ABAA News

THE JOY OF PUBLISHING (An Unbridled Adventure)

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

A Bookseller details his years as a publisher.

The Cartographic Impact of MacDonald Gill’s Wonderground Map of 1913

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

An interesting article on MacDonald Gill and his Wonderground Map of the London Tube.

Selling Civilization

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

A look at a life in bookselling by Canadian dealer David Mason.

John Windle discusses Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Dwell Magazine has done a piece on Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. ABAA member, John Windle, discusses a very unique edition printed in the 1980s.

Members in the News: John Doyle

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

John Doyle, proprietor of Crawford Doyle Booksellers, is featured in an article about New York City's Carnegie Hill neighborhood.

Stuart Lutz talks to NPR about Presidential Autographs

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

New Pacific Northwest Chapter Website

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

BLOGGING WITH THE ABAA

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Links to various blogs on the book trade.

Interview with Larry McMurtry

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Interview with Kenneth Gloss

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

The Baltimore Antique Show

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Reports from the Bibliographic Bunker on William S. Burroughs Collecting

A Collector’s Primer to the Wonders of Fore-edge Painting

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

One of the most unusual types of book decoration is fore-edge paintings.

The Rare Life

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

An article about Priscilla Lowry-Gregor and David Gregor, two ABAA members in Washington state.

Check out the new MAC Chapter website!

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Madeleine B. Stern, Bookseller and Sleuth, Dies at 95

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Snippets from Madeleine Stern's Obituary

A Writer Finds the Rare Lives of Two Rare Book Dealers Worth Singing About

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Snippets from a NY Times article regarding "Bookends" - the play about Madeleine B. Stern and Leona Rostenberg.

The ABAA and You

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

A brief essay on what the ABAA is. We are a trade association of over 450 members located throughout the United States. Our members specialize in fine and rare books, maps, documents, autographs, illuminated manuscripts, ephemera and prints which span the economic spectrum.

Rare Books. Rare Brothers. Rare Chance to Profit. Closed

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Snippets from the NY Times article about Heritage closing.

The Libraries of Power

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

"Personal libraries have always been a biopsy of power" says Harriet Rubin in her New York Times piece C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success.

Collecting Mark Twain: A History and Three New Paths

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Collecting Mark Twain; A History and Three New Paths Mark Twain's world-wide appeal endures because his writings appeal to very different people in very different ways. Many of his contemporary readers saw him as a sort of genial corn-pone clown, a grandfatherly figure with a benign wit, and for better or worse, this is the image that persists in the popular mind today. By Kevin MacDonnell

Collecting Herman Melville

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

1991 marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Herman Melville. Numerous observances were held to commemorate the work of that remarkable American writer, so widely forgotten a century ago and so widely celebrated today.

Texts of Choice; The Books of the Modern Library

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

"No army on earth can hold back an idea whose time has come," Victor Hugo is supposed to have said, and he ought to have been speaking of the Modern Library.

Radical Novel: 1900-1954

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Rideout defined the radical novel as "one which demonstrates, either explicitly or implicitly, that its author objects to the human suffering imposed by some socioeconomic system and advocates that the system be fundamentally changed."

John Henry: The Ballad and the Legend

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

When we talk about "John Henry," we may be referring to a ballad, a work song, a folk hero, or a legend. Most familiar is the character John Henry, the man who drove steel on the C & O Road and died with his hammer in his hand. His feat(s) have been memorialized in the ballad.

Collecting Movie Source Books

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Many of the stories being played out on movie screens were not written specifically for movies but based on books-usually novels. These stories are movie source books.

Books on the Blues

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Few people realize that a decent size literature on Blues has accrued over the last century and that many of the books are quite collectible and intensely sought after.

100 Years/100 Books: Highspots of Collectible Children's Books from 1863-1963

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

The world of collectible children's books has come of age.

Early Southeast Asian Geographic Thought

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

To medieval Europe, the East was the source of silks, spices, and other exotica. It was the environs of Paradise, the place of the original Garden but also of the original Sin. It was the horizon from whence the sun rose, the point from which humankind dispersed throughout the inhabited earth, and the subject of much philosophical speculation.

Earnest Lives and Fearless Words: The Literature and Ideals of the Women's Rights Movement

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

The modern women's rights movement arose in a time of revolution and culminated in the winning of suffrage in a world shaken by war.

A Tale of Two Cities

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

This is the best of times. A worst there isn't, not if you are lucky enough to earn your living by dealing in books.

Why Collect Proofs?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

In first edition collecting, "the earlier the better" is the rule.

Splendors and Miseries of being an Author/Bookseller

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

An address delivered to the ABAA annual meeting by Larry McMurtry

The First Hundred Years of Printing in British North America: Printers and Collectors

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

This year marks the 350th anniversary of printing in what is now the United States

Antiquarian Book Collecting in Southern California

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Very few of us will contest the role of the book in the history of Western culture, yet it is surprising that very few people actually own any antiquarian books at all.

Books at the Limit

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Scarcity often makes a book desirable, and it plays an important part in the definition of an entire class of collectible books: private-press or fine-press books, limited editions, livres d'artiste, and artists' books.

Evaluating Books

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Individuals with old books or manuscripts in their possession often wonder how to ascertain the value of such material.

Want to learn more about terms used in the bookselling trade? Click here!

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Introduction to Book Collecting

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Book collectors start as readers. This may seem obvious but is important to keep in mind, for the majority of book collectors collect authors or subjects that they are currently reading or have read and enjoyed.

View Back Issues of the ABAA Newsletter

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

The ABAA publishes a quarterly Newsletter aimed at Members, Collectors, and Booksellers. To subscribe or see what's happening in the world of rare books, click here.

Pastures of Heaven, a Film

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Nearly everyone interested in John Steinbeck can reel off a string of his books that have been made into films. But The Pastures of Heaven, you ask?

Armed Services Editions

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

It is the middle of World War II. Soldiers are on their way to the front lines of both the Pacific and European Theaters. Other soldiers are already there. Still others have bee

Bookmarks

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

A. W. Coysh in his work Collecting bookmarkers, a history of English bookmarks, states: The need for some device to mark the place in a book was recognized at an early date. "The need for some device to mark the place in a book was recognized at an early date. Without boo

Paper Dolls

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Genealogical research reveals that the ancestor of today's paper dolls were pantins, first popular in France during the mid-1700s.

My World of Ephemera and Welcome to It

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

I am not your average collector as I collect a very wide range of items. My interest in collecting antique papers and postcards postcards dates back to my childhood. My mother was interest

Benjamin Franklin's Job Printing

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Benjamin Franklin was one of the most remarkable figures in colonial America. His accomplishments were considerable even before he represented the American colonies

Valentines - The Language of Love

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

For more than twenty-five years, Valentines have been a passion for me - and I have constantly sought examples of virtually every kind that exists! Each acquisition seemed to lead to another, and each was a piece of the puzzle that I was assembling.

The Poster Wave Reaches America's Shores

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

The last 10 years have seen a renaissance in vintage poster collecting in the United States. The last time that posters were so avidly collected, they weren't "vintage" at all.

The Secret Life of Victorian Cards

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Like other forms of mass-produced ephemera, cards of all types proliferated with the new technologies of the mid-1800s, allowing for increased social interaction and the regulation of social standards which characterized the Victorian era.

Why Collect Proofs?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:04:23 -0500

Proof copies, if you follow your nose and are willing to take small risks, can be great investments--because even if the author doesn't "hit" and the monetary values don't go sky-high, you've still got a scarce, unusual, often textually significant version of the author's work.