"The Herrick District Library will host a workshop on rare book care and restoration led by restoration expert Kari Miller Fenwood"
"The Herrick District Library will host a workshop on rare book care and restoration led by restoration expert Kari Miller Fenwood"
"The bulk of a man's childhood comic-book collection that included many of the most prized issues ever published sold at auction Wednesday for about $3.5 million."
"A scarce copy of Rudimentum Novitiorum, the first printed history of the world, published in 1475, and the first printed book to feature maps, sold for $1,150,000 at the 45th California International Antiquarian Book Fair this past weekend in Pasadena, CA"
"A full-size, complete first edition of John James Audubon's "The Birds of America" has been sold for $7.9 million at auction in New York to a private American collector, Christie's said."
"A first edition of John James Audubon’s book 'The Birds of America' certainly costs more than the average nest egg. The last time another copy of this rare volume was sold in 2010, bids soared to $11.5 million – making it the world’s most expensive book."
"In the world of cartography, prices for some of the rarest and most sought-after maps—like those of famous cartographer William Blough—can reach into the millions. At that cost, why choose to invest in a map over other artworks?"
"When Chambersburg resident Cesi Kellinger packed up six boxes of books and sent them to the Library of Congress as a donation, she did not anticipate the response she would get. Kellinger got an official letter from the library stating that her books were not only accepted, but that the collection would bear her name."
"Pat McInally, the first Harvard graduate to play in the Super Bowl, is selling his £2 million Winnie-the-Pooh memorabilia collection."
"I do have some rare books, but I don't have too many rare cookbooks. It's an area where I — somebody sent me a link a couple months ago because Daniel Boulud was selling part of his collection but by the time I clicked on the link everything was over. So I've got a lot of out-of-print cookbooks, but in terms of hyper valuable, oh my God it's 200 years old or it was Escoffier's own copy, no, I don't have anything like that. I suppose I should."
"A literarian from Liverpool who had travelled down that morning, grumbled about the slowness of the bidding, though he admitted that it was swifter than at a Manchester auction house. Another gentleman whose speciality was medieval manuscripts showed me how to inspect leather bindings from photographs and the importance of undamaged seals on documents."
"The office was lined with rare books and manuscripts -- first editions of Voltaire and Hugo, a nine-volume biography of Napoleon and original letters from Shelley."
"PLEASANT PRAIRIE — The interest in rare books and hard-to-find figures at Sunday’s comic book show showed that there is a serious side to this field of collecting."
"Maryemma Graham, an English professor at Kansas University, has been working for 30 years to track down novels written by black writers. In fact, she’d like to get all of them."
"She also owns 50,000 pieces of art, among them masterpieces by Goya and Velazquez, and a library of 18,000 rare books including a first edition of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the fate of which are controlled by a foundation."
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"1. . James Joyce"
"James Joyce's landmark modernist work Ulysses is now regarded as a masterpiece, but when he first touted it around there was a great deal of reluctance on behalf of publishers."
"Utah book collector Brent Ashworth and Montana author Larry Pointer say the text contains the best evidence yet - with details only Cassidy could have known - that "Bandit Invincible" was not biography but autobiography, and that Phillips himself was the legendary outlaw."
"Three stories underground, in the University of Virginia's main library, 60 librarians, collectors, scholars and other bibliophiles divide into small groups. They're barely breathing as they lean over texts that have been around for centuries, like the 1497 Latin edition of Sebastian Brant's The Ship of Fools."
"Esteemed bibliophile Morton Netzorg, born to Thomasite parents, was in the business of buying warehouses of Filipiniana items and shipping them to a Detroit home base. Like other collectors and scholars, Rafa frequented Netzorg’s bookshop during visits to the United States."
"John Ehrman's book-collecting habits were more practical, but he carried on his father's generous tradition and in 1976 decided to disperse the entire Broxborne Library in his father's memory, distributing his gifts so as to fill gaps in important collections."
"Businessman and scriptwriter Vipul Rawal, 43, has a passion for documenting history. He collects antique newspapers, and over the past 30 years, has spent Rs 8-10 lakh to buy old news. Today, his collection is valued at over eight times this amount."
"If you think rare books and ancient manuscripts are confined to museums, vaults and hollywood movies, you're mistaken. The Remnant Trust in Winona Lake has a growing collection of rare books and historical artifacts."
"She typically charges $75 to $80 to repair a clothbound book. A leather-bound Bible may cost several hundred dollars to repair."
"In this age of e-books, people still want to preserve their old books, especially family books."
"Scholar and minister Fan Qin had a dream - to build a great private library in China, and in 1561 he did just that. Today the Tianyi Pavilion library is the oldest private collection in Asia and a testament to the man who loved learning."
"A record-breaking auction of books and drawings once belonging by the family who own Towcester Racecourse has raised nearly £15 million."
"Some of the world’s rarest books collected by Frederick, 2nd Lord Hesketh, went under the hammer at Sothebys in London this month."
"Historic Vieux Marche' in downtown Biloxi is a perfect place to find classic literature."
"'This is a very nice piece. It's a first edition Mark Twain,' said Mike Hutter, owner of Spanish Trail Bookstore."
"Jacques Guerin, a young perfume magnate in Paris, led a secret life as a bibliophile. During the week he was a perfumer; the weekends were given over to hunting for rare books, precious manuscripts and artists' papers."
"For collectors, it is the equivalent of spotting the rare ivory gull or Bicknell's thrush: the chance to own an original copy of John James Audubon's 'Birds of America.'"
"Next month, a well-preserved original edition of the book is set to be auctioned by Sotheby's in London, and high-profile book collectors are circling the prey."
"On December 2, Christie’s is pleased to offer Beautiful Evidence: The Library of Edward Tufte, a superb sale comprised of nearly 200 rare books, including major works in the history of science, statistical graphics, 20th-century artists books, and Edward Tufte artworks. Formed over the past thirty years, this important and rare collection documents his research, scholarship, writing, design and artwork, from the 15th through the 20th centuries."
"Boles said Cumming had a 19th Century printing shop in his basement where he printed a number of books in hand-set type, including original diaries and collections of letters with historical importance. He produced a book a year on average and often hunted the shelves of type shops for new type faces, Boles said."
"The collection, compiled by Dr. Greville Haslam, contains volumes published between the 17th and early 20th centuries. Howard and Mary Phipps donated the collection to the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library, said Jenny Fowler, library director of advancement. Library staffers and archivists are preparing the collection now, and an exhibit of some of the books will open to the public in February during the Southeastern Wildlife Expo, she said."
"It's a peculiar discipline, pulp. The purpose – back in the smoky, inter-war days when the cheaply produced magazines would line the news-stands – was always practical. Pulp covers, like the airbrushed supermodels who replaced them, were designed to sell."
"In the age of Kindle, iPad and the Internet, many have predicted the end of the printed book."
"Even if that's the future for most readers, just the opposite is true at Jurey's Bookbinding Services, where much of the work is dedicated to preserving and restoring very special books."
" One of the sessions today involves a single document — an original broadside of the Declaration of Independence, printed in Massachusetts to spread the word in the weeks after July 4, 1776. Fewer than 100 broadsides are known to exist, and most are held by museums and other institutions."
"The sale of the collection will be in London and has been assembled by Natalie Galustian for many years. Natalie names the collection, ‘All in’. The collection includes some very valuable first editions which were published as far back as 1880."
"The collection is surviving so far due to passion in Dalip Singh to preserve the history. Rare manuscripts in the village gurdwara 9Sikh shrine) library include “ Dasam Granth”, Guru Partap-Suriya, Guru Bilas, Zafarnama Patshahi Daswin, Makkei Wali Sakhi, Bachittar Natak, Zindgi-Nama Bhai Nand Lal, an ultra small Guru Granth Sahib which has 1430 pages and can be read only with the help of a magnifying lens and many more."
"...this edition became known as the 'Wicked Bible,' and it's estimated that only 11 copies survived the bonfire King Charles I ordered lit for them, putting its value around the $100,000 range."
"An important collection of approximately eleven thousand art books assembled by Thea Westreich and her husband, Ethan Wagner, is being given to the Brooklyn Museum’s Library. Collected over the course of several decades, the gift includes key works in the history of art, with emphasis on modern and contemporary material."
"Richard Minsky--renowned book artist and founder of the Center for Book Arts in New York--is publishing a new volume of decorated commercial bindings, The Art of American Book Covers, 1875-1930. "
"When Boston University students try to convert their textbooks into cash at the end of the semester, they often come away with what seems like a measly haul compared to how much they originally paid."
"But at this year’s Lawrence G. Blackmon Book Collecting Contest, students had a chance to win up to $1,500 for their book collections, without even having to give up a single title."
"Born to Ukrainian parents, Jose Mindlin owned over 38,000 books and was a member of the prestigious Brazilian Academy of Letters. In 2006, he donated about half of his collection to the University of Sao Paulo, mostly on topics related to Brazilian studies."
"The prizes, which range from $250 to $2,500, are awarded to the winning bibliophiles -- and their school libraries -- for a collection of rare books."
"Thanks to this intensive silaturahmi, not only did Gus Dur keep in touch with so many real people and their actual problems around the country, or bring great charismatic clerics such as Abdullah Faqih of Langitan to national attention, but he also gave due recognition and introduced local leaders of remote villages previously unknown, people like Shaikh Mas’ud of Cilacap — a collector of rare books written by classical Indonesian Muslim scholars."
"Not a single one of our clients is a cultural nincompoop, pretentious about their books, nor elitist. They are, to the contrary, a group of men and women who have, for the most part, earned every penny of their wealth through hard work, and, having achieved financial success, decided to collect the books that were meaningful to them as a child, or, as an adult, captured their imagination and interest."
"John P. Gach, a bibliophile and a nationally known bookseller who specialized in rare books devoted to the human sciences, died of a heart attack Dec. 20 at his Randallstown home. He was 63."
"Clayton's mother, Mayme, spent 40 years amassing materials on African American history from every source imaginable: garage sales, flea markets, attics, used-book stores, and even dumps."
"John also is a political history buff. He has a collection of 15,000 rare books and is passing down his appreciation for history to his sons, Samuel and Joel."
"Many of the rare books that once filled the bookcase belonged to another suitor, Pierre Reverdy. As for Hugh Grosvenor, the 2nd Duke of Westminster, he was perhaps the raison d’être for her collection of objects with wheat motifs—“a symbol of fecundity because she wanted to have a child (and heir for the duke),” suggests Clermont-Tonnerre."
"Two valuable books belonging to the Carsons were donated recently to Historic Carson House. The treasured artifacts were given by sisters Margaret Williams and Marianne Odom. They are direct descendants of Col. John Carson, who built the home more than 200 years ago."
"The sale of those and more than 100 other Bibles in Meadows's collection is "a very big deal," says Mark Dimunation, chief of the rare book and special collections division at the Library of Congress. "
"Rare-book dealer and academic Gekoski 'howled, hooted and imprecated' when his ex-wife refused to hand over his precious bookshelf and the 1,000 or so tomes it contained. But with the passing of his ire came a feeling of liberation, a realisation that what he had read since childhood had shaped him – and remained with him."
"Mr. Lapidus’s collection has since grown to include some 2,500 items, most of them published before 1800. The exhibition, which runs through January 3, 2010, in Firestone’s main gallery, features 157 important books, pamphlets, and prints representing the collection’s major themes: the American Revolution and its intellectual origins; the early years of the republic; the spread of democratic ideas; and the impact of the slave trade in both Great Britain and the United States."
"He's handled everything from a Rare Revolutionary War Tory diary, to a book that didn't even exist, (for Disney of course)."
"Investing isn't much fun these days for the many who have lost serious money in the wild swings on stock markets over the last year."
"And while the good times on markets could be elusive for a while yet, maybe engaging in some serious collecting for profit could be just the thing to take your mind off volatile equities."
"He also amassed a personal library of more than 45,000 volumes, including many rare books and first editions. In a high-ceilinged library behind his Austin home, he shelved original editions of almost every presidential campaign biography since the founding of the republic. In addition, he collected Thomas Hart Benton lithographs, a collection he started by spending $5 from the first fee he received as a lawyer."
"RUGBY legend Naas Botha was in Port Elizabeth yesterday to receive four limited-edition books containing information about great sportsmen of the past to add to his foundation the SA Sports Hall of Fame."
"Italian immigrant John Sisto was known as a collector of art and rare books but the size and scope of the treasure his sons found in the 78-year-old widower's house on South Elmwood Avenue generated interest not only from his neighbors and other collectors but from the Italian government, Berwyn police and the FBI."
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"Jay is a collector of rare books and arcana, ephemera and lore. He has thousands of items cataloged on his personal computer, but isn’t sure of the extent of his collection, most of which resides in his Los Angeles home. In general, he explains, he’s interested not in the mainstream figures of magic but those who live on the fringes."
"Mr. Volkmann inherited from his mother in 1969 a collection of rare books about the history of California, including fine press books, many of which were printed by the Grabhorn Press. He bought rare books for the next 39 years and finally held a complete Zamorano 80 collection, considered the 80 most important or rare books about California."
"Sixty-year-old Du Weisheng likes to call himself a doctor, whose time-ravaged patients are frail, often crumble at a touch and sometimes get chewed by rats."
"Du preserves and restores books and scripts that are hundreds of years old at China's National Library, performing a job that is fast becoming as rare as the tomes he rescues."
"Renowned for his love of print and an avid collector of rare books on the subject, Romano authored the Encyclopedia of Graphic Communications with his son Richard."
"The 'Champions in Print' Awards were launched in April 2008 to "honour individuals who have influenced and shaped the printing industry across the world".
"60-year-old, Hakeem Gulam Jeelani, is known as the ‘museum man of Kashmir valley’ because he has devoted part of his house with ancient and attractive collection, which he has for many decades.
Hakeem collection at Jeelani’s Rawal Pora suburb residence is a showcase of ancient heritage."
"UA Libraries has announced the winners of the third annual Book Collector’s Contest, where students can showcase their personal collections of books with a common theme."
"For almost 40 years she has been buying, selling and researching rare books at their shop and she has been fascinated with tiny books. Bromer explained a large number of books in all genres have been printed in special sizes, which are no more than three inches tall."
"The architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White redesigned his home on New York’s Madison Avenue and 36th Street, now the Morgan Library and Museum, to accommodate his internationally celebrated and growing collection of books and medieval and Renaissance art. Morgan was also generous: In 1907 he purchased a major coin collection for the Metropolitan Museum, which he’d help establish, and built a wing at Hartford’s Wadsworth Athenaeum in memory of his father, Junius S. Morgan, an American-born London financier, who’d paved the way for his son’s successes."
"Undoubtedly one of the most coveted of these lots is an excessively rare Congressional copy of Charles Wilkes’ record of his famed 1838-1842 South Seas expedition. The expedition was launched by the United States Congress to “announce America’s scientific coming of age” and marks the first U.S. governmental sponsorship of a large-scale scientific endeavour. In keeping with its mission, the expedition included naturalists, botanists, a mineralogist, taxidermists, artists and a philologist. Specimens gathered by expedition scientists became the foundation for collections of the Smithsonian Institution and as a result of their work, significant contributions were made to the fields of geology, botany, conchology, anthropology, and linguistics."
"About a year ago, a writer for one of the town's less-than-every-day papers infamously reported with regret that the Reading Room bookstore at Mandalay Place inside the Mandalay Bay was closing, leaving Las Vegas without any independent booksellers."
"Las Vegas was not and still is not without independent booksellers, needless to say, and I'm not merely talking about the Philadelphia-based (and markedly upscale) Bauman's Rare Books, which moved into Sheldon Adelson's Palazzo last year."
"That's right. The Dow Jones may be half of what it once was (and so is my 401K), but the market for book collectors is on fire. And, as a book collector, not just a book buyer, this means you can have your book and read it, too."
"The couple had worked as scientists in the department of astronomy and physics of London University. They have collected these books between 1920 and 2006 and all books are mainly on science and it's different categories like clinical research, biomedical technology, physiology, biochemistry, physics and nature."
"A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it for less than a buck."
"Richard Prince, the American contemporary artist best known for his controversial plagiarism of magazine advertisements – notably his Marlboro cigarette cowboy series – has been assembling what New York book dealers describe as one of the most valuable and distinctive modern libraries in private hands. "
"Hundreds of old and rare books which paint a picture of the fascinating history of Bradford are to go on sale."
"There are so many that two days have been set aside to dispose of the collection at The Bradford Club in the city centre’s Piece Hall Yard."
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"The men are in Dunedin for the annual Australian and New Zealand rare books school, being hosted this year by the University of Otago. "
"The five-day school, which has attracted a student from the United States as well as 22 others from various parts of Australia and New Zealand, is held here every four years. "
"All of the prints in Modern Times were already in the archives of the Davison Arts Center, as they were part of a collection of generous donations by George W. Davison, who graduated from Wesleyan in 1892. A collector of art books and rare books, Davison, beginning in the 1930s, donated his entire collection of over 6,000 prints to Wesleyan and helped found the Davison Arts Center."
