We do not mourn the turning of leaves in fall neither do we feel their final passage from glorious life to cold earth. We do not mourn but we remember, their sound in the trees, the rustle of leaves a choir in spring that begins to slip away over summer, on a certain path to extinction come fall.
Some flowers bloom early and others late, some leaves parade their robust certainty only to fall to the first chill. Some leaves turn early and others late.
For Bob Fleck, the bookseller, his leaves fell early, at a few months short of 70, a mere pup in a profession that sees no distinction between youth and experience that does not favor age. He had been good at his business for 40 years; we expected 20 more.
He made his mark first with bibliographies, first to sell them and later to print new titles, updates and revisions.
When I became an active collector again in 1991 Bill Reese sent me a list of 50 something indexes and bibliographies that I would need. Bill had perhaps a dozen available. For the rest he suggested Oak Knoll Books and Bob Fleck who he mentioned by name. By 2000 I had most of them and was beginning to plan an online reference site.
This project, first Americana Exchange and later Rare Book Hub, would represent a threat to Oak Knoll Books but Bob was philosophical, “several are already doing it,” and he did not complain. Then, after AE was launched, he made an extraordinary offer, to sell me a complete 20-year priced-run of Sotheby’s book auctions for the period 1920 to 1940. His price: $2,000, consideration that amounted to a gift.
Later he would approach me about combining American and European databases, he looking for a way to subordinate such records to the historically more primary dealer requirements. We could not do it. Auction records had been a tended private garden for decades but we saw the inevitability of a complete worldwide history of auctions going back generations that would be equally accessible to libraries, collectors and dealers.
Today this comes to pass. It disrupted his business and he never complained. He was rare, in fact rarer than his rarest book, a good friend to a force that continues to transform his field. He was remarkable and I am grateful that he lived.
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
