Links & Auctions

One hears of significant rumblings from within the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS) and looks forward to learning more ... 

- Next up on Getman's Virtual, the Ephemera Society's Virtual Ephemera Fair, on 20–22 March.

- Catherine Sutherland at Magdalene College Cambridge has identified books in the collections annotated by Mary Astell!

- The great researchers at Letterlocking have managed to virtually read a folded, unopened letter. See their article in Nature Communications.

- From Jennifer Schuessler for the NYTimes, "Is a Long-Dismissed Forgery Actually the Oldest Known Biblical Manuscript?" See also Idan Dershowitz's article "The Valediction of Moses: New Evidence on the Shapira Deuteronomy Fragments."

- From Peter Kidd, "A Byzantine Miniature on a Leaf from the Forrer Collection" and "One More Montbaston Bible Historiale Cutting."

- Over at Book Historia, "Books Without Books: Digitally Communicating Materiality."

- Anne Bromer writes on "Easter Island and its Books."

- Jim Hinck has a viaLibri Beta update for us.

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "The curious AB-script."

- New from the Internet Archive, "Search Scholarly Materials Preserved in the Internet Archive."

Upcoming Auctions

- Lettres & Autographes Manuscrits at Ader on 16 March.

- Bibliothèque Gastronomique & Oenologique de Max Cointreau at ALDE on 17 March.

- Bibliothèque Humaniste Max Cointreau at ALDE on 18 March.

- Autographes & Manuscrits at Aguttes on 18 March.

- Maps and Atlases at Forum Auctions on 18 March.

- Fine Literature with Beats, Bukowski & the Counterculture at PBA Galleries on 18 March.

- Literature from a Private New Orleans Collection at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on 19 March.

Links & Auctions

- The California Virtual Book Fair continues through today!

- From Caroline Duroselle-Melish for The Collation, "Marks on Bindings."

- The BL's Endangered Archives blog has announced three new tranches of digitized material, from Laos, Sri Lanka, and Bulgaria.

- Thanks to Emma Sarconi for pointing out on Twitter a neat newly digitized reading notebook from the Princeton collections, that of Countess Lydia Rostopchina.

- New on Netflix, "Murder Among the Mormons," focusing on the life, forgeries, and other crimes of Mark Hofmann. It is leading to a number of stories in the press about the events depicted in the film, among them this one from the Deseret News.

Upcoming Auctions

- Bibliothèque Maurice Houdayer, Première partie at Artcurial on 9 March.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents, The Kenn Back Polar Library at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 10 March.

- Editions and Works on Paper, 1500–2020 at Forum Auctions on 11 March.

- Fine Photographs at Swann Galleries on 11 March.

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions on 13 March.

Links & Auctions

- The Firsts Canada virtual book fair is happening this weekend (5–7 February) and the Greenwich Village Antiquarian Book Fair will be held next weekend, 12–15 February.

- The Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective has a new website with a gallery and links to their events.

- The Free Library of Philadelphia's First Folio, with annotations believed to be those of John Milton, is now available in hi-res digital form.

- From Jill O'Neill at Scholarly Kitchen, "Revisiting Nicholson Baker and the Retention of Print."

- The Middle Temple Library blog has another provenance mystery for us this month.

- Over at Early Modern Female Book Ownership, a colorful 1699 Book of Common Prayer.

- The British Library will loan the Lindisfarne Gospels to the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle for an exhibition scheduled to open in 2022.

- From Lisa Fagin Davis at Manuscript Road Trip, "Reverse-Engineering the Codex."

- Emma Sibbald writes for the University of St Andrews special collections blog on "Miss Elizabeth Foulis, an Invisible Borrower."

- The Italian culture ministry has acquired the library and archives of Umberto Eco.

- From Erin McGuirl for the HRC's "What is Research?" series, "The women who made Selznick's screenplays."

- The Brotherton Library at the University of Leeds has acquired Charles II's copy of the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher Comedies and Tragedies.

Upcoming Auctions

- Travel & Exploration at Bonhams London on 10 February.

- The Frank Graff Collection of Rare Valentines from the Victorian Age at PBA Galleries on 11 February.

- Niagara Falls Guinness World Record Museum Displays at Ripley Auctions on 12 February.

Links, Reviews & Auctions

- From Erin Blake for The Collation, "Rediscovering Three-Cornered Notes."

- Over on the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, it's the "Great Medieval Bake Off"!

- Mary Yordy writes for the Duke Libraries Preservation blog, "Sewing Models: Pandemic Edition."

- New from the Courtauld Institute, an open-access book edited by Jack Hartnell, "Continuous Page: Scrolls and Scrolling from Papyrus to Hypertext."

- From Maddy Smith for the BL's Untold Lives blog, a look at pre-1620 English colonial settlements in North America.

- A 1634 edition of Shakespeare's "Two Noble Kinsmen" has been identified in the collections of the Real Colegio de Escoceses in Salamanca.

- Michael Caines and Lindsey Tyne write for the Morgan Library & Museum blog about "Taming the Wild Things: Storage Considerations for the Bequest of Maurice Sendak."

- Rachel Fletcher is in the "Bright Young Collectors" spotlight.

- "Fakes and Forgeries" over on the Exeter Working Papers in Book History.

