The Bathtub Collection...Dorothy Schullian and some [not actually] dirty books

The National Library of Medicine is hosting an exhibition of its "Bathtub Collection"...a collection of material discovered when old bindings held by the library were conserved. The collection was started in the 1940s when the Library began a conservation program, retaining Dorothy Shullian as curator and Jean Eschman, a master binder. Eschman repaired many bindings, but replaced many, as well. Shullian was clever enough to save the boards:

Though she did not consider many of the intact bindings worth preserving, she was aware of the interest and value of the materials from which they were made. When the books were rebound in the bindery, instead of discarding the old covers, Dr. Schullian, took them home, soaked them in her bathtub to loosen the paste and separate the layers of paper or parchment, hung them up to dry, and placed them in envelopes, labeled with information about the volume from which they were removed. The History of Medicine Division staff came to refer to them as the "Bathtub Collection," both a tribute to Dr. Schullian's labors and a mark of affection for this eccentric assemblage.

They have many examples (like these and these) of the treasures found within the bindings. My wife does not seem pleased with the idea of soaking apart boards in the tub...

A lark with The Lark

So I'm cataloguing a very nice copy of two volume complete run of The Lark (San Fran, 1897). It was, for those who are not familiar with it, the American equivalent to the British "Yellow Book"...a blend of creative writing, cartoons and miscellany.

It was also the first place that Gelett Burgess' famed, "Purple Cow" first appeared (in Issue One):

I never saw a purple cow
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

In the final issue (24 [N.B. this was followed by the penultimate issue, "Epilark"]), Burgess wrote the following (also with a great woodcut):

Ah, yes, I wrote the "Purple Cow"—
I'm Sorry, now, I wrote it;
But I can tell you Anyhow
I'll Kill you if you Quote it!

Vol. 2 includes two great photographs of R.L. Stevenson. Sometimes you forget how many truly wonderful things there are "out there". Sometimes they show up in your hands.

Serendipity at Serendipity (or: how I spent the nicest afternoon I can recall)

So shortly after my last post I set out for Serendipity Book in Berkley. The shop is legendary, as its owner, Peter B. Howard. One of the things I was looking forward to on this trip out, and part of the reason I came out early was to be able to spend time at this shop. Six hours later, I can attest that it was one of the very best days I've I had in a long time and that I only just scratched the surface (I did not even get upstairs at all.

The definition of serendipity is the art of finding something while seeking something else. I suggest it is impossible to enter Peter B.'s shop seeking X and not finding wonderful copies of A, G, Q, V and Z. There are just so many books...great books, unique association copies, you name it...that you simply can't process it. I arrives shortly before noontime and do not think I left until around 6pm or so. I spent the first hour or so just wandering around the labyrinth-like rooms and sub-rooms, trying to make some sort of sense of where to start and how to proceed. Ultimately, I started and the front and worked back (to the back of the front room....argh).

A quick description of the pictures might help. The first is taken at the front doors looking in, diagonally across the front room (in the shot, r to l, are Joe Maynard, David Bergman and Peter B. (seated)). The next image is looking at the front wall from about the middle of the room [N.B. the white space above the windows is at 8 or 9 feetish...and then there is another five vertical feet of books...I have not idea what is up there, but I want to know...]. The next is looking down the main side room, brown bags filled with amazing things, you carefully go down through bits of this and that and suddenly happen upon something remarkable...serendipity, indeed [N.B. at the right side you can see one of the two sets of sliding shelves allowing Peter B. to keep far too many good books on site]. Finally, though hard to see, is the two volume set of The Key to Serendipity [Vol. 1, How to Buy Books from Peter B. Howard and Vol. 2, How to Find Books in Spite of Peter B. Howard]. Every shop should require at least one book to understand its working and nuances....some obviously might need two...or more.

It took a great deal of self control, but I managed to only leave with a half dozen books. The range of what I took home gives a great micro-glance of the shop. Item 1: a wonderful little collection of hand-colored erotic plates of the The Seven Deadly Sins; Item 2: a lovely copy of a Nonesuch Press volume that is very hard to find in nice condition; Item 3: a 1803 imprint of Astle's The Origin and Progress of Writing in the remains of its original binding (and with all its fabulous plates present). Just a ridiculously diverse group of serendipitously found books.

To top off a lovely day, I managed not to have to ride the BART back as Craig Harris (Bridge of Dreams) was in the shop for most of the afternoon and offered to drive me (and my new friends) back to the hotel. We were joined my Suzanne (who had been working in the hotel all day) and went out for a nice dinner of Greek food. Yum.

Set-up is tomorrow, starting at 9am. I'll keep you posted.

"...so much trash belonging to the worst school of Bedlam literature."