"'It's the Holy Grail of comic books,; says Stephen Fishler, one of the leading experts on collectible comics."
"There are only 100 copies of Action Comics #1 in existence, and the story behind this newly-discovered copy is as rare as the book itself."
"Blockson, a black author, historian, collector and distinguished Penn State alumnus, assembled one of the country’s eminent collections of black literature. A portion of his collection — titled 'Celebrating a Legacy: The Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and the African Diaspora' — is on display in the Diversity Studies Room in Pattee Library."
"Valued at more than $20 million, this is the world’s largest private collection of memorabilia from Abraham Lincoln’s personal and presidential life. It will be housed at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis and the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) in Fort Wayne. Among the more than 20,000 items in the collection are signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment; three-dimensional artifacts including Lincoln’s wallet and a chair he sat in for some of his most famous photographs, artwork, thousands of documents, photographs, prints and rare books. "
"Many scholars of Chinese art consider a pilgrimage to rural New Hampshire as a rite of passage."
"That is where one of the world's greatest private collections of classical Chinese art resides, along with its 90-year-old owner, Weng Wan-go."
"Lost in the hand-wringing over the state of the book industry is the fact that this is a golden age for those in love with old-fashioned printed volumes: more books are available for less effort and less money than ever before. A book search engine like ViaLibri.net can knit together 20,000 booksellers around the world offering tens of millions of nearly new, used or rare books."
"Artists aren't the only creative types flocking to Berlin, Europe's new cultural capital. The city has been attracting both fledgling and established writers from around the globe, including Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides."
"Costing well over $100,000, a 62-pound handmade tome depicting the life and work of Michelangelo has arrived at the New York Public Library, fresh from publication in Italy."
As Thanksgiving nears, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim picks her favorite rare books on early America, in "The Wall Street Journal."
"Jay T. Snider's collection of early Americana, much of it relating to Philadelphia, fetched $2.3 million at an auction ending yesterday in New York."
"Though the rare books, manuscripts, maps and prints were expected to garner $3 million, Anais Borja, a representative of Bloomsbury Auctions, said the gallery was pleased with the result."
"Rosemary Sullivan, 71, has spent a lifetime collecting books, many of them rare and first editions. For the past four decades, she's also been a notable book seller."
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"Mr. Snider's books, manuscripts and broadsides, as well as maps and prints, are believed to be the largest privately owned collection of its kind. The Constitution Center reception celebrated Mr. Snider's induction into the Chairman's Circle of the Constitution Center, as well as the auction of Mr. Snider's collection at New York's Bloomsbury Auctions this week."
"A rare print of a 396-year-old map of Canada created by French explorer Samuel de Champlain has sold at an auction in Britain for nearly $250,000, triple the expected price."
"TORONTO — The thousands of books Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut consulted over the decades for his sermons, essays, articles and books, have been donated to York University."
"A mystery donor has left four 18th Century volumes described by experts as incredibly rare in a charity book bin. "
"The books, in gold-tooled calf binding, were given to Stirling's Oxfam bookshop and form part of Clarendon's 1731 six-part History of the Rebellion."
"As rare books go, auction catalogs are surely among the rarest, officially obsolete as soon as the auction is over. And yet, in my experience, their fascination never expires."
"In Regehr's case, she has a lot of friends - more than 100 books dealing with a wide variety of Native American history, culture and arts."
"They range from a 1937 volume of 'Three Little Indians' to a paperback version of the 1970 classic, 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.'"
"Scotland’s leading independent courier company has pledged to work together with Oxfam to retrieve the last two volumes of a rare book collection."
"Eagle Couriers has offered its services to the charity in order to hunt for the books, which are part of a rare set of six civil war reference books from the 18th Century."
"On November 19, 2008, noted Philadelphia businessman Jay T. Snider will auction his famed multi-million dollar collection relating to the City of Brotherly Love. To celebrate Mr. Snider's induction into the Chairman's Circle of the National Constitution Center, highlights of the collection will be previewed in Philadelphia at the National Constitution Center on November 12 at a private event sponsored by Bloomsbury Auctions. "
"Robert and Michelle Wilhelm of Rhinecliff, N.Y., and their daughter Celeste Wilhelm, gave their collection of Greek and Roman history, language and literature, including new volumes and rare books from the 18th and 19th centuries, to the college late this summer. The books are now being catalogued and assessed by St. Michael’s Library Director John Payne, Associate Director Laura Crain and Archivist Elizabeth Scott."
"If you have any resemblance to bibliokleptomaniac Stephen Blumberg, you have an intense love for books. Blumberg’s obsession led him to multiple arrests in the 1980s and early ’90s for his theft of over 20,000 rare books from over 140 universities in 45 states and Canada, and to custom-build 86 bookshelves that extended over windows and into the backs of closets to house his collection."
"While technology can make knowledge available at the click of a button, healthy reading habits are also equally important, Mrs Pratibha Patil said while addressing a meeting celebrating the 150th year celebration of Uttarpara Jaikrishna Public Library."
"His name may raise a few eyebrows as people try to grasp where in the world kids named “Winkie” come from. Though Winkie Pratney may not be a house-hold name in much of Smith County, he is certainly known among a select group of prominent ministers with international influences."
"PARIS, France - Pierre Beres, one of France's greatest private collectors of manuscripts and rare editions, has died at the age of 95, his family said Wednesday."
"The Paris-based collector, who three years ago on retiring sold 12,000 volumes from his collection, died on Monday."
"The exhibit is titled 'Lighting the Way: the Life and Legacy of William Rotch Jr.' Its display cases feature artifacts belonging to Rotch and his family. Of particular interest is a 16th-century atlas of world cities which suggests that Rotch had an interest in rare books. Also of interest is a map showing where Rotch's grandfather purchased 10 waterfront acres in the community then known as Bedford Village in 1765."
"While independent bookstores nationwide struggle as they compete against national chains such as Barnes & Noble, discounters such as Wal-mart and Internet booksellers like Amazon, veteran booksellers like Gordon have survived and even thrived in Asheville. In the town that gave birth to literary legends such as Thomas Wolfe and Charles Frazier, readers like to buy books locally, Gordon said."
"Some 300 rare books confiscated from Iraq's Jewish community by Saddam Hussein's regime have been secretly spirited into Israel, an Israeli newspaper says."
"The haul worth more than £200,000 was discovered by workmen after they hacked their way through an overgrown garden to clear the house in New Malden, Surrey."
"For over 25 years, O'Dell, who died in March 2007 at age 53, was the proprietor of Chapel Hill Rare Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Considered one of the preeminent Civil War dealers in the country, O'Dell was also well known as a collector. "
"The room contains hundreds of art books collected by John Ringling. After his death in 1936, every item in his residence, Cà d'Zan, was inventoried and cataloged, "every room, every shelf, so you know what book was on which shelf in what room," said Ringling librarian Linda McKee."
"These days Bond is about as collectable as you can get. Here, I give an indication of what a fine copy in its original dust jacket would fetch today. The jacket is all-important. That of Casino Royale is legendarily rare, and five years ago one fetched more than £13,000 at auction; that's just the jacket - there was no accompanying book. Caveat emptor, however: in the jargon of the book-collecting world, this was a 'first state' jacket. A 'second state' jacket, carrying a quote from a Sunday newspaper review on the front inside flap, sold in the same year for just £600. "
"The highest price paid for a printed book was $8.8 million for John James Audubon's Birds of America, sold by Christie's in 2000. The priciest manuscript or hand-printed book was Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Leicester, bought by Microsoft's Bill Gates for $30.8 million in 1994."
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"In the six years since his death, Lenkiewicz's estate has been gradually sold off to the tune of more than £5m. While sales of his enormous collections of books at Sotheby's – the occult and witchcraft were among his favourite subjects – account for about £1.6m of the total, the rest of the money has been generated through sales of his paintings. "
"Among the books damaged that day was a Bible printed by John Baskett, a printer to King George III. Mr. Luckett enlisted Maggs Bros, one of the world’s largest sellers of rare books and manuscripts, to find replacements for the irrevocably damaged books. The replacement Bible he received was not at all what he expected."
"Situated in the heart of Ireland's capital city, the Chester Beatty Library is an art museum and library which houses the great collection of manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and some decorative arts assembled by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968). The Library's exhibitions open a window on the artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world. Its rich collection from countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe offers visitors a visual feast. "
"In 2004, he returned to his fifth floor Kabul apartment to find his beloved library - which had over 2,000 rare books in Pashto and Dari - riddled with bullet-marks."
"By the time the doors opened at 9:30 a.m., the line up of bookworms snaked around the school building. Thousands of people are expected to come through the doors during the four-day sale, which has a reputation for quality reading material at bargain prices. In its 44th year, the event is expected to raise about $25,000 for the symphony orchestra. "
"I'm cataloguing the books I bought in Hay-on-Wye, which we visited at the midpoint of a round-the-world trip. There are 27 to enter on the database. Fifteen are first editions. Only on our return, when I open the sack of 50 books (23 are my partner's) shipped from the Welsh border town, do I realise I have gained possession of so many gems in that day-and-a-half raid on the famed 'town of books'."
"Hadley got the job, and created a magnificent library for Vincent Astor’s rare books, which until that point had been in storage. The library he created featured brass-trimmed, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and red lacquered walls whose rich color required ten coats of paint. The room became a benchmark of Hadley’s career."
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"The auction is to be composed of two separate sections, with Rado's collection featured in the first part while the second half is to feature around 100 paintings from the 19th century to the present day. A particularly interesting aspect is that the list of items to be auctioned includes a full set of antique books printed by the first printing press in İstanbul, established by Hungarian-born Ottoman intellectual İbrahim Mütefferika in December 1727."
"Owners of rare books from the era when Vietnam was part of French Indochina were honored Wednesday at the fifth Ho Chi Minh City Book Fair. "
"An accomplished and renowned collector, Fliegelman specialized in "association copies." These books have a great, sometimes huge, added value largely because of who owned them. In this case, some of Fliegelman's books once belonged to Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George Washington, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster and the Empress of Russia."
"The Lincoln Book Bindery has been crafting hard cover books for over 50 years. Its small operation is something rare and special. And it's right here in Urbana."
"Chris Hohn has been sewing pages and binding books for 35 years. And now is a skilled craftsman. "
"Anthony Taussig stopped practicing law because he said it was nothing like the lawyer dramas he saw on television. However, his former job led him to collecting law books, and he now has the largest private collection of rare English law texts in the world."
"As a collector of rare books and first editions, defense attorney Bob Van Norman's tastes run more to mysteries, legal works and infamous killings, but once bitten, the lure of a rare book is hard to resist. So taunting, in fact, that Van Norman paid $4,250 for a flimsy, soft-covered book at the Black Hills Stock Show Foundation's Old West Collectibles Auction on Saturday, Feb. 2."
"'The main thing we did was build the library/music room on the top floor, and the many, many bookshelves,'Mr. Moser said. 'But nothing terribly dramatic.'"
"'The main thing we did was build the library/music room on the top floor, and the many, many bookshelves,'Mr. Moser said. 'But nothing terribly dramatic.'"
"Late last summer he donated his 4,730-tome collection to the University of B.C., making it the owner of the largest collection of golf books in the academic library world, says Ralph Stanton, head of rare books and special collections for UBC."
"The 76-year-old ear specialist has spent the last 40 years collecting medical artifacts dating from the first century A.D. to today. The waiting room, offices and even a treatment area are covered with displays of amputation saws, scalpels from antiquity forward, early hearing aids, medicine vials of all descriptions and quackery objects through the ages. "
"Hanover College's Duggan Library is the recipient of a second gift of important rare books on North American and Pacific exploration by retired orthopedic surgeon and Hanover alumnus Ronald Kleopfer."
"Mosher is known for combining discriminating taste in literature (many of his offerings were pirated from England, whose copyrights couldn't be enforced here) with fine aesthetic sensibility. His books, with their fine bindings and illuminations, were relatively low-priced and accessible to the public, thanks to his avoidance of copyright expenses, Bishop explained."
"The $21.3 million price reached at auction Tuesday night was toward the bottom of the range predicted by Sotheby's. Texas tycoon Ross Perot bought the historical document 23 years ago, for just $1.5 million. That still marks a pretty impressive return for the Perot Foundation"
"There's an art to giving a book as a present. You can't just stumble into a bookstore and wander around aimlessly. (Well, that actually sounds quite pleasant, but who has time for that sort of activity this time of year?) The lazy way to handle the situation is simply to pick up a gift card, and have done with it."
"Kislak celebrated Wednesday on the eve of Thursday's exhibit opening, "Exploring the Early Americas." Kislak donated thousands of items to the Library of Congress that will be part of a high-tech interactive display in the Thomas Jefferson Building."
"Chan, founder and chief executive of the private investment company Chartwell Capital, says:"
"'The growing interest in rare books has finally hit Asia, with alternative investors seeing them as an undervalued asset class... As many factors determine the value of rare books, it is challenging to calculate its overall return as an asset class. But if we only look into the titles of auction quality, their investment returns beat other asset classes.'"
"SALT LAKE CITY – It’s a book collector’s dream: rifling through the shelves of a secondhand store and finding a valuable text for a bargain price. "
"It happened Jan. 31 to a man who plunked down $40 and took home eight books of sermons and writings from elders of a secretive and polygamous Mormon breakaway group..."
"Beyond the many independent bookstores and author events, the Pioneer Valley’s literary largess is enhanced by several other book-centered communities whose fascinating wares may be more challenging to find — and considerably more expensive to purchase."
"The University of Arizona Mineral Museum has obtained an extensive mineral and rare book collection valued at $7 million from a somewhat mysterious donor. "
"In just 20 years, Sharpe has amassed works of science, philosophy, medicine, exploration, religion, literature and mathematics, all classified as being in superb condition and worth about $25 million."
Together, they record the growth of Western civilization through everything from a Dead Sea Scroll fragment to Gone With the Wind."
"Franzheim later donated his late father's collection of rare architecture books to the University of Houston, beginning a longtime philanthropic relationship with the school."
"He also purchased a rare book in 1976 to be the university's millionth volume and established endowments for the preservation of the collection, a professorship and a fund to purchase texts in languages, literature, the arts and general humanities."
"Tran Van Luu, a farmer in Thang Loc hamlet, Ngu Loc commune, Hau Loc district in Thanh Hoa province, has over 400 ancient books of all kinds, which are the assets of many generations of his family."
"The Hanoi Publishing House has announced a campaign to collect rare books and documents about Thang Long – Hanoi as a part of a project to build a bookcase on the thousand years of the Thang Long culture. "
"Works, including books, draft documents, maps, pictures and photos about Thang Long – Hanoi, have never been widely made public or thoroughly researched."
"I took the book home and when I opened it, there on the inside cover was my mother's name and the address of our home in the Bronx, N.Y. We lived there from 1923 until the latter part of World War II."
"George Muoria, a Senior Archivist at the Kenya National Archives explains that Murumbi had left behind over 50,000 books and sheafs of official correspondence from which, the Kenya National Archives department has set up a library containing some of the 8,000 "rare books" (published before 1900 or which are not reprinted) entrusted to them upon the death of Murumbi. His passion for art and culture is traced from his Goan father who was a trader married to a Maasai woman."
"Brooks McCormick, chief executive officer of the International Harvester Co. and a longtime Crane Foundation supporter, willed his entire collection of ornithology, or the study of birds, to the nonprofit when he died last year."
"On Oct. 5, Sotheby's in New York City will auction off the collection, whose estimated value is between $1.5 million and $2 million, with all proceeds going to ICF."
"Sam Martz, 82, had his share of both in collecting books about golf."
"For 50 years, he gathered volumes the way Jack Nicklaus bagged birdies - eagerly, cleverly and, at times, greedily."
"Just when it seemed art books couldn't get any bigger or more expensive, coffee-table books priced at $1,000 and up are on the rise."
"Art-book publisher Taschen says it has five of these books on its fall list, up from one last year."
"Celebrity book-binder Bill Tito is so confident he is bringing New Zealand's heaviest book to Palmerston North, he will give $100 to anyone who comes along with a heavier one. "
"On the other hand, a few days later a man who had read my book called from California and said he had bought a book on E-bay by Clarissa M. Badger, “Floral Portraits.” He wondered if the $89 he paid was appropriate. He gasped when I told him at auction it would fetch about $2,400."
"For the last few years I have collected rare books, most concerning the history and exploration of the "Northwest Coast," a term used to identify Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska 200 years ago."
"Nothing appeared to be missing from the two-story library, a $200,000 addition to the home near McDaniel Lake where Comstock was found shot to death Tuesday."
