Rare Book Monthly Articles - June - 2011 Issue

eBay:  Progress for Books from the Bottom-up

eBay:  Progress for Books from the Bottom-up

The book buying experience on eBay continues to improve.  eBay of course sells almost everything and the revisions and additions on the eBay mother-ship are not for books alone but for the site overall.  Nevertheless, the recent changes add efficiencies that improve the eBay book-buying experience.   If history is any guide however these changes will primarily stimulate ‘listers’ to list rather than browsers to buy.  That will be a shame.  Unfortunately many would-be buyers feel the site is too complex and the rewards too small and infrequent to merit the time the site requires.  I respectf...

Electronic Books at Amazon Now Outselling All Printed Books

Electronic Books at Amazon Now Outselling All Printed Books

Another milestone has been reached in the onrushing movement from printed books to electronic ones. Amazon.com, the world's largest online bookseller, announced that electronic books are now outsel...

Sotheran's - An Exceptional Story

Sotheran's - An Exceptional Story

A book about Sotheran’s, the London booksellers has recently been published to celebrate its history.  Its title, taken from the company’s telegram address is Bookman:  London  - 250 years of Sothe...

Booking It in Europe

Booking It in Europe

Gracious sakes, where do I start?  We have two grandkids in Holland -- Amsterdam to be exact -- and they keep asking us to come over there and visit.  It’s a long way and a very expensive propositi...

Bernie Madoff's Books up for Auction

Bernie Madoff's Books up for Auction

A large auction will be taking place at the Miami Beach Convention Center June 3 and 4, and while not primarily a book auction, there are six lots each consisting of numerous books from their once ...

Print on Demand for Antique Paper: Giclee printing brings rare Hawaii maps to a wider audience

Print on Demand for Antique Paper: Giclee printing brings rare Hawaii maps to a wider audience

Two Maui entrepreneurs, both with a background in antique maps, are excited about the use of giclee printing for reproducing rare and fragile maps of Hawaii. Bryant Neal and Richard "Buck” Mickelse...

The WOW Factor - Back of Beyond Books uses Giclee Process to Create Gigantic Grand Canyon Panorama

The WOW Factor - Back of Beyond Books uses Giclee Process to Create Gigantic Grand Canyon Panorama

Andy Nettell, proprietor of Back of Beyond Books (ABAA) was first introduced to giclee technology about five years ago by a local artist who was using it to make fine art prints. When a 40” Epson d...

Experiments in the New Bookselling

Experiments in the New Bookselling

Traditional book catalogues have been with us for three hundred years and for good reason.  They are effective.  But the economics of bookselling have changed in ways that are raising costs and dim...

Barnes & Noble Receives a Takeover Offer, and the Reason May Surprise You

Barnes & Noble Receives a Takeover Offer, and the Reason May Surprise You

America's largest chain of bookstores received a major, and perhaps surprisingly strong purchase offer recently. Liberty Media, owner of large shares of Sirius Satellite Radio and QVC Shopping Netw...

Robespierre's Notes Sold, Then "Preempted" by France at Sotheby's Auction

Robespierre's Notes Sold, Then "Preempted" by France at Sotheby's Auction

Some interesting maneuvering at the last minute at Sotheby's in Paris has saved a priceless, but nonetheless very expensive, French manuscript for the French people. Offered for sale on May 18 was ...

ALA Survey:  Libraries Popular, but Funding Slips Anyway

ALA Survey:  Libraries Popular, but Funding Slips Anyway

The American Library Association recently released its annual report on The State of American Libraries. Americans today have something of a schizophrenic relationship with our libraries. We love t...

Amazon in Pitched Battle Over Sales Taxes

Amazon in Pitched Battle Over Sales Taxes

Perhaps the biggest battle over sales taxes is taking place right now between online bookselling pioneer Amazon.com and numerous states. It does not look to be reaching booksellers who list on Amaz...

Arader Galleries Charity Auction in New Orleans June 25-26

Arader Galleries Charity Auction in New Orleans June 25-26

The Arader Galleries will be conducting their third annual charity auction June 25 and 26 at Neal Auction in New Orleans. These auctions are designed to appeal both to your self-interest and public...

In The News:  Bail Revoked for Book Thief Charged with Murder, & More

In The News:  Bail Revoked for Book Thief Charged with Murder, & More

Bail has been revoked for the alleged mastermind in a case of a book theft that turned into a murder charge. In the summer of 2010, the U.S. attorney in Buffalo, New York, alleged Rico Vendetti hir...

13 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

13 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review 13 new bookseller catalogues in Section Two of AE Monthly. Natural History is the topic for Raymond M. Sutton, Jr. American Presidents are featured by the William Reese Co. Hor...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
  • Heritage Auctions
    Rare Books Signature Auction
    December 15, 2025
    Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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