

Aside from the classic story that appeals to both children and adults, the enduring relevance of Frankenstein lies in its basic human emotions.  Immediately recognizable as part of the human condition, is the monster’s need to be loved.   “You made me,” says the monster reasonably.  “All I ever wanted was your love.  Or at least acceptance.  But I am so ugly that everyone flees in disgust.  I’m lonely, an outcast, hated.  So I take my revenge.  I have learned, in the absence of love, to hate.”  Perhaps Frankenstein’s ultimate message today remains exactly what it was 200 years ago:  give love, not unkindness.

Hours for the Brooklyn Antiquarian Fair are:   Sat., September 8th, noon-7pm; Sun. September 9th, 11am-4pm; Admission:  Weekend pass:  $15 for adults; Sunday admission $10.   The Frankenstein talk is free with  online registration and tickets to the fair at www.brooklynbookfair.com.  

Dallas, TX - Frenetic bidding drove the final price for Frank Frazetta’s Escape on Venus Painting Original Art (1972) to $660,000 to claim top-lot honors in Heritage Auctions' Comics & Comic Art Auction Aug. 2-4 in Dallas, Texas, which brought in a total of $6,670,739.

The price realized by Escape on Venus was the third-highest ever through Heritage Auctions for a Frazetta painting. Death Dealer 6 Painting Original Art (1990) brought a record $1,792,500 in May 2018, and Frank Frazetta At The Earth's Core Paperback Cover Painting Original Art (1974), sold for $1,075,500 in August 2016.

Used as the cover image for the 1974 re-issue of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel of the same name, Escape on Venus was created in 1972 and released as a print later in the decade.

“The result for this painting continues a trend of Frazetta paintings that have enjoyed enormous success in our auctions,” Heritage Auctions Senior Vice President Ed Jaster said. “Frank Frazetta was known for painting strong, sensuous women in fantastic environments. Escape on Venus is a prime example of his ability to paint in a way that directs the focus of those viewing his paintings to a specific place. In this painting, the trees and plants around the borders of the painting are done in subtle, muted tones, sending the focus back to the tiger and the woman in the center of the image.”

The Incredible Hulk #1 (Marvel, 1962) CGC VF/NM 9.0 Off-white to white pages also drew bids from nearly 30 collectors, before ultimately selling for $264,000. Ranked second on Overstreet’s list of the Top 50 Silver Age Comics, this issue is the only one in which the Hulk appears grey, and carries a grade higher than all but two copies ever offered by Heritage Auctions.

The cover of Gene Colan and Bill Everett Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 Cover Original Art (Marvel, 1968) proclaims it to be a “Special Once-In-A-Lifetime” issue, and the $240,000 - a figure nearly 2-1/2 times the pre-auction estimate - showed evidence that the statement was more than mere hyperbolic hype designed to sell the issue. The title characters teamed up in this issue after each had paired up with others: Namor the Sub-Mariner with the Hulk in Tales to Astonish, and Iron Man with Captain America in Tales of Suspense.

John Romita Sr. Amazing Spider-Man #55 Cover Doctor Octopus Original Art (Marvel, 1967) was another extremely popular lot, drawing bids from 18 collectors before realizing $105,000. This stunning cover shows an extreme close-up image of supervillain Doctor Octopus, who is engaged in a battle with Spider-Man, who can be seen in the reflection of Doc Ock’s glasses over a banner trumpeting “DOC OCK WINS!”

Jack Kirby and Chic Stone Tales of Suspense #60 Splash Page 1 Captain America Original Art (Marvel, 1964) was among the most coveted items in the auction, inspiring bids from 31 collectors before closing at $96,000, nearly double the pre-auction estimate. Just the second solo Captain America story since the 1950s, the issue features an extraordinary image of Captain America beneath a starburst balloon announcing “THE ARMY OF ASSASSINS STRIKES!” The issue is written by Stan Lee, with art by Jack Kirby, and is inked by Chic Stone and lettered by Art Simek.

The 1958 cult-classic film The Blob! was inspired by scenes like the one on the cover of Wally Wood Weird Science #22 Cover Original Art (EC, 1953), which yielded $90,000. Promising “Incredible Science-Fiction Stories,” the original art by Wally Wood features Wood’s “Old English” font signature in the lower left corner. The image, measuring 13-1/2 by 19-1/2 inches, is done in ink over graphite on EC Bristol board.

