Rare Book Monthly Articles - August - 2010 Issue

All's well that ends well

All's well that ends well

By Bruce McKinney Jeffrey Thomas, the San Francisco rare book dealer passed away in the late spring of 2007. One portion of his books was consigned to old friends John Crichton and John Windle, both ABAA dealers. Another part was consigned to Pacific Book Auctions. All books have their histories, one of them that was sent to auction, a story that would take two years to resolve. In the end it would reflect well on everyone, the experience telling us more about people than it would about the volume itself. It would confirm both Jeffrey's faith in his friends and his plan to send ma...

Great Scott! Eccentric Shakespearean Thief Convicted.

Great Scott! Eccentric Shakespearean Thief Convicted.

By Michael Stillman The career of one of the most entertaining of book thieves to be seen in recent memory came crashing to a halt in an English courtroom last month. Actually, the case of the c...

Amazon's E-Books Outsell Hardcovers for the 2nd Quarter

Amazon's E-Books Outsell Hardcovers for the 2nd Quarter

By Tom McKinney E-books are enjoying a wave of growth as new devices like Apple's iPad and its competitors provide a great platform for a potential rebirth in reading for the future. Spurred als...

Too Good to be True

Too Good to be True

By Bruce McKinney On eBay a month or so ago I ran across a Currier Ives print of West Point, an original folio print printed in 1862. The print was interesting, its size unusual. It was descr...

Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector

Sci-Fi, New Tech & the Modern Book Collector

By Stephanie Howlett-West Technology and Science Fiction have always shared a symbiotic relationship - where there is one, the other will follow; so it should not be a surprise that Science Fict...

Cataloging the American Experience:  with text and video

Cataloging the American Experience: with text and video

By Bruce McKinney Bonhams has released the first of six online videos that will document, month by month, the steps leading to the December sale of a significant collection of Americana - The ...

Out of the Valley of Death

Out of the Valley of Death

By Bruce McKinney Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. We recently updated the monthly Trends in Book Auction Prices graphs and the pictures emerging are encouraging. Median lot pr...

Literary Agent Andrew Wylie Makes Exclusive E-book Deal with Amazon -  Publishers Out and Unhappy

Literary Agent Andrew Wylie Makes Exclusive E-book Deal with Amazon - Publishers Out and Unhappy

By Tom McKinney The debate over what to do about backlist titles in e-book form heated up this month as literary agent Andrew Wylie's new business, Odyssey Editions, made a two-year exclusive de...

<i>Auction News:</i>  Goodbye Roy Rogers

<i>Auction News:</i> Goodbye Roy Rogers

By Michael Stillman This is a difficult story to write. It is poignant and sad, yet strange and funny, full of meaning and insight, or maybe not so much. It has little to do with books, but much...

An Update on the AED

An Update on the AED

By Bruce McKinney Without any notice or clamor the AED, the Americana Exchange Database of material offered at auction, described in bibliographies and/or included in important dealers' catalo...

Calling Gutenberg on Your iPhone

Calling Gutenberg on Your iPhone

By Michael Stillman Technology advances at a dizzying pace, perhaps even a frightening one for those who grew up in the book world, where technology was virtually a constant for over five centur...

<i>In The News:</i>  E-Books vs. Hardcovers, Thief Sentenced, Elvis Is...

<i>In The News:</i> E-Books vs. Hardcovers, Thief Sentenced, Elvis Is...

By Michael Stillman In a stunning announcement, at least for those not expecting the transition from printed to electronic books to be quite this fast, Amazon.com announced that e-books are now ...

17 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

17 New Catalogues Reviewed This Month

For August, we have 17 new bookseller catalogues to review. This month we have first catalogues from Better World Books, which is focused on spare parts, human ones, that is, and Sophia Rare Books,...

Rare Book Monthly

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  • Sotheby's
    Bibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
    5-19 June
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Bissière, Roger. Cantique à notre frère soleil de saint François. 1954. 1,000 - 1,500 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. La vie & l’œuvre de Philippe Ignace Semmelweis. 1924. Rare édition originale, avec envoi. Joint : La Quinine en thérapeutique, 1925. 4,000 - 6,000 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. Mort à crédit. 1936. Édition originale. Bel exemplaire sur Hollande. 2,500 - 3,500 EUR
    Sotheby's
    Bibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
    5-19 June
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Chillida, Eduardo ─ Emil Cioran. Face aux instants. 1985. Un des 100 exemplaires sur Arches. Eau-forte signée. 600 - 800 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Dubuffet, Jean. Ler dla canpane. L’Art Brut, 1948. Édition originale. 3,000 - 5,000 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Dubuffet, Jean. L'Herne Jean Dubuffet. 1973. Un des 100 exemplaires du tirage de luxe avec une sérigraphie originale en couleurs. 1,000 - 1,500 EUR

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