- The AbeBooks podcast talked to the warden of Gladstone's Library this week.

- On the Peter Harrington blog, Tomas Elliott on Leibniz and computing.

- Over on Past and Present, a look at the intensely complicated "Conservation of a Fragmentary Early Menagerie Poster."

- Shira Perlmutter has been named the Register of Copyrights.

- From Neely Tucker for the LC blog, "Darkness and Light: The European World of 15th-Century Woodcuts."

- New from Books & Borrowing, "Eighteenth-Century Borrowing from the University of Glasgow."

- Wolf von Lojewski has written an account of his four-decade quest to collect a complete Nuremberg Chronicle by acquiring disbound leaves (scroll down for the English translation).

- The NYU Abu Dhabi Library has acquired the archive of Egyptian poet/doctor/scientist Ahmed Zaki Abu Shadi.

Reviews

- Ariel Sabar's Veritas; review by James Lansdun in the LRB.

- Serena Zabin's The Boston Massacre; review by Breck Baumann for the Colonial Review.

Upcoming Auctions

- Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs, Including the Trevor Dawson Magic Collection at Lyon & Turnbull on 30 September.

- Fine Literature at Doyle on 30 September.

- Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books at University Archives on 30 September.

- Fine Golf Books, Clubs & Memorabilia at PBA Galleries on 1 October.

Links & Auctions

- First, there was actually a bit of surprising good news this week: the rare books stolen from a London-area warehouse in early 2017 have been recovered intact in the Romanian county of Neamt.

- Some more good news: the next Getman's Virtual event will be the CABS Virtual Antiquarian Book Fair, on 25–27 September.

- And a bit more, even! The winners of the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest and the Honey & Wax Prize were announced this week.

- The Scottish Borrowers' Registers project will soon include the loans register of Craigston Castle in Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

- The Library of Congress has launched a new tool for searching images in historical newspapers.

- At The Collation, Sujata Iyengar offers "A Guided Tour of an Incunabulum from 1478."

- Rebecca Rego Barry rounds up some new biblio-fiction on the Fine Books Blog.

- On the Shakespeare & Beyond blog, an "Up Close" look at a 1797 caricature of the Shakespeare-forging Ireland family.

- From Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "The Antiphonary of Marguerite de Baconel."

- Swann withdrew a 16th-century manuscript copy of an order to Cortes and Pedro de Alvorado from their 24 September sale after researchers suggested that it had very likely been stolen from the national archives of Mexico.

- Rosa Lyster writes on "Lost Libraries" for the Paris Review.

- A new virtual exhibition focuses on book edges in the KU Leuven libraries and other Belgian collections.

- "Whacky Victorian Imagery" is the order of the day on the Ephemera Society blog.

- Penn's Workshop in the History of Material Texts now has a YouTube channel, and their first talk of the season, on Milton's copy of Shakespeare with Claire Bourne and Jason Scott-Warren, is now available.

- Rare Book School's "Black Print Culture" discussion from earlier this month is also now online.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books & Manuscripts at Artcurial on 22 September.

- Books and Manuscripts at Il Ponte on 22 September.

- A Further Selection of 16th & 17th-Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library at Forum Auctions on 24 September.

- Printed & Manuscript Americana at Swann Galleries on 24 September. 

- Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 24 September.

- Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 25 September.

VOTE

Links & Auctions

- From the Morgan Library blog, "Color and Curious Creatures: Fifteenth-Century Block Books at the Morgan."

- Thanks to Simon Beattie for calling attention to a project seeking to reconstruct the library of German writer Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853). See their guide for potential Tieck provenance (in English) for distinctive marks to watch for, and please help if you can!

- APHA and the Hamilton Wood Type Museum are collaborating on a 2020 Awayzgoose, and registration is now open.

- Library History Seminar XIV is looking for papers relating to the broad theme of "library history." Proposals are due by 1 October.

- Jasper Fforde talks to Elizabeth Flux for the Guardian about his new novel, The Constant Rabbit.

- Also in the Guardian, Justine Jordan profiles Eley Williams about her debut novel The Liar's Dictionary (out this month in the UK), hunting for mountweazels, and more.

- A set of musical scores from the collection of (and annotated by) Maria Callas is currently being offered by Christie's (sale ends 30 July).

- APHA has released an outline of steps the organization is taking to support BIPOC printers and allied craftspeople.

- Thanks to Alex Hidalgo for pointing out on Twitter the Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego.

- From the N-YHS blog, "A Printer's Account of the Caribbean: Mahlon Day's Diary."

- The British Library has acquired the visual archive of Mervyn Peake.

- Pichaya Damrongpiwat writes for the NYPL blog on "Materiality in Eighteenth-Century Epistolary Fiction."

- The conservation staff at the John Rylands Library has posted a series of blog posts on the materiality of the book.

- The Grolier Club has launched an online exhibition of recent gifts from member Stanley D. Scott.

- ACRL and RBMS have passed a memorial resolution honoring Katharine Kyes Leab.

Review

- Jonathan Senchyne's The Intimacy of Paper and Joshua Calhoun's The Nature of the Page; review by Gill Partington at Public Books.

Upcoming Auctions

- Livres Anciens et du XIXe Siècle at ALDE on 21 July.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts, including Property from the Eric C. Caren Collection at Sotheby's ends on 21 July.

