The good news kept getting better in 2021 in the rare book trade. 2020 had been a surprisingly good year, with prices of books and collectible paper at auction rising by 3.6%. 2021 was much better. This time prices rose 8.8%. This was based on the median, or midpoint of all lots sold during the year. While based on anecdotal comments booksellers did not participate in 2020's party, they did in 2021. Dealers' sales, unlike auctions, aren't public knowledge, but based on the upbeat comments we have heard, it sounds like the wealth has now been spread around. Covid may have lingered around ano...
Slipping into the daily news flow in January, The New York Times recently published an homage to William Reese, the exceptional rare book dealer who dominated collectible printed Americana over his...
Join us on February 2nd as Rare Book Hub and the international book community celebrate the joyful centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, published in 1922 by a brave American woman...
When the Rare Book Hub compiled a list of the Top 500 prices paid at auction for books and paper collectibles in 2021, there was a bit of a surprise in the Top 10. It was a book of artwork and the ...
Shirley Anson, 82, historian for the Town of Plattekill in Ulster County, New York passed away December 14, 2021 and I write to remember and celebrate her commitment and interest in history and pre...
Exhibit is free at the Grolier Club in NYC through April 16 and also online
Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects draws upon selected items from the impressive collection assembled by Glen Miranker of...
What’s Happening?
The dust has settled on 2021, the sale of 521,461 lots from 636,853 resulting in a sell thru rate of 81.8%, about 1,000 over the estimate projected in my article from October of ...
There was a time not that far away when learned people could spend their lives trying to determine the exact location of the terrestrial Paradise described in the first book of the Bible. Father Da...
It’s been two years since the ABAA has held a sanctioned in-person event and 2022 opens with the ABAA’s biannual fair in the Bay Area on Friday 11 February. One hundred and two exhibiting dealers ...
For those interested in old and rare books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera here’s a fair in southern California, in Pasadena to February 4-6. During the Covid-19 period, in-person book fairs, in t...
Nancy Johnson’s San Francisco book fair has been held for many years but during Covid-19 was suspended. Here is some good news. It’s back!!!! Forty-two exhibitors are signed up and some spaces ...
The virtual fair runs from February 18th to the 22nd, with the electronic version of the printed catalog available for download starting February 3rd.
Every year, German and internationa...
A publishing company employee has been arrested in a new twist on an old crime - manuscript theft. It is a scheme that fits with the reality of how manuscripts of books are written today. They are ...
Some authors are so popular they have museums dedicated to their work. Several have achieved that status. There is one for John Steinbeck in Salinas, California. Theodore Geisel, whom we all know a...
This month we review five new bookseller catalogues. Librairie Clavreuil of Paris and Stephan Clavreuil Rare Books of London have combined to publish a catalogue of 81 precious books. The William R...
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. 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.
![<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.")