"Today, the result of that mind-set is ensconced in a gleaming top-floor area in the Arthur and Mata Jaffe Center for the Book Arts in the Wimberly Library of the Florida Atlantic University Campus in Boca Raton. Partially, the Jaffe Center holds its founder's book collection - a very unusual book collection. There are around 10,000 volumes here, from a Peanuts pop-up book to one-of-a-kind books, but they are all distinguished by their status as aesthetic objects, irrespective of their actual literary content. "
"It started with the Superman costume. In 2001, Fuller French was 35 years old and already a serious collector of rare books and a casual collector of TV scripts and memorabilia. The Midland native was living in Los Angeles, and he was on the hunt for a costume from the 1950s TV Superman series."
"A rare piece of Canadian history was lost to the country yesterday after an auction in New York, where an elaborately hand-written, 385-year-old legal document - described as the contract for 'Canada's Mayflower' - was sold for $90,000 by a Canadian collector to an American antiquities dealer, who then flipped the relic to a second private buyer in the U.S."
"SALT LAKE CITY -- It's a book collector's dream -- rifling through the shelves of a secondhand store with the hope of finding a valuable volume for a bargain basement price and stumbling onto a gold mine."
"The seven miles of Antique Trail stores on Hwy 53 are celebrating summer with a Hwy. 53 Antique Trail Yard Sale."
"This is not your baby toy and used clothes yard sale."
"Ahmed Salim has developed his own archive over the last 35 years without any support from outside. It is a unique repository, containing information on Pakistan’s history, politics and socio-economic development. It caters to the needs of international and national research scholars, university students, research and professional organisations, politicians, investigative journalists and social workers."
"Cardiologist Aaron Feingold ’72 began amassing rare books and historical artifacts while in medical school. His collection grew to include hundreds of medical texts and records, World War II pharmacy coupons from the European ghettos, archeological artifacts from Egypt and 19th century Italian Hagaddahs, as well as the entire transcript, in English, of the Nuremberg trials. "
"The collection of California-based money manager Annette Campbell-White of MedVenture Associates fetched 1.3 million pounds ($2.6 million) including commissions. It had been valued at as much as 1.8 million pounds pre-commission. About 26 percent of the lots didn't sell."
"'It was eerie,' he said. 'My stomach kind of turned and I thought ‘this is my uncle’s.'"
"Steve, too, had heard from a friend who sold antique books in Sheridan that the Ricketts book would be sold at the auction."
"For book collectors, "the thrill of the chase" is much of the fun, says Annette Campbell-White. The New Zealand-born, California-based biotech venture capitalist spent more than 30 years bidding at auction and browsing bookshops to build a collection of rare first editions and other key literary works."
"A stretch of Sixth Avenue north of 110th Street was renamed Lenox Avenue in 1887 after millionaire philanthropist and book collector James Lenox. In the late 1980s, the street got another name change to recognize Malcolm X."
Read this article.
"AVID book collector David Butterfield will do almost anything to get his hands on a rare classical text."
"The 21-year-old Cambridge University student wrote a letter in Danish to charm a seller in Scandinavia into selling a rare unpublished Housman letter. Now his dedication has been rewarded with an award for his impressive collection."
"First prize in the undergraduate category was awarded to John McReynolds ’09 for his collection entitled 'Travels in Poetry.' First prize in the graduate category was a tie between Diana Looser grad for her collection 'Dramatic Literature of Oceania, c.1970-Present' and Brent Morris grad for 'The Abolitionist Mind.'"
"With a focus on antiquarian books covering such events as the tulip mania of the 1630s, the stock-jobbers of London, and the speculation of the 1920s, I agree with Financial Times assessment. This collection will almost certainly be scooped up a hedge fund manager. "
"HAY-ON-WYE, Wales — Most people come to this medieval town in search of rare, collectible or bargain books, or to attend its spring festival of author events, films and concerts. But I had come to Hay for more than the literature, music and brushes with celebrity. I sought an audience with the king. "
"First prize in each category is a $250 award and a trip to New York City for Bibliography Week (January 22-26, 2008), a Mecca of sorts for organizations devoted to book collecting and book history. Winners will also receive an invitation to a special reception at one of the country's largest book collecting organizations, The Grolier Club. "
"Hundreds of volumes from the library of the late American collector Frank Streeter were on the block Monday and Tuesday at Christie's in New York. Streeter's interest in vintage literature about the exploration and mapping of the world meant that much of his collection focused on voyages of discovery to Canada and its early history as a French and then a British colony."
"There are two separate competitions for undergraduate and graduate students, who will be awarded the Harris Fletcher Book Collecting Award and the T.W. Baldwin Prize for Book Collecting, respectively. "
"A Yemeni-Italian team doing archaeological and historical research in Yemen found more than 150 ancient rare manuscripts beneath a minaret of al-Jaami’a al-Kabeer, the Grand Mosque, on March 10. The Grand Mosque in the old city of Sana’a is undergoing a massive rehabilitation project carried out by this team, which comes from the Veneto Institute for Conservation and Cultural Heritage in Italy."
"A recently launched service offered by BibliOZ The Book Search Wizard for finding out-of-print, collectible and hard-to-find books has been developed specifically for the mining and engineering sectors."
"The website portal is managed by Australian company, BiblioQuest International..."
"Ruth’s father, a major collector of rare books, added a library, and in 1954 founded the Lilly Library, at Indiana University, when he donated his twenty thousand volumes and seventeen thousand manuscripts."
"A RARE 19th century handbook of a former dragoon who fought at the battle of Waterloo has been uncovered by a collector from Horbury.
The tiny battered pocket book – The Soldier’s Friend and Traveller’s Vade Mecum – was bought by Richard Knowles, of Rickaro Books, Horbury, and is believed by him to be the only one surviving in the UK."
"A collection of books which were once owned by a member of the Pembrokeshire gentry is to be given to the National Library of Wales.
The 5,000-strong Henry Owen Collection will be handed over to ensure that the books, which include rare editions, stay in public ownership."
" Nair, who is known as much for his published books on Kolkata as for his private collection of rare books, documents and articles on the city, considers Kolkata as an enduring passion. While news of his recent move away from the city had saddened many, Nair admits that he is once again back in business in Kolkata."
"Despite the onslaught of know-everything cell phones, iPods and the 24/7 Internet threatening to make old-fashioned reading extinct, some South Floridians are not detoured from their devotion to books."
"Their home libraries are maintained with specially designed bookshelves, thoughtful organization, constant air conditioning, comfortable reading spots and good lighting."
"Senator Brandis brings to the post experience as a member of the board of the National Library of Australia and a love of collecting rare books."
"He is an active member of Peregian Beach Surf Life Saving Club."
"A couple of decades ago Soviet people were regarded as the most reading all over the world. Inexorable statistics confirmed this fact. Frankly speaking, that was true: in parks, underground stations or buses one could come across people reading newspapers, books and magazines. The book used to be a precious object providing information and cherishing imagination and thoughts of wonderful future or past. Surely, not all works of art were sold in Soviet bookshops; many didn’t happen to pass the censor and were distributed secretly and illegally. To own a rare book meant much then, that is why almost every family tried to collect a home library (classic literature prevailed on shelves). "
"And then there's the house the Stetson University education professor bought in Twain's Missouri hometown, on the same street as the 19th-century author's childhood home near the Mississippi River. One room in that Hannibal, Mo., home is devoted to Tom Sawyer, another to Becky Thatcher. Sort of a private Twain museum."
"Rep.-elect Keith Ellison wanted a Quran upon which to swear his oath to national office today. So he left a message with the head of the Library of Congress' Rare Books and Special Collections division.
A man who, it turned out, happened to be born and raised in the district Ellison will represent in Congress."
"Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Congress' first elected Muslim, Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., will be taking the oath of office on Thursday and will be using a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson. His taking of the oath is poignant as he's sending a message that 'religious differences are nothing to be afraid of.'"
"And in a report in the British Medical Journal this month, they explain how a 300-year-old text by a Dutch naturalist named Rumphius could help scientists in their search for new and better drugs."
"'It was lost traditional knowledge,' Buenz said."
"ISTANBUL: A new type of art book combining superlative quality photography printed at immense cost and rigorous scholarly investigation by international specialists has seen the light of day. The concept might revolutionize the entire industry."
"The renowned Charles L. Blockson Collection of books, manuscripts and photographs - the fifth largest of its kind in the U.S. - got its start in Depression-era Norristown."
"His collection was so vast he was nearly entered into the Vietnamese Guinness Book of Records, but he could not provide the number of books in his collection – only its weight. His son is in the process of helping him transfer his archives onto the computer, but Dang is a little wary of the machine and the internet."
"The Paris sale of the collection of Gerard Nordmann, a Swiss collector and bibliophile, aroused interest across Europe and will complete the break-up of a library Nordmann had spent most of his life acquiring. "
"...four young collectors prove that the love of books lives on. They showcased their prize finds last month at an event sponsored by the Ticknor Society, a Boston book-lovers group. Each displayed the intellect, intensity, and endearing obsessiveness that the hobby seems to inspire."
"PHILADELPHIA -- Some people who visit the acclaimed restaurant Deux Cheminees come for more than chef Fritz Blank’s cuisine. They come for his books."
"As Blank winds down his involvement with Deux Cheminees ("Two Chimneys,’’ in French), the University of Pennsylvania is preparing to acquire a good portion of his library."
"Dilnavaz runs ‘Rare Finds’, dealing in original prints (in which the processes used were engraving, etching, aquatinting, mezzotinting and lithography), old maps and antiquarian books (books which are recognized as occupying a significant place in the literary world)"
"In order to learn about orchids and other flowers, Jack Kramer became a book collector. In the process of collecting books and prints, his love of flowers became supplemented by a love of botanic art, giving him a whole new subject to write about. "
"Mr Stokes owns an array of rare books, manuscripts and historic relics, in July paying $1.2 million for a Gallipoli Victoria Cross which he then donated to the Australian War Memorial."
"Renaissance magician Ricky Jay pulls many rabbits out of his various hats. He's an engaging author ("Learned Pigs & Fireproof Women," "Jay's Journal of Anomalies"). He's also an accomplished actor whose impressive screen oeuvre includes some half-dozen films by his longtime friend and associate, David Mamet."
"The largest house on the street contains the Istanbul Library founded by Çelik Gülersoy. A great book collector, Gülersoy realized that books and magazine articles were being written about Istanbul but were available in Turkey on only a very limited basis and not translated into Turkish. "
"The Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary bought a 5,000-plus book collection from William Jewell College this month for $400,000."
"Andy Pratt, chaplain and vice president for religious ministries at William Jewell, said the Charles H. Spurgeon Collection is significant because it belonged to a famous Baptist pastor."
"Retired journalist Roger Mudd has donated his 1,500 volume collection of 20th-century Southern writers to Washington and Lee University, the school said."
"CHEERS to T.R. McIntosh, retired teacher who plans to sell his extensive collection of rare books and ancient coins to finance a $500,000 pledge to pay for a library at the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology."
"Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Collection is among the 25 collections that Bruccoli a USC emeritus professor, has donated to or established, in collaboration with others, at USC’s Thomas Cooper Library. The best-known one is the Matthew J. Bruccoli and Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald, which includes books, manuscripts and artifacts such as Fitzgerald’s ledger, flask and briefcase."
"But Albert (Gene S. Albert, Jr), who's been collecting for 25 years, has other rarities for sale at www.christianheritagemuseum.com. They include a single page of a 1454 Gutenberg Bible priced at $20,000; a 1685 second edition of John Eliot's Algonquin Indian Bible, the first Bible printed in America, for $175,000; and two handwritten sermon notes by 19th-century English evangelist Charles H. Spurgeon, marked down from $595 to $275 each."
"Caleb, who is named literary executor of DeHaven's rare book collection, is shocked to discover that DeHaven owned a first-edition "Bay Psalm Book." Only 11 copies of the priceless book are known to exist, and all are in institutions such as Harvard, Yale and the Library of Congress."
"Mention pop-up books, and most people will immediately recall the delight they experienced as children when they first opened the pages of a book and were magically confronted with not just words and pictures but also objects in motion. Today, adults and children alike enjoy the artistry and fun in pop-up books. The books are also highly sought after by collectors of mechanical books, as pop-up books are also called."
"The Western Wall heritage Foundation will receive tens of thousands of books that make up most of the collection in the library of slain government minister Rehavam (Ghandi) Ze'evi, his family said following the fifth anniversary of his death Sunday."
"While Madden is a rare-book collector, she also realizes some books have a value that's more aesthetic than historic.
"'I think books are wonderful as treasures,' she says. 'You can use books in different ways.'"
"The Jackie Clarke Collection spans nearly 400 years of Irish history and contains over 22,000 items: rare books, manuscripts, legal papers, pamphlets, handbills, newspapers, autograph books, news sheets, circulars, reports, letters, periodicals, cartoons, maps, minute books, thesis, articles and proclamations. It was put together during the lifetime of Ballina man, Jackie Clarke, an ordinary man with an extraordinary passion for history."
" Established in 1945 by Vahan Topalian (1886-1983), a well-known Armenian bibliophile, and by a number of his friends and benefactors, the mission of the Armenian Cultural Foundation is to establish and maintain a library and to sponsor programs in the arts and humanities which disseminate knowledge and information for the advancement of culture in general, and the Armenian culture in particular. In pursuing this mission, the Foundation shall place emphasis on the history of Armenian music in the diaspora and on the role of Armenian women in the nation's history."
"It is a strange condition some call an intellectual obsession, some blame jokingly on a virus, others say is an extension of the old hunting-and-gathering instinct.
Call it what you like, Brian Tucker is gripped by it. And the book we're viewing is well worthy of it."
"'Just look at this,' says Tucker, in his head an accountant, in his heart a passionate book collector, carefully turning the pages of a copy of Palmetto published by Lyre Bird Press in Townsville. It combines stunning drawings of palms by north Queensland artists including Ray Cooke, with fascinating information about the plant."
"Acquiring and cataloging the books in the Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library at CHF has been the life's work for Roy Neville. A consulting chemist by profession, in 1973 he founded the corporation Engineering and Technical Consultants in Redwood City, California, of which he was president. He is also a passionate bibliophile by avocation. Neville began collecting books almost 60 years ago and amassed one of the largest private collections of rare books in the fields of science and technology, and chemistry in particular."
"Bookworm Michael West amassed thousands of volumes at his Broomhill home over the last five decades - ranging from James Bond novels to historical volumes from the 17th century.
But the retired solicitor to Sheffield Council is now aged 80 and being cared for in a nursing home and decided to put the publications up for auction."
"The first of three sales has now taken place, with several books - including a number of the Bond volumes - fetching UK record prices."
"His book collection rivals that of a library. His house is a treasure-trove of postcards and stamps. 'My house is small but it has the world inside,' M.V. Sharma, this passionate book collectors tells J. Malarvizhi."
"His over-5,000 strong collection includes gems such as a lithographed first edition of the Indian Constitution, carefully bubble wrapped, with signatures of the first parliamentarians. Kamaraj signed with pencil, Mr. Sharma points out. "
"Sir George Grey, governor of New Zealand, South Australia and the Cape Colony, was an outstanding British colonial statesman in the nineteenth century."
"In his private life, he was also a passionate collector of rare books and artefacts. In Amassing Treasures for all Times: Sir George Grey, Colonial Bookman and Collector, author Donald Jackson Kerr reveals the genius and magnanimity of an increasingly controversial figure. This first study on Grey as collector will be released 25 October."
"The tendency to assemble groups of first edition works meant that many 15th and early 16th century libraries later became the basis of important public collections. The Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Harleian Library at the British Museum were founded on the private collections of Sir Thomas Bodley and of the first earl of Oxford, Robert Harley. In terms of age alone, the world's oldest surviving mechanically printed full-length book is thought to be the Bible printed by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany around 1455. "
"There are various collectors, and Today let's hear the story of a "dialect" collector.The Beijing resident Wei Linhai said there are so many messeges carried in local dialect that we can't afford to lose them in the mist of time. "
"A bookworm since childhood, Wei Linhai used to be crowned " No.1 Book Collector" of Beijing. And in reading he found himself most allured to dialects which reflect people's habits, characters and migration process in a particular area. It gave rise to his idea of making a compilation of Beijing dialect, which he hears and says for dozens of years. "
"I have a large collection of rare books as I buy anything published in English that I can get my hands -- mostly at auctions. The majority of great material is in French, and often antiquated French, so I'm still working on improving my language skills enough to get to some of those. I have great friends who interpret for me, though! And the internet has made this so much easier. When I first started this research nearly 20 years ago, it was much harder and much slower. Now I can be in touch with anyone in the world in a matter of minutes."