- Fine Judaica at Kestenbaum & Company on 21 July.

- Fine & Rare Books – Fine Literature at PBA Galleries on 23 July.

- Summer Auction at Arader Galleries on 25 July.

Links & Auctions

- From Rebecca Rego Barry in Lapham's Quarterly, "Rebuilding Jane Austen's Library," about a digital recreation of Austen's brother's library at Godmersham Park.

- The Salem News reports that the Massachusetts Attorney General is reviewing the Peabody Essex Museum's decision to move most of the Phillips Library collections to Rowley.

- Sean Moore talked to "New Books in History" about his Slavery and the Making of Early American Libraries.

- Lisa Fagin Davis writes on "Fragmentology in the Wild" over on Manuscript Road Trip, providing an update on efforts to digitally reconstruct manuscripts dismembered by Otto Ege. And there's more from Peter Kidd on the same topic, too.

- Over at American Book Collecting, "We Are Many."

- At Early Modern Female Book Ownership, Joanna Rozendaal on Dutch bibliophile Maria Elisabeth de Wale, whose library included more than 6,000 books when it was sold in 1755.

- The Apollo 11 Timeline Book failed to sell at Christie's this week, being brought in at $5 million.

- News this week that CABS will relocate to Minnesota beginning in 2020; will share more details as they are available.

Review

- John Taliferro's Grinnell; review by Dennis Drabelle in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- A Mystic Collection: Early Books at Skinner, Inc. on 23 July (moved from 18 July).

- Printed Books, Documents, Maps & Caricatures at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 24 July.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions (online) on 25 July.

- Art & Illustration – Fine Books at PBA Galleries on 25 July.

Links & Reviews

- The seventeenth-century manuscript of Donne's poetry identified last year at Melford Hall in Suffolk has been placed under a temporary export ban to allow a UK buyer to match the £466,000 price.

- Two excellent posts on the Grolier Club blog recently: Scott Ellwood's "One dynasty, three names" and Meghan Constantinou's "Aristocratic Identity Erasure in the Private Library Catalogue of Madame la duchesse de La Vallière, ca. 1787."

- Collector Farley Katz has donated a fourteenth-century manuscript fragment in medieval Dutch to the University of Antwerp.

- In the Atlantic, Dan Cohen writes "The Books of College Libraries are Turning Into Wallpaper."

- From Colin Harris for Listology, "A List-maker in the Stacks: Photographically illustrated books in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, 1844–1900."

- The ABAA passed along reports of the theft of a copy of The Maltese Falcon.

- Don't miss Cait Coker's post at Sammelband on "Building a Letterpress Reference Library."

- Simon Beattie's turned up an Italian manuscript from the library of Edmund Burke, which Annie Rowlenson highlights.

- In the TLS, Hazel Wilkinson on "The water American," about Benjamin Franklin and Richard Castelman.

- Reporter and historian Tony Horwitz died suddenly this week while on tour for his new book. Jill Lepore has a nice remembrance post for the New Yorker.

- The David Library of the American Revolution is going to close its Washingtons Crossing, PA facility and relocate operations to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.

Reviews

- Edward Wilson-Lee's The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books; review by Irina Dumitrescu in the NYTimes.

- Karen Russell's Orange World; review by Bethanne Patrick in the WaPo.

- Robert Morrison's The Regency Years; review by Michael Dirda in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Illustration Art at Swann Galleries on 4 June.

- Beyond the Horizon: The Mopelia Collection of Fine Atlases and Travel Books at Christie's London on 5 June.

- Important Judaica at Sotheby's New York on 5 June.

- Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books at Swann Galleries on 6 June.

- Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions (online) on 6 June.

- Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes at ALDE on 7 June.

- June Auction at Arader Galleries on 8 June.

Links & Auctions

- Alison Flood writes for the Guardian about the recent identification of a volume of the Libro de los Epítomes, containing summaries of volumes from the great library of Hernando Colón, in the Arnamagnæan Collection in Copenhagen. Another fourteen of the sixteen volumes are at the Biblioteca Colombiana in Seville - one remains missing. See also the announcement from the Arnamagnæan Institute, and the story from the Windsor Star featuring the history professor, Guy Lazare, who made the initial identification.

- Videos from the March ILAB/ABAA/Grolier Club symposium "Who Owned This?" are now available on Vimeo. Highly recommended.

- Also now available on YouTube, Will Noel's Sandars Lectures on "The Medieval Manuscript and its Digital Image."

- Lucas Baumann writes for Sotheby's about the recent repatriation of more than 600 volumes to the Universitäts und Landesbibliothek Bonn (ULB); the books had been offered for consignment from an individual in Belgium. See also Catherine Hickley's report for the Art Newspaper which goes into a bit more detail.

- Over on Past is Present, Lauren Hewes has a great post about AAS receptionist Sally Talbot's work on creating a name list for the Society's collection of loose American bookplates. After nearly five years at it, Sally recently completed her inventory of the personal bookplates, all 21,048 of them! The name list and an Excel file with more info are now available on the AAS website. Thank you, Sally!

- Two dozen EU countries signed a Declaration of Cooperation on 9 April relating to the digitization of cultural heritage materials.

