Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2008 Issue

Connecting Word and Image

By Bruce McKinney This article is in two parts. The written portion is three pages. The second part is a video. Links to the video are provided here and at the end of the article. AE Youtube Video Fifty years of book collecting has brought me to this. I collect books as avidly as ever but these days collect subjects rather than books and do so with a precision and efficiency that was, until ten years ago, unimaginable. I still buy books but today see them as one thread in a tapestry of images, paintings, pamphlets, ephemera, documents and manuscripts that, taken together bring...

Arrests Made in Theft of First Book Printed in the American West

By Michael Stillman Thefts of rare and valuable books from institutional libraries almost seem to be becoming commonplace these days. Such a theft, and thankfully, concomitant arrest, hit the wi...

Hunkering Down

by Renée Magriel Roberts With all of the craziness going on this week, I was thinking about doing a review of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash 1929, but instead I decided to share what w...

Paraclete Potter: A Wiki-Bibliography

By Bruce McKinney Recently I purchased, for $80, an impaired copy of "The Life of General George Washington, Late President of the United States of America, and Commander in Chief of their Armie...

Cardiff Considers Selling 18,000 Books. Residents Debate: Smart Move or Desecration?

By Michael Stillman A battle over rare books is taking place today in the city of Cardiff, South Wales, UK, that is significant because it raises the most vexing of issues regarding libraries an...

Fifteenth Annual Central Valley Antiquarian Book Fair

By Karen Wright Our big Chevy Suburban was loaded down with twenty boxes of really cool books, eight collapsible bookshelves (whoever invented them deserves a big kiss), and all the falderal one...

Washington-Pike-Mathematics-Science Archive to be Sold

By Bruce McKinney Nicholas Pike of Newbury-port has been dead a long time but for a few weeks this fall the 18th century New England mathematician is back on stage at John McInnis Auctions in Am...

<i>In The News:</i> Ebay Thief Sentenced, Two Exhibitions, Abe's Top 10

By Michael Stillman A 74-year-old Great Falls, Montana, man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison last month for a massive eBay theft-and-sale scheme he had been running from his home. James Br...

Smart Phones: Database Access for Geezers

By Tom McKinney Rare Books on the Go Mobile computing is changing the world. From online banking, to social networking, to bidding on eBay, everything is being streamlined for the mobil...

Odd Bidding on eBay

By Bruce McKinney Recently I ran across a listing on eBay for a book that was achieving a price far beyond what it commands on listing sites. I know that some people bid primarily on eBay and m...

Nude Mice, Lesbian Horses, and Other Odd Book Titles

By Michael Stillman England's The Bookseller has announced the winner of its contest for the oddest book title of the past 30 years. The Bookseller has been running competitions for 30 years, bu...

November Comet Announced: Local History

By Bruce McKinney We live in the era of "it's all about me" and the proof is in the explosive growth of genealogy on the web. No subject so captivates us as ourselves and it is transforming the...

17 New Catalogues Reviewed

Seventeen new booksellers catalogues are considered in this month's review section of AE Monthly. A magnificent new catalogue has just been published by Phillip J. Pirages. Garrett Scott, Bookselle...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    Starting 10AM CST
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

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