Madeline, the noted dictionary collector and eccentric par supreme, slipped away April 25th, caught between aging and Coronavirus. Nothing less than two disasters would slow her down. When passed away she was yet in mid-flight, her life and career on a trajectory to create a collection and database of the history of the ever transitioning meaning of words. For decades she purchased, one by one, dictionaries in many languages with every imaginable focus, the more the obscure and peculiar the better.
As the “other child” of an astonishingly brilliant family, the sun shone most brightl...
The Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America [ABAA] is introducing its first Virtual Book Fair June 4-7 in response to a desire to reconnect within the community. These new events on the In...
On May 18, the U. S. Department of Justice filed suit to return a cuneiform tablet apparently worth well over $1 million to authorities in Iraq, from which it was looted, most likely early in this ...
Books have long held a position of high esteem in our households, likely as far back as Gutenberg. You probably have a bookcase containing every book you have ever owned. Why? Do you keep a collect...
Hello all. Here we are in sunny California in June where it is, at this writing, already way too hot! Our co-operative bookstore is opening slowly again after a two-month plus closure. As with a...
Once upon a time auction house savants labored somewhere between secrecy and privacy while making policy and fortunes for buyers and sellers. Then BINGO, in response and reaction to risk, danger, ...
Britain's Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) has launched its first virtual book fair, this year's edition of Firsts London. The virtual or online book fair has become the norm where fairs h...
I have been in the used/rare book business for twenty years. Below are some of the things I have learned.
If someone is trying to sell you books and it appears they are going to be difficult, i...
Lorenzo H. Zambrano (1944-2014) was one of Mexico's leading businessmen, philanthropists, and collectors. As Chief Executive of Cemex from 1985 to 2014, he transformed the Mexican cement company fr...
Lettres de Ninon de Lenclos au Marquis de Sévigné (Amsterdam, 1750) is not a very expensive book—a very nice copy is worth around $200. But it is one of those crucial “in-between” books that bookse...
Back in March at the beginning of the global pandemic lockdown it was Katy-Bar-the-Door in Hawaii. Along with thousands of others I went into self-isolation. With my 77th birthday right around the ...
If you've always dreamed of a home with a magnificent library, the home of your dreams is now on the market. Is Detroit okay? Actually, it is not in Detroit proper but the toney suburb of Grosse Po...
A recent inquiry from a dealer-appraiser raised a pertinent question; with significant changes in the world over the past year, have rare book, manuscript, and map appraisals issued in the mid-201...
Almost, if not all libraries have closed down because of the pandemic. The decision on one level may have been tough, but the reality is there was no choice. Safety had to come first. The American ...
An intensely focused collection of unusual and rare engravings and lithographs of New York, the property of the Downtown Club near Wall Street, were sold at Arader Galleries on Sunday April 25th an...
The Cascade Booksellers Association will be holding their annual Rose City Book Paper Fair again in June, but this year's edition will be unlike any before. The western states booksellers organiza...
Collectors early on too often follow the well-trod path from enthusiasm to disaster after they learn that market valuation is different than asking prices. For the new collector this is terribly i...
There is a ton of anecdotal information leading one to believe this is not an easy time for booksellers. There are comments from dealers themselves, along with the fact that virtually every busines...
The dearth of new printed catalogues being published in the books and paper field continues. It may not go away until the disruption of normal life created by the coronavirus goes away too. This mo...
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…
Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
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.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
