Conversing with Mr. Americana: Talking Books With Bill Reese

(such as cartography, broadsides and broadsheets) have also been popular. Of our recent catalogues, the one I was most proud of was called Evidence. It dealt with all sorts of material besides books and manuscripts (for instance, photography and typographical materials). The Evidence catalogue mixes genres. [He picks up a copy of the Evidence catalogue and reads:

This catalogue collects original texts, both written and visual, which provide primary evidence for their times and places. Contents include minute books, photograph albums, telegraphs, manuscript journals (some illustrated), letterbooks, logbooks, currency, groups of photographs (some loose, some in albums), panoramic drawings, military orders, archives of letters, watercolors, archives of business and personal papers combining printed and manuscript items, letters, pen and ink drawings, depositions, indictments, signed printed documents, land deeds, stock shares, printed works with manuscript annotations, books illustrated with original photographs, manuscript maps, account books, illustrated wanted posters, manuscript drafts of books, and original oil portraits. Items range in date from early 17th century Spanish manuscript collections to photographs of the Mexican Revolution in 1915. There should be something for everyone.
_{----------Evidence: Original Historical Documents} Catalogue 207, William Reese Company.,

The unifying element in all the material in the Evidence catalogue was that it was all historical evidence. As a catalogue it did extremely well.

After the American State Papers, our next catalogue will probably be Illustrated Americana. This will be broad ranging, including lots of material that hasn’t been in our catalogues thus far. Soon we’ll do some straight manuscript catalogues as well. There will be a catalogue tentatively titled Cold about the Antarctic and other expeditions; a catalogue about slavery, abolition, and freedom; and a Louisiana catalogue. That’s what’s on the burner right now.

The Current Economy for Book Buying/Selling
AT: Some people in the business feel that the market for rare books – like all current markets – is less than robust. Others believe that it is still a strong market, and/or that it has been and will remain relatively unaffected by our current national economic situation. What’s your take on where the rare book market is today and on where it’s going in the near and distant future? Would you still recommend buying rare books as a good and solid investment? If so, why?

BR: The market in the first half of this year stayed quite strong. We saw indications that people came into this market as at least as good a place to have their money as equity terms. I think that this year for us was just as good as last year, 2000, and 1999.