LOS ANGELES. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger officially opened the 43d California International Antiquarian Book Fair on Friday night, February 12, 2010, along with First Lady, Maria Shriver, during a small ceremony intensely covered by the media. Excusing himself immediately afterward, he promised “We’ll be back” to check out the rare books.Oh, how I wanted to write that lead. A loose-cannon member the Southern California chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA), the book fair’s sponsoring organization, had, unilaterally and without consulting his colleagues, formally invited the governor to open the Fair to draw press and public attention. The Governor’s...
43rd California International Book Fair Photo Gallery
The Fair's guest of honor.From Author to Oscar® exhibit.Books into Film, the Fair's theme, has inspireddealers to feature related material.Birdseye view plan of Venice from the 17th centuryin a volume valued at $1.2 million.True scarcity:A first edition copy of J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Ryeinscribed by the author.
Award Winning Weekend On Tap For Oscar’s Library
Poster For Best Picture Nominee The Philadelphia Story (1940).(All Images Courtesy Of Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, Magaret Herrick Library.)As already reported here by Book Patrol's Stephen J. Gertz, the theme of the upcoming 43rd California International Antiquarian Book Fair is From Author To Oscar®. To be held February 12-14 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, the largest rare book fair in the world is "focusing on the symbiotic relationship between books and film." Since most of the Best Picture Academy Award®-winning films are based on literary works, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts...
Dreadful E-Books Offered Gratis By British Library
One of the Most Popular Penny Dreadfuls, Starring Dick Turpin, Highwayman. (Circa 1866.)It's a red-hot, red letter day for Amazon Kindle owners. The British Library has announced that 65,000 rare 19th century literary first editions will be offered as free downloads to owners of the device beginning in Spring of 2010. Thanks to a joint venture with Microsoft, the no-cost titles will reproduce the original type-face and illustrations from such classic works as Charles Dickens's Bleak House, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.While having an electronic facsimile of a valuable first edition is a...
Is the Rare Book World Ready For a Fully Interactive Catalog on CD? Part Two
Yesterday, I discussed the severe limitations of digital catalogs as PDF files integrating Flash animation. What might a fully interactive digital rare book catalog look like?Insert a new model digital catalog CD into your lap or desktop machine, click on the icon and open it. First thing you’ll notice is that it is full-screen with no wasted real estate surrounding it, content sized to a screen, not shoe-horned to fit onto a standard-sized 8 x 11 leaf of paper. You can read the text without need to zoom in.Click the mouse to move pages forward or backward. Click fast or...