"In that house, he had 128 boxes of books - most of them related to art and architecture, some of them rare and out of print. He had a nearly complete collection of a now-defunct New York-based arts magazine - the sort of thing that would take a lifetime of hunting and scouring to reconstitute - along with archival issues of Art in America and Artforum, all dating back to the historically noteworthy heyday of the New York art scene in the early 1980s. "
"Like many of her nostalgic historical spots, gone is the old magic of Mylapore; a magic that survives only in books and in the minds of those who read them. The side streets are lined with dilapidated buildings, many with crumbling British colonial facades, reminiscent of Madras and the British Raj. The temple’s tank, lying outside its present enclosures, was recently converted to a sewage disposal basin. Ah, but the commerce throngs in the midst of the heat and dust. The bookshops always abound with the latest instant-success publications and I was forever on the lookout for my rare books. "
"In 1986, Bill Gates bought Dynamical Systems, partly for its multi-tasking software, but more for the intellectual power of Nathan Myhrvold and his brainy brother Cameron. Nathan, who served as Gates' chief technology officer, set out to hunt dinosaur bones in Montana after leaving Redmond. When the business bug bit again Myhrvold co-founded Intellectual Ventures. Myhrvold also collects rare books (he spends $5,000 a month on Amazon) and old supercomputers."
"(John B. Stevens Jr) said he began collecting rare books and papers documenting Texas history several years ago and hunts through bookstores and family collections on sale looking for finds. The Mirabeau Lamar papers, which Stevens discovered in an Austin bookstore, were a special addition because Lamar served as the university's namesake and because of their inspirational account of Texas' beginnings."
"Bob's interest in preserving and valuing historic artifacts is consistent with his other life-long passion—rare books. From this passion came one of his other volunteer roles, that of president of the 175-year-old Institute Library of New Haven at Chapel and Church streets, one of only 20 remaining private lending libraries in the country."
"Bob's connections to New Haven derive from his working life. From the time he moved to Old Saybrook in the 1960s and for many years after that, Bob, an architect, ran his own architectural practice in New Haven. His projects included designs for the Maritime Center on the New Haven Harbor, the conversion and renovation of the Shubert Theater in New Haven and of the Rich Forum in Stamford, as well as the design for various medical building projects, including Temple Medical Center and renovations and additions to Norwalk Hospital."
"Educated at the Oratory School, Birmingham, and Christ Church, Oxford, he developed a taste for cultural pursuits and a wanderlust. "
"He visited China and the Amazon, collected rare books and old jade, and travelled Europe as a music lover. "
"'I used to go to old-book places, but you can't find them anymore,' he [Richard Rosenbloom] said, thumbing through an $8,000 copy of "Bate's Dispensatory," published in 1706 and filled with drawings that are botany's equivalent of the Physician's Desk Reference. 'I have rare book dealers who keep an eye out. They are very difficult to find.'"
"VIENNA: A 16th-century book was stolen from an exhibition in a castle in Upper Austria, but the crime went unnoticed for days because the thieves left behind another book, the police said Monday."
"The 1532 book, "Astronomicum Caesareum" by Petrus Apianus, disappeared from Peuerbach Castle between Aug. 23 and Aug. 26, when a guide discovered it was missing, the police said."
"An aged manuscript of a classic Irish play, long thought lost even by the renowned playwright who wrote it, has made its way to Princeton University as the gem of a momentous collection of Irish theater donated by 1953 alumnus Leonard L. Milberg."
"...David Gontz has a passion for local history. In his home, old and rare Pennsylvania German history books line antique bookshelves. Rare local documents protected by glass frames line his living-room walls, along with his wife’s art work. "
""Gontz would spend hours researching books through card catalogs. In the early ’60s, he started collecting rare books. His collection now includes works by early American printers Benjamin Franklin and Christopher Sauer, a premier (Pennsylvania) German printer of the 1740s.
"Dreamers and winners of the Friends of the UCSC Library’s 40th Annual Book Collection Essay Contest for UCSC students were recently recognized at an awards ceremony held at McHenry Library. "
"Tyler Cushing (Crown College) took first place for his subject Self-Injury; Misty Peterson (Porter College) was awarded second place for The Art of My Books; and Andrew Skewes-Cox, (Porter College) garnered third place for Forever Young. All of the students received cash prizes. Winners of the 12th Annual High School Book Collection Essay Contest also took home cash prizes for themselves and bookstore certificates for their schools. "
"Do you collect comics for fun or profit? Well if you're like most collectors, it's a little of both. Regardless, if you think that one day you may sell some or all of your comics (and it seems many of us do) you may want to learn more about "slabbing." Slabbing is the process of having your comics professionally graded, and then encased between two sheets of hard plastic (some sources identify this plastic as "Barex", but there's some controversy as to what type of plastic it is). A special paper that prevents acidification is tucked into the comic as part of this process. Slabbing protects the comic from weather extremes, mositure, dust, and all the other things that can decrease a comic's value."
"Don Bell, a writer, book collector and owner of a bookstore in Sutton, Que. Bell spent more than two decades in obsessive pursuit of the mysterious Whitehead's story - who was he and what became of him?"
"Bell was the author of the essay collection Saturday Night At The Bagel Factory, which won the 1973 Leacock prize for humour. His new book, The Man Who Killed Houdini, is published posthumously today by Vehicule Press in Montreal."
"I was so disinterested in ceramics that I sold two copies of the rare book "Oriental Ceramics" discovered in the Philippines by Leandro and Cecila Locsin. When I got hold of a third and fourth copy in 1999 and actually leafed through them, I realized very late that any study of Philippine prehistory inevitably touched on ceramics. These were so important that the pioneering pre-historian H. Otley Beyer even wrote an article on "The
Philippines in the Porcelain Age" (roughly the 9th to the 16th centuries)."
"But if you don't have the money to buy a first edition King James Version you still can get your hands on one at the Christian Heritage Museum, whose owner invites visitors to touch and purchase some of the 20,000 pieces in his collection. "
"Gene S. Albert Jr. isn't selling his prized King James first edition, first issue, printed in 1611. The book, also known as a "he" Bible for a masculine pronoun in Ruth 3:15 that was changed to "she" in later versions, sits atop a bookcase in the loft of the climate-controlled barn near Hagerstown that houses his museum. "
"Nancy Cooper likens opening a box of donated books to Christmas morning; she loves to discover surprises. A life long Villager — and Villager reader — Cooper is an expert in evaluating rare and collectible books. She currently employs her skills at Housing Works Bookstore Café, the non-profit shop whose proceeds help to provide housing, healthcare, job training, and advocacy for New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS (full disclosure: I’m also on staff there). An area under the front counter, labeled “Nancy Books,” is reserved for anything that looks old or unusual enough to require a special look. She instinctively separates the wheat from the chaff, the priceless first edition from the worthless third."
"Daniel McKee of Cornell University has won the first Collegiate Book-Collecting Championship, which honors winners of the colleges and universities (some three dozen) that already hold their own student book-collecting contests. For his collection, "Educational Books from Japan's Meiji Period (1868–1912)," McKee wins $2500, a trip to New York for the awards ceremony Sept. 16 at the Grolier Club, a one-year membership in the club, and a $1000 donation in his name to the Cornell library. William Miglore of Amherst College won second place for his "Ray Bradbury" collection. He'll get $1000, a trip to the awards ceremony, a scholarship to the Rare Books School at the University of Virginia, and $500 donation in his name to the Amherst library. "
"At this point, only the village's paper collection — which includes rare books, manuscripts, newspapers and drawings — is kept in a climate-controlled room in The Center For Shaker Studies, a newer building that was constructed in 2000."
"Similarly, the 10,000 three-dimensional pieces in the collection require special conditions to ensure that they remain in excellent condition. Spear sees the grant as a major step forward in the challenging conservation process."
"Once sold for a dime or a quarter, rare pulp issues featuring a story by L. Ron Hubbard, Edgar Rice Burroughs or Raymond Chandler go for $500 to several thousand dollars at PulpCon. Often featuring attention-grabbing cover art and classic inside illustrations, the pulp fiction magazine has been transformed into mega bestsellers like "Battlefield Earth" and "Harry Potter" or Hollywood blockbusters like "Star Wars" and "Pirates of the Caribbean."
"But she’s a different kind of nerd. Brainy, pretty and ironic, Rebecca Wagner blows away the stereotype of the pasty-skinned white male with a closet full of comic books that once defined this convention that is expected to draw 100,000 over its four days."
"In recent years Hollywood has discovered the amazing power of word-of-mouth or “viral” marketing that fans like Wagner represent. That’s made Comic-Con a magnet for film studios and TV networks that bring their stars to San Diego to interact with fans and to hype upcoming high-profile releases with sneak previews and giveaways. "
"Bookbinding is an old craft, but it's far from dead. In Toronto, three crafters at Don Taylor Bookbinder work every day to restore old books or create hand-bound albums and boxes. Kate Murdoch has worked at the small studio on Queen St. W. for 20 years, after apprenticing under Taylor. She spends her days bringing old books back to life. "
"Mary Barile, a doctoral student in theater and an avid book collector, has donated several gifts: a collection of cookbooks dating to the 1820s, a dictionary by painter Thomas Cole and a collection of magazine journals from the 1830s."
"At least a few of Barile’s gifts counted toward the campaign total, but to her, that’s secondary."
“I think the whole point of collecting is sharing what you have,” Barile said. “And the best way to do that is to donate books to Ellis (Library).”
"And a recent visit rewarded his curiosity: He said he discovered a 188-year-old King James Bible."
"Now he’s fending off offers approaching $1,000 for the find."
“'I go up there all the time to drop off my household trash, and there it was,'Hoskins told the Danville Register & Bee. “There were three or four boxes of books leaning up against the concrete wall behind the Dumpsters. I found the Bible in four pieces, put them together and took it home.'"
"I am obsessive about the organization of my book collection--I keep my bookshelves divided into alphabetized sections such as literature, travel, science, and art. I subdivide the literature into country of origin of the writer, which leads to some judgment calls--for example, I put Oscar Wilde in the Irish literature section instead of the British because the Brits threw him in jail, which led to his demise, so Ireland gets credit for him, in my view."
"The staff of a South Korean television program raised money to return a cultural artifact to Korea. The group, staff members of the MBC-TV show ¡°Exclamation Point!,¡± bought the letter from a rare book seller in Tokyo for 14 million yen (120,000 USD) after holding two fundraising ceremonies this month. "
Gene S. Albert, Jr..."But Mr. Albert, who's been collecting for 25 years, has other rarities for sale at www.christianheritagemuseum.com. They include a single page of a 1454 Gutenberg Bible priced at $20,000; a 1685 second edition of John Eliot's Algonquin Indian Bible, the first Bible printed in America, for $175,000; and two handwritten sermon notes by 19th-century English evangelist Charles H. Spurgeon, marked down from $595 to $275 each. "
"Collecting and displaying such pieces is a passion for Mr. Albert, 54, a home builder, religious printmaker and graduate of Liberty Theological Seminary at Liberty University, the Baptist school in Lynchburg, Va., founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. "
"Maribel Castillo, 13, said she was amazed at the rare book collection of the house's original owner, Carl Weeks."
"'I was really interested in the books in the library,' she said."
"The Salisbury House, named for the King's House in an English town of the same name, is operated by the private Salisbury House Foundation and hosts public tours from March through December."
"The Old and Contemporary Books Club has HCM city readers and collectors excited over the prospect of exchanging newly discovered titles. The both old and new books are often found in second-hand shops."
"The new book club, which located in HCM City's Tan Binh District, offers advice on book protection to members who want to set up family libraries."
"The only person with the keys to this rare book collection, Endowments Director Sheikh Abdul-Rahman leaves the bookcase only very rarely and refuses to reveal all of the secrets of its contents for fear of burglary or acts of vandalism. His dutifulness has increased since a trader offered to buy the manuscripts, but the sheikh believes that to think merely of selling the manuscripts is a betrayal of their priceless heritage."
"New York, NY – Newly formed Virgin Comics is collaborating with Tiger Hill Entertainment, film-maker John Woo and partner Terence Chang’s creative shingle, along with best-selling comic book writer, Garth Ennis to create Seven Brothers. The comic book series is set to debut in mid-October, it was announced today by Sharad Devarajan, Virgin Comics’ chief executive. "
"The biggest challenge on her workbench is an original volume dated March 5, 1726, and printed in London, of the The Principia: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy by Sir Isaac Newton, published a year before he died."
"Composed in Latin text, the book is a large-volume battered beauty, acquired by a collector at a Christie's auction."
"Paul Nelson was a serious book collector: a maven, a fetishist. His shelves were filled with endless editions of 1940s and 1950s hard-boiled detective fiction. First editions in perfect condition; battered paperbacks with lurid covers. Placed here and there were books on stands, as artworks. They were there to be stared at, to fall into, to reflect back, like mirrors. He handed me Five Sinister Characters, a 1945 paperback collection of Raymond Chandler stories: "Trouble Is My Business," "Red Wind," "I'll Be Waiting." On the cover were pictures of a rich woman in a heavy necklace, a mean-looking cad in a pencil moustache, an officer from the time of the first world war, a Chinese thug, and a woman in a veiled hat—a woman who was clearly a man. The crude portraits were like a scrim over the writing inside, teasing you that, as you read, you'd be able to tell who was who, when the whole point was that you wouldn't."
"Auburn resident James Patterson has been building his literature collection since he was 6 or 7 years old and gave up TV 10 years ago to work through the stacks of titles by his bed."
"The entire house is primarily a library," Patterson said. "They're in all rooms of the house, everywhere."
"Some of us just can't help ourselves. At every book shelf, we cock our heads and scan the titles. Now, with LibraryThing.com, we can peek at thousands of libraries."
"The site -- a MySpace for bibliophiles -- just might be the world's biggest book group. And LibraryThing can analyze your collection and recommend titles."
"Amanda Barker, 23, or “Manda” as friends call her, earned her bachelor’s degree in social welfare in 2005, but instead of becoming a social worker, she has opted to keep her job at the Dusty Bookshelf, 708 Mass., and hang around Lawrence for now."
Read this article.
"For Ogema area resident Elaine Vanderhoof, an interest in all types of school books began in her childhood and continues to this day. Recently, she shared some of the books in her collection for a display at the Ogema Public Library."
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"Michael Cook, the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies, and Emmet Gowin, professor of the Council of the Humanities and visual arts, have received Princeton's Behrman Award for distinguished achievement in the humanities."
"Bestowed annually, the Behrman Award was established in 1975 by a gift from the late Howard Behrman, a physician and book collector."
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"The book, “Peota En Neuva York,” by Federico Garcia Lorca, was donated by Santacruz as a part of the Sister City Project. It is a special edition with original artwork by several of Spain’s artists. It will be housed in the special collections of the Center for Southwest Research and made available to students, faculty, researchers and members of the community."
"You say you're a bookbinder, and you might as well have said, 'I just landed from Mars,'" said David John Lawrence, who teaches bookbinding at the Dallas guild and has won prizes for his work in American, English and Czech binding competitions.
"Since 1976 John Renjilian has volunteered his 40-plus years of expertise in the area of rare and collectible books to the Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale and this year is no different. Mr Renjilian has spent hours each week since last September sorting through the books donated to the library for the sale, seeking the unusual volumes that will make it into the collectibles section of the sale."
"He collects first edition books, stamps, and rare objects. He has one of the best collections of art books in Australia, many of them sourced from rare-book dealers in New York. His art collection is highly regarded, and it is reported he once saw himself as the successor to Ed Capon, director of the Art Gallery of NSW."
"He launched LibraryThing.com in August as a way to bring the organizational joys of the librarian to a wider array of book nerds. Ten months later, his concept has blossomed into a vibrant community with 47,670 registered members -- some paying -- and a user-created catalog that includes more than 3.6 million volumes. In theory, that makes LibraryThing the 58th largest library in the U.S."
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"Just as John Masefield's classic poem "Sea Fever" captures the ocean's age-old call, Lewis Buzbee defines the equally seductive attraction of the bookstore. Whether a sea of books or a large body of water, the siren call that each exerts is undeniable."
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"'About 20 years ago I began reading the history of the local area and my interest for history began to grow from there. I started collecting old and rare books like "Fighting the Mill Creeks" by Robert Anderson which took me 15 years to find a copy of. It is a primary resource for the my book,' she said of her interest in the past."
"One of France's greatest private collections of manuscripts and rare editions from the giants of French literature fetched high prices late on Tuesday in the most closely watched auction of its type in years."
"The sale of the private library of Pierre Beres, a legendary Paris book dealer, aroused unusual interest after he donated the manuscript of "La Chartreuse de Parme", one of the great novels of the 19th century, to the state earlier in the week."
"A Penn State biology professor with a passion for old prints and maps says he has found a new way to date centuries-old books by using a technique similar to what scientists use to study mutations."
"The so-called "print clock" technique incorporates some complicated statistical formulas."
"Paris - A French book collector has donated a rare manuscript by the writer Stendhal to the state ending fears that it could move overseas after being bought at an upcoming auction, officials said Monday."
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"Law librarian Rick Ramponi's collection of 3,000 regional cookbooks was manageable while he lived in a large house in Washington, D.C."
"Klos described the Constitution -- which he purchased for about $40,000 from a rare document dealer -- as "the heart" of the family's collection that is rich in early American and Western Pennsylvania history. In addition to the items auctioned yesterday, others are being sold through other auction houses and online."
