31st Annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair Set for July 31-Aug. 1
- by Michael Stillman
The 31st annual Rocky Mountain Book and Paper Fair is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, July 31 and August 1 in Denver this year. On Friday, doors will open at 2:00 and stay open until 8:00. On Saturday, the fair will run from 10:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon. The fair will be held at the Denver Mart, just off of I-25 at 58th Ave., with free parking available.
The Rocky Mountain Book Fair serves a major role for collectors and would-be collectors in the Mountain West. Book fairs play an increasingly important role as fewer booksellers are able to maintain Main Street shops and turn to the internet to make sales. Collectors, and even more so those who might become collectors, lack a place for hands-on learning and examination. While there are still a healthy number of book fairs to attend, the largest are concentrated on the coasts. For those in the more sparsely populated Rocky Mountain West, this fair provides a fantastic once-a-year opportunity.
Over 70 dealers will be exhibiting in this year's exposition. Most are from Colorado and bordering states Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. However, others have made longer journeys, from places such as Montana, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Others have traveled even longer distances, from New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia in the east, to California and Oregon in the west. The type of material offered is similarly diverse. Specialties covered include travel and exploration, sports, scholarly books, children's books, literature, the American West, Civil War, first editions, art, fiction, nonfiction, bird books, mysteries, horror, signed books, Native Americana, cookbooks, illustrated books, science fiction, military, comic books, atlases, pulp, film, fine bindings, calligraphy, pop-ups, poetry, railroads, and much, much more.
What's more, there all sorts of works on paper other than books. Photographs, maps, postcards, trade cards, advertising, broadsides, posters, prints, views, pamphlets, magazines, dust jackets, and various other forms of ephemera will be available.
There will be special events taking place at the fair as well. Already scheduled are speakers on mystery books, including one on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Demonstrations are also planned on preserving books and the book arts. To find out more about the fair as the days draw closer, you can visit the website at www.rmaba.org/rmbpf/2015/rmbpf_2015_GeneralInfo.html
Sotheby’s, July 14: Henry De La Beche. "Awful Changes," 1830. $6,000 to $9,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 11]. Flight Plan, Complete Original Printing Signed by Buzz Aldrin. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Thomas Alva Edison. Documents Establishing and Ending the Edison Electric Railway Company. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Richard P. Feynman. Feynman's Lectures on Gravitation 1-16, Including the Original Transcriptions of Lectures 12-16 by Morinigo and Wagner, With Richard Feynman's Manuscript Notations, 1971. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 9]. A Group of Manuals and Mission Documents used by Stuart Roosa as a member of the Astronaut Support Crew. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [BYTE: The Small Systems Journal]. A collection of early foundational issues of Byte: The Small Systems Journal, with rare hardcover editions. $5,000 to $8,000.
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
