Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2017 Issue

California Rescinds Application of Hated Autograph Law to Booksellers

Good news for booksellers – California has repealed its hated new autograph law, at least as it applies to booksellers. The onerous requirements, which also could have affected out-of-state booksellers selling to California residents and participants in California trade shows, will no longer apply to those in the book trade. The same applies to those selling manuscripts, numbered prints and other forms of autographed ephemera not pertaining to the sports or entertainment media industries.   The old law, which took effect on January 1 of this year, was never meant to apply to booksellers. ...

Read More

The World as it will be

The world of books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera seems to have always lived within its own reality.  Decades ago rare and unusual examples were often obscure and required experts to first find, e...

Read More

Nancy Pearl & the Pursuit of Bookish Things

There’s not much in the world of bookish pursuits that Nancy Pearl hasn’t tried. She’s been a Tulsa bookseller, a Seattle librarian, a highly regarded book reviewer with regular guest appearances o...

Read More

Record Price of $35 Million Paid for Printer's Copy of the Book of Mormon

A record sale in the books and manuscripts field was completed late last month. A private sale between two churches saw the printer's manuscript copy of the Book of Mormon sold for $35 million. It ...

Read More

The Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair: a roundup

The Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair is now come and gone.  It’s in its fourth year and by some accounts this year moved from start-up to established as evidenced by the type of material that sold be...

Read More

Ernest Renan, The (Emotional) Life of Jesus

Regarded as the “first historical biography of Jesus”, Renan’s Vie de Jésus is a very emotional book. As such, it deeply irritated the historians, while selling like hot cakes. Historians and feeli...

Read More

Abe Down

You might have thought the world had come to an end. Comments from some booksellers that appeared on the internet expressed such dire sentiments, at least in regards to their livelihoods. Abe was d...

Read More

The Seattle Rare Book Fair: October 14th and 15th

Over the weekend of October 14th and 15th in Seattle at the 1962 World’s Fair Grounds the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair will be held as it has been over the past four decades.  The fair throughout ...

Read More

Law's Picture Books – Two Exhibitions and Some Online Videos

"Most people would not look for illustrations in law books." So begins the description of two exhibitions curated by the Yale Law Library in one of the greater understatements you will hear. The ex...

Read More

Law's Picture Books – The Book

A fascinating companion volume to the exhibition of Law's Picture Books currently taking place in New York City is available for those who cannot (or can) make it to New York. It also bears the nam...

Read More

Against the Current: opening in St. Paul

On Grand Avenue just down the street from Macalester College, in St. Paul Minnesota, the Against the Current used and rare Book Shop is busy preparing to open its doors to readers and bibliophiles....

Read More

Oct 12: The Edge Hall Library at Forum Auctions

London-based Forum Auctions is a relatively new player in the field, having formed last year, but their team is anything but new to the rare book business. Since their launch, they have been quite ...

Read More

Scientist Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Government of Half a Million Dollars to Buy Books

An Australian scientist with a long resume of published works has pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of over half a million Australian dollars, primarily to purchase books. Dr. Daniel Mich...

Read More

Follow Up: Can a Monkey Copyright His Original Works? We Still Don't Know

The infamous "monkey selfie" case has come to an end without answering the major question – can a monkey copyright his original works? The parties to the lawsuit have come to a settlement which lea...

Read More

Seven Bookseller Catalogues Up For Review

Seven new catalogues are up for review in this month's issue of Rare Book Monthly. The William Reese Company revisits the greatest Americana sale of the 20th century, by that century's greatest col...

Read More

William R. Cagle, former Lilly Librarian

On the University of Indiana website notice of the death of William R, Cagle, former Lilly Librarian, who died in Paris last week at the age of 83, was recently posted.   We provide here his In M...

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