Other top lots included, but were not limited to:

·         Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman X-Men #1 Story Page 5 Original Art (Marvel, 1963): $72,000

·         Detective Comics #35 Larson Pedigree (DC, 1940) CGC Conserved NM- 9.2 White pages: $66,000

·         Bernie Wrightson Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein Unused Illustration Original Art (c. 1975): $60,000

·         Barry Smith Conan the Barbarian #5 Cover Original Art (Marvel, 1971): $60,000

The auction also featured a collection of 23 Star Wars action figures, which sold for a total of $201,180. The collection included, but was not limited to:

·         Bib Fortuna (Red Cape) Loose Action Figure /TW Prototype (Kenner, 1983) Condition: AFA 85 NM+: $31,200

·         Luke Skywalker 12 Back-C w/Yellow Hair Action Figure (Kenner, 1978) AFA 95 MT: $28,800

·         Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi First Shot Prototype Action Figure with Yellow Saber (Kenner, 1977) AFA 70 EX+: $20,400

·         Princess Leia Organa 12 Back-B Action Figure (Kenner, 1978) AFA 95 MT: $19,200

·         Luke Skywalker w/Telescoping Lightsaber 12 Back-C Action Figure (Kenner, 1978) AFA 85 NM+: $15,600

The Center for Book Arts is pleased to announce its Fall Exhibitions. The Main Exhibition, titled Inside/ Out: Self, Family, Memory, Loss, Displacement, Catastrophe, is organized by Carole Naggar, poet, artist, curator, educator, and photography historian. 

Self-published photobooks first made their appearance in Europe right after World War II. At that time photographers mainly published in magazines, and the form of the photobook was still somewhat exotic, used infrequently by photographers. Today, self-published photobooks are also well represented in collections such as the New York MoMA’s library, The Indie Photo Library at the Beinecke (Yale), which inspired the creation of other independent photobook archives, like The Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, as well as private collections.

This exhibition features thirty-four self-published photobooks, varying in sizes and aspect, usually printed in small editions. Their form varies from the classic, traditionally printed book to the zine, the folio, the leporello book, the panoramic shape, the I-phone… Also including selected photographs, Inside/Out shows a range of media from gelatin prints to C-prints, collotype, inkjet and Xerox.

The photographers and artists in this exhibition see the self-published photobook as a place of independence, a place where they can experiment freely with form, but, more importantly, as a testing ground for reflection, self-examination, meditation and ideas that the main market does little to accommodate. The quick turnaround from concept to creation also allows them to react to national and international news, making the books not only an aesthetic endeavor but also a political one.

The chosen books illustrate very personal subjects such as family, memory, loss and identity as well as larger topics such as immigration, displacement and exile and catastrophic events such as World War II, the AIDS epidemic, September 11 and Fukushima. A few are historical and most contemporary. They originate from twenty countries: Argentina, Azerbadjian, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Great Britain, Mexico, The Netherlands,The Philippines, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States and Vietnam.

It had been predicted that the rise of the Internet would mean the end of the book on paper. However, it had an opposite effect, creating “digital fatigue” because ephemeral images are everywhere. Readers still crave a hands-on experience and the concrete sensations associated with reading and looking.

While some deplore the rise of self-publishing because it tramples the gates and gatekeepers who once decided what should be published, the trend gave artists new freedom. Self-published photobooks provide the experience of looking at work the way the artist envisioned it. Most self-published photobooks are issued in limited editions, hand-numbered or signed, which makes them works of arts themselves. They become places for debating ideas, articulating insights and experience, and testing out new forms. And many are objects of beauty.

Artists include: Olivia Arthur, Barbara Bash, Doug Beube, Julia Borissova, Machiel Botman, Chien Chi Chang, Cristina De Middel, Giovanni del Brenna, Michel Delsol, Eamonn Doyle, Carolyn Drake, Tina Enghoff, Veronica Fieiras, Claire Fouquet and Patty Smith, Lee Friedlander, Ralph Gibson, Hiroshi Hamaya, Simone Hoang, Ilkin Huseynov, Fumiko Imano, Miho Kajioka, Kent Klich, Anouk Kruithof, Susan Meiselas, Editha Mesina, Kazuma Obara, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio, Sophie Ristelhueber, Alec Soth, Jordan Sullivan, Peter Van Agtmael, Todd Walker, Mo Yi, and Ksenia Yurkova

Roundtable Discussion: Friday, October 19, 2018, 6:30 pm

The roundtable will include Barbara Bash, Michel Delsol, Editha Mesina and Patty Smith. and will be moderated by Carole Naggar.