Happy Birthday Moby Dick. Today in 1851, the US saw the first edition of Moby Dick and it was received as nicely as it had the previous month in the UK. It appears the critics might have been wrong...or at least that no one else cared what they thought...either way, its a whale of a book. I've read it twice, once back in HS in, as I recall, a sort of trade paper edition and more recently the Random House trade ed. of the Kent illustrated (I managed not to read either of the Lakeside copies I've had recently). Though many years passed between the readings, I am quite certain the "experience" of reading the book was greatly improved by the Kent illustrations. [thanks to TiL for the reminder]

Auction fun...

It's been a busy bit on the small, strange auction front. A reasonably good eye and some good luck can be great fun at these small auctions. Even at these little, off the beaten path auctions, high points in good condition often go for what they are worth. Every now and then, you luck out (I just picked up a very clean copy of the Wyeth signed/limited Drums at a surprisingly good price)...but is is by chance and luck.

On the other hand, I have had a great time finding slightly/very unusual pieces for a song, as it were. These are the things I really enjoy having. Books with a strong and interesting back story. While it will be much easier to sell the Drums, the wee memorial volume, created for a young man who died while at Oxford and inscribed by his mother (a minor noble) to another woman (an American aristocrat) at the death of her son, in hopes it would bring her solace, is just a "better" piece. Harder to sell, but more interesting, I think.

There is no doubt that a very sexy bit of eye candy will sell with relative ease and a reasonable margin, but it is just more fun to find a lovely copy of the The Lives of the Chief Justices that was in the collection of Ambassador Jay, a direct descendant of the first Chief Justice, John Jay. Moreover, finding the "right" person...the one who covets the book for its association and history, is so much more fun than selling nice books to nice collectors (admittedly, this is also very nice).

Anyway, I am going back to cataloguing the 59 volumes I just picked up. What a great way to spend the day.

How do you read [rather, how do you like your affairs]...

So, NYT Magazine has a short interview with Pierre Bayard about his new book, "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read." This is, apparently, a best seller in France and is about to be released in this country. His book apparently advocates "skimming":

Q: Then why are you so willing to devalue the experience of close reading in favor of skimming? You seem to believe that knowing a little bit about 100 literary classics is preferable to knowing one book intimately.

A: I think a great reader is able to read from the first line to the last line; if you want to do that with some books, it's necessary to skim other books. If you want to fall in love with someone, it's necessary to meet many people. You see what I mean?

I love this last bit. It explains my *extremely* promiscuous nature when it comes to my bibliophilic affairs.

Fine Books announces Collegiate Book Collecting Champions

Scott Brown and the fine folks at Fine Books have announced the winners of the 2007 Annual Collegiate Book Collecting Championship. This contest is open to winners of any college/university collecting contest and, this year, has become quite international. Lux Mentis is extremely pleased to be a sponsor of this event. The future of this profession rests with emerging collectors...and if this year's crop of entrants is any example, there are some brilliant collections (and collectors) in the making.

I have copied the Fine Books press release below (a bit more information is available at their blog):

World-Champion Book Collectors Named
The passion for books is alive and well
on college campuses

(Eureka, Calif.) – Fine Books & Collections magazine announced the winners of its second annual Collegiate Book-Collecting Championship today. The international coterie of winners include a British classics student, a New Zealand citizen studying in New York state, and a young mathematician from Los Angeles.
With a collection of ancient Greek and Roman writers in editions dating back to 1515, Cambridge University student David Butterfield took first place in the championship and a $2,500 cash prize. Diana Looser, a New Zealander studying drama at Cornell University, earned second place for her collection of plays written by Pacific Island natives. She wins $1,000 for her efforts. The $500 award for third place goes to Craig Citro, of UCLA, for his collection exploring the works and influence of mathematician Emil Artin. Each winner also receives an expense-paid trip to Seattle for the awards ceremony to be held on October 12. Fine Books & Collections magazine, which started the competition in 2006, will also make a donation to each student’s college library.
The Fine Books & Collections Collegiate Book-Collecting Championship is open to the winners of all college contests held anywhere in the world. It’s a runoff among the best of the best student collectors. The judges consider how well the students pursued their particular theme, not the monetary value of their collection.
The first place winner, Butterfield, 21, built a collection of several thousand antiquarian books in just four years, using money received from scholarships and for co-editing the forthcoming Penguin Latin Dictionary. Looser assembled her second-place collection, a library of the plays of Oceania, on a more modest budget. “Most of her books and manuscripts are not terribly expensive or rare,” Fine Books & Collections’s editor Scott Brown said. “But as a group, they comprise the most significant collection of such material in the mainland United States. Her collection preserves an indigenous art that otherwise might have been lost precisely because they have little monetary value.”
The tradition of book-collecting competitions began in the 1920s, when the first contest was held at Swarthmore College. Today, more than three dozen universities in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain hold contests. While the rules vary from place to place, students typically write a brief essay describing their collection and provide an annotated list of their books. At Yale, which has one of the oldest competitions, the judges still visit the competing students in their dorm rooms. Many leading librarians, book historians, and antiquarian dealers won book-collecting contests as undergraduates.

