Rare Book Monthly Articles - October - 2023 Issue

Be Prepared: Maui Fire A Wake Up Call For Us All

Be Prepared: Maui Fire A Wake Up Call For Us All

If you told me in July I’d be writing about disaster preparedness for an audience of rare book aficionados I would have scoffed at the idea. That was before August 8th when Lahaina, only a few miles from my house in Central Maui, burned to the ground. Most of you have seen the images on TV or social media. On August 7th Lahaina was a historic seaside West Maui town, a mecca for visitors and an economic engine for our island. By the evening of August 8th it was ashes, totally destroyed by one of the largest wildfire disasters in American history. Thousands of homes and commercial buildings...

Texas Passes a Censorship Law That Forces Booksellers to Enforce It Against Their Will

Texas Passes a Censorship Law That Forces Booksellers to Enforce It Against Their Will

In this era of school library book bans, Texas has passed a new law that has booksellers up in arms. Pro-book people in general are not fans of censorship and bans, but this law goes a step further...

Christie's:  Dancing in the Moonlight

Christie's: Dancing in the Moonlight

Christie’s October Online auction is led by one of the most iconic works in the entire field of rare books: the Columbus Letter. It is the earliest obtainable edition of Christopher Columbus’s lett...

The 45th Annual Boston Book Fair:  October 27-29

The 45th Annual Boston Book Fair: October 27-29

THE BOSTON INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR, RETURNS TO THE HYNES CONVENTION CENTER    This Three-day event features 110+ booksellers offering treasures from around the globe!   BOSTON, MA –...

The Boston Shadow Fair Lives!:  October 28th

The Boston Shadow Fair Lives!: October 28th

Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire.  MW Book Fairs, a collaboration between Wiggins Fine Books ABAA, SNEAB and Richard Mori Books, is pleased to announce that over 40 outstand...

Potter & Potter Brings the Swami back on October 28th

Potter & Potter Brings the Swami back on October 28th

Ricky Jay, the magician, actor, and collector, is said to have died on November 24, 2018, but, somehow, he gloriously continues to reappear in the auction rooms.   Sotheby’s offered 700 of his lo...

The Future of the Past

The Future of the Past

Collectible paper has been prospering in the auction rooms for many years.  Over the prior 15 years it has been a given that the annual numbers would slowly increase.  When Covid hit no one knew wh...

Sylvester Stallone Started His Film Career by Stealing Books

Sylvester Stallone Started His Film Career by Stealing Books

The rich and famous attribute their success to many different influences. For famed movie actor Sylvester Stallone, one of his sources of success was stealing books. We need to stop right here and ...

Louis XVI in 1790 - of Locks and Other Deadly Matters

Louis XVI in 1790 - of Locks and Other Deadly Matters

A lot has been said and written about Louis XVI, the French king who was beheaded in 1793. Yet a brochure entitled Vie de Louis XVI (Life of Louis XVI—Londres, 1790) recently attracted my attention...

Strikes Hit the World of Books and Media as American Labor Unrest Swells

Strikes Hit the World of Books and Media as American Labor Unrest Swells

The book world is not immune to the recent uptick in labor activism. What was originally dubbed the “summer of strikes,” shows every sign of continuing through the remainder of the year and beyond....

RR Auctions raises the bar for Ephemera

RR Auctions raises the bar for Ephemera

Not so long ago ephemera as a collectible category was an interesting idea that was busy being born.  Over the past 20 years it has been making the greatest gains in value and its place as a collec...

The Griggs saying Sayonara

The Griggs saying Sayonara

We are retiring!  Oldmaps.com has been acquired by Bruce and Jenny McKinney’s RareBookHub.com.  We believe this is a positive development for all our subscribers.  RBH has the depth and expertise t...

Inaugural Empire State Book and Print Fair to Be Held October 5-7 in New York City

Inaugural Empire State Book and Print Fair to Be Held October 5-7 in New York City

The Empire State Rare Book and Print Fair will debut in the heart of the Empire State, New York City, October 5-7. This promises to be a book fair unlike any others you have attended. Of course, th...

What Is The Largest Book Ever Published?

What Is The Largest Book Ever Published?

What is the largest book ever published? Honors for creating that book belong to a group of schoolchildren from Texas, who, with some help from adults, created the largest published book ever. Find...

Boxborough Paper Fair Returns October 14

Boxborough Paper Fair Returns October 14

Boxborough Paper Town will be returning to the only place it can truthfully be held this fall. It is set for Saturday, October 14, in Boxborough, Massachusetts, at the Boxborough Regency Hotel Con...

How to Get Good Reviews for Your Business (for the Ethically Challenged)

How to Get Good Reviews for Your Business (for the Ethically Challenged)

If you operate a book selling business, or any other for that matter, you undoubtedly know the importance of online customer reviews. As customers, I imagine most of us look at these when evaluatin...

Calling All Book Townies ... And Others:  Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair, October 1st -- Be There!

Calling All Book Townies ... And Others: Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair, October 1st -- Be There!

  A Benefit for the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.   Bibliophiles on the Ann Arbor-Detroit circuit will be at the 43rd Annual Antiquarian Book Fair this Sunday,...

Four New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

Four New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

This month we review four new catalogues from booksellers. Librairie Clavreuil offers the first part of their collection of important French literature, this one covering the 15th-17th century. Old...

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Year in Review
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: A Rare Hebrew Bible with Micrographic Masorah. Sold: 1,514,000 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: "The Freedman's Primer.” Sold: 241,300 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Smith, William. "The Map that Changed the World." Sold: 139,700 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Psalter, C13th. Illuminated Psalter. Sold: 330,200 GBP
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Lincoln, Abraham. The abolition of slavery. Sold: 13,697,500 USD
    Sotheby’s Year in Review: Vergilius. Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1501. Sold: 1,041,400 USD
  • University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Jefferson's Owned & Signed "Plutarch's Morals" Vol. 4. - 1st Time At Auction In Nearly 200 Years!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Flown NASA Hasselblad 203S Space Camera On Endeavour STS-111, With Components, Data Module & Flown Film Magazine!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: One Of The Finest Lincoln Assassination Letters Extant, April 15, 1865 - Illustrated & Beyond Dramatic! 8pp.
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Isaac Newton Highly Important Religious Manuscript With 85+ Words In His Hand, Ex-Bonhams
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Marilyn Monroe Gorgeous Signed & Inscribed Photograph, PSA Authenticated
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Rare Ernest Hemingway, 1 Of 10 Signed Presentation Copies Of "Farewell To Arms"
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Ayn Rand 11pp Revised AMS "The Cold Civil War" For LA Times Newspaper- 900+ Words In Her Hand!
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Mary Todd Lincoln Calls Abe A "great & good man, who loved & served his country so well"
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Abraham Lincoln Gives Rebel Woman Pass To Visit Prisoner Of War Husband, Showing A Very Human Lincoln!
    University Archives
    Rare Autographs & Books Including Lincoln & Space Exploration
    January 7, 2026
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Babe Ruth PSA Type II Signed Conlon Photo, With Ruth Miniature Louisville Slugger, 16.25"
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Armstrong, Collins, Aldrin Signed Photo - Prime Crew Apollo 11 - PSA Authenticated
    University Archives, Jan. 7: Huge Abraham Lincoln Hesler Photo, Ca. 1880 - As If He Were In The Room!

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