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"In a village of about 1,500 people, where the "downtown" is little more than two blocks, the streets are lined, almost literally, with old books."
"We'd heard about Wigtown from a friend. Learning we had been browsing the map of Scotland, he somewhat hesitantly mentioned it. After all, it wasn't the craggy, haunting Highlands most people know. Nor cultural Edinburgh."
"Keating said he would often spend sunup until sundown in graveyards, recording whatever information he could find on headstones and taking digital photos."
'"They told me not to go into the Wilkes-Barre City Cemetery,” Keating said. “They told me it was haunted, but I never saw anything in there. And I took lots of pictures.'"
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"Monetary worth should top $4.5 million. Scholarly worth can only be gauged over time, as the pieces, sold in 700 lots, make their way into a variety of settings and collections."
"Mr. Supino, who retired in 1997 after successful careers in law and banking, recently published an important new bibliography of Anglo-American author Henry James after 20 years of studying and collecting James' works. The newest-and arguably the world's most authoritative-bibliography of early James impressions, the book contains descriptions of an estimated 80 percent of the editions produced in the period between 1875 and 1921.
Mr. Supino continues his search for other editions of James' works, and has identified another 25 since the publication of his bibliography."
" A historic Gurdwara in the non-descript Mallu Nangal village is a treasure trove of rare manuscripts and old books, thanks to the remarkable efforts of a simple man.Varinder Walia visits the library to meet Jathedar Dalip Singh, who wants the library to be preserved so that primary material for research in Sikh history is not lost forever."
"A non-descript border village in the Majha region has lately become the Mecca for book lovers and historians with an interest in research material. The historic gurudwara at Mallu Nangal village houses extraordinary literary riches within its walls. "
"The collection contains 900 items, to be sold in 700 lots, including ancient cuneiform tablets, illuminated manuscripts, rare bindings, sacred texts in Arabic and Hebrew and fragments of Greek papyrus, as well as modern miniatures and first editions."
"The Rev. Cofield knows exactly when and why his addiction developed. When he was a young African-American child growing up in rural North Carolina, he said, “The racial tension and segregation meant that you were not allowed to be in a lot of areas. And so, in order to spend your time well, my mother and father put into my head, ‘You can go anywhere through books.’ So books became the way I overrode all those things to know the world. And that’s why books became so important to me. I’ve been collecting books since I was four years old. It was kind of like a fetish with me,” he admitted. “Out of my ten-cent allowance, I bought some five cent classics” by authors like Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and others."
"Actually, his list of weaknesses is longer than what Mallick provides. Major ones being collecting documents and books, often going to great lengths to acquire some important documents and data. If he knew that it existed and where, he simply had to acquire it."
"Florida Atlantic University Libraries has received a major collection of books, original documents and papers valued at an estimated $3.8 million from Marvin and Sybil Weiner of Boca Raton. Before it was gifted to FAU, this collection was the largest of its kind in private hands. It has been ranked as one of the top 10 such collections in the United States."
"The sale comes at a time when dealers and auctioneers are reporting a growing interest in books as an investment. Once a niche for devoted collectors and the very wealthy, ordinary investors are now getting in on the act. Although rare gems like Shakespeare’s work fetch huge sums, you don’t need millions to get involved. Book lovers can pick up modern first editions for tens or hundreds of pounds."
"A passionate bibliophile and the author of several fine biographies, he built up an unrivalled collection of Scottish literature and was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the National Library of Scotland after the First World War."
"In the ambience created by an offering of Gurbani at Government Museum Auditorium this morning, Sikh scholars Dr Man Singh Nirankari and Dr Madanjit Kaur, donated handwritten manuscripts compiled by Sikh Gurus and their followers. Both the scholars have parted with treasures of a lifetime so that the Word of the Gurus can bless every home. After making the knowledge available, they have also prepared a descriptive catalogue to provide to the readers an insight into the world of rare manuscripts."
"Sony executives said it could take several years to transform the company. And one question is how long Sir Howard himself can maintain his relentless pace. He is undergoing treatment for a degeneration of his left eye, a condition that makes it difficult for him to indulge in one of his passions: collecting and reading rare books. Doctors have told him that his travel schedule does not affect the condition, but there is a 50 percent chance that it could spread to his other eye within five years. "It's not irreversible," he said, but added: "If it went into the other eye, that would be depressing."
"Three out of four sons of Mal Singh are working to uphold the book culture throughout Punjab. Mal Singh, a septuagenarian, still visit book fairs, whereas he has completed his lap in the family business. Now the second generation is ready to exchange the baton with the next. Is it not a testimony of their success?"
"His father, he said, was a bibliophile: When the family had nothing to eat, he would set out to sell some of his books at the used bookstore, but would often come home with new books that he had seen and couldn’t pass up."
"Gwin J. Kolb, one of the nation’s leading authorities on 18th-century English literature and Samuel Johnson, and a highly regarded teacher at the University, died Monday, April 3, at Montgomery Place in Hyde Park. He was 86. Kolb, the Chester D. Tripp Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and English Language & Literature, dedicated more than half a century to teaching and studying at the University."
"In addition to his remarkable dedication to the University and welcome blend of humor and scholarly work, Kolb also was known as a book collector, amassing an impressive collection of Johnson and his contemporaries that are now in the University’s Special Collections Research Center. He also was a longtime member of the University committee that awards the T. Kimball Brooker Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting."
"This story is about a person with a passion for reading and libraries."
"Born in Germany or Poland -- the borders moved over the years -- in 1878, Lucia Bethke came with her family to Oswego in 1892. When she was 14, she began school at the Grange Hall."
"Deborah Whitcraft's public life is just one chapter in a career as wreck diver, excursion boat operator and all-around waterwoman entrepreneur. She says she will stay active in the borough, working on the Beach Haven First Aid Squad and the municipal Internet site. Her bigger project is a maritime museum for her collection of artifacts and rare books."
"Graduate student Emilie Roy and undergraduate Danette Turner took the top prizes in this year's annual Student Book Collecting Contest, sponsored by the University Libraries at ASU."
"All winners were awarded cash prizes at an awards reception that took place April 6 at the University Club on the Tempe campus. Roy and Turner are eligible to participate in the first-ever national Collegiate Book Collecting Championship, which is sponsored by Fine Books and Collections magazine. "
"The Jane Webster Pearce Collection, a bequest to Bowdoin College, was received in February 2006. Ms. Pearce, a resident of Green Island, Mt. Desert, Maine, and an avid bookbinder and book arts collector, acquired over 100 works between 1977 -- when she purchased her first piece, a designer binding by Gérard Charrière -- and her death in August 2005 at the age of 94. In bequeathing her books to Bowdoin College, Pearce intended the collection both to remain intact near the family home on Green Island and to be accessible to the broader public."
"A family’s book collection that spans five generations was awarded first prize at the fourth annual HCM City Fair."
"Tran Dinh Son’s extensive private library, which has been handed down from generation to generation in the HCM City-based family, is the family’s prized possession."
"Son said his family’s guiding principle was: 'property and assets can be lost but not books'."
"In his 'American Moments' television series, actor James Earl Jones described Amanda Buck's ancient methods of restoring antiquarian books as literally 'stitches in time.'"
"Using many hand-binding techniques developed by second-century Coptic monks, Buck labors quietly, restoring aged and rare books in a back-country barn loft studio in Spencer County, Ky. "
"DEARBORN: - A nearly 300-year old English
translation of the Holy Qur'an -- the Islamic scriptures -- has been
donated to the Islamic Center of America (ICA) by Richard L. Steinberg, a
Detroit trial attorney. The book is to be held in trust for all Muslim
peoples in metro Detroit at the ICA, which is the largest mosque in North
America."
"'If we do not stand together as a nation, but become a community of
clashing cultures and warring factions, we will all be destroyed,"
Steinberg stated. "Jesus said 'I give to you a new commandment that you
shall love one another' and the Qur'an says 'I swear by the declining day
that man is in deep loss except for those who believe, do good deeds, urge
one another to the truth and urge one another to steadfastness.' This is
the community our faiths are calling us to.'"
Read this article.
"SACRAMENTO - A bibliophile is someone who likes books. Michael Harrison was a bibliomaniac."
"And because he lived to be 107, his obsession with books grew to legendary proportions, known to collectors and scholars throughout the world."
"On Friday, nearly a year after Harrison's death, UC Davis made public a 21,000-volume collection bequeathed to the campus library by the peculiar man with only a high school education. The collection, focusing on Western Americana, is massive, stunning and worth millions."
"'I collect work on themes of memento mori [the Latin proverb: remember you must die] and eroticism, but I'm also fascinated by surrealism and concrete poetry - it's not all sex and death.'"
"'I have rare books by Picabia, Man Ray and Duchamp, and works by artists like Richard Tuttle, Lawrence Weiner and Joseph Beuys. I have prints by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin, and a Max Ernst drawing of André Breton which is always up on the wall.'"
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"Much of the text is in French, and it was not uncommon around the time of the French Revolution for books to be covered in human skin."
"The practice, known as anthropodermic bibliopegy, was sometimes used in the 18th and 19th centuries when accounts of murder trials were bound in the killer's skin."
" Wu, initially a book collector, bought an English book on the 1937 Nanjing Massacre by chance in 2002, which turned out to be of high historical value."
"Wu began investigating the war and decided to set up a museum so that people could remember and learn more about the tragedy and the war itself. "
"F you're looking for something to collect, with an eye for investment, some depth and variety, think books."
"One of the most traditional of collecting fields, books attract people for all kinds of reasons, but for a seasoned collector the information contained in a book can sometimes be the least reason to buy it."
"Illustrations, bindings, the quality of the work, rarity and historical associations all add to the value of any volume. "
"Personal favorites: Collect books by an author you love or on a subject that fascinates you. "That way, no matter what you pay for it, you haven't lost any money," antiquarian book dealer Michael Utt says."
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"One of the most important science manuscripts to be put up for sale is expected to be bought by one of the new generation of science-literate American billionaires who have made their fortunes in new technology and medical advances."
"The 600-page journal of 17th-century British scientist Richard Hooke, which goes under the hammer at Bonham's auction house in London today, has been dubbed 'science's missing link.'"
"A Wisconsin book collection started nearly 60 years ago at the governor's mansion is looking for a new home."
"Beloit College has housed the 4,500-book "Wisconsin's Own Library" since 1986 but will soon need the space. The Wisconsin Federation of Women's Clubs, which is in charge of the library, is now trying to find a new place for the collection."
"Books are so popular in home décor that even people who don't read acquire them. They buy volumes by the yard at Half Price Books. They send orders off to a California book-décor specialist, who ships Danish-language books by the foot."
"Danish? Well, they aren't meant to be read."
"Perhaps the ultimate signal that books are décor came when a recent Pottery Barn catalog showed an entire bookcase with the books turned backward, annoying mismatched spines facing inward, all in an attempt to achieve a neutral, uniform look. Can't find a particular book on that shelf? That isn't the point. "
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"'It's not a normal town,' said the grizzled man who picked me up hitchhiking. As the rain lashed his battered car, I desperately hoped there wasn't a bloodied axe in the boot. 'It's the books. People come here for the books. All year round, and more during the festival. It's odd, I think.'"
"The town is Hay-on-Wye, on the Welsh side of the border between England and Wales, and there are a lot of books - in fact, it has more bookshops per capita than anywhere in the world. The bars may close at 10.30pm, but in this town you can buy books 24 hours a day. If that isn't enough for bibliophiles, there's also a literary festival every year that draws authors, publishers and book fans as well as various artists - last year's event, held from May 27 to June 5, featured Elvis Costello and the stand-up comic Bill Bailey as well as the author Ian McEwan. However, the festival is only one of the town's attractions, which explains why tourists visit it all year round, as my thankfully not-so-homicidal driver pointed out. He was also right about the town being odd."
"Australian Scientists have uncovered what they believe are the earliest examples of Buddhist literature."
"Our reporter, Sarah Clarke, says carbon dating of rare manuscripts from a private collection dubbed the "dead sea scrolls of Buddhism" may reveal the religion's ancient orgins."
"Fragments of the manuscripts were delicately washed, then carbon dated at Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. "
" George Taft was so committed to opening his restaurant, Big Daddy's BBQ, that he sold off his comic book collection to raise the cash."
"He doesn't regret the decision. He hadn't looked at the collection for years. It was time."
"'What was I keeping them for? The rainy day? The rainy day came,' he said."
The list begins with "The Birds of America; from Original Drawings" by John James Audubon, with a hammer price of $5,616,000 ...and "The Bodmer Virgil" for $2,970,880.
The lowest priced book on this list is "Hortus Eystettensis" by Basilius Besler at $293,088.
"A COLLECTOR who has spent the past decade anonymously acquiring some of the world’s most revered musical manuscripts stepped out of the shadows yesterday to make an astonishing gift to the Juilliard School in New York, the leading US conservatoire."
"Bruce Kovner, one of the world’s highest-earning investment managers, gave more than 140 manuscripts — together worth tens of millions of pounds — to the school."
"They include the score for Beethoven’s piano version of his Grosse Fuge, bought for £1.12 million in London in December; the working manuscript of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, found in a vault after 150 years and bought for a record £2.1 million in 2003; the original manuscript of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, discovered in a cellar after almost a century; and the earliest manuscript of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. "
"Angela Grauerholz's work is unanimously textual, whatever her medium of the moment - photography, installation, assemblage, design. She was the co-founder of Artexte, it may interest you to know. She was born in Hamburg, but moved to Montreal in 1976, and has been teaching at UQÀM's École de design since 1988."
"As an exemplification of her love affair with text, you may recall Grauerholz's fantastic series Privation, part of the Biennale de Montréal 2002, which she made shortly after a fire ravaged her entire private library. Out of the disaster, the book-collector artist erected a homage to her charred treasures by photographing them and thus imbuing them with a whole new beauty in their new state of being."
"CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Andrei Codrescu, a social critic and radio commentator, is coming to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to open and celebrate the Andrei Codrescu Collection."
"A prolific poet, novelist and essayist, Codrescu gave his collection of hundreds of Romanian books, periodicals and other materials – many of them rare – to the University Library last year. It will be his first visit to the collection since he made the donation."
"Rodney Davidson's collection - books, papers and maps that tell the story of early Australia - is up for sale and antiquarians rate it as the finest of its type in the world. Jane Sullivan investigates."
"THE CURIOUS CASE OF the Batman papers first surfaced when Rodney Davidson, one of the country's most avid collectors of Australiana, was reading an old book on early Victoria."
"Squeezing through a hallway with more room devoted to book storage than pathway, Riepe pointed out a few that jumped out to him: “The Essays of Montaigne,” “The Life of Delacroix,” a well-worn Sanskrit-English Dictionary."
“'Here’s a history of Herodotus, if you want to read it,'
Riepe offered."
Read this article.
"More than 600 rare books on British history have a permanent home in Carol Grotnes Belk Library thanks to a gift from New York residents Bill and Maureen Rhinehart."
"Bill Rhinehart is a graduate of Appalachian, earning a bachelor of science degree in 1956 and a master of arts degree in 1957."
"Comic Book Collection Made Easy is a new website designed to help all of those individuals interested in starting or maintaining a comic book collection. With the up surge of all the new comic book superhero movies coming out of Hollywood recently, there are many more individuals interested in this genre than most realize."
"Reflecting his legal training, Sondheim answers questions methodically. Even his decision to focus on rare books, as opposed to art, shows a judicious attitude."
"'It’s pretty hard to falsify a book,” he said, adding, “they’re not as likely to be stolen. If you have a thief in the house, they’re more likely to steal a silver menorah.'"
Maybe it matters, too, that Sondheim attended the University of Chicago in the era when that institution still featured the Great Books courses.
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"The aim of the magazine is simple. We wanted a general magazine about illustration - the artists, the collectors, the collections, the exhibitions, the history, the philosophy and the key events relating to this subject. We wanted to discuss the work of great artists from the past as well as new graduates currently coming out of college."
"The smell of old books is enough to reel me into ecstasy," says Wornom, who collects rare volumes on English history. "Sometimes [the books are] musty, sometimes with a strange maple smell. Some smell of incense from being stored in a monastery for hundreds and hundreds of years."
"Visitors may browse the Eileen J. Garrett Library collection, whose books focus on an array of subjects, from ghosts and magic to immortality and spiritual healing. A rare book room, which will be under lock and key, will include such finds as a book of dreams dating to 1562, bound in pigskin and written in Latin. The site will include a periodical section and an audiovisual room. Coly hopes to hold four lectures a year on varying topics, as well as two seminars and a yearly conference. A bookstore will be located at the front of the space, where some of the foundation's own published materials will be available for sale."
" Naper Settlement Executive Director Peggy Frank said the journal was worth the "tens of thousands of dollars" the society paid for it. She declined to disclose the exact price, but if the Heritage Society didn't buy the book another collector surely would have, she said."