Congratulations to all the winners. We look forward to meeting you (and seeing all who are inclined to join us) at the awards ceremony during the Seattle Book Fair.

How does it feel to be a genius, Sir?

TiL made my day with the following:

On this day in 1928 Sylvia Beach hosted a dinner party in order that F. Scott Fitzgerald, who "worshipped James Joyce, but was afraid to approach him," might do so. In her Shakespeare and Company memoir Beach delicately avoids describing what happened, although she perhaps suggests an explanation: "Poor Scott was earning so much from his books that he and Zelda had to drink a great deal of champagne in Montmartre in an effort to get rid of it." According to Herbert Gorman, another guest and Joyce's first biographer, Fitzgerald sank down on one knee before Joyce, kissed his hand, and declared: "How does it feel to be a great genius, Sir? I am so excited at seeing you, Sir, that I could weep." As the evening progressed, Fitzgerald "enlarged upon Nora Joyce's beauty, and, finally, darted through an open window to the stone balcony outside, jumped on to the eighteen-inch-wide parapet and threatened to fling himself to the cobbled thoroughfare below unless Nora declared that she loved him."

... Joyce was alarmed at [Fitzgerald's] falling-angel side -- "That young man must be mad," he later told Beach. "I'm afraid he'll do himself an injury some day" -- but he handled the American exuberance with Old World charm. When Fitzgerald sent him a copy of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man a few days later, asking for a dedication, Joyce sent back this note: "Herewith is the book you gave me, signed, and I am adding a portrait of the artist as a once young man with the thought of your much obliged but most pusillanimous guest."

I have just spent several pleasing minutes drinking coffee and contemplating which limb (or, possibly, two) I would forgo to possess a copy of Portrait inscribed by Joyce to FSF. And happy belated Bloomsday. I have clearly been too busy.

Mildly interesting coincidence...

Courtesy of TiL, we learn that on this very day, in 1763, Samuel Johnson and James Boswell first met and in commemoration of this event, on this very day in 1791 Boswell published his Life of Johnson. In and of itself, this is a fun bit of information to know.

Interestingly, I had a new client give me a lovely 1793 Second and Augmented Edition of Life of Johnson just yesterday. I love it when the universe works in entertaining ways...

Baxter meeting - Priscilla Juvelis

Priscilla Juvelis spoke last evening at the Baxter Society. Her topic was, "Women Under the Influence: The Persistence of Books and Book Culture in Women's Lives". She is, for those unfortunate enough to have failed to make her acquaintance, a past president of the ABAA and an absolutely *brilliant* book dealer. Priscilla entered the business under the tutelage of John Flemming, himself under the arm of The Doctor. Spending time with Priscilla is spending time at the end, as it were, of over 120 years of the very best of book(wo)man. I should mention that she is also personally responsible for defining and driving two (and a half, or so) major collecting areas.

Her presentation was exception. I learned more in an hour and a half or so on the subject than I learned in the last book I read on the subject. I also, horrifyingly, added a half dozen books to my "read these soon" list (to be distinguished from the "read these in the near future," "read these when you get a chance," and "read these someday" lists). Do not miss a chance to hear her speak.

An importand day...(far more than my slow crawl toward death)

Finnegans Wake was published on this day in 1939.

I am passing out. O bitter ending! I'll slip away before they're up. They'll never see. Nor know. Nor miss me. And it's old and old it's sad and old it's sad and weary I go back to you, my cold father, my cold mad father, my cold mad feary father, till the near sight of the mere size of him, the moyles and moyles of it, moananoaning, makes me seasilt saltsick and I rush, my only, into your arms, I see them rising! Save me from those therrble prongs! Two more. Onetwo moremens more. So. Avelaval. My leaves have drifted from me. All. But one clings still. I'll bear it to me. To remind me of. Lff! So soft this morning, ours. Yes. Carry me along, taddy, like you done through the toy fair! If I seen him bearing down on me now under whitespread wings like he'd come from Arkangels, I sink I'd die down over his feet, humbly dumbly, only to washup. Yes, tid. There's where. First. We pass through grass behush the bush to. Whish! A gull. Gulls. Far calls. Coming, far! End here. Us then. Finn, again! Take. Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thousendsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone at last a loved a long the
~James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, 1939, IV

I read FW for the first time when I was about 15 at my Grandfather's mildly malicious suggestion. I wrote a book report about it, using (to the best of my stunted ability) Joyce's language and cyclical style. Years later the English teacher I wrote it for told me that they had read the first two pages, understood *what* I had done, but didn't understand any of it...gave me an A+ and moved on. Somewhere, it is still kicking around...I need to find it and see if it is as horrid as I think it probably was...

