Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2018 Issue

Arrests Made in $8 Million Theft from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library

Arrests have been made in one of the largest book thefts in recent memory - an estimated $8 million-plus worth of books taken from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. This was not a single heist but an ongoing flow that took place over two decades. As is often the case in such a large and long-running event, it was an inside job. On the inside was Greg Priore, who had been the library's archivist and head of the rare book room since 1992. Mr. Priore has been charged with theft, receiving stolen property, conspiracy, retail theft, library theft, criminal mischief and forgery. According to th...

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Comic-Con in San Diego: Marvel-less

In San Diego the annual comic book orgy, Comic-Con, recently concluded and continued again as a mega-event as evidenced by the reports of attendance, the local, regional, and national news coverage...

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Do You Love Endpapers? An Interview with Simon Beattie, from the "We Love Endpapers" Facebook group.

God forgive, I recently broke my own first commandment of book collecting: Thou shalt not buy a book but for its contents! Well, I did—worse, I bought a book for... its endpapers! It is not my enti...

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Bear Facts

Recently the original map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by E. H. Shepard was sold for $570,137 [BP 430,000].  Created in 1924, It was sold 49 years ago by Sotheby’s in London for BP650 and...

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AbeBooks Lists Their Top 10 Highest Prices for April-June

AbeBooks has prepared their latest quarterly report of the most expensive sales on their book listing site during the past quarter, April-June. The shift to more European material at the top end th...

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St. Gregory must be turning over in his grave

The efficient way to buy old books is when they are being liquidated at unreserved auction.  Better yet, buy them at a bankruptcy sale.  Such sales do not occur often but when they do the prices ca...

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Bookseller's Facebook Fantasy Life

I guess we all have streak of the armchair traveler in us, and I’m no different. When I lived on the Mainland I got my needed doses of books, book shops and book sellers in the old fashioned way, I...

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Arsenic and Old Books

Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark's library made a startling discovery recently about three of their 16th and 17th century books. Their covers are filled with poison. To be exact, t...

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Important Material Goes Unappreciated

On Thursday 26 July, important material by Malcolm X was up for sale at Guernsey’s Auctions in New York and failed to deliver on its promise of high, even exceptional outcomes.   Malcolm would cert...

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1990s Book Thief Commits Suicide

Over 25 years ago, police made an arrest in a case of 200-300 books stolen from Stanford University. On April 25, 1992, Stephen Blake Crawford was arrested on charges of stealing books, photographs...

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Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair: September 8 and 9

Marvin Getman, organizer of the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair, has issued the schedule of talks and special events to be held during his third annual New York event that kicks off the fall rare bo...

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Book Thefts Large and Small

One of the more surprising book thefts has reportedly occurred at the P. K. Kelkar Library at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India. It is not the most valuable library heist ever. St...

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Thirteen New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Usually, most catalogues we receive are subject-specific. This month, we find mostly varieties, miscellanies, or whatever one wants to call catalogues that have a little of everything. There are st...

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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.

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