- The HRC has acquired the archive of novelist Rachel Cusk.

- Quite a piece by Aaron Skirboll in the Daily Beast about the later exploits of the man who attempted to steal the Gutenberg Bible from Harvard's Widener Library in 1969.

- The Washington Post has a report on the upcoming major renovations at the Folger Shakespeare Library. See also the Folger's webpage on the project.

- Michael Dirda has short reviews of several recent books about books in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed & Manuscript Americana at Swann Galleries on 16 April.

- Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle New York on 17 April.

- Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries on 18 April.

Links & Reviews

- Over at Sammelband, Kate Ozment on "Why it Matters: Teaching Women Bibliographers," which includes the full texts of the excellent daily Women's History Month Profiles posted during March.

- From Heather Wolfe at The Collation, "Uncancelling the cancelled: recovering obliterated owners of old books."

- The Lilly Library will undergo a $10.9 million renovation thanks to a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

- The British Library has acquired a tenth-century Anglo-Saxon manuscript leaf, from the estate of Stephen Keynes.

- Terena Bell writes for the Guardian about Alan Gribben's study of Mark Twain's library and reading habits.

- Jim Dwyer wrote for the NYTimes about a recent last-minute rescue of some historical bank records in New York City.

- Jessica Leigh Hester has a piece in Atlas Obscura about miniature almanacs, based largely on the miniature books exhibition now on at the Grolier Club.

Reviews

- Stuart Kells' Shakespeare's Library and Margaret Leslie Davis' The Lost Gutenberg; review by Rebecca Rego Barry on the Fine Books Blog.

- Leo Damrosch's The Club; review by Lyndall Gordon in the NYTimes.

- David Blight's Frederick Douglass; review by Manisha Sinha in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed Books & Maps; Travel & Exploration; Geology & Charles Darwin at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 10 April.

- Vintage Cameras & Photographs; Autographs, Stamps & Ephemera; Bookbinding Equipment & Accessories at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 11 April.

- Atlas – Cartes – Livres de Voyages at ALDE on 12 April.

Links & Reviews

Bibliography Week last week, the California International Antiquarian Book Fair next weekend. There's a preview over on the ABAA blog. Hope to see some of you there!

- Shelly Bradbury reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that defense attorneys for the librarian and bookseller charged with thefts from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library are asking prosecutors to specify the date on which each of the 321 books was stolen, reportedly to "allow them to consider statute of limitations and alibi defenses."

- A great find at Bristol Central Library: manuscript waste from a copy of the Vulgate Cycle with mentions of Merlin and other Arthurian characters, used in bindings. More from the Guardian.

- Sarah Werner will be speaking at the Columbia Book History Colloquium on 13 February on "Old Books as Digital Objects."

- Kate Ozment has a new Sammelband post, "Roundup of Materials: Teaching Book History."

- Alison Flood for the Guardian: "Hold the front pages: meet the endpaper enthusiasts."

- The Bodleian Library has acquired a fifteenth-century French Gothic book coffer.

- Among February's Rare Book Monthly articles, Michael Stillman analyzes the 2018 auction prices, and Bruce McKinney reports on Christina Geiger's appointment as head of rare books and manuscripts at Christie's New York and on Richard Ramer's fiftieth-anniversary catalog.

- Over on the Library of Congress blog, Carla Hayden talked to Mark Dimunation and John Hessler about the LC's copy of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius.

- Harvard's Houghton Library has acquired the remainder of John Ashbery's papers, as well as his 5,000-volume library. More in the NYTimes.

- Geraldine Fabrikant profiles Bauman Rare Books for the NYTimes.

- Don Skemer on the Princeton RBSC blog, "Recovering Lost Manuscript Evidence."

- "Errors in Bookplate Design" at Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie.

- From Aaron Pratt over on the HRC blog, "Collated & Perfect," on the publication and program series being organized jointly by HRC and the Beinecke.

- The Boston Globe highlights the recent expansion of the Massachusetts State Archives.

- Over on the BBC, "The Library of Forbidden Books."

- At medievalbooks, Erik Kwakkel on "The Oldest Surviving Printed Advertisement in English."

- Miriam Intrator was featured in "Bright Young Librarians."

- The Irish Times reports on the recent digitization by Trinity College Dublin of the fourteenth-century Dublin Apocalypse.

- Pyewacket Books on selling books, but not at book fairs.

- Over on the Penn Special Collections Processing blog, Liz Broadwell on "An Uncommon Proof."

Reviews

- Diane Setterfield's Once Upon a River; review by Laura Miller in the Guardian.

- John Martin Robinson's The Travellers Club; review by A. N. Wilson in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Travel and Exploration at Bonhams London on 6 February.

- Modern Literature & Illustrated Books (online) at Forum Auctions on 7 February.

- The Book Fair Century: One Hundred Fine Books, Plus Books Sold to Benefit the ABAA Benevolent Fund at PBA Galleries on 7 February.

- Printed Books & Ephemera at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 13 February.

Links & Auctions

- The Ticknor Society has announced the George and Anna Eliot Ticknor Book Collecting Prize. See the page for full details; the deadline is 15 April 2019.

