Rare Book Monthly Articles - March - 2016 Issue

AbeBooks:  Committed to Rare Books and Encouraging the Next Generation of Collectors

AbeBooks: Committed to Rare Books and Encouraging the Next Generation of Collectors

AbeBooks, the book listing site or "aggregator," appeared twenty years ago and quickly became the leader in the online revolution in bookselling. It's every move was debated, analyzed, and controversial to at least someone. Today, it has become a ubiquitous part of bookselling. It is often taken for granted. AbeBooks has become, to many, what physical bookstores were to an earlier generation of booksellers. They might print catalogues, attend shows, advertise in trade publications, but practically everyone had a physical store. It was the starting point of bookselling. Today, many bookselle...

Buying Every Day

Buying Every Day

On a recent day on eBay there was an interesting mix of Hudson River Valley material.   Post card of Zepf’s Hotel Restaurant [near Poughkeepsie].  Buy it now $18.50   An engraving of Esopus La...

Louis Weinstein:  Noted Heritage Book Shop Partner Retires and Becomes Hawaiiana Collector on Maui

Louis Weinstein: Noted Heritage Book Shop Partner Retires and Becomes Hawaiiana Collector on Maui

There are many things remarkable about Louis (Lou) Weinstein, a former partner in Heritage Book Shop Inc. on Melrose Ave. in Beverly Hills, CA.   For one thing, when Weinstein started in business...

The San Francisco Book, Print & Paper Fair

The San Francisco Book, Print & Paper Fair

I spent Friday afternoon, the 5th of February, in San Mateo at the County Event Center to attend the San Francisco Book, Print Paper Fair.  I found the show appealing.  I was one of the lucky ones...

Dr. Charron, Barking Fools...

Dr. Charron, Barking Fools...

In 1783, Jean-François Bastien put out an edition of Pierre Charron’s De La Sagesse (1) to set the record straight. He argued that all former editions had been incorrect and unfaithful to the first...

All the Stock is Gone, at least for a time

All the Stock is Gone, at least for a time

Larry Van de Carr of Chicago, a trusting soul and ABAA member, drove his 2008 Econoline panel van west for the recent ABAA fair in Pasadena to participate in the sturm und drang of a serious book f...

Bonhams presents... The Charlton Heston Collection

Bonhams presents... The Charlton Heston Collection

If you've ever had a fantasy of being Charlton Heston, or at least owning a large amount of his things, Bonhams has you covered this month. Dubbed TCM Presents... The Charlton Heston Collection, th...

Is Amazon Opening 300-400 Retail Bookstores?

Is Amazon Opening 300-400 Retail Bookstores?

Is Amazon really going to open 300-400 bookstores? Isn't Amazon's success based on not having to pay the costs of physical stores, allowing them to undercut everyone else on price? Late last year, ...

March 17th@Bloomsbury Auctions: 20th Century Books and Works on Paper

March 17th@Bloomsbury Auctions: 20th Century Books and Works on Paper

Heralding the end of winter, March is a busy month for most auction houses, and for Dreweatts Bloomsbury Auctions, this rings especially true. With no less than five auctions dealing in works on p...

Destructive Book Thief Convicted Again

Destructive Book Thief Convicted Again

A 51-year-old Irish man has been convicted of possessing 67 stolen books, taken from an ancient estate in Kildare. Andrew Shannon is a man with a checkered past. He is the type of person the word "...

The Catskill Mountain House:  life moves on

The Catskill Mountain House: life moves on

Several months ago I was offered a group of legal documents relating to the Catskill Mountain House, the 19th century resort that once perched on mountain cliffs a few miles west of the Hudson Rive...

A Clever Use for Some Unwanted Old Books

A Clever Use for Some Unwanted Old Books

What do you do with those old books no one wants that are taking up space on your shelves or in your attic? Here is a use for a few of them, for which we are indebted to the Toronto Star. It won't ...

Fifteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Fifteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we have 15 new catalogues to review. The George S. MacManus Company offers a catalogue of travels and exploration, with an American tilt. Hordern House features early travels and voyages...

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. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
  • 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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