Sunday, June 25, 2017

Links & Reviews

Seemed like a quiet week - you'd think there was a major conference or something going on ... thanks to all who tweeted from #RBMS17; it was nice to follow along from afar!

I begin with a request: I'd like to get a copy of Henry Morris' 1999 spoof Booblio; if any bookseller out there has one in an ephemera bin (I don't find any copies currently online), please let me know.

- A fun look at the iconography of the Pickwick Papers as found in the Dickens collection of Samuel William Meek on the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog.

- The JHIBlog contributors give us a look at their summer reading lists.

- Houghton Library's accession books from 1941 to 1983 have been digitized.

- Glenn Fleishmann writes for Wired on "How Letterpress Printing Came Back from the Dead."

- Not all that much new here, but Danuta Kean highlights famous misprints for the Guardian.

- Chris Phillips writes about his recent Rare Book School course at Criticism by Other Means.

Book Reviews

- Frank Felsentein and James J. Connolly's What Middletown Read; review by Cassie Brand on H-Net Reviews.

- Alicia Brazeau's Circulating Literacy; review by Richard Mikulski on H-Net Reviews.

- Fred Kaplan's Lincoln and the Abolitionists; review by Eric Foner in the NYTimes.

- Edward Dolnick's The Seeds of Life; review by Abraham Verghese in the NYTimes.

- The Australian National Dictionary; review by Barry Humphries in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- La bibliothèque de Pierre Bergé - Musique et Poésie at Sotheby's Paris on 28 June.

The Erotica Sale at Bloomsbury on 29 June.

- Americana - Travel & Exploration - World History - Cartography at PBA Galleries on 29 June.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Links & Reviews

- Rebecca Fishbein offers "A Brief History of the Strand," founded ninety years ago this year.

- David Laskin writes for the NYTimes Travel section on "The Hidden Treasures in Italian Libraries."

- A nicely illustrated 1819 ship's log sold at Swann last week for $20,800.

- Keith Houston highlights a new punctuation mark ("a Dutch interrobang") and interviews the typographer behind it.

- Tawrin Baker writes for the Huntington's blog on "Visualizing the Anatomy of the Eye."

- Maggs Bros. new shop gets the Architectural Digest treatment.

- Over at Past is Present, an interview with Chris Phillips about his research at AAS.

- Edward Whitley asks "Where did Leaves of Grass come from?"

- On 15 July, the Massachusetts Historical Society will host a "Transcribe-a-thon" to mark John Quincy Adams' 250th birthday.

- The Chicago Tribune reports on the upcoming $11 million renovation at the Newberry Library.

- Ellen G.K. Rubin's collection of movable books is featured in Atlas Obscura.

- Ian Ehling has been appointed Director of Fine Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams New York.

- Bookseller Garrett Scott offers up a really fascinating probate inventory featuring a detailed library list.

- In the TLS, Stuart Kelly on "Writing beyond the grave."

- If you have bought from or sold to ebay user davius-9srhw8rb, please contact the ABAA.

Reviews

- Yael Rice reviews the Sackler Gallery's recent exhibition "The Art of the Qu'ran" in the LARB.

- Erica Benner's Be Like the Fox; review by Edmund Fawcett in the NYTimes.

- Rüdiger Safranski's Goethe: Life as a Work of Art; review by Michael Hofmann in the NYTimes.

- Joe Berkowitz's Away with Words; review by Allan Fallow in the WaPo.

- The British Museum's exhibition and catalog on Hokusai; review by Peter Maber in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books, Autographs and Works at Paper at Bloomsbury on 22 June.

- Fine Judaica at Kestenbaum and Company on 22 June.

- Books and Ephemera at National Book Auctions on 24 June.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Links & Reviews

- Two notices from the ABAA about missing/stolen books: a copy of the first English edition of Melville's The Confidence Man, and an original photo album of the construction of the Madeira-Mamore Railroad.

- Rebecca Rego Barry highlights some key lots from the 15 June Christie's sale of the ornithological library of Dr. Gerald Dorros.

- NPR ran a story this week about Lovecraft-inspired board games.

- From Heather Wolfe at The Collation, "Imagining a lost set of common-place books."

- At Libraria, a report about recent research which has revealed forty sealskin binding over-covers on manuscripts from the library of Clairvaux Abbey, with indications that the practice may have been even more widespread in the collection.

- Over at the Princeton Graphic Arts Collection blog, "The Shakespeare that almost didn't happen."

- Rare Books Digest takes a look at the Vinegar Bible.

- Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney write for the TLS about the long-distance friendship between Harriet Beecher Stowe and George Eliot.

Book Reviews

- Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent; review by Ron Charles in the WaPo.

- Mike Rapport's The Unruly City; review by Russell Shorto in the NYTimes.

Upcoming Auctions

- Art, Press & Illustrated Books at Swann Galleries on 13 June.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana at Sotheby's New York on 13 June.

- Fine Books, Atlases, Manuscripts and Photographs at Bonhams London on 14 June.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 14 June.

- The Metropolitan Opera Guild Collection at Christie's New York on 15 June.

- The Ornithological Library of Gerald Dorros, MD at Christie's New York on 15 June.

- Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts Including Americana and the Eric C. Caren Collection at Christie's New York on 15 June.

- Rare Books & Manuscripts at PBA Galleries on 15 June.

- Books & Manuscripts at Freeman's on 16 June.

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Links & Reviews

- Registration is now open for a very interesting-looking conference this September, "BH and DH: Book History and Digital Humanities."

- Over at Past is Present, a new list of recent articles and books published by members of the AAS community.

- The National Library of Norway is planning to digitize works from the collections of Nigeria's National Library published in the Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba languages.

- At recto | verso, a look at American documentary photography around the turn of the twentieth century.

- A report in the Telegraph suggests that Italian authorities have recently unraveled an art and book theft ring in the Turin area; one manuscript was found to have been stolen from the Royal Library of Turin in 2012. If anybody has more information about this story, I'd love to see it.

- Melbourne Rare Book Week begins on 30 June this year.

- Mary McClure posts at Echoes from the Vault about a lovely Book of Hours from the St Andrews collections.

- June's Rare Book Monthly articles include an update on the California law about the sale of autographed materials, and a report from Michael Stillman on the theft of an RAF logbook.

- Boston 1775 explores Isaiah Thomas' involvement with an American edition of Fanny Hill.

- Natasha Pizzey writes for the BBC about the Luis de Carvajal manuscript recently returned to Mexico.

- Danuta Kean reports for the Guardian about the sale of the library of William O'Brien, coming up this week at Sotheby's.

Book Reviews

- Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders; review by Charles Finch in the WaPo.

- Max Décharné's Vulgar Tongues; review by Allan Fallow in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries on 7 June.

- The Library of William O'Brien: Property of the Milltown Park Charitable Trust at Sotheby's London on 7 June.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts, including Illustration Art at Bonhams New York on 7 June.