For inquiries please contact the Center at eahern@centerforbookarts.org.

When: October 5 - December 15, 2018

Where: 28 W 27th St., 3rd Floor, NY, NY

Subway: N/R to 28th St, or F to 23rd St

Exhibition URL: https://centerforbookarts.org/events/category/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/

Gallery Hours: M-F, 11a-6p; Sat, 10a-5p

Admission: Free

ALSO ON VIEW: FALL 2018 FEATURED ARTIST PROJECTS

 In addition to Inside/Out, The Center presents Cultivating Book and Land by Sally Alatolo and Celestial Bodies by Monica Ong, both organized by Alexander Campos, Executive Director & Curator for The Center for Book Arts. All three shows are on view through December 15.

Cultivating Book and Land by Master Faculty Fellow Sally Alatolo is a project that originated in the rehabilitation of an orchard and woodlands in rural SW Michigan. Alatolo is eager to bridge her interests in language and its dissemination with the discourses of rural economies.

Monica Ong is a visual artist and poet whose hybrid image-poems juxtapose diagram and diary, bearing witness to silenced histories of the body. Her Featured Artist Project is presented as a series of art installations. The poems are as much visual journeys as they are lyrical haunts of medicine and memory.                                                               

Visit our website for up-to-date details on all events and programs:  www.centerforbookarts.org

Image: Miho Kajioka, And Where Did the Peacocks Go?, 2018, Courtesy of the Artist

Los Angeles - The J. Paul Getty Museum recently announced the acquisition of the Rothschild Pentateuch, a manuscript of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Torah. Its acquisition, coupled with works already in the Museum’s manuscripts collection, allows the Getty to represent the medieval art of illumination in sacred texts from the three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Art of Three Faiths: A Torah, a Bible, and a Qur’an, on view August 7, 2018 through February 3, 2019, showcases three spectacular examples of each of these three: a Christian Bible and a Qur’an will be shown alongside the newly acquired Torah.  

“This landmark acquisition fulfills one of the Museum’s longstanding goals of adding to our collection a Hebrew manuscript that can stand comparison in quality and importance to our finest illuminated manuscripts of other languages and faiths,” explains Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “It has taken 35 years, but the Rothschild Pentateuch fills this gap more brilliantly than we could ever have imagined. An amazingly rare and beautiful object, richly illuminated with all manner of real and imaginary animals, it also broadens greatly the narratives we are able to tell about life, culture and religion in the Middle Ages. The acquisition will be a highlight of an upcoming exhibition that brings together - for the first time at the Getty - the sacred texts of the three Abrahamic religions, something that I am sure will deepen the experience of these works for many of our visitors, and be a rich subject of study for scholars.”

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam trace their belief in the singular God to a common patriarch, the figure of Abraham. The practitioners of all three religions have been called “people of the book” for their shared belief in the importance of the divine word, rendered in medieval manuscripts in glowing gold and luminous colors on parchment. 

The Torah is the central sacred text of Judaism. In the strictest sense, the word refers to the Pentateuch, which contains the books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Illuminated copies of the Hebrew Bible in codex form, rather than Torah scrolls, began to appear in the mid-thirteenth century. In northern Europe, these manuscripts served the needs of members of the Ashkenazi Jewish community who had settled in the area along the Rhine River. Lavishly illustrated Hebrew manuscripts are exceedingly rare, since Jewish artisans were forbidden by law to join painting guilds. Hebrew manuscripts were often written by itinerant Jewish scribes and illuminated by local, sometimes Christian, artists. Illumination of the Hebrew Bible centers on the calligraphic forms of the letters, such as initials, word panels, or decorative frames around blocks of text.

“The three objects on display are exceptionally beautiful artworks that we hope will spark meaningful dialogue among various audiences,” said Elizabeth Morrison, senior curator of Manuscripts at the Getty Museum. “Museums offer more than simply an aesthetic experience. Through exhibitions such as this one, they foster a deeper understanding of history that helps us to reflect on our own shared experiences.”

