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Articles - July - 2021 Issue

Detroit Festival Of Books: July 18th, 2021 - Get Ready!

- by Maureen E. Mulvihill, Guest Writer

Book vendors getting organized, 2021 Detroit Bookfest, Eastern Market, Detroit.

Book vendors getting organized, 2021 Detroit Bookfest, Eastern Market, Detroit.

As cities begin to open up, post-Covid, Detroit (again) is showing its commitment to books and the culture of the book. The upcoming Bookfest, again at Eastern Market, Detroit, may set another attendance record, with participating booksellers from Michigan, Illinois, California, and some online sellers from Canada and Europe. This will be a face-to-face event, in real time, with online viewing as well. As you see in our photo, sellers are setting up, unpacking their wares -- printed materials, posters & prints, ephemera, vintage collectibles. Come celebrate in a spirit of recovery, cultural health, ethnic diversity.


For Maureen E. Mulvihill's article (and she knows the city well), CLICK HERE.

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Posted On: 2021-07-01 20:19
User Name: wrb

Dr. Mulvihill's great article captures the excitement which surrounds this event. C. Hedger Breed, Book Club of Detroit.

Posted On: 2021-07-02 11:18
User Name: rplace36

It is an honor to be featured here. Thank you for the marvelous write-up. We are very excited for Bookfest! https://detroitbookfest.com/rare-book-hub-bruce-mckinney/

Ryan M. Place, Detroit BookFest 2021/ Book Club of Detroit

Posted On: 2021-07-02 21:47
User Name: mairin

Posting for D. Levine, M.D., former Detroiter.
___

This article is absolutely wild -- it put me over the moon, my friends!
Thank you, RBH & M. Mulvihill, an amazing piece.
I knew Detroit in the '60s -- worked for The Fifth Estate underground
newspaper, knew John Sinclair, promoted the MC-5 band,
attended Monteith College, read all the right books -- no one was hipper.
So this piece was a gift: it glittered, it dazzled me. Sending it around. Thanks
from many here, and congratulations Detroit Book Club, glad it's still around.
And Ryan Place, Bookfest organizer, a serious credit for you & your people.
- D. Levine, M.D., formerly of Cass Corridor, Detroit.
____

Posted On: 2021-07-03 01:38
User Name: mairin

Posting for Mark Samuels Lasner, Distinguished Book Collector (Delaware Book Club):
_____

Detroit — never been there, but Maureen Mulvihill’s description of what’s going on there, book-wise, makes me want to visit sometime post-pandemic. The city and its environs have long been deeply touched by bibliophily. Such figures come to mind as: George Booth (newspaper publisher, follower of William Morris, founder of the Cranbrook Press and Cranbrook Academy); also Charles L. Feinberg (Walt Whitman enthusiast, whose 25,000-item collection he donated to the Library of Congress); and certainly Donald & Mary Hyde (collectors of Johnson and Boswell, and of Wilde; he, president of the Grolier Club; she, the foremost woman collector of our time). And let’s not forget impressive holdings in the Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and elsewhere, many little-known beyond the city. Hats off (and I am a hat-wearer) to the Book Club of Detroit for being one of the principal organizers of the book festival! My local group—the Delaware Bibliophiles—might follow their lead.

- Mark Samuels Lasner
Senior Research Fellow, University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press
[email protected]
____

Posted On: 2021-07-03 15:00
User Name: carlnudi

Carl Mario Nudi, former Letterpress Printer, Detroit Free Press / Florida Bibliophile Society.
.

What a wonderful event this is for old Detroit! As a former resident of the Detroit area (1966-1981) and longtime book collector, I can see that this event on July 18th is going to be a joyful day for Detroit bibliophiles.
Dr. Maureen Mulvihill's description of the Motor City rings true: she knows the city well, and I lived through much of that history. Detroit, like Chicago and New York City, has always had its ups and downs, but it never lost its soul, its urban grit & city pride. And Maureen was right-on when she ended her article with a captioned image of the glorious, monumental Spirit of Detroit sculpture. (A thrilling touch there, Mulvihill.)

The Detroit Festival of Books at Eastern Market is another example of how Detroit provides life and variety, securing its status as the durable keystone of the greater Metro Area. Successful new start-ups, such as Signal Return near Eastern Market, attest to that command position. I've visited Signal Return several times, a special place for me, having worked at the Detroit Free Press as a letterpress printer for 14 years. Now living in Florida, I make an annual pilgrimage to Detroit to visit family, and am always impressed with how the city continues to move forward, becomes more cosmopolitan and attractive to visitors and young entrepreneurs. As a former officer of the Florida Bibliophile Society and participant in the annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Petersburg, I surely know how much work goes into organizing a big book event, and I heartily congratulate the Book Club of Detroit and Ryan Place for smart planning, deep commitment, & initiative. I look forward to attending the Detroit Festival of Books in the near future. (No party like a Detroit party!). Carl Mario Nudi.

Posted On: 2021-07-05 17:39
User Name: cmbrown

Thanks, Maureen, for posting. Exciting to think that in-person events are resuming! In some ways, COVID opened new ways of communicating, viewing, and collecting -- but nothing beats a live book fair: meeting the vendors, seeing the books. I won't be in Detroit, but I look forward to the return of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair next year!
.
Charles M. Brown, President, Florida Bibliophile Society.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone
    25 June – July 7
    Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    The Private Library:
    Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
    July 9, 2026
    Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000
    Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000
    Forum Auctions
    The Private Library:
    Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
    July 9, 2026
    Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500
    Forum Auctions
    The Private Library:
    Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
    July 9, 2026
    Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500
    Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000
    Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000
    Forum Auctions
    The Private Library:
    Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
    July 9, 2026
    Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000
    Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000
    Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000
  • 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

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