Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2009 Issue

A Chill in September: Books in Hard Times

By Bruce McKinney One hundred and forty souls traveled to New York to eat spinach and listen to a succession of speakers assembled by the Grolier Club of New York to discuss "Books in Hard Times." Seats were hard to obtain. The Grolier is a walled garden, pretty on the inside and difficult to penetrate. They have over the years provided discussions and forums on important matters pertaining to the world of books, manuscripts and ephemera. This conference is in keeping with that tradition. For an account of the proceedings I rely primarily on Jeremy Dibbell [pronounced de Bell with...

Read More

The Future: Libraries Without Books?

By Michael Stillman Has the time come for a parting of the ways? Is it time for libraries and books, embattled institutions, each struggling for relevance and survival in a technologically accel...

Read More

Book Collecting Clubs and Associations

By Bruce McKinney Look out upon the fields of book, manuscript and ephemera collecting and from a distance you can see generations of amber waves of grain, a seamless continuum extending in memo...

Read More

Government Calls a Halt to Google Books Settlement

By Michael Stillman The settlement between Google and groups representing authors and publishers that would allow the internet giant to make the text of out-of-print books available to the publi...

Read More

A Collection Goes to Auction

By Bruce McKinney In the course of book collecting over a lifetime broken into parts, growing up, work and business development, two decades overseas, a thirty-two year marriage, children and se...

Read More

One Heck Of A Good Library Sale

By Karen Wright I probably shouldn't tell you about this; there were too many people there as it was, but here goes, anyway. We were getting itchy feet last month and decided we needed a couple...

Read More

BookFinder's Top 10's: A Sign of the Times

By Michael Stillman BookFinder.com has issued its annual lists of the most sought after out-of-print books. The times they are a-changin'. A lot has happened since last year's lists were compile...

Read More

Book Collecting in the Modern Era

By Bruce McKinney Book collecting is a difficult undertaking that requires luck, determination and perseverance and then only occasionally achieves success sufficient to warrant enduring approba...

Read More

<i>In The News:</i> A Strange Problem at a Library, Upcoming Events.

By Michael Stillman There is a strange case from the Denver Library, and some interesting exhibitions In The News this month. It's been a tough time for the Denver Public Library lately. The cit...

Read More

A Perspective on the Market

By Bruce McKinney A look at the titles of the most recent book, manuscript and ephemera sales indicates the increasing presence of prints, drawings, maps and decorative illustrations in sales th...

Read More

An Inscription from Truman Capote to Harry Potter - What Is Real?

By Michael Stillman A little while back, we reviewed the wonderful new autograph guide published by autograph dealer The Raab Collection (click here). Among the reams of information provided by ...

Read More

Do Not Eat This...Or, How to Lose Weight

By Michael Stillman There is a most useful, at times jaw-dropping series of books out today with the title Eat This Not That, by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding. I will not attempt to review t...

Read More

13 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review 13 new bookseller catalogues. They're a varied lot. Maggs Bros. and the William Reese Co. are focused on voyages and travel. Helen R. Kahn and Associates offer books pertaining...

Read More

Rare Book Monthly

  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: U.S. / European Shipping Archive 1800-1814. The Widow Bermingham & Sons Collection. €7,000 to €10,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Bunreacht na hÉireann. Constitution of Ireland. An important copy of the First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved in 1938. Signed by the Constitution Cabinet. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €7,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. Magnificent Hand-Coloured Copy - Only 25 Copies. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Cantillon (Richard). Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, Traduit de l'Anglois, Sm. 8vo London (Fletcher Gyles) 1756. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Gregory, (Lady Augusta). Spreading the News: The Rising of the Moon: The Poorhouse (with Douglas Hyde). Being Vol. IX of the Abbey Theatre Series. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Lavery (Lady Hazel). A moving series of three A.L.S. and a Telegram to Gen. Eoin O'Duffy, July-August 1927, expressing her grief at the death of Kevin O'Higgins. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Dampier (Wm.) Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde, ou l'on descrit en particulier l'Isthme de l'Amerique…, 2 vols. in one, Amsterdam, 1698. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Howell (James). Instructions for Forreine Travel Shewing by what Cours, and in what Compasse of Time…, London, 1642. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s
    Summer Rare Book
    & Collectors’ Sale
    July 30-31, 2024
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: Rowling (J.K.) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 8vo, L. (Bloomsbury) 1999, First Edn., First Printing of Deluxe Collectors Edn. Signed. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: James (Wm.) A Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of The Late War Between Great Britain and The United States of America. 2 vols. Lond. 1818. €650 to €900.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, July 30-31: The Laws of the United States, Published by Authority, 3 vols. Philadelphia (Richard Folwell) 1796. €600 to €800.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions