Nigel Burkwood over at Bookride has the wrap up of the auction of the library Annette Campbell White held at Sotheby's in London.The Recap:The sale grossed about £1.3 million. About half a million less than the top estimates.25% of the lots did not sell.Many of the dealers present were the same one who had sold Ms Campbell the books in the first place.The London trade gossip was "that the stuff had all been bought too recently and was in less than fab condition."The attendees were mostly male though Jeannette Winterson was spotted in crowd and active.Many lots went to an...
Shelfitis: A Strain of Bibliomania
David McKie's piece in the Guardian today "My obsession with spines" deals with a strain of bibliomania that affects many of us book types. The need to know what is on the shelf behind that person in the picture. He talks about recent images in the Guardian and his desire to identify all the titles lurking on the shelves in the background.He calls it a "form of voyeurism, a lust to discover guilty secrets."Like McKie whenever I visit someone's home it is the books on the shelf that grab my attention not the furniture, not the kitchen appliances but the...
The Real Presidential Libraries
In 1822 John Adams, our second president, bequeathed his library to the town of Quincy, MA. In 1894 after living in six different locations the library came to rest at the Boston Public Library. They just staged the exhibit John Adams Unbound. It was the first time his library of 3,500 volumes was together for public view. It was the culmination of a three-year project by the Boston Public Library to catalog, preserve, digitize and provide access to Adams's extraordinary library."There is an outstanding online component which includes an audio tour of the exhibit and many highlight from the library.Some...
A Lady’s Books Go To Auction
Bloomberg is reporting that Annette Campbell-White, who runs a venture capital firm that specializes in early stage medical technologies, will be selling her book collection through Sotheby's in London.Highlights of the collection include:First Editions of:F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great GatsbyT. S. Elliot's The Wasteland andJames Joyce's Ulysses.An inscribed copy of Ernest Hemingway's In Our Timeand the typescript of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and FallI am uncertain why the California based collector is sending her books to auction in London. She did offer the collection to a New Zealand University (Campbell-White was born there) "but they didn't seem to understand the value."...
The Reader/Collector Syndrome
This week the auction of the library of Frank Streeter at Christie's reeled in over $16 million.This weekend there are three different book fairs for non-new books taking place in New York including the New York Antiquarian Book Fair were you will find many of the best collectible books available for sale in the world.This is strong evidence of the staying power of the book and a confirmation of its value to our culture or should I say a segment of our culture.Sam Jordison's piece for the Gaurdian "What are first editions worth? There's is plenty of money to be...