Among the earliest bound and illuminated codices from the Mediterranean world are copies of the Christian Bible written in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Ge’ez, Armenian, and other languages. The first part of the Christian Bible consists of texts from the Hebrew Bible, referred to since the second century by Christian writers as the Old Testament. Medieval Christians understood it not only as a historical document but also as a body of prophecy that specifically foretold the coming of Christ. The New Testament comprises accounts of Christ’s life, the Gospels, letters to churches or individuals from his disciples, such as apostles Peter and Paul, and a text about the end of time known as Apocalypse or Revelation. Illuminated Bibles—handwritten and printed alike—are among the most enduring forms of Christian book art produced during the Middle Ages.

The words that the angel Jibril (Gabriel) recited to the prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah, about 560-632, formed the sacred text of the Qur’an. The opening line, “In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful,” a central tenet of Islam that expresses submission to the will of Allah, is repeated in almost every surah or chapter. Muslims transmitted scripture through oral tradition for the first few centuries, and later recorded it through beautiful and ornate calligraphy. Artists incorporated Quranic verses into books, textiles, coins, ceramics, and architecture, demonstrating reverence for the written word. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Islamic word spanned a vast territory, from the Iberian Peninsula to northern and coastal Africa, across the Mediterranean basin, and as far as Central and Eastern Asia.

Art of Three Faiths: A Torah, a Bible, and a Qur’an is curated by Kristen Collins, Bryan Keene, and Elizabeth Morrison, of the department of Manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition will be on view August 7, 2018 through February 3, 2019. 

Image: Decorated Text Page (Book of Exodus) from the Rothschild Pentateuch, France and/or Germany, 1296. Leaf: 10 7/8 x 8 1/4 in. (27.5 x 21 cm). Ms. 116 (2018.43), fol. 119v

New York—A mammoth auction of Vintage Posters on August 1 set at least six auction records, including a new high price for Sutro Baths. The text-free variant of the 1896 poster, promoting a former San Francisco landmark, brought $23,400. The exhibition for Swann Galleries’ annual summer auction was overflowing, taking both exhibition floors at the house’s Flatiron district premises.

Alphonse Mucha’s Times of the Day was the top lot of the auction, selling to an institution for $40,000. Other Mucha works received significant attention from collectors: Bières de la Meuse, 1897, sold for $17,500 over an $8-12,000 presale estimate, and Salon des Cent, 1896, brought $10,000. The sale set a record price for Peter Behren’s Der Kuss, 1898, a color woodcut published by Pan magazine, at $5,000. Other Art Nouveau highlights included Marcello Dudovich’s 1908 design for the Italian department store Mele ($6,500).

The auction offered an unusually broad selection of food and drink posters, with sections devoted to Leonetto Cappiello and Luciano Achille Mauzan. The former's Carnaval / Vinho do Porto, 1911, brought $18,750. Manuel Orazi’s Ligue Vinicole de France, 1901, an elegant image positioning wine as the wholesome answer to the modern world’s ills, brought a record $10,625. Ludwig Hohlwein’s Kathreiner Weine, 1913, was purchased by an institution for $4,750. As a firm counterargument to the virtues of a perfectly aged bottle of wine, a group of 20 small-format posters issued by the American Temperance Society sold for $2,125.

Wartime propaganda, for which these sales are known, included both marketplace mainstays and surprises. Among top lots were perhaps the two most iconic posters in the world: James Montgomery Flagg’s I Want You brought $10,000, while the anonymously designed Keep Calm and Carry On, a 1939 image from Great Britain’s propaganda efforts in WWII, sold for $12,500. Soviet Constructivist images performed well, with posters by Gustav Klutsis and Nikolai Andreevich Dolgorukov among the top lots ($9,375 and $6,750, respectively). Two posters designed by Arthur Szyk in the 1940s for the war effort, encouraging American soldiers to “Fool the Axis - Use Prophylaxis,” sold for $4,750 and $4,000, new auction records over estimates of just $800 to $1,200 apiece. 

Nicholas Lowry, Swann Galleries’ President and Director of Vintage Posters, noted that “the results were representative of the kind of poster passion that has driven the success of these auctions over the last two decades. As is usual in our August sales, WWI and WWII propaganda and Art Nouveau performed well, but unexpected highlights also indicate a buoyant market for psychedelic, protest, artist and exhibition posters.”

The next auction of Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries, Rare & Important Travel Posters, is scheduled for October 25, 2018. Swann Galleries holds at least five poster auctions each year and is currently accepting quality consignments for auctions in 2019.