I quoted the above (near the end of the novel) because it so summed up my grandfather's death. My grandfather was a lay Joyce scholar (born and raised in Belfast, Ireland and a great lover of Irish lit.). He woke one morning, did not wake my grandmother. He went into the kitchen and got a glass from the cabinet, got poured himself a glass of orange juice and returned the container to the fridge. He sat down at the kitchen table and died. My grandmother woke a hour or so later, went into the kitchen and found my grandfather sitting at the table with a full glass of juice in front of him, dead. Leave it to my grandfather to have such a wonderfully Joycean death.

Carry me along, taddy, like you done through the toy fair!

In NY and set up...

No images this evening. We just didn't have time (and the camera was in the car)...I'll post some tomorrow. The booth is set up. The layout is strange...but our booth looks pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. We are trying an experimental design (due in large part to limited space. I've built to towers of 4 shelves each with the spanner shelves my father designed/built between all (12 in total). We also picked up a second glass case, to help show off Crystal Cawley's book art work and Julie Stackpole's art bindings.

Setup was a madhouse. Smallish, windy space...no parking/unloading area. Many people received $120 tickets for "standing". I lucked out, pulled out just before the police officer started writing up ours, then was directed by a second officer up a bit further to a legal spot. Bodes well for the weekend, I hope. Nerves were a bit frazzled...but lots of people there and some of my favorite folks, to boot.

It took us about 6-7 hours to set up. I wonder if I'll ever get more efficient . I'll update tomorrow about the first day and include some images.

Finally, something to do with my electron microscope:

"Publishers" in Vancouver, BC have created the smallest book "published". Using that publishing standby, the focused gallium-ion beam laser, they have printed "Teeny Ted from Turnip Town". The book measures 0.07mm by 0.10mm (a bit less than the head of a pin). The major enjoyment obstacle to reading this 30 page volume would appear to be the necessity of a scanning electron microscope.

Hmmmmm, birthday is coming...ideas, ideas...

Bookride...an interesting exploration of the uncommon...

(and sometimes quite common). I've just been given a heads up by the author of Bookride and I am both grateful and annoyed. In it Nigel Burwood (Any Amount of Books) engages in an "evaluation of why the book is wanted, what it is worth - with a range of selling prices, some trivia, apercus and bon mots, a few anecdotes, so called jokes and occasional rants."

I am grateful because it is an absolutely great read. I am annoyed because: A) I wish I had the time (and knowledge) to craft as readable entries; b) I did not find it sooner (while it appears to have been launched in Dec., 2006, there are 160 posts already...all eminently readable); c) I know have one more thing that I am going to have to read regularly. Ah, how I suffer.

I expect you will be seeing references in the future to some of his posts. You can start with this post, about a possibly apocryphal James Joyce broadside published by his father when he was 9. I will, I predict, have a dream this evening of opening some dusty copy of Ulysses and finding such laid in...ah, how I love flights of fancy...

Quick follow-up to Heritage events

Scott Brown, et al, at Fine Books and Collections have a great post on what is happening at with and around Heritage Books. Rumors tied up, facts laid out, the hint of what is likely to be an exceptional auction on the horizon. A very good read.

Set up and ready in Boston...

Some people can set up a booth at a book fair in a hour or less. I am not one of them. Today, I managed to take approximately EIGHT hours to set up. While I did kibitz a bit and took a short break for lunch, setup took pretty much from 10:30 to 6:30.

The booth, however, looks pretty good. I've included images that show both "sides" and two close-ups. One of our display case with some wonderful work by a fine binder and a book artist I am working with (more on both shortly).

We ended up requesting an additional 6 foot table because our booth (a double (which inexplicably only meant one extra table)) was so wide that it seemed like it would work well...and did. We have a lot of large illustrated material and it is letting us show these pieces "open".

The last image is of the top shelf of the Rockwell Kent section. It came out unusually presentable and I wanted to capture it before I forgot (or, god forbid, someone buys something). The Architectonics (center frame with the spectacular pub. binding (and DJ)) is one of my all time favorite items. A gem regardless, this is inscribed by Rockwell Kent with the sub-line, "My first job as an illustrator." I had a lovely first trade of Moby Dick to go with the Lakeside Press edition, but it has found another home...