"'This is a document that would be of interest to any collector of Americana. It is very unusual to get this kind of insight in as good of condition as this is,' Frank said."
" Master engravers and artists such as Albrecht Durer and William Hogarth designed book-plates that are invaluable today. Paul Revere also tried his hand engraving book-plates."
"After books became readily available to other than universities and the nobility, their designs changed from earlier armorial styles. Instead of the family crest, mottoes and quotations, as well as landscapes became popular. Often the book-plates reflected the decorative styles of the times. Ornamental and neo-classical designs harmonized with the prevailing styles of Hepplewhite, Sheraton and the Adam brothers. Some had witty rhymes of ownership. "
" Mike Glenn of Atlanta has been collecting African Americana only since 1997. But he figures it already would be tough to replicate his assemblage of photographs, artifacts, and some 2,000 rare books. "I have things that are unavailable now and that if I could find, I could never afford," says Glenn, a former pro basketball player who is now commissioner of the minor league World Basketball Assn."
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"AS a historian he is expected to be well read, but years spent trawling car boot sales buying thousands more tomes for his book collection have driven his wife mad."
"Falling over books stacked up in every room in the house, including the toilet, became such a nuisance that Margaret Rothwell decided to set up an online auction to get rid of her husband Victor's clutter. "
"Rare and valuable books, including a Shakespeare first folio, are to be housed at Lancaster University's archive."
"The university has been chosen as the deposit for the books – the earliest dates from the 11th Century – by Lord Hesketh whose family has long had links with Lancashire, their original home being Rufford Old Hall."
"The books belong to the trustees of the late second Baron Hesketh, and they will retain ownership.
The jewel of the collection is John James' Audubon's wonderfully illustrated Birds of America (four volumes), housed in their own ornately carved bookcase. This represents one of a few held in libraries in the UK and is considered by Sotheby's to be the finest the company has seen. The collection also includes a Shakespeare First Folio, in excellent condition."
"He purchased the Archie Givens Sr. Collection, which he said is a “living collection of African American culture,” and worked with Archie Givens Jr. and Josie Johnson to give it to the University."
"He said the rare book collection, in the Andersen Library on the West Bank, is invaluable in terms of what it represents as it will encourage other ethnic groups to create literary offerings which the public can see and learn from. "
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"Dick and Patsy moved back to Clinton following his retirement and he spent much of his time restoring old volumes at the Hamilton College library. In June of 1999, Dick and Patsy were honored during the school's Alumni Weekend in recognition of their $1.5 million endowment to fund the position of a librarian. That was in addition to the Williams-Watrous-Couper Foundation that supports academic pursuits and the Couper Fund, which provides for the purchase of rare books for the college library."
"In one of the letters I received from Dick after he fell ill, he remarked that he was reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton."
"At the Grolier Club last week, Texas A&M University professor Steven Escar Smith spoke about two New York theatrical figures, Williams Evan Burton and Edwin Forrest, who both collected Shakespeare. During the early 19th century, serious American bibliophiles collected Shakespeare more prominently than any other author, Mr. Smith said. The bard was iconic: P.T. Barnum, he said, even tried to buy Shakespeare's family home in 1847 and bring it to America."
"The Juma Al Majid Centre for Culture and Heritage has already treated and restored some 30,000 books in the city. They have even been digitalised and preserved for posterity. Al Majid, who was here to take part in the World Urdu Conference, has signed an MoU with Osmania Univeristy for the digitalisation of its books. How much money is he prepared to spend? Majid refuses to spell the amount. "There is no limit. What is important is preserving books," is all that he would say."
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"EVEN well-heeled collectors occasionally find themselves a bit short of ready cash when something special comes up. Rodney Davidson, the amiable Melbourne former solicitor who has built up a vast collection of rare Australian books, many valued at more than $100,000 apiece, relates an anecdote about his patient pursuit of one of the fabled rarities of Australian exploration - the "unpublished" first edition of Hamilton Hume and William Hovell's Journey of Discovery to Port Phillip, New South Wales of 1831."
"When he was finally offered the elusive work, Davidson reveals in a foreword to the catalogue for his upcoming sale, the asking price left him speechless. Unable to find the sum required but agog with enthusiasm, he rang his bank and asked for an overdraft to buy "something special", after which he promised to treat the bankers to lunch at his club and reveal all."
"Seth's masterful graphic novella about the "greatest comic book collector" imagines a world where golden-age funny books sell for small fortunes and collectors have their own private staff and personal transportation, all devoted to tracking down rare comics."
"Vijayaraghavan is a bibliophile with an interesting range of reading preferences from P G Wodehouse and Tolkien to Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell, not to mention the best of cricket literature. He is also one of the most optimistic people around, always thinking up new projects to attempt. Life’s ups and downs have never managed to deter him from pursuing his dreams. His latest project, a well-appointed lending library at a central location, is all set for a successful future."
"‘Old Books Gallery and Lending Library’ is a smart little outfit at 121, St. Marys Road, Raja Annamalaipuram, is actually quite spacious, with books stacked in two storeys. It is already a fine collection of books and promises to grow bigger and better, thanks in part to Viji’s many friends who have volunteered to contribute books from their personal collections."
"RARE first editions of Ulysses by James Joyce have topped a list of the most valuable fiction works of the 20th century."
"Virginia Woolf once said in a review of Ulysses: "Never have I read such tosh." But a 1922 copy printed on Dutch handmade paper and signed by the author is worth £100,000. ($235,600), Book & Magazine Collector magazine reports. The first edition comprised 1000 copies but only 100 had the all-important signature."
"The second most valuable first edition is a 1902 copy of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, with dust jacket, valued at £80,000."
"More than 600 rare books on British history have a permanent home in Carol Grotnes Belk Library thanks to a gift from New York residents Bill and Maureen Rhinehart."
"Bill Rhinehart is a graduate of Appalachian, earning a bachelor of science degree in 1956 and a master of arts degree in 1957."
"The Bill and Maureen Rhinehart Collection on British History grew from Bill Rhinehart’s interest in the British monarchy, aristocracy and political history and spans the 16th to 19th centuries."
"Rare book collecting has always been big business - a first edition of 'Ulysses' recently sold for more than 100,000 - but the web is changing the area. Eoin Burke Kennedy writes about pursuing his passion in an online world."
"The difference between an exclamation mark and a full stop can mean thousands of dollars in the idiosyncratic world of rare book collecting. A dispute over the earliest English-language printing of One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel GarcIa Marquez, came down to the difference between the two punctuation marks. On the inside flap of the book's original 1970 dust jacket, the first paragraph of the blurb ends with an exclamation mark in some copies and a full stop in others."
"Give yourselves a pat on the back, you book princes and princesses of Denver. You read enough to put the Queen City of the Plains at No. 6 on the 2005 list of America's Most Literate Cities.
It takes a serious commitment to make it nearly to the top of the heap of the nation's 69 largest cities. Researchers at Center Connecticut State University considered newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, education and the expansion of media to online resources. Only Seattle, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and San Francisco crack the books more than we do. Colorado Springs (19) and Aurora (55) also made the list."
"Walter O. Evans, a distinguished surgeon and bibliophile, is widely regarded as one of the nation's foremost collectors of African-American art. His collection contains work that spans more than a century of vision and creativity and is an expression of his commitment to the importance of cultural heritage."
"Beginning in 1979 with Evans' first major purchase, which was a portfolio of silkscreen prints by Jacob Lawrence, "The Legend of John Brown," The Walter O. Evans Collection now includes more than 200 original paintings and sculptures representing the work of both 19th- and 20th-century African- American artists. The collection also includes work by artists such as Edward Bannister, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Robert Duncanson, Richard Hunt, Mary Edmonia Lewis, Henry O. Tanner and Charles White."
"The doctor was described by acquaintances as a recluse who loved to read and who had a book collection worth hundreds of thousands of dollars."
"Despite his wealth, Maharaj walked from home to his office each day with a knapsack slung on his back."
"Perhaps the most prominent members of this community were Aldo and Amelia Ambron and their children. One of the wealthiest families in Alexandria, the Ambrons were themselves artists. Aldo Ambron was a noted art and book collector and a founding member of the Les amis de l’art (The Friends of Art) society. Amelia and one daughter, Gilda, were portrait artists; another daughter, Nora, was an accomplished musician; and their son Emilio, also an artist, later created a magnificent art collection (now the basis for a museum), in Bali, Indonesia."
"Lovers of books looking for great deals on a wide range of literature should head to the fabled French city of Aix-en-Provence."
"On the first Sunday of every month old and rare books are on display and for sale in the city's main square, the Place de l'Hotel de Ville."
"Nicholas Basbanes has had books and writers running through his veins for most of his lifetime, which makes picking up "Every Book Its Reader" the equivalent of browsing through a rare-book store, spending the morning in a public library, and visiting your most literate friend -- all in the course of a few hours."
"Here Basbanes sets out to identify and showcase some of the world's most famous and most forgotten books. One of his many wanderings takes him to a secondhand bookstore in Oberlin, Ohio, where he spends $2 on "A Reader's Guide Book," an essay collection by May Lamberton Becker. It turns out that her columns in the Saturday Review played an Oprah Winfrey-like role in the 1920s. One of her picks, the 1893 novel "The Heavenly Twins" by Sarah Grand, is still in print and is described as "a fascinating exploration of gender issues and feminist agendas" by the University of Michigan Press."
"Among a collection of antiquarian books consumed in the fire were limited edition leather-bound copies of novels by Mr Linklater's father, Eric, which were a gift from his publisher."
"The most valuable book in the collection was a first edition work by Sir Walter Scott."
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"2005 has been the year of the bibliophile. With a sudden revival of interest in books and bookstores, booksellers have never had it so good. Be it the tale of a ‘teenage wizard’ or an ‘argumentative economic’, book lovers have had a field day when it came to choosing a tome of their choice."
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"Recently, sitting in his home stacked with volumes of rare books - some written by his great-great grandfather Brigham Young - Firmage seems accepting if not content with an extraordinary life that has enabled him to transcend societal boundaries."
"He has journeyed from Brigham Young University to the University of Chicago Law School to the office of Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey in Washington, D.C. He has worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and has a lasting friendship with the Dalai Lama."
"Q: We need to catalog my husband's book collection. He has about 3,000 volumes, and the inventory seems to keep growing. I want to list the books by author, title and subject, and because many are old, I want to write a brief description and initial cost. Any ideas? When I have asked at the computer stores, the clerks glaze over because this is not the high-tech question they prefer."
"Sir Pelham Warner’s book of cricket was the best among the 600 rare books that Ramamurthy had collected, it was a book that contained interesting snippets from the many cricket players the author had met over a period of time."
"The museum displays rich collections of paintings, antiques and rare books as well as occasional modern art exhibits, and also hosts various cultural events. Restitution of church property remains a disputed issue in Romania, where the former communist regime took over lands, schools and hospitals owned by religious groups."
"I mean, it ain’t Shakespeare; it’s a book about sports. But it’s worth 200 bucks! How psyched am I?"
"The Chief Minister also said that the departed musicologist had a large collection of rare books and documents on various aspects of music. There is an urgent need to preserve this musical wealth for posterity so that it would benefit the scholars of the subject, he added."
Lindsay Holland: "He started collecting books during his early days as a mountaineer. His forays into the backcountry took him into rarely travelled areas and he sought out books by early explorers to expand his knowledge of those parts of New Zealand."
Philip R. Bishop is co-author of "Thomas Bird Mosher & the Art of the Book", and his articles have appeared in "Biblio" magazine and elsewhere. This independent scholar has made Mosher both his collecting and research passions.
Philip Bishop authored the Mosher bibliography, "Thomas Bird Mosher-Pirate Prince of Publishers" co-published by The British Library and Oak Knoll Press.
"The last thing Larson would ever do is dabble; when he gets into something, he’s smack in the middle. Whole sections of the world like East Africa and France know him. When he talks about cars he means a fleet of antique Rolls Royces. His book collection numbers more than 20,000. He flies airplanes; he has visited more than 600 Templar religious sites. Yet, those interests pale in comparison to his first love: food and wine, including the production, preparation, presentation and gustation thereof."
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" "He took one look and said, 'Oh, my, gawd,' " she says, doing a fair gentrified Southern accent. " 'Oh, my, gawd.' I thought he was impressed, you know, because there were so many of them and they were all different colors. But he said, 'You must shut these doors and not let anyone see. This is like a great art collector decorating her wall with posters. No one must see this. Oh, my, gawd.' " She laughs ruefully and sits down. "So now I keep them in the bathroom."
"I like to collect books. I have collected many books related to fiction as well as non-fiction. Most of them are old books and I have bought them from the footpaths at Sundhara and second-hand shops at Thamel, Bhrikuti Mandap, Pradarsani Margh etc."
" Who: Chuck Parkhurst traveling with his wife Sandy from Arizona.
Where they’re going: This book collecting duo – who even have their own rare book business – were on their way to Texas, first to Archer City and then Dallas for a book fair."
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"This is a novella about books and obsession. Yet it is a story that all book lovers must read and read obsessively."
"It begins with the premise that “books change people’s destinies.” This profound and indubitable observation follows the curious death of Bluma Lennon, professor of literature in Cambridge, who, on a spring day in 1998, stepped out of a bookshop in Soho having bought a secondhand copy of Emily Dickinson’s poems and was knocked down dead by a car at the first street corner as she was reading the second poem."
"No less a personage than Richard Booth, who turned Hay-on-Wye in Wales into the world's first book town, had given his blessing to the Gold Cities Book Town Association, placing the neighboring Gold Rush hamlets of Grass Valley and Nevada City, Calif., in the company of such other bookish venues as Larry McMurtry's Archer City, Texas; Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia; St.-Pierre-de-Clages, Switzerland; and Fjaerland, Norway."
" More people are turning to the Bible as a safe refuge from a struggling stock market and rising inflation, pouring large sums of cash into rare 1611 King James Bibles, centuries-old Matthew-Tyndale Bible leaves, Hebrew scrolls, prayer books and other ancient liturgical texts."
"At Sotheby's Western Manuscripts sale in London in June, a three-volume, 13th century Bible in Latin with prologues attributed to Saint Jerome sold for $1.8 million, while an 11th century Bible sold for $164,081, well above the estimate."
"When I finally opened the heavier boxes, I found a treasure of books from the personal collection of my husband's father, Mort. These were books I had never seen before, with inside flaps inscribed in a scratchy signature, tagging ownership for his library and of his acquired knowledge. As I fingered those dusty, yellowed pages that had been unread for years, I became excited. I was ready to learn more about Mort."
"Instead, Amerik Kachigian, 72, a semi-retired Granite City lawyer, has spent his life collecting books, storing them away like a well-read squirrel preparing for winter."
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"Many of those volumes offer Southerners valuable insight into their agrarian heritage, and, thanks to Callaway Gardens, hundreds of editions are now available for public viewing. On Wednesday, the famed gardens and resort in Pine Mountain announced the donation of more than 1,000 rare volumes to the Atlanta History Center's Cherokee Garden Library. The books, given in memory of gardens founder Virginia Hand Callaway, had been on loan for 10 years to the niche library, which houses more than 6,000 other volumes."
"Two decades ago, architect Kurt Meyer stumbled upon an album of some of these photographs he bought from a friend. Meyer has been a collector of rare books on Central Asia and the Himalayan regions. “The collection literally set me off like a detective to find whatever other photographs that might have still survived,” says the 83-year-old Californian."
"Meyer travelled to the US, Nepal, London and even Kolkata, 'to search for the studio where some of White’s box cameras may be found'".
"Talking to him proves that he knows his history well and knows the value of what he possesses. “During the time of the Mughals, the holy text contained the original verses in Arabic, followed by the translated version in Persian. It is only recently that Persian was replaced by Urdu,” he said. “At present, the book contains the verses in Arabic with the translation in Urdu. I have met many historians. And they all agree that it may be at least 150 years old,” he said. But he rues it’s not in very good condition. “The pages have become very brittle and are breaking into pieces. But I have still managed to preserve the whole thing,” he adds."
"Daryl B. and Rosalie Adrian, Muncie, Ind., recently donated their personal library collections to Tabor College."
"The first collection, donated by the couple, consists of about 2,500 volumes with subjects ranging from British and American literature to humanities and biblical studies."
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"Australia will send two Tasmanian devils, a restored tram and a rare children's book to Denmark to celebrate the birth of a son to Denmark's Australian-born Crown Princess Mary."
"Apart from his business and political activities, Lord Leitch is a keen collector of antiquarian books and Scottish landscape paintings. Brought up by his mother and his grandfather at the village of Oakley following the death of his father when he was three, he is also a lifelong follower of Dunfermline Athletic."
"A large part of the exhibition is made up of Stanley Marcus’ collection. Marcus is known for Neiman Marcus, his store that originated in Dallas. In addition to being a legend in retail, Marcus was also a fine book collector. SMU received his personal collection in 2003."