Furthermore grants in publishing, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, is pleased to announce the Short List for the 2018 Alice Award. This year, the sixth year of the Alice, $25,000 will be given for the Alice Award and $5,000 to each of the shortlisted books. 

Debi Cornwall: Welcome to Camp America, Inside Guantánamo Bay

Radius Books

Santa Fe, New Mexico 

“O’er the Wide and Tractless Sea:” Original Art of the Yankee Whale Hunt

New Bedford Whaling Museum

New Bedford, Massachusetts

Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin

Yale University Press

London, United Kingdom; New Haven, Connecticut

Furthermore received over 100 submissions for the 2018 Alice, including books that have received funding from Furthermore and are automatically considered for the Award. The Alice 2018 shortlisted books are geographically diverse and all three have been recognized for focusing attention on subjects that are culturally significant in their various fields and not considered of broad general interest by mainstream publishers.  The books meet the criteria of the Alice as being “well-made illustrated books, that afford a special sense of intimacy.”

In addition to taking us inside Guantanámo Bay and raising questions for the reader to ponder through photographs and text, the design of Debi Cornwall:  Welcome to Camp America has an exposed binding and individual sheets that are not stitched into the binding.  The book, published by Radius Books a non-profit publisher located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, accompanied an exhibition that opened at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York City and was then exhibited at the Fotofest Biennial, Houston, Texas and the Philadelphia Photo Art Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

The subject of American whaling is outlined with text, drawings, paintings, journal pages, posters, and other ephemera in a beautifully designed book written by Michael P. Dyer and entitled: “O’er the Wide and Tractless Sea:” Original Art of the Yankee Whale Hunt.  The book was published by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts. 

Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin, published by Yale University Press in New Haven, Connecticut and London, United Kingdom, positions Latin America as a source of artistic and scientific study and connects this history with what was happening in Europe during the same time period. Visual Voyages was published in collaboration with the Huntington Library, San Marino, California to accompany the exhibition with the same title. 

ALICE JURY:

R.O. Blechman, Illustrator

Paula Cooper, Director, Paula Cooper Gallery

David Godine, Publisher

Sharon Helgason Gallagher, President & Publisher, Artbook/D.A.P.

Ian Wardropper, Director, the Frick Collection

Chair: Jock Reynolds, Former Director, Yale University Art Gallery  

THE ALICE AWARD

The $25,000 Alice award, inaugurated in 2013 and administered by Furthermore grants in publishing, is given to a book that represents excellence in all aspects of the work—from idea to design to quality of production. This is the sixth Alice Award and $160,000 will have been contributed to institutions in support of illustrated publications when the Alice is presented in October. The book receiving the Alice will be announced on the Furthermore website (furthermore.org) on Monday, 8 October at 12:00 noon. 

Every book receiving a grant from Furthermore is eligible for the Alice.  Books not receiving funding from Furthermore may be submitted for consideration for the Alice if they are a 501(c)3 organization and have acted as a partner in the book’s production.  The submission process opens on 1 January and closes on 1 April.  Books published in the calendar year prior and up to the submission deadline will be considered. 

The Alice Award will be presented on Monday, 29 October 2018 at the Strand Book Store.  

ALICE M. KAPLAN:

The Alice honors Alice M. Kaplan, who was the co-founder of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. Mrs. Kaplan energetically encouraged the Kaplan Fund to support music, dance, libraries, and the visual arts. Joan K. Davidson, Ms. Kaplan's daughter, who is the founder and president of Furthermore and president emeritus of the Kaplan Fund, said, "My mother loved and collected the handsome illustrated book as itself a work of art, and since that kind of book depends upon the efforts of many creators—writer, designer, editor, and publisher—it is a commitment to that joint effort that the Alice will acknowledge and celebrate.”

Furthermore, founded in 1995, is a unique form of philanthropic support for nonfiction publishing that has given grants to nearly 1,200 publication projects—for writing, research, illustrations, editing, indexing, printing and binding, and more—totaling over $5 million. In establishing the Alice, Furthermore celebrates the program’s history of honoring outstanding book publishing and furthering its goal to provide significant support for the continuing creation of timeless and beautiful books. Furthermore is a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund which was founded in 1945 by Jacob M. Kaplan.