Setup continues tomorrow morning at 7am and the show opens in earnest tomorrow at 10am and runs until 7pm. On Sunday it is open from 10am to 5pm. Then, of course, we've the pleasure of packing up. I am increasingly convinced that shows of less than 2 days don't make a great deal of sense for us. There are, of course, exceptions...but by an large, the longer a show is open, the happier I am...

Packing should be a treat as well. We are staying over on Sunday so I can meet with some clients on Monday, so there will be no rush. However, I think we are going to pack with the idea that we will *not* have to unpack everything before the NY show April 20-21 (nice, at two days, but I am looking forward to joining the ABAA picking up an extra day or so.

I'll try to update as the weekend unfolds. Please stop by if you are in Boston. The usual blueberry jam offer is open to the first non-dealer who stops by and mentions the blog. Happy book-hunting, where-ever you are.

451 degrees isn't so nice for human flesh, either

Thanks to TiL for reminding me that today in 1556, Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake for being "a bit too Protestant" (arguably a balancing by Bloody Mary for Henry VIII's execution of Thomas More for being a bit too Catholic). One of the "Oxford Martyrs" (the other's being Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley), Cranmer was "saved for last", as his recantation was more sought after by Mary. He was, you may recall, the author of The Book of Common Prayer.

The Oxford Martyrs are, at this point, perhaps most widely remembered because Ray Bradbury quoted the last words of Latimer in Fahrenheit 451:

Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.

I would like to think that while I stood on a pyre with a bag of gunpowder hung around my neck, I would have the wherewithal to say something that exceptional. Sadly, I doubt I'd be able to get it out over the whimpering and keening.

Shop(ish) open...

Well, we have begun a wee experiment. We have a collection of "stock" books...generally things we purchased at auction (typically mix lot-ish) or at sales...that are nice, but don't lend themselves to online or show sales and do not generally fit our collection development work. We have been trying to figure out something to do with them that makes sense and might help spread our brand in a positive.

A well-respected group shop in the area, Cabot Mills Antiques had a small space open. The quality of the shop was well established in my mind as Jim Arsenault, one of my more favorite dealers here in Maine, has had a presence there for several years. Thus, we dicided last week to roll the dice on the funny little space (basically between two large glass cases. There is just enough room, as you can see, for one shelf and a wee corner shelf...with the bonus of a big wooden post suitable for hanging plates and the like. We "moved in" on Friday, shelving what you see here. We had one sale over the weekend that has covered the first month, so that's a nice start. We are committed to try it for three months. We shall see.

Happy Death Day to HP Lovecraft.

I am a Lovecraft fan. Lovecraft, who died unexpectedly, early and, most unfortunately, never knowing the power of what he created, died effectively penniless and convinced he was a failure. His first book (A Shunned House) had been printed, but not published when he died. As a result, though there are MANY letters by him (he was a prolific letter writer, as many as 20 letters a day) there is only ONE copy of an inscribed book...a set of loose signatures of Shunned House (shown here).

I will not rant about HPL (others do it so well). I will simply state that he died far too young (46) and thank him for creating a genre. I can not recommend reading his cannon highly enough (or early enough, I give Baby's First Mythos as shower gifts (thanks Nate)). I'll leave you to reflect on his passing with the opening paragraph of "The Call of Cthulu".

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

[S]ex Libris...

Thanks to my friend Nancy for the heads up on the nonist's post Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut.

A clever post (title here stolen) focuses on "the full-frontal objectification of the library itself. Oh yeah." A wonderful collection of images from Candida Höfer's book, "Libraries."

To the right is Trinity College Library, Dublin. It is almost enough to make me go back to school.

A burning issue...a hot marketing ploy....

Publisher's Weekly is running an interesting article on the marketing campaign behind Brock Clarke's novel, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers Homes in New England (due in September). It began, apparently, with a letter sent to book review editors and their ken:

on paper decorated with roses and butterflies addresses a Mr. Pulsifer, and implores him to "burn down Edith Wharton's house." The note, signed "Sincerely, Beatrice Hutchins, Lenox, MA," makes no mention of a book, publisher or publicity effort, nor that Pulsifer and Hutchins are characters from a novel.

There will apparently be two more letters, threatening the homes of two other New England authors leading up to the delivery of the galley's for review.

In light of Boston's ridiculous overreaction to Comedy Centrals' LiteBrite ad campaign, I am certain this will catch flack. That said, I think it is brilliant, engaging and effective. It has already garnered a great deal more press than would otherwise be warranted for a book more than 6 months from release (and not involving a character named Potter).

I will send a jar of wild Maine blueberry jam to anyone who sends me one of these letters...something really special if you send all three (with a bonus for the galley). I look forward to its release.

Thanks to Jerry Blaz for the heads up on this...