- Alison Flood writes for the Guardian about the National Trust project to preserve and catalog the Chute family library at The Vyne (with a side of schoolboy marginalia).

- Also from Alison Flood in the Guardian, a previously-unknown manuscript collection of John Donne's poetry has been identified at Melford Hall in Suffolk.

- In Rare Book Monthly for December, Michael Stillman writes on the AbeBooks Revolt, Susan Halas considers what to do with books that don't sell, and Bruce McKinney reports that David Hall of National Book Auctions has been charged with second-degree grand larceny after allegedly failing to pay a consignor.

- In Smithsonian, Zita Cristina Nunes on Howard University librarian Dorothy Porter.

- Manfred Heiting's extensive collection of photobooks was destroyed in the California wildfires; the library had recently been donated to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, but had not yet been transferred.

- The recently-discovered copy of Poe's Tales in wrappers sold at Skinner for $315,000.

- Over on the APHA blog, "A Linotyper for Life."

- In the HRC magazine, an interview with Alan Gribben about his extensive work on Mark Twain's library.

- Susan Orlean talked about her new book The Library Book for the NYPL podcast.

- Annie Rowlenson is featured in "Bright Young Booksellers."

- On the JHIBlog, Molly Nebiolo on "John Parkinson and the Rise of Botany in the 17th Century."

- A warm welcome to several new ABAA members.

- From Simon Beattie's blog, "Inscribed to Amelia Opie."

- Also on the ABAA blog, a notice of censure, a short announcement about forged LDS material, and a report about a book misdelivered and now missing in London.

- More on the LDS thefts/forgeries from GephardtDaily and the Standard-Examiner.

- J.L. Bell has some notes on the pronunciation of several 18th-century printers' names.

- Elena Weissmann writes about the new Penguin Mini editions of several John Green books for the CSM.

- Former Librarian of Congress James Billington died; see coverage in the NYTimes and on the Fine Books Blog.

Upcoming Auctions

- Music, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Continental Books at Sotheby's London on 4 December.

- Albert Einstein: The God Letter and Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana at Christie's New York on 4 December.

- Fine Books and Manuscripts including the World of Hilary Knight and History of Science and Technology, including Space Technology at Bonhams New York on 5 December.

- Rare Autographs, Books, and Relics at University Archives on 5 December.

- Illustration Art at Swann Galleries on 6 December.

Links & Reviews

Back in the saddle this week with lots of backlogged news to pass along. It was great to be back at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair last weekend (and the city provided a few days of absolutely stunningly lovely weather, too). Coming up next is the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (16–18 November), accompanied of course by the Boston Book, Print, and Ephemera Fair on Saturday, 17 November.

- There was an update in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on 12 October on the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library thefts case; the story includes some embedded documents. Other reports indicate that both Priore and Schulman will be going to trial, and that arraignment has been scheduled for 29 November.

- Sarah Lindebaum writes on the Houghton Library blog about "Looking Beyond the Text in Frances Wolfreston's Books."

- Video of the recent conference at the American Philosophical Society, "Past, Present, and Future of Libraries," is now available.

- An article I've been watching for for a while is now up: "Passing the Book: Cultures of Reading in the Winthrop Family, 1580–1730."

- Over at Notabilia, a great new Princeton acquisition is highlighted: a textbook signed by several Revolutionary-era students.

- Coming up on 6 November, Heather O'Donnell will deliver the Van Sinderen lecture at Yale's Beinecke Library: "Scouts, Spies, and Surveyors: Collectors of the Future."

- The Adams Papers team at MHS have released transcriptions of John Quincy Adams' diaries from 1821 through February 1825.

- The Library of Congress has digitized its collection of Theodore Roosevelt's papers.

- Book collector and philanthropist Jay Kislak died on 3 October; see his obituary in the Miami Herald or Rebecca Rego Barry's post on the Fine Books Blog.

- William Helfand also passed away earlier this month: Neil Genzlinger wrote the NYTimes obituary.

- Reading Copy has a good background post on forger Lee Israel, as the new movie based on her book Can You Ever Forgive Me? (starring Melissa McCarthy) hits theaters.

- Police in Stranraer, Scotland are looking for information about the June theft of a 1549 "Treacle Bible" from the Old Kirk, outside Drummore village.

- A great highlight from Edward O'Reilly on the N-YHS blog: a manuscript facsimile of a rare 1725 Benjamin Franklin imprint.

- The Lilly Library is featured in the IU Magazine.

- Margaret Atwood writes for the Guardian about Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.

- On the JHI Blog, "Norse Fantasies and American Foundings," by Derek Kane O'Leary.

- "The Importance of Language in Rare Books" at Rare Books Digest.

- Susan Orlean's new book The Library Book was featured on NPR's "Weekend Edition" last weekend.

- Trinity College Dublin has launched a digital version of its Oscar Wilde collection.

- Also newly digitized, from the BL, more than two hundred Anglo-Saxon manuscripts from before 1100.

- The Guardian reports on the return of the Behemoth Bible (Codex Amiatinus) to the BL from Italy for the library's exhibition on things Anglo-Saxon.

- A complete Egyptian Book of the Dead on papyrus sold for more than 1.3 million Euros at auction in Monaco.

Reviews

- Susan Orlean's The Library Book; reviews by Michael Lewis in the NYTimes, Ron Charles in the WaPo, and by Jennifer Szilai in the NYTimes.

