Rare Book Monthly
<i>In The News:</i> The Most Expensive American Letter Ever Auctioned, BookFinder, Via Libri & More
Via Libri adds eight new sites to its search engine.
Via Libri, another multi-site book search engine, announced that it has added eight new sites to the group it searches. According to a news release from the firm, the additional sites searched "now establishes it [Via Libri] as the world's largest internet marketplace for old and rare books." Via Libri states it now reaches the online listings of over 20,000 booksellers with combined inventories of over 150 million books.
The multi-site search engines search the listings of numerous different book-listing sites and combine all of their results. The largest addition comes from five Amazon sites Via Libri now searches: American, Canadian, British, French and German. The other newly searched sites are IOBABooks, Spanish site Uniliber, and British based Biblion.
AbeBooks released its top 10 most expensive books for March, and while there is nothing on the level of a Lincoln letter here, any one of these sales would have made for a most pleasant day for the average bookseller. This month's subjects include math and chemistry, poetry, what was once the future, and a bridge to somewhere.
10. The Ascent of Everest by John Hunt, published in 1953, and signed by 40 climbers. One was Edmund Hillary, better remembered than expedition leader Hunt, because he made it to the top. $5,000.
9. Five Go to Smuggler's Top, a 1945 first edition of number four in author Enid Blyton's Famous Five series. $5,038.
8. Gmelins Handbuch der Anorganischen Chemie, a virtually complete set of 372 volumes of Leopold Gmelin's Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry, published from 1926-1984. No light reading here. $5,284.
7. Anthropos. Revue Internationale d'Ethnographie et de Linguistique. This set contains a mere 60 volumes of the International Journal of Anthropology and Linguistics. $5,458.
6. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell's look at the future from 1949, when this first edition, first printing was published. $6,780.
5. Merely Connect, a 1994 book with a very short print run by author Salmon Rushdie and artist Tom Philips, signed by both. $7,325.
4. An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Suspension Bridge Constructed over the Menai Strait in North Wales... an 1828 elephant folio first edition about a bridge linking the island of Anglesey with Wales, by Thomas Telford. $7,614.
Rare Book Monthly
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Sotheby’s Geek Week
14-15 JulySotheby’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, 2026Forum, 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. £12,000-18,000Forum, 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]. £30,000-50,000Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000Forum Auctions
The 10th Anniversary Sale
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
July 16, 2026Forum, 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-£30,000Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000Forum Auctions
The 10th Anniversary Sale
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
July 16, 2026Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000Forum, 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. £50,000-70,000Forum Auctions
The 10th Anniversary Sale
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
July 16, 2026Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000Forum, 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