Stopping by Woods...

On a Snowy Evening first saw print today in 1923 in The New Republic.

…The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

It was included in New Hampshire, published by Henry Holt (also 1923). On May 11, 1924, New Hampshire won the Pulitzer Prize. As it happens, I have a lovely copy of it, signed by Frost in 1923, and would love to have it go on this anniversary:

Frost, Robert; Lankes, JJ. New Hampshire. New York: Henry Holt, 1923. First Trade Edition. Light shelf/edge wear (focused at head, heel and tips). top tips through, two tiny spots of fraying at head and heel, hint of age toning at text block edges, inscribed by author on ffep, else tight, bright and unmarred. Halfbound, green cloth spine, dark green paper boards, gilt lettering and decorative elements, inlaid gold paper label, black ink lettering, tan mottled endpages, frontispiece. 8vo. 113pp. Illus. (b/w plates). Hardcover. Very Good. No DJ. (3544) $1,750.00

Arguably Frost's most significant book and winner of his first Pulitzer Prize. This volume contains such notable poems as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "Fire and Ice." (See, Crane A6). Inscribed by the author on ffep, "Robert Frost, Amherst, December 1923." Overall, a rather handsome volume.

Bookswim, Netflix for books....

Bookswim is set to roll out in the first quarter of 2007 (which would suggest the end of this month). They promise a catalogue of 80,000 volumes, free shipping in both directions and no late fees...and if you fall in love with your tome, you can purchase it outright. It is, effectively, Netflix for books (with a bonus purchase option).

They are currently offering "free membership" for signing up before the public release. One can also, it appears, buy into them. I am not certain I would invest in them, but the concept is interesting and certainly could have value and a place in the proverbial marketplace.

I have a hard time making the numbers work in my head (and refuse to spend the time/effort to put pen to paper). I with them the best...I'm willing to support anything that puts more books in more peoples hands. I'll be watching.

Thanks to Wonkette for the heads up of the COO interview.

UPDATE:
Anirvan of BookFinder fame forwarded the following list of related sites/services. It would appear that there is, in fact, a viable business model. Thinking about all this also reminded me of the granddaddy of all such things, BookCrossing. I have "released" a number of books to the wild and had far too much fun watching them travel (I've had several travel more broadly than I...very sad).

"NetFlix for books" service
BooksFree
Bookswim

Person-to-person book sharing sites include:
BookMooch
PaperBackSwap
FrugalReader
BookIns
TitleTrader
SwapSimple
WhatsOnMyBookshelf
SwapThing
AmericasBookshelf

I need a tower library (and less appreciation for irony)...

Thanks to TiL for letting me know that today was doubly important to Michel de Montaigne. Firstly, he was born today (well, not "today", but today in 1533). Then, as if the day was not special enough, on this same day in 1571 he retreated to his rather famous tower library. In addition to reading the works of the greats and penning various iterations of what would become his contribution to that same body of work, he carved sixty-five Greek and Latin phrases into the library rafters.

Interestingly, this one is Terence’s famous “I am human; let nothing human be foreign to me.” Personally, I find it hard to ignore the irony of the man carving this phrase into a beam of the tower he is too bound up by his own psychological issues to leave. Then again, I rather envy his life, ""Every day I spend time reading my authors, not caring about their learning, looking not for their subject matter, but how they handle it."

Perhaps more interestingly, over his bookshelves in his primary workroom, he carved:

An. Christi 1571 aet. 38, pridie cal. cart., die suo natali, Mich. Montanus, servitii aulici et munerum publicorum jamdudum pertaesus, dum se integer in doctarum virginum recessit sinus, ubi quietus et omnium securus quantillum in tandem superabit decursi multa jam plus parte spatii; si modo fata duint exigat istas sedes et dulces latebras, avitasque, libertati suae, tranquillitatique, et otio consecravit.
[1571 A.D. Michel Montaigne, 38 years old, weary of long years of public service and while still vigorous, would teach the young by returning to the bosom of his ancestral home where all is quiet and free from care, and with this little effort finally overcome the censure of public life; if his candor has caused his exile, it is to this sweet sanctuary and his own sanctified freedom, tranquility, and leisure.]

I am 39. Part of me is glad I do not have a tower to retreat to, part of me wishes for little else.

Brian Cassidy on the Left Coast ABAA fair

Brian has a nice report on the event from the public side of the event. Please post a link if you know of a "behind the velvet curtain" report.