- David Blight's Frederick Douglass; review by Jennifer Szilai in the NYTimes.

- Maryanne Wolf's Reader, Come Home; review by Jennifer Howard in the WaPo.

- Jill Lepore's These Truths; review by Alex Carp in the NYRB.

Upcoming Auctions

- Libros y Documentos at Morton Subastas in Mexico City on 23 October.

- Lettres et Manuscrits Autographes at Ader on 23 October.

- Some books and manuscripts in the Arts of the Islamic World sale at Sotheby's London on 24 October.

- The Sporting Sale at Bonhams Edinburgh on 24 October.

- Rare and Important Travel Posters at Swann Galleries on 25 October.

- Books and Works on Paper (online) at Forum Auctions on 25 October.

- Historical Manuscripts at Heritage Auctions on 25 October.

Links & Reviews

- Travis McDade has two recent pieces on Medium about rare book theft: "The Most Perfect Rare Book Crime" and "Prosecuting the Pittsburgh Rare Book Theft." See also his Atlas Obscura piece from this week on Robert Kindred's library thefts.

- Ryan Gilbey writes in the Guardian about "American Animals" as a mix of fact and fiction.

- Over on the ABAA blog, a post about bookseller Owen Kubik's recent assistance in returning some books to Yale University which had been stolen from the Sterling Library stacks in the 1970s.

- Don't forget the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, coming up 8–9 September! Looking forward to being there for the books and for the great series of talks lined up.

- Over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, "Mapping MMBL [Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries]," a handy guide to manuscripts in the UK.

- Bookfinder.com has released their list of the most-searched out-of-print books for 2017.

- The University of Washington's Sandra Kroupa is profiled in the Seattle Times.

- The BL has recently added some spectacular manuscripts to their digital collection.

- Over on the Center for the History of Physics blog, "A Life in Books," about the library of Dr. Silvan Schweber.

Reviews

- Jenny Uglow's Mr. Lear; review by David Orr in the NYTimes.

- Anne Boyd Rioux's Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy; review by Charlotte Gordon in the WaPo.

- Claire Tomalin's A Life of My Own; review by Heller McAlpin in the WaPo.

- Susan Carlile's Charlotte Lennox; review by Min Wild in the TLS.

Auctions

- A Bibliophile's Bibliophilic Library Part II at Forum Auctions (online) on 29 August.

- Books and Ephemera at Keys Fine Art Auctioneers on 30–31 August.

Links & Reviews

- The four Transylvania University book thieves talked to Ben Machell of the Times.

- Jessica Leigh Hester writes for Atlas Obscura about "The Crack Squad of Librarians Who Track Down Half-Forgotten Books."

- From Mary Beard in the TLS, "Where do the books belong?"

- Over at Exeter Working Papers in Book History, "Sir Thomas Bodley: Commemorating a Great Exonian."

- Princeton University Library hosted students from several HBCUs in July for the first installment of an Archives Research and Collaborative History program, designed "to introduce students to the archival field, the importance of diversity in archival collections, how to use primary-source documents and potential career opportunities. The program also encouraged students to make connections between historical narratives and present-day social justice issues."

- Alison Flood reports for the Guardian on recent work to identify and create a database of poems written in response to the Lancashire Cotton Famine.

- A 14th-century manuscript has been returned to the Egyptian national library after it was identified in the catalog for a Bonhams sale in April. The manuscript had disappeared from the library in the 1970s.

Review

- Philippe Costamagna's The Eye; review by Alexander C. Kafka in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Hunting Books from the Collection of Arnold "Jake" Johnson at Doyle on 14 August (online only).

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 15 August.

- Rare Books & Ephemera at Addison & Sarova on 18 August.

Links & Reviews

- Paula Reed Ward has a followup report this week on the court proceedings related to the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library thefts: the judge handling the case has allowed access to the Caliban Book Shop accounts so that the store's expenses and employee salaries can be paid. Ward's report also notes that a preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for 12 October.

- Flipbacks are coming! I was really intrigued by these little books when a few were published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2011, so I'm very pleased to see the format being tried out in the U.S. (as Penguin Minis). I really enjoy having a couple of these when I travel, since they very handily tuck into a jacket pocket, so I hope a good selection will be published. And yes, I've already preordered the first four.

- Over at Phys.org, "Mass spectrometry technique helps identify forged Robert Burns manuscripts." See also the full paper in Scientific Reports.

- The Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair is coming up on 8–9 September. You can buy tickets for the "Bagels and Books" opening preview now, and check out the lineup of talks throughout the weekend.

- From Alison Flood at the Guardian, a report on the recent discovery of a second-century building in Cologne which is believed to have housed as many as 20,000 scrolls.

- Also from Alison Flood, news that the Schomburg Center successfully acquired the "lost chapters" of Malcolm X's autobiography at a New York auction last month. See also Jennifer Schuessler's report in the NYTimes.

- From PennToday, a writeup of the three-year BiblioPhilly project to catalog and digitize manuscripts from 15 Philadelphia-area institutions.

- On the ABAA Blog, "Building the Gilder-Lehrman Collection."