"Marcus’ collection is still being catalogued, but the collection is massive and strong in British and American literature. The current number of works totals around 8,000 and Martin said there could be as many as 2,000 more works not yet counted."
"Early edition Cecil Aldin dog books are highly sought after by collectors. As with his artwork, it is important to read the fine print in the item description, as new editions of these books are still being published today."
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"If there is a direct hit on the building, the collection of 96 oil paintings, 125 watercolors, 1,500 prints and 100 other pieces including rare books could be wiped out, even if secured. While the collection is insured, she said the works can never be replaced."
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"He said that teaching has given meaning to his life and that there is no joy greater than reading. He is a self-described bibliophile who lives in a home with books in every room. He especially enjoys reading biographies that, he said, combine the best qualities of history in a personalized context."
"Kadapa (Andhra Pradesh): Professor Abdul Gaffoor loved his mother so much that he preserved her body for 20 years after her death, and "consulted her" regularly on important matters.
The preserved body was discovered only on October 2 when Gaffoor, 69, died at his house in Siddavatam village in Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa district. Gaffoor and his mother, Syeda Rahamat Bi, were laid to rest side by side the same day. Rahamat Bi had died on September 11, 1985, when Gaffoor was head of the English department at Madras University."
"The original purpose of Ted Bishop 's trip was to study Virginia Woolf material, but curiosity about the extraordinary blue covers of the first edition of Ulysses -- Joyce wanted them to imitate the colour of the Greek flag that Sylvia Beach hung in front of her Paris bookstore to announce Ulysses' imminent publication -- led to a new project: a study of the many covers of the book.
The idea grew out of a simple question: Why had no current publisher ever tried to reproduce the blue colour of the original edition? Soon, Bishop was exploring the history of the book, discovering along the way colourful librarians, rare-book dealers and collectors."
""A beautiful hand-bound book is part skill and part art," says Mark Wessel, co-owner of Wessel and Lieberman Booksellers, where Claudia Cohen 's work is on display. "It's fine for Claudia to say she's not an artist. But it can't be lost that the reason for her success is her sense of design and aesthetic. She may be a bookbinder first, but there's a lot of artistry involved."
"The documents had been in the private collection of the descendants of Robert Barclay, New Jersey's first royal governor, for more than 300 years until they were purchased about 10 years ago by Jay T. Snider, a wealthy Philadelphia businessman and former president of hockey's Philadelphia Flyers. Snider, in turn, had them auctioned by Christie's.
"It is great, absolutely great that we got them," said Joseph J. Felcone of Princeton, a prominent rare-book and manuscript dealer who alerted the state to the auction and did the bidding at Christie's. "What is important is what would have happened if we had not gotten them. It would have been just unthinkable if individual collectors had bought and separated them."
"Tony Haverstick, who taught philosophy at Syracuse University in the 1960s, began his love affair with the printed word by becoming a rare book dealer.
Then, one day in his late 20s, he sat in on a lecture in Philadelphia by Fritz Eberhardt, who the Du Ponts had brought to America to do work for themselves after World War II.
Haverstick was enthralled. He went to work for Eberhardt, helping him to restore old books and watching him design new book covers that honored the past.
In 1970, he set up shop himself and eventually located at 28 N. Water St. Afterward, he found out a Lancaster bookbinder, Charles Kraus, had lived there in the mid 1800s."
"The other day, Meredith Blum and Gordon Moore went to Penn Station to collect twenty-four boxes of books from the Lost Property Unit of New York City Transit. The books had been left on trains and buses and in subway stations. Blum and Moore are employees of the Housing Works Bookstore Café, on Crosby Street, which sells donated books and music."
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"The 2nd Lord Wardington, who has died aged 81, was a leading English bibliophile with a collection of 700 volumes, containing some 60,000 maps produced between the 15th century and the present day.
He inherited from his father and grandfather the nucleus of the library, which was housed at Wardington Manor, Oxfordshire, in a magnificent room with a high beamed ceiling and walls gleaming with handsome bindings; but he also greatly enriched the collection with his own acquisitions and the many volumes he had specially bound by leading modern craftsmen."
"MOSCOW, Russia – This week, the Library of the Moscow Jewish Community Center hosted the lecture "Rare and Valuable Books in the Moscow JCC Library". Held as part of the program for the 'Jewish History Lovers' Club, the lecture was delivered by the club's head, Professor Alexander Lakshin."
"Following the spirit of the day, I had to make a trip to the Cactus Book Store which specializes in "Texana." Old county historical association books, privately printed memoirs, folklore collections, books of newspaper column collections and other source material fill the little shop. I spent 30 minutes browsing, blew $50 on three books and wish I had the money to spend $1,000."
"Twenty-four original manuscripts make up “The Louisiana Purchase,” along with seven documents that are not original. They include written documents announcing and specifying the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, which in the early 19th century transferred more than 800,000 square miles of land from France to the United States and in turn doubled the size of the United States.
Subsequent themes are Napoleon, the Wright Brothers and the Bible. The year 2007 already has been assigned an exhibit that will display carved sandstones and other artifacts from ancient Egypt.
Karpeles, a Santa Barbara, Calif., native who opened his first museum in his hometown 22 years ago, settled on Shreveport to round out the locations of his eight other museums, found around the country in smaller cities where he believes the manuscripts would make a large splash as a cultural offering.
The Karpeles collection is the largest private holding of important original manuscripts and documents and includes the original draft of the Bill of Rights, writings by Einstein on his theory of relativity and a portion of the original manuscript of the dictionary created by Noah Webster."
"Denver bookstore owner and ex-cop Cliff Janeway is back trying to solve another murder mystery — this one taking him to the small town of Paradise, high in the Rockies.
Murder victim Bobby Marshall is a book collector who has several valuable signed copies in an otherwise ordinary collection. Bobby was also a friend of Janeway’s girlfriend Erin D’Angelo, an attorney. The kicker is that the murder suspect, Bobby’s wife, Laura, was also a friend and wants Erin to defend her."
"What to do with a "George Gershwin Song Book," a limited edition volume published in 1932 by Simon and Schuster?
Between its covers are 18 Gershwin songs. Accompanying each is a lighthearted cartoon by the talented Russian emigre artist Constantine Alajalov.
A single page at the front of the book contains a three-word autograph: "Regards, George Gershwin."
" He spent 14 years gathering the largest private collection of writings by 19th-century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow brought together in the last 50 years. In 2001, he sold his collection of more than 600 volumes, including inscribed first editions, letters, photographs and ephemera "for six figures" to Harvard's Houghton Library."
"PARIS: Literary fame is ephemeral, and books that once announced events of world importance become little more than extremely expensive collectibles.
When the first part of the library of the rare-book seller Pierre Berès, who spent six decades tracking the first editions of works that changed the course of Western culture, comes up at Drouot in a sale conducted by Frédéric Chambre on Oct. 28, bibliophiles from around the world will be there, furiously competing over the spoils. And yet most of them would find it difficult to sum up with reasonable accuracy the substance of books that they carry away like trophies rather than literary monuments."
"WAYNESBORO - An anonymous donor has given a Geneva Bible to Trinity United Church of Christ.
The only condition - that the church sell or otherwise dispose of the Bible before the end of this calendar year, with proceeds going to the general operating fund of the church.
This Bible contains 554 leaves - or pages. On "The 700 Club" broadcasts in the late 1990s, single leaves from a Geneva Bible were sold for $1,000 each. Today, individual leaves of high quality sell in galleries in New York and elsewhere for $300 to $400 apiece."
"Pierpont Morgan's name resonates as few others do. He was Wall Street's most powerful man. His mergers and acquisitions included the creation of the first billion-dollar corporation, U.S. Steel. He was America's greatest art collector in our golden age of collecting. And he was one of Manhattan's great patrons of architecture. Morgan either built or was involved in the building of such buildings as Madison Square Garden at 26th Street, the Metropolitan Club, Grand Central Terminal, the north and south wings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (of which he was president), the New York Yacht Club, and the University Club.
The building that bears Morgan's name is the Pierpont Morgan Library. Actually, this is a group of buildings, on 36th Street between Madison and Park Avenues and on Madison between 36th and 37th Streets. Morgan built only one. And it's worth taking a look at now."
Napoleon: "It is said that the diminutive conqueror's appendage was removed following his 1921 death and passed along with many other possessions to the home of a priest who attended the autopsy. Many years and sales later, the collection found its way into the hands of an American rare book collector, who put it on display at New York's Museum of French Art. A report at the time said the appendage resembled "a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace or shriveled eel." Syracuse University urologist John K. Lattimer, a collector of the eccentric, purchased the item for $3,000 in the 1970s, the last known transaction involving the relic."
"Rochester publisher BOA Editions Ltd. has sold a 10-year archive of materials to the University of Rochester’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library for an undisclosed sum.
Since its beginning in 1976, BOA has published more than 170 books of American poetry and poetry in translation.
The Rare Books and Special Collections Library has finalized the purchase of materials dated 1996 to 2005. The first collection of the BOA archive, 1976 to 1995, is held at Yale University’s Beinecke Library."
"These New England natural and historic treasures need attention:
The John Adams site in Quincy, with 11 historic buildings dating to 1720 and 14,000 historic volumes, including the book collection of John Quincy Adams. Federal funding to maintain the park and preserve its historic artifacts dropped from $507,000 in 2002 to $494,000 in 2004, even as the visitors increased by 65,426 in those two years, according to National Park Service figures."
" He spent 14 years gathering the largest private collection of writings by 19th-century poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow brought together in the last 50 years. In 2001 he sold his his collection of more than 600 volumes, including inscribed first editions, letters, photographs and ephemera "for six figures" to Harvard's Houghton Library."
"Baseer was travelled to the USA under International Visitor Programme in May-June, 1978 to study American Art in various art institutions, museums and galleries at Washington D. C, Chicago, Omaha, Santa-Fe, San-Francisco, Boston and New York. He was visited London under British Council Fellowship in 1987 to research on heritage of art of Bengal at India office library and records, British museum, Victoria and Albert museum.
When this writer came to this maestro's house, he was astonished to see the collections of rare books in various fields in world literature, art, journals, cuttings from papers, magazines and lots of valuable documents."
"NEW YORK — Mary Ann Malkin, a noted rare-book collector and editor who for nearly two decades helped run AB Bookman’s Weekly, the well-thumbed bible of the rare- and secondhand-book business that inflamed and then often sated the acquisitive passions of book collectors around the world, died on Aug. 1 at her home in Manhattan. She was 92.
Malkin apparently died in her sleep, said Eric Holzenberg, the director of the Grolier Club of New York, the bibliophilic organization, which announced the death."
"The cream of Irish literati dominate a unique art sale coming up this autumn.
Works featuring Nobel award-winning poet Seamus Heaney, Samuel Beckett, Oliver Goldsmith, James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and WB Yeats will come under the hammer at a Bonhams sale in October.
The Roy Davids portrait collection of writers, artists and musicians is the most extensive private collection of historical portraits to come to auction in recent years."
"MANHATTAN, Kan. - Dr. Karl Menninger's taste in books ranged from the serious to the speculative, from religion in 18th-century England to the Rat Pack of 1960s Las Vegas.
And that's just the first 17 boxes.
"This is not a library of an obsessive collector of books, but a library of someone who read and was interested in knowledge," said Roger Adams, the rare books librarian at Kansas State University. "It's really obvious when you start looking at these books, he had eclectic interests - ranging from world religions to criminology and of course the obvious, his interest in psychiatry."
"Together with his brother Kiril Drenikov, Ivan Drenikov established the Balkan Studies Institute of Brussels in 1978. He is also the founder and director of the institute for ancient and rare books, manuscripts and maps at Venezuela's National Library."
"It also contains an early and rather different draft of Dr. Watson's book, then called "Honest Jim," that Harvard University Press found too scandalous to publish, after it received a deluge of criticism from Dr. Crick and other leading scientists.
The collection was financed by Mr. Norman, a rare-book dealer in Novato, Calif., and chosen by Mr. Seckel, a cognitive scientist in Pasadena, Calif., who visited researchers and offered to buy their papers."
"Bill Goring, who is also a seller of used and antiquarian books, has his retail shop, Nutmeg Books, behind his house. His library is a simple affair: just a room in his rambling house that's packed to the rafters.
"When we bought this house, we designated this room the library," he said, leading a tour past shelves containing everything from Karl Marx to a volume titled Glimpses of the Supernatural."
"It's funny how the Earl of Macclesfield failed to notice that the gaily coloured old book in his library was one of the greatest works of art in British history. Perhaps he was just secretive. Whatever the reason, the animal-hide pages that can now be seen in glass display cases in a Cambridge museum lay unknown in his library until his books started to be sold off.
What happened after the manuscript - which, in perhaps unjustified deference to its former owner, has been named the Macclesfield Psalter - came up for auction at Sotheby's on June 22 2004 is now the stuff of heritage legend. An attempt to buy it by Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam Museum was foiled by the dastardly J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. But Californian dollars were deflected by a temporary government export ban and, with assiduous use of the media and support from a worthy list of caring trusts and funds, this great British art treasure has stayed in Britain."
"WEST BANK: Haifa Khalidi of the prominent Palestinian Khalidi family has a tough job. She is the sole caretaker of the family house in the Old City of Jerusalem and the custodian of the exquisite Khalidi Library that forms part of it. The library has been in Jerusalem for years and has belonged to the Khalidis for as long as anyone can remember."
"In addition to its lush garden and preserved historic home, the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden in Bethlehem now has another attraction for the avid gardener or horticulture scholar: one of the largest collections of rose books in the country."
"The collection was bequeathed to the house by the late Mitchell Van Winkle, a longtime Litchfield resident and an avid supporter of the Bethlehem house museum."
"Most of Donald S. Connery's prized books - more than six decades worth of collecting, from New York to Moscow and from Japan to Connecticut - were languishing in boxes, incarcerated in solitary cardboard confinement. Alas, it is the predicament of book lovers all over."
"Paul Burks was cleaning out his workshop when he found what may be one of the earliest copies of the Declaration of Independence."
"My father descended from bibliophiles. His father (my paternal grandfather), Jacob Sarna, hailed from the community of Konin in Poland, which is remembered for its splendid Jewish public library, and was himself a significant booklover. After moving to London, where my father was born, my grandfather headed the Jewish section of Foyles bookstore in London and later became an independent Jewish bookseller."
"ISTANBUL -- The arrest of a Duke University doctoral student last week on charges of trying to smuggle rare books out of Armenia has stirred concerns among academics and officials and illustrates the quagmire of Turkish-Armenian relations."
"Ex-Philadelphia Flyers President Jay Snider is selling his collection of rare books and maps because he wants to start a new one focused on Ben Franklin."
""I can’t imagine living without books. If I go out to dinner at someone else’s home, and they don’t have books visible, I wonder if I want them as friends," said Barbara Farnsworth, an antiquarian bookseller in West Cornwall, Conn."
"Lifelong book collector Samuel Gibson hopes to sell more than 10,000 volumes he has collected during visits to book sales, estate sales and bookstores."
Pradeep Sebastian:
"The 40 or so pieces I have written over the last few years have explored several aspects of the passion for reading and book collecting. From the large, obvious themes like the lure of first editions and second-hand bookshops to small, fringe asides about reading in bed, bookshelves and book titles. The column has been one long meditation on what the passion for reading and book collecting was centuries ago (so beautifully) called — a gentle madness."
"So I'm keeping the atlas my mother bought for me when I graduated from college. I'm dumping "They Call Me Assassin," by former pro football player Jack Tatum. The architecture books are staying; they qualify under an Aslett rule that if you make a living from something, it's not junk."
"Understanding the complex components of Vedic scriptures has been an exercise, both dear and facile for him. He does not stop with understanding the idea but starts interpreting it in the most authentic and indisputable of forms. His recent mind-boggling research into the intricacies of ancient Sanskrit texts in Pondicherry has resulted in bringing out the first volume of a rare edition."
"A trove of documents considered to be the Holy Grail of early New Jersey history will be auctioned at Christie's later this month and state archivists are trying to scrape together a pot of money in hopes of snapping them up."
"But experts say Torahs are stolen more often than you'd think. Geoffrey Haber, rabbi at Temple Emanu-El, learned the hard way in 1998, when a burglar swiped two scrolls from his synagogue in Englewood, New Jersey. They were recovered by an NYPD Torah-theft task force in a sting operation after the thief, a maintenance man working in the neighborhood, tried to sell the scrolls to a New York rabbi, claiming they were part of an inheritance."
"William J. Schull, a 1946 Marquette graduate, and his wife, Victoria, are donating 10 new titles, most notably a first edition set of Jonathan Swift's novel, "Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World," better known as "Gulliver's Travels."
"Edmonds dealer Steve Sibra, who collected Spider-Man comics as a kid in the 1960s and grew up to run a comic book store for 12 years, now uses the shows as a way to unload some of his collections and hunt down the older comics that are his specialty. His biggest sale was a 1956 comic book featuring the first appearance of The Flash -- an issue he sold for $15,000."