Chicago - Potter and Potter Auctions' midsummer event was a bibliophile's dream, drawing attention and buyers from every corner of the globe! When the hammer fell for the last time, 25 lots realized between $1,000-1,999; 15 lots made between $2,000-$9,999; and three lots scored $12,000 or more! Prices noted include the company's 20% buyer's premium. 

The three top lots in this auction all represented periods of great transition in world history. Lot #556, Emil Orlik's Aus Japan from 1904, was estimated at $10,000-15,000 and realized $18,000. Orlik was one of the first Western artists welcomed to Japan in 1900; he traveled to this traditionally secretive country to learn its print making techniques. His documentation of everyday Japanese life remains an important body of work today.  Lot #369, an engraving of the United States Declaration of Independence realized $16,800. This example was from volume I of Peter Force’s 1837-1853 series of books, American Archives. It is suspected that only 500 copies of the Force declaration were printed, making this Potter & Potter offering quite revolutionary in its own way. And lot #383, a 1917 US Army recruitment poster titled Destroy This Mad Brute/Enlist illustrated by H.R. Hopps, marched its way to $12,000. Its visceral call to enlist, which prominently features a monster primate, Lady Liberty, blood, and a cudgel in its design, blatantly expressed many American's deep-held fears of a German invasion.

This sale presented an a to z selection of important and rare books, with about 350 lots on offer. Lot #234, Edward Tracy Turnerell's two volume Russia on the Borders of Asia. Kazan, The Ancient Capital of the Tartar Khans trekked to $2,880 on its $200-400 estimate.  This first edition set was published in 1854 by London's Richard Bentley. Lot #38, a first edition of Kahlil Gibran's Jesus The Son of Man made $2,160 - more than seven times its low estimate! This example was inscribed by the author and published in 1928 by Alfred A. Knopf, New York.  And lot #26, a first edition of Philip K. Dick's 1962 The Man in the High Castle traded hands at $660. 

Fine, novel, and humorous photographs provided another focal point to this comprehensive sale. Everything worked out in the end with lot #469, a c. 1940s Louis Armstrong signed “Swiss Kriss” laxatives print advertising photo. Estimated at $400-800, it sold for $1,320. Lot #464, an inscribed and signed 1920-era publicity photo of boxer Jack Johnson pulled no punches, generating a whopping 19 bid and realizing $3,120.  And lot #424, a pair of 1908 photo albums of Cincinnati building construction projects from the Ailing Construction Co. climbed to $1,320. 

Museum-quality ephemera spanning three centuries also captured the imagination of collectors at this sale. Lot #411, a 1860-era Missouri Civil War recruitment broadside, battled its way to $1,440.  This bold letterpress recruitment poster offered handsome bounties to veterans and recruits alike to serve in Col. Sigel’s third volunteer infantry regiment. Lot #457, a 1928 Babe Ruth “Vote for Al Smith” real photo postcard made $900 on its $200-300 estimate.  This glossy original treasure pictured Ruth in bowler hat and cigar, with a flyer pinned to his lapel endorsing Al Smith for president.  And lot #567, a Tate Gallery Exhibition Booklet from 1971 with Andy Warhol’s “Marilyn Monroe" on the front and signed by the artist realized $2,640.

This memorable sale came full circle with carefully curated selections of posters, illustrations, artwork, and other temptations. It was a clothes encounter with lot #31, a group of three pre-production costume design drawings for the character Dick Diver from the 1962 film Tender is the Night.  They were illustrated by Academy Award winning costume designer Marjorie Best and realized $1,440.  Lot #444, a binder of 1920-era German notgeld, or regional currency, rang up $1,440.  This collection included over 450 different uncirculated monies.  And lot #384, a 1918 poster featuring a kneeling Boy Scout and a flag draped Lady Liberty sold for $900 - more than double its high estimate.  It was illustrated by Joseph Leyendecker and promoted the purchase of USA Bonds through the Third Liberty Loan Campaign.  

According to Gabe Fajuri, President at Potter & Potter Auctions, "Our book and manuscript sales continue offering diverse material, and the results of this auction show strong interest across all categories. The results show that demand for quality material is strong, and we are already looking forward to a full calendar of similar auctions in 2019." 

Potter & Potter, founded in 2007, is a Chicago area auction house specializing in paper Americana, vintage advertising, rare books, playing cards, gambling memorabilia, posters, fine prints, vintage toys, and magicana - antiques and collectibles related to magic and magicians. The company's next sale, its annual Summer Magic Auction, will be held on August 28, 2018.  For more information, please see www.potterauctions.com.  