- The thirteenth-century Lyghfield Bible has been returned to the collections of Canterbury Cathedral after being removed during the Reformation.

- In LitHub, "Breaking Up the Boys Club: On Women in Rare Books," by Joanna Demkiewicz, and on the Fine Books Blog, A.N. Devers on "Who are the Women in the Book Trade?"

- Not to be missed: Alberto Manguel talking about his library and his bibliomania.

Reviews

- Fiona Sampson's In Search of Mary Shelley; review by Dinitia Smith in the NYTimes.

- A quintet of recent Emily Brontë books; review by Jacqueline Banerjee in the TLS.

Auctions

- Fine & Rare Books - Art & Illustration - Asian & Asian-American Material at PBA Galleries on 9 August.

Links & Reviews

- Over at JHIBlog, Fiore Sireci on "Reading (with) Wollstonecraft."

- Brittney Washington writes for The Collation on "A Pamphlet War in England, 1641–1643."

- Also on The Collation, Sarah Lindenbaum reports on her recent identification of two more Frances Wolfreston books in the Folger's collections.

- On the LARB blog, Andy Fitch interviews Amaranth Borsuk about her new book The Book, published as part of the MIT Press "Essential Knowledge" series.

- The University of Southern Maine has formally received the map collection of Harold Osher.

- "Pressing On: The Letterpress Film" was released on DVD/streaming this week.

- In the CHE, Geoffrey Pullum on "Strunk at 100: A Centennial Not to Celebrate."

- Barbara Basbanes Richter writes for the FB&C blog about a 4 July 1776 document currently up for sale.

- The Plantin-Moretus Museum and Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library have announced a new scholarly fellowship program to support research in the early printed books in Antwerp.

- A collection of rare agricultural books known as the Rothamsted Collection will be sold at auction next month.

- Pradeep Sebastian writes about book-heist movies for The Hindu.

Reviews

- Jean-Louis Brunaux's Vercingétorix; review by Peter Thonemann in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Books and Decorative Prints at Dorotheum on 27 June.

- Libros Antiguos y Contemporáneos de la Colección de un Bibliófilo at Morton Subastas on 27 June.

- Art & Illustration, with Asian & Asian-American Material at PBA Galleries on 28 June.

Links & Reviews

Back, after a wonderful trip to Scotland and Iceland followed immediately by a move. I'm taking a break from unpacking (so, so much unpacking) to get caught up here, though I'm sure there are many things I completely lost track of while I was gone. Feel free to let me know what I missed!

- Next Friday and Saturday (6–7 April) will be the Virginia Antiquarian Book Fair, in Richmond. Do visit if you can!

- One of the bookshops I visited in Edinburgh, Golden Hare Books, is featured in the Guardian's "Browse a bookshop" column.

- Pittsburgh-area police are investigating thefts from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and request any assistance. See a PDF list of some items believed stolen. More from Michael Stillman for Rare Books Monthly and from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

- Video of the panel discussion at the New York Book Fair on women and collecting is now available via the ABAA blog.

- Quite a garage find, highlighted in the Fine Books Blog.

- From Francis Morrone in The Hopkins Review, "Bookshop Memories."

- Over at Reading Copy, an interview with Heather O'Donnell and Rebecca Romney. As a reminder, the second Honey & Wax Book Collecting Contest (open to women collectors under 30) is now accepting applications!

- The National Library of New Zealand has received a collection of twenty important books printed between 1472 and 1512.

- From the Princeton Graphic Arts collection blog, "How much did a wood engraving cost in 1862?"

- The Library of Congress is running a webinar series highlighting the Mesoamerican manuscripts in their collections.

- A bookseller has been convicted of stealing a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire from Hatchards in December. He was recognized by staff since he had sold items to the shop in the past.

- The University of Edinburgh has acquired a much-annotated copy of Ben Jonson's works, after the UK government instituted an export ban.

- From the University of Rochester, "The myth—and memorabilia—of Seward's Folly."

- Blake Morrison asks in the Guardian, "should an author's dying wishes be obeyed?"

- From the BL's Medieval Manuscripts blog, "Cracking a medieval code."

- At The Binder's Ticket, "Bookplates or book labels?"

- Daniel Richter posts for the Huntington Library blog on "John Ogilby's English Restoration Fantasy."

- A bit on Isaiah Thomas' library (now on LibraryThing) from yours truly as Past is Present.

- Isabel Planton is featured in the FB&C "Bright Young Librarians" series. Ditto Rebecca Baumann.

- Katarzyna Lecky writes for The Collation on "The Strange and Practical Beauty of Small-Format Herbals."

- Rich Rennicks has posted a number of links to coverage of this year's New York Antiquarian Book Fair. The NYTimes focused on fashion.

- Rebecca Romney covers book curses for Mental Floss.

- Kurt Zimmerman notes the publication of John R. Payne's Great Catalogues by Master Booksellers.

- The Guardian reported on the sale of various Sylvia Plath items at Bonhams last month. Peter Steinberg has a full rundown of the auction, and some additional analysis.

- The April Rare Book Monthly includes Bruce McKinney's "Enigma, Seeking a Eureka," about a tantalizing French manuscript (do help with that if you can!).

- At Medieval Manuscripts Provenance, another fascinating provenance hunt, this time with some cuttings from the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

- From Adam Schachter, "Adventures of an Absent-Minded Treasure Hunter."