"Although he planned to spend much of his time adding to his collection of rare and antique books on the subject of birth defects and cataloging them in his already extensive personal library, Beckwith has been rather busy of late being honored for lifetime achievement with several prestigious awards."
"A Japanese bank has given the University of Pittsburgh's library system a collection valued at more than $1.5 million.
The Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. collection contains 64,199 volumes in Japanese and Western languages spanning the mid-19th to the late-20th centuries. Topics include banking, social sciences, politics and a history of the company."
Read article.
"Mr. Privett enjoys reading, "tinkering on older vehicles, mucking about in boats," walking the family dog and collecting rare books, especially those related to Anglican history and theology."
"Between leaving OMD in New York at the end of 2003 and joining research and auditing firm Billetts in April last year, Green spent nearly four months building a maze at his farm in Devon."
"My number one interest at the moment is developing my garden," he says. His other passions include rare book collecting and French and Chinese art house cinema."
" I had to get it: an old book on Alfred Lyall. It was irresistible. I don’t know what it is, but antiquarian books, especially those dealing with the history of the sub-continent, continue to obsess me. Perhaps it has to do with going back to one’s roots, and a way of reconnecting with the motherland."
"Residents of Basgo, a small hamlet in the northern mountainous arid land of Ladakh, have devoted themselves to preserving rare ancient Buddhist manuscripts, some dating back to the 10th century."
"A number of books from the library of Easton Neston will be sold alongside photographs and manuscripts. Aside from the books acquired by the family, the library also includes works from the Hesketh library at Rufford Hall."
"(SANA): The authorities in occupied Jammu and Kashmir have stepped up efforts to trace a priceless 17th century manuscriptof of Holy Quran written by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb which went missing from the Sri Pratap Singh Musuem here in September 2003."
"Richard C. Kessler, a 58-year-old globe-trotting hotelier with a Savannah drawl who collects art, instruments, watches, bronzes, rare books and other fine items, represents a new kind of developer for downtown St. Petersburg."
"House museums range from the vast and ostentatious to the small and modest. Those looking for grandeur find Leighton House Museum, the former studio-house of the Victorian artist
Frederic, Lord Leighton, hard to beat. Here, high Victorian is played out in sumptuous interiors such as the glittering Arab Hall – covered with deep blue tiles that Lord Leighton commissioned from 19th-century ceramic artist
William de Morgan."
"To book collectors, it is all about first editions. To periodical enthusiasts, the quest is for that elusive Volume 1, No. 1."
"That's the way I'm often greeted by my friend Bob Bolen. The former Fort Worth mayor is, like me, an incurable bibliophile."
"Each of us has the habit of keeping two or three books going at any given moment, alternating back and forth until they're mentally devoured and we've moved on to others."
"A RARE set of cricket's bibles, the Wisden Almanacks, that belonged to legendary cricketer WG Grace are up for sale for a six figure price."
"URBANA – A donation of Romanian poetry and literature to the University of Illinois Library will strengthen its Balkan collection and provide researchers with a look at issues faced by Romania just after the fall of Communism."
"Just as America's magazine illustrators depicted the various aspects of life in their time, so, too, did 18th-century Japanese woodblock artists. Their works showed lifestyles, religious beliefs and landscapes for the growing class of wealthy mechants. At that time there was also an increase in literacy, even among the lower classes. Books withwoodblock illustrations on colored papers were available to the general public."
"A set of Wisden Almanacks that belonged to the legendary cricketer WG Grace has been put up for sale for £150,000, it emerged today.
The Wisdens, cricket’s bible of facts, figures and analysis, span from the first edition in 1864 to 1915, the year of Grace’s death."
"This trove, the life's work of Janice Bluestein Longone, will open to the public on May 14 as part of the William L. Clements Library here at the University of Michigan. Shy, scholarly and tenacious, Mrs. Longone, now 71, who made her living as a rare book dealer, assembled the collection over more than three decades, aided by her husband, Daniel, a chemistry professor at the university, and donated it to the library."
"NEW YORK : Dozens of the late US movie star Marlon Brando's personal effects will be auctioned on June 30 in New York, Christie's said Thursday, announcing it as the most high profile sale since Marilyn Monroe property was auctioned in 1999."
"Some might consider scrounging through musty boxes for tossed out Harlequin Romance or Louis L'Amour novels a little creepy. But talk to any book collector or seller about their book-sale adventures and they'll say otherwise."
"Our main role is to preserve valuable public records for present and future generations. Because Murumbi felt that these other items of material culture are best preserved here, we are determined that they should be displayed as best as possible," said George Muoria, Head of Archives Administration."
"That kind of thing happens when a discerning collector is riding a wave. In the four years ended Dec. 31, the price of contemporary photos -- works by photographers born since 1940 -- soared 80.4%, according to Artprice.com, a French company that tracks auctions."
"Mounted in a glass case in a first-floor gallery is what Webber says is his most cherished item: a first edition of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley, the Boston slave from Senegal who became the first African American to be published, in 1773."
"There's also an 1800 passport for the schooner Assistance for Toussaint L'Ouverture, the former slave and Haitian revolutionary general."
"Prices haven't yet reached the eye-popping amounts commanded by original photographic prints, but they are trending upwards dramatically. A first edition of Robert Frank's 1972 The Lines of My Hand sold for $5,060 at an auction at Swann in December 2004, $1,500 higher than its estimated price and $2,500 more than the work had commanded in 2002. A copy of Eikoh Hosoe's 1963 Killed by Roses sold for $1,500 in 1999--in 2004, it sold for $5,000."
"LAS VEGAS - It might seem unfair to King George III, but recently, as I surveyed Liberace's collection of vintage automobiles, fur coats, feathered capes and antique pianos in the Liberace Museum here, I thought of the King's Library in the British Museum. In that great, neo-Classical hall - the oldest room in the world's first national museum - sea shells, astrolabes, ancient coins and chronicles of exploration fill shelves built nearly two centuries ago to house the king's 65,259 books."
"Penrhyn’s Book of the Dead was sold privately two years ago by the heirs of Janet Douglas Pennant. The price was unusually high for such a scroll, in the region of £200,000. What happened next is mystifying."
"Finals period is almost upon us, but some Harvard undergraduates won’t have to make the trek to Widener to find sources for their research papers."
"Three undergraduates were recognized this week for the outstanding quality of their personal book collections, ranging in subject from Beat literature to standards of American etiquette."
"The letter comes from a collection of early Americana given to the library by Jay I. Kislak, a Florida real estate investor. He got together more than 4,000 rare books, maps, documents, paintings, prints and artifacts that go to the library. They will have a permanent place at its center, the Jefferson Building across from the Capitol. The exhibit includes a sample 50 objects."
"Sawyer collects Bibles. Not just the fancy leather-bound Bibles you can get at any bookstore, but Bibles printed before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock."
"The oldest Bible Sawyer owns is a Waldensian New Testament Bible printed in 1539."
"RAMONA – A Lemon Grove woman has donated nearly 500 books to the Guy B. Woodward Museum because she was impressed with what she saw during a visit here a few years ago."
"Sheila Klippert said she decided it was time to give away her books on women's history, a collection she started 40 years ago. While checking for information about museums on the Internet, she came across the Guy B. Woodward Museum."
"I enjoy collecting rare books. And reading "Finnegans Wake;" it is a lifetime commitment."
"He's well-known for handling high-profile national security and First Amendment legal cases against the U.S. government, but Washington lawyer Mark S. Zaid has been collecting comics since 1974."
"CDI Systems of Jerusalem, a developer of online publishing solutions, has announced the launch of what it says is the world's largest online Jewish library."
"Otzar Ha-Hochma contains over 16,000 Jewish books, and roughly four million pages. The titles include thousands of extremely rare books that have not been published for hundreds of years and are now accessible to everyone."
"Uslan's collection, which included rare original copies from the Batman series, eventually climbed to 50,000; he donated 35,000 of the comics to Indiana University's rare book collection."
"Two pages ripped out of an old Ethiopian holy manuscript and looted during the British invasion in 1868 were returned to Ethiopia on Wednesday."
"Though the two pages made their way home 137 years after being plundered by British soldiers, the whereabouts of the original holy manuscripts is not yet known by those working for the return of Ethiopian treasures."
"Decades-old cookbooks may appear to be worn and ragged, but they certainly aren't irrele vant. In fact, many of today's ``new'' dishes and secret recipes are nothing more than tweaked, recycled recipes of days gone by -- though I doubt many pro chefs will admit to it."
"This event will launch the *Philadelphia Center for the Book* as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving book artists, book collectors, and book enthusiasts in the Philadelphia area. Founded in 2004, the Philadelphia Center for the Book serves as a catalyst to advance the book as a vital contemporary art form."
"Now he's [Ron Kathren] in the process of breaking up the rest of his collection, donating books valued at $250,000 to Washington State University and other items to a nuclear-themed museum in Nevada and a nonprofit organization in Tennessee."
"Amy Tan novel was a BookCrossing book, which means someone had deliberately set the book free into the world hoping someone else would find it and report where and when it was found."
"The prestigious North London Collegiate School has welcomed new insights into its past provided by a bequest from a former pupil."
"International antiquarian book dealer and autograph collector Winifred Myers built up a fascinating collection of material on the Canons Drive school and the Chandos estate on which it was built."
"Cervantes’ 'Don Quixote' represents the soul of Spain perhaps in a way no other novel has achieved, says Rodriguez-Cepeda, 65. He first read it as a 12-year-old schoolboy in Madrid. He found in it a magic he has trouble expressing and a passion he has pursued ever since."
"All literature may someday be published in cyberspace, but I prefer the psychological immediacy felt when holding a real book. And while there are many collectors of first editions, famous authors, etc., one particularly fascinating category is the miniature book."
"Leipzig Reads literary festival has since developed into Europe's largest festival for books, authors and readers."
"For nearly 40 years, Timothy Walch has been on a never-ending quest to locate and purchase books about Irish, Irish-American and American Catholic life."
"'It has been a lifelong passion, and each year it gets more passionate,' said Walch, the director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa."
"It's not just the thrill of the hunt for collectors Ed and Dianne Halpern."
"It's the illustrations, the touch and textures they love -- and they read the words too."
"Mrs. Engelhard's life was full of glamour. Like her friend Babe Paley, she was a great beauty, part of a small circle of rich, chic, ultra-thin women, including C. Z. Guest, Jayne Wrightsman, Gloria Guinness and the Duchess of Windsor, who dominated international society."
"Established in 1948, the annual Robert B. and Blanche Campbell Student Book Collection Competition, one of the oldest such competitions in the country, has been providing students interested in book collecting a way to display their work and also rewarding them for their collection."
" On March 21, an evening sale followed by four day-sale sessions on March 22 and 23, will present the magnificent library of Bernard Breslauer, the legendary New York-based book dealer and collector. The sale will offer a spectacular collection of the fine books and historic and artistic book bindings."
"The city, which hosts the annual Virginia Festival of the Book, takes center stage when it comes to bookstores."
"The love of books has been Denver writer John Dunning's stock-in-trade in the Cliff Janeway mysteries set in the world of book collecting, with its rare volumes and first editions."
"But there's good news for collectors! It seems some of the first edition error copies did slip through and are out there mixed with the second. Even just being a First makes it the desirable edition, but being a First and an error copy (and possibly recalled) makes it all that more desirable and, no doubt, more valuable over time."
"For bank executive W. Guy Ormsby of West Springfield, talking about Shakespeare once a month with people who meet at the Odyssey Book Shop is a good break from what he does all day."
"A book on the father of Japan's modern day typography has been named "the world's most beautiful book" of the year by the German foundation Stiftung Buchkunst. The book featuring beautiful typography was voted the most outstanding work among 628 books from 31 countries screened by the foundation."
"Zurich's index also released a series of predictions for the alternative investment market. It found that vintage Bordeaux wine, contemporary Chinese painting, contemporary Indian painting and modern first editions, including JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, are set for growth over the next five years."
"Over the years Price amassed a substantial collection of materials that dealt with slavery. His collection grew to include thousands of rare and out-of-print books, books on CDs, LP recordings, videos and microfilm. For the last eight years, the Abilene resident has given 900 volumes to Hale Library's Rare Books Collection at Kansas State University."
"Dr. Scott was also instrumental in putting together one of the world's most complete and prominent collections of Bibles and related manuscripts. Part of the collection, which includes many milestone editions of the Bible, is on display at the Los Angeles University Cathedral and has been viewed by more than 100,000 people."
"Lisa Johnson of Nashville, Tenn., paid $10,000 for three collections of books - a set of volumes about World War II, another set of books about African social history, and a group of books about cooking and gardening."
"We would not be where we are had it not been for the Kennedys," she said. "The Civil Rights Act would never have happened."
"I used to spend three weeks in London every year and I would spend at least a week going round all the antique shops, the print dealers and antiquarian book shops."
"Lauren Willig could once be found combing the basement stacks at Harvard Book Store for hard-to-find historical novels from the 1940s and 1950s. On Friday, look for her upstairs, reading from her first book."
"If by chance you are looking for a copy of a handmade, high-end food art book called "La Conversation" and are willing to shell out $600, you should step into Le Sanctuaire, the culinary shop in Santa Monica."
"Fine Books & Collections magazine has released its annual ranking of the top-selling rare books and manuscripts of 2004 at auction houses worldwide."
"The Margaret B. Stillwell Prize for outstanding student collections of rare, interesting or unique books, established in 1984 by the bibliophilic John Russell Bartlett Society, will award three undergraduates with up to $750 this semester."
"In addition to all Fritz Scholder 's arcana and his collection of incunabula and mummies, there is a 25-foot-tall Egyptian-style obelisk in his front yard."
"When, as a young man, he started a book collection, he asked his friend, the rare book seller Percy Muir, to buy him first editions not of Keats or Shelley but of books which 'made things happen'".
"Mr Armitage said: "I'm a book addict in terms of ownership. When we moved house I had 80 tea chests full of books. I have more books than I could ever read in my lifetime."
"The collection was assembled by Martin M. (Mike) Horvat of Stayton, Ore., a longtime science fiction fan and collector of fanzines, or zines. Rob Latham, a UI professor of English and American Studies who researches science fiction literature and its fan base, said the collection is one of the most impressive he's ever seen, with titles from the U.S., Canada, Britain and Australia"
"One must note the extensive collection of illustrations by Arthur Rackham in such works of fiction as William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or in a rare book Peter Pan Portfolio."
"Jeffrey Norman, a book collector and antiquarian based in the United States, may have at least one of the answers. The author of a reference books called “The Origins or Cyberspace,” Norman recently gathered a trove of dusty technical papers from the early days of computing which will be auctioned off at Christie’s in New York."
"Japan is hardly unique in having made off with treasures from a former colony. The best European museums would be empty without looted art. But the size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon Cheeyun, "35,000 Korean art objects and 30,000 rare books have been confirmed to be there, too." That's only the tip of the iceberg: much more is believed to be hidden away in private collections."
"Steve Williams has spent his adult life assembling his collection, which surpasses that of many public libraries. He said when the collection outgrew his residence, he and his wife, Rosemary, decided he had to find a place for it."
"In celebration of the life of Mary Hyde Eccles, collector and bibliophile, the British Library is exhibiting a selection of books, manuscripts, works of art and memorabilia relating to Oscar Wilde and his circle from her renowned collection which forms an important part of her legacy to the British Library. The Hyde Eccles collection contains over 1,500 items and has been valued at over $7 million dollars."
"We bought so many books that we were overloaded for the plane. It cost me quite a few dollars extra to take them back home. They didn’t want to put us on the plane."
"What makes things even more complicated is that no one really knows what are the exact factors that deteriorate paper. Some have claimed that lignin is the main factor with regards to the deterioration of paper whilst others have claimed the contrary."
"The critic and book collector John Baxter, whose book A Pound of Paper (Doubleday) is a must for novice book collectors, says: “The primary appeal of Gollancz thrillers is the weirdness and eccentricity of the editorial choices."
"Collecting odd, old items is something Bernie, Mo., resident Bob Keathley has done for a long time. In 1983, that interest in antiques led him to purchase a more than 200-year-old history text called "1700s in America," originally authored by German historian Christian Sprengel in 1783 for distribution at the 1784 World's Fair in Germany."
(So she collects Gore Vidal ...and Tipper Gore.)
"I own over a thousand signed mystery books," he said. He reads more than mysteries, however, and estimates he buys about 500 books a year."
"And I read about 100 books a year," he said, "so I run a 400-book deficit."
"Govindaraju is 70. But even at this age, he is literally 'hunting' for rare books by stepping into every wastepaper mart in the city. 'I used to wander through the streets and wherever I sight a wastepaper mart, my search begins in the bundles of books kept there', he recounts. As of now, he has over 8,000 books in his collection."
"These days, when he looks for a cookbook, he's looking for old cookbooks. 'That's what we do on vacations is look in book stores and search