Sunday 26th August 2018 marks the 250th Anniversary of Captain James Cook’s departure on the first of his famous three voyages to the Pacific. He set sail on HMS Endeavour from Plymouth Harbour in 1768 having been commissioned by King George III.

Peter Harrington, the UK’s largest rare bookseller, has a complete set of James Cook’s 3 voyages, including a copy of The Life of Captain Cook by Andrew Kippis, for sale (£37,500), as well as rare books on each of the voyages and other books by and about Captain James Cook.

As Pom Harrington the owner of Peter Harrington says “The British explorer, navigator, cartographer and naval officer Captain Cook made three incredible voyages to the Pacific in which he surveyed and named new places, and features, and these voyages made great contributions to many fields of knowledge. These books would form the cornerstone of any book collection on the Pacific and many people would love to own these rare books about Cook’s fascinating historical adventures.”

Complete set of the three voyages by Captain James Cook with The Life of Captain Cook by Andrew Kippis (1773-1785) - £37,500

4 works in 10 volumes: This set includes first editions of the first two voyages made by Cook, the preferred second edition of his third voyage and a first edition of Kippis's biography of Captain Cook. The 10 volumes are attractively bound with wonderful illustrations. The extra-large maps and illustrations from the third voyage are contained in a separate atlas folio volume. 

 Highlights of Captain Cook’s Three Voyages:

• During Cook's first voyage he observed the 1769 transit of Venus from Tahiti, discovered the Society Islands, made the first circumnavigation and charts of New Zealand and he led the first European expedition to the eastern coast of Australia which he charted and claimed for Britain on 22nd August 1770, naming it New South Wales;
• In 1772 he was sent on his second voyage to search for Terra Australis or the great southern land mass which was supposed to lie between New Zealand and South America. In 1773 he made the first recorded crossing of the Antarctic Circle and proved no ‘Terra Australis’ existed. On route to New Zealand he discovered a host of islands including Easter Island, Tahiti, Vanuatu and New Caledonia and he also mapped South Georgia before returning to London in 1775;
• In 1776 he left on his third voyage and in 1778 became the first European to visit Hawaii and went on to explore the west coast of North America passing through the Bering Strait before returning to Hawaii. Back in Hawaii quarrels broke out between the Europeans and local people which led to Cook’s death in February 1779.

Cook’s First Voyage

An Account of the Voyages undertaken…for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere...compiled by John Hawkesworth (1773) - £9,750

This is a handsome first edition, 3 volume set, of the official account of Cook's first voyage, together with accounts of previous expeditions under Byron, Carteret and Wallis, compiled by John Hawkesworth.

Hawkesworth was a respected London author and was commissioned by the Admiralty to edit the journals of the sea captains. Although this book was a huge success and became a best-seller, it was less successful for Hawkesworth who was attacked by the captains for tampering with the texts of their journals, by prudish readers for reprinting descriptions of the sexual freedoms of the South Sea islanders, and by devout churchmen for the immoral introduction. Hawkesworth was devastated by the criticism, and it was thought to be the main cause of his death. 

Cook’s Second Voyage

A Voyage Towards the South Pole, and Round the World, James Cook (1777) - £5,000

A first edition of Cook’s second and historically most important voyage, and the only one to be included in Printing and the Mind of Man as one of the printed books that made the greatest impact on humanity. In his circumnavigation of the globe in this voyage, Cook conclusively disproved the existence of a great southern continent, or ‘Terra Australis’, which was believed by some to connect Australia with a larger southern landmass. This account was written by Cook himself and it is noted for its very high-quality illustrations.

Cook’s Third Voyage

A Journal of Captain Cook's Last Voyage to the Pacific Ocean (1783) - £18,750

A remarkably well-preserved first edition of this rare book which is the first American account of Cook's third voyage, which preceded publication of the official (London) account by more than a year. This was the first American book about the Northwest coast of America and probably the first American book on Hawaii. It was written by the Connecticut-born John Ledyard who served under Cook.

The books are on display at Peter Harrington in Fulham Road, Chelsea. Peter Harrington offers an unconditional guarantee of every item’s authenticity and completeness as described. For more information see: www.peterharrington.co.uk