- The Guardian highlights some of the great Tolkien material on show as part of the major Bodleian exhibition.

- I missed the Clements Library post about "Battle Estrays" in February, so I'm grateful to J.L. Bell for noting it as he digs into one of the examples cited.

Reviews

- Lucy Mangan's Bookworm; review by Kathryn Hughes in the Guardian.

- Julia Miller's Meeting by Accident; review by Barbara Adams Hebard for BookArtsWeb.

- Jo Nesbø's Hogarth Shakespeare Macbeth; review by Alexander Larman in the Guardian.

- Daniel Kalder's The Infernal Library; review by Ernest Hilbert is in the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Antique Scientific Instruments, Globes and Cameras at Dorotheum on 4 April.

- Fine & Rare Books at PBA Galleries on 5 April.

- Entertainment Memorabilia at Potter & Potter on 7 April.

Links & Reviews

Just back from a trip to New York for the last couple days of Bibliography Week. Missed the booksellers' showcase on Thursday, which was a bummer, but it was very pleasant to see so many friends at the various events. I haven't been on Twitter much the last few days, so forgive me if this is a bit shorter than some weeks.

- The great Ursula K. Le Guin died this week. The roundup on Slate of writers reacting to the news is worth a look, I urge you to watch her speech at the 2014 National Book Awards ceremony (and Neil Gaiman's introduction). Her appearances on "TTBOOK" are also recommended. The Guardian has a full obituary.

- Oak Knoll Fest 2018 is a go: mark your calendars for 5–7 October 2018.

- Maev Kennedy writes for the Guardian about an upcoming sale of Sylvia Plath books and possessions to be sold at Bonhams in March.

- The odd volume from George Washington's library sold for $115,000 yesterday.

- The first-round deadline for admission to spring/summer Rare Book School courses is 19 February. Submission of your application(s) by then is encouraged.

- Rebecca Romney writes for Mental Floss about Poe's great "balloon hoax."

- Jerry Morris highlights some of his sources for keeping up to date on rare book news over at My Sentimental Library. Thanks to him for including this blog!

- Over on the Past is Present podcast, an interview with Gregory Nobles.

- The folks working on the Declaration Resources Project have identified an early broadside printing of the Declaration (unique copy at the BPL) as coming from the press of Thomas and Samuel Green in New Haven.

- Another month, another reported "solution" to the Voynich Manuscript.

Reviews

- Catherine Kerrison's Jefferson's Daughters; review by Mary Beth Norton in the NYTimes.

- Three recent books on birding; review by Richard O. Prum in the NYTimes.

- The new Library of American edition of John Quincy Adams' diaries; review by Diana Schaub at Law and Liberty.

- Henry Wessells' A Conversation Larger than the Universe; review by Michael Dirda for the WaPo.

Upcoming Auctions

- Printed Books & Manuscripts at Chiswick Auctions on 31 January.

- Printed Books, Maps & Documents at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on 31 January.

- Modern Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 31 January.

Links & Reviews

- Over on the Smithsonian's Unbound blog, a really excellent post about the marginalia in a 1491 copy of Pliny's Naturalis Historia.

- Police have released some CCTV footage and appealed for information relating to the theft of rare books from a Norfolk bookshop's warehouse on 9 January. More.

- For "The Biblio File," Nigel Beale talked to David Esslemont about the Gregynog and Solmentes presses.

- Laura Wasowicz writes for Past is Present about her "Thirty Years Adventure with the McLoughlin Brothers" (see also the current Grolier Club exhibition, which I'm looking forward to viewing later this week).

- At The Collation, Abbie Weinberg looks at early book reviews in the Philosophical Transactions.

- A 1523 Hebrew-Latin grammar was returned to the Jewish Museum in Prague after its most recent owner agreed to withdraw it from auction. The volume had belonged to Prague's Jewish community prior to World War II. The anonymous owner, identified as a scholar in Jerusalem, said was returning the book because not to do so would be "an active continuity of those terrible thefts committed against Jewish property and cultural treasures perpetrated by the German Nazis."

- The first volume of George Washington's copy of the Massachusetts Magazine (1789) will be offered for sale on 27 January.

- Henry Bradshaw is the topic over at Medieval Manuscripts Provenance.

- Rare Stephen King books and typescripts were damaged from flooding from a water main break in Bangor, Maine. Updates after initial recovery efforts revealed that a few of the rarer items were undamaged, which is very good news indeed.

- The Seattle Times has an obituary for bookseller Louis Collins.

- Hobby Lobby have returned more looted artifacts to federal authorities.

Reviews

- The new Penguin Classics edition of the 1818 text of Frankenstein; review by Genevieve Valentine for NPR.

- Robin Sloan's Sourdough; review by Suzy Feay for the Guardian.

- Martin Puchner's The Written World; review by Daisy Dunn in the TLS.

Upcoming Auctions

- Americana - Travel & Exploration - Cartography at PBA Galleries on 25 January.

- Fine Books and Works on Paper at Forum Auctions on 25 January.

- Historic Winter Fine Art and Antiques at Case Antiques, Inc. on 27 January (see the Washington book noted above).

- Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter on 27 January.