Large collection of scholarly volumes stolen in New England

Family members of Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking (1873 - 1966) have discovered that a large quantity of books from his library were stolen during the weekend of February 16-18 from a family home in northern New Hampshire. The missing books include a large amount of solid 19th and 20th century scholarly material in philosophy, religion and international law as well as valuable 17th & 18th century philosophy. The scholarly material includes 19th century editions of Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Epictetus, Cicero, etc. plus works on classical philosophy by Zeller, Lodge, Inge, etc. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the scholarly works. Much of this has the ownership signature of William E. Hocking.

Please feel free to contact me for a brief list of significant titles and/or contact info for Dr. Hocking's granddaughters who are hopeful that the books will be recovered.

ABE's top 10 vs AE's top 500...poking the numbers...

Americana Exchange, an auction results database and producer of AE Monthly, have just run an interesting article titled, "ABE's Top 10: What Does It Tell us About ABE?". They note that in 2006, ABE's top sales ranged from $25,000 (Durer's, Institutiones Geometricae) at the high end to $9,000 (Frank's, Flower Is tied with another photography collection). AE's auction records for 2006 show a much different range: $5.2MM (Shakespeare's, First Folio) to $60,000 (de Vou, et al's, Rotterdam me al syn rebouwen...). In short, the *lowest* sale on the top 500 was about 2.5 times the highest sale on ABE.

Interesting, but so what? While the author notes that based on generally accepted numbers (about 20,000 sales/day, then "book sales at all substantial auctions combined are maybe 2% or 3% of what they are on Abe alone", and this does not touch sales on various other aggregators. It appears that while there is no doubt that there is a great *volume* of sales online, the *serious* transactions take place elsewhere.

I think most people accept that most collectors would never buy a *major* item sight unseen from the web. Even ABE knows this, as evidenced by Richard Davies' response (Davies is ABE's PR and Publicity wonk). He notes that there seems to be a ceiling to what people will pay online. Sales at the $1000 price point are quite common, but 5 digit sales are quite rare.

I completely agree with his analysis. I know I have absolutely no expectation of selling my higher-end material through an aggregator...I would be suspect of anyone being willing to spend $10K and up without handling the item...hell, I worry about people purchasing $1,500 items online.

I do, however, think that it is an effective advertising venue...a means for collectors (and other dealers) to find material that they would otherwise have to work harder to locate. Our listing fees at ABE, Biblio and TomFolio fall under marketing/advertising on our P/L statements for a reason (as opposed to cost of goods sold). If the sites break even or better, that is great...but first and foremost they are a means to advertise our inventory and our brand. I wager that the same is the case for many other professional dealers.

AE also digs into some of ABE's other numbers...with interesting and/or frightening and/or sad results... Apparently the top 10 list of authors ranges from Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens and Dan Brown...and Nora Roberts (with over 4o,000 books listed). As the author notes, it is not often that Dickens and Roberts show up on the same list...urgh.

Flock...significantly better crafted prose re sheep and books

Per a very astute comment in response to my fun trivia (if you are not a sheep), I offer past US poet laureate (and current NY PL), Billy Collins':

Flock

It has been calculated that
each copy of the Gutenburg Bible
required the skins of 300 sheep.

I can see them
squeezed into the holding pen
behind the stone building
where the printing press is housed.

All of them squirming around
to find a little room
and looking so much alike
it would be nearly impossible to count them.

And there is no telling which one of them
will carry the news
that the Lord is a Shepherd,
one of the few things
they already know.

- billy collins

July 21...don't bother me for 24 hours...and now to reread the HP series in preperation

It is official: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be released on July 21...and the muggles rejoice.

Portland, ME is planning an amazing celebration...including using the narrow gauge railroad as the Hogwarts Express and "building" a facsimile of Diagon Alley at the routes end in a huge turn of the century warehouse complex. It should be a great evening. Of course, the next day will be a complete write-off as a "reading day".

Update: Interesting trivia pulled from announcement article:

• The series has sold over 325 million copies worldwide in 64 languages
• In the first 24 hours of sales, the last book sold 2,009,574 copies in Britain and came close to nine million sales in the US (of the 10.8 million US "first editions")
• The series is so important to Bloomsbury's earning that the release was announced at the London Stock Exchange.

One can sate most/all their HP trivia/background/etc. info needs at the surprisingly well referenced wikepedia entry.

Quick show update...NY is such fun in that slightly masochistic way...

Well, Books at the 25th Street Armory is done for another year. It was a good show, reasonably well attended and there were some great buys to be had. We stayed at one of my very favorite hotels, The Hotel Giraffe. It is literally across the street from the Armory. Though not the least expensive date in town, the "value" of being able to pull out after unloading the van, circling the block and dropping the car off with the valet is worth at least $100 to me (probably more).

We stayed with my sister in Guilford, CT, the night before the show and ended up making it into the city a bit early as traffic was favorable. We made it in at about 845 and we able to pull right in (you drive into the armory itself, up a car elevator)...this was great for us as I take an inordinately long time setting up our booth. As it was, I was actually DONE with enough time to go over the hotel and get changed AND have a leisurely lunch. Unthinkable.

