Sunday in Boston with some very pretty books...

ABAA fairs are great fun (all the more so when/if I get to show there, of course). Almost no place else can you find the breadth and depth of material you can see at any given ABAA fair. As with all fairs, it also is an opportunity to see your friends, acquaintances and others...the ABAA fairs are, in part, fun because so many of the EU dealers come over. It was great to see Christian Jonkers, who is just a great book dealer and a genuinely nice human. Pom Harrington was there and brought with him one of my favorite bookman (and crazy person) on earth, Adam Blakeney (Adam, for the love of all that is holy, please just send the Monnier material).

My friend, Bryan Bilby (Appledore Books) had a wonderful booth location and some genuinely stunning material. Another friend of mine, Fran Durako (The Kelmscott Bookshop), was there at her first ABAA show, having been admitted in the last cycle. Her booth was lovely and her stock, as always, covetous. It was also Susan Weiser Liebegott's (Enchanted Books) first show and she, too, had just lovely material.

We also attended, with Priscilla Juvelis, the seminar on the Art of the Book. It was a panel discussion on book arts and artist books with James Reid-Cunningham (Chief Conservator of the Boston Athenaeum), Ruth Rogers (Special Collections Librarian at Wellesley College), Nancy Leavitt (book artist). It was very interesting and attending it with one of the real experts in the field was very fun.

Overall, it was a great day. I picked up some really nice things for clients and/or stock, learned new things and had a lot of fun. What more can you ask for...