The Deluxe Two-Shilling true first edition of 1901 with all edges gilt.Every now and then a book lands on my desk that none of the usual sources agree upon, a volume that is a bibliographical nightmare with few copies in institutional holdings, each, apparently, a different edition but all of them issued without a date of publication, and with few details in the records to help sort things out.Such a book is Faithful Friends, a children's book illustrated by, amongst others, Arthur Rackham. Latimore & Haskell and Derek Hudson declare 1913 as the year of this book's first publication, yet...
Rare Book Trading Cards On Santa’s Top Shelf
I’ll trade ya a Tarzan 1st for a Moby Dick 1st.What’ya crazy? S’like asking me to trade a Mickey Mantle fora Whitey Ford. Take a long walk off a short pier, pal.When book collectors congregate they like to trade stories about the book that got away, their latest acquisition, one-up each other, relate bibliographical points, how many hairs did Hemingway have in his beard while writing whatever and what percentage were grey, etc., etc.Now collectors can trade classic rare book cards. They're like baseball cards for bibliophiles who want to know the score.ABAA modern firsts specialists, Between the Covers (BTC),...
Negative Art: Not At This Library
Artist Douglas Gordon.(Image courtesy of The London Times.)What is art? When confronted by that tricky question often the best answer the average person can come up with echoes Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous statement about pornography: "I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it." Library administrators at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland see it this way: if it isn't uplifting, positive, and celebratory, it isn't art.To add a final flourish to the December 2009 unveiling of the remodeled ground floor of its main library, the University commissioned a work of art. The...
By the Pound: Bookselling "Deli-Style"
Is this simply the latest manifestation of the race to the bottom mentality that is polluting much of the bookselling world or will it prove to be a new way to sell books?At the newly opened Market Fresh Books in Evanston, Illinois all books and related products are sold by the pound! Yes, by the pound.Here's how it works:Books cost $3.99 a poundBooks on tape $10.99 a poundAudio CD's are $24.99 per poundThe store stocks lightly used best sellers and other popular current titles. Nothing old, nothing rare, nothing antiquarian. It also boasts a children's room, a room dedicated to...
Rare Books Shops In Korea Go South
Tongmunkwan rare book shop, one of only two left in Insadong,once Korea's largest market for antiques, artwork, and rare books.Photo by Shin Dong-yeun for Joongang Daily.Tongmunkwan is a 75-year-old bookstore in the Insadong neighborhood of Seoul, Republic of Korea. A sign in front of the shop reads, “It’s better to pile books than gold.”Not lately.South Korea, which once had a thriving rare and antiquarian book trade, is down to its last fifty rare book shops with more closings on the horizon.According to a recent article in the JoongAng Daily, numerous factors are at work.The reasons are eerily similar to what...