As if this was not enough of a treat, I had the pleasure of being located next to Bibi Mohamed of Imperial Fine Books. Bibi attends many book fairs largely to buy fine leather and this was one such fair. As a result, she asked if I would be able/willing to use two of her tables. It was really a godsend, as I have a lot of folio woodblock and print volumes and her offer allowed me to display a number of volumes in a manner I would not have had the space to do otherwise (e.g. Masereel's, Remember and the Dore illustrated edition of Tennyson's, Vivian. It was really a wonderful turn of events. She is, btw, going to be at the Palm Beach Fine Art and Antique show in early February, if you happen to be down that way.

I was across the way from Lame Duck Books, which was also a treat. He brought a remarkable collection of fine books, photos and the like...simply wonderful material.

It was also a great show as we sold more to "normal humans" than to other dealers *laughing*. At many shows, most and sometimes all sales are to other dealers...it was very nice to have a show where most sales were to collectors. It was a pretty good show from a sales standpoing...and I'm expecting another handful of sales in the next few days related to the show. It was also a great show for buying...I picked up a number of nice items for several of my clients.

Thanks to all who stopped by and congrats to he who "won" the blueberry jam for being the first to mention the blog in the booth. I look forward to the next show(s)...Boston in March definitely...and *possibly* NY in February...I'll keep you posted. [N.B. Joyce insisted on images, so I've included one of the booth from the front (S. King mss. on the left) and a snap of "The Annex" with Masereel's, Remember open in lower right (thanks, again, to Bibi). No broad "show" shots...I'll try to do that in the future.]

Bookfair and general news...

Just a quick update on the business front, partially snipped from our recent newsletter (email if you would like to be on the mailing list). Of particular note, we recently acquired a very unusual Stephen King item, one of five unedited manuscripts of the book, IT, along with a some significant, related correspondence.

I have just completed cataloguing an exceptional collection of woodcut material including significant material from Rockwell Kent, Lynd Ward and Frans Masereel. This collection adds nicely to the collection of illustrated juvenilia we acquired several months ago. The catalogue of all this illustrated material is complete, email if you would like a copy.

Also, and for your near-term book browsing pleasure, we will be found at Books at the 25th Street Armory book fair on January 26 and 27th. It is a great location and should be a fun show. We will be bringing a collection of material focused on the illustrated page but will, as always, be bringing a broad selection of material...something to tickle nearly any fancy. Please let us know if there is anything you would specifically like us to bring and we shall do so.

Looking forward a bit, we will be at the Boston Antiquarian Book & Ephemera Fair (sponsored by MARIAB) from March 31 through April 1 and the Portland Book, Print and Paper Show in Portland, ME on June 10th. We hope to see you at any and all.

Slightly more fun than watching paint dry...

For those with little else to do, WordCat has a "Watch WorldCat Grow" page, refreshed every 8 seconds, where you can sit and watch, in slightly delayed real time, WorldCat grow. As if that was not cool enough, it also displays the most recent title added. The excitement is almost palpable.

Clearly, what is really needed is a desktop widget that displays this...if I had any time at all, I'd code it myself. I'll send a jar of Maine Blueberry Jam to the first person who builds such a widget.

New book on the theft (and history) of Dr. Zhivago...

In brief:

CIA and British Intelligence agents forced a passenger plane to land in Malta in 1957, to go on board and steal the manuscript of the banned Russian novel ‘Dr Zhivago’, which was subsequently published and awarded a Nobel Prize.

Great story....will have to read the proverbial book.

Book Art of Richard Minsky...for sale on Ebay...

Richard Minsky has written the proverbial book about American Decorated Publishers' Bindings 1872-1929. It appears, at first blush to be an exceptional work and I look forward to getting a copy...all the more because he purchased at least one volume from me that is included in the catalogue raisonne. What would be better than owning a copy of this book, you ask?

Well, it appears that Mr. Minsky is selling the collection around which the book is written. More interestingly, he is using Ebay to do it. The opening bid, not yet made, is $45,000 for 500 Near Fine or Fine American Decorated Publishers' Bindings. The lot includes copy No. 1 of the Deluxe Edition of the catalog, and also copy No. 1 of the Limited Edition. It is, needless to say, a remarkable collection...it will be an interesting one to watch.

One of the all time great opening lines (and paragraphs)

I have been rereading the Lovecraft canon and just absorbed Call of Cthulhu. I realized two things: first off, it has one of the truly great opening sentences and/or first full paragraphs; secondly, for better or worse, I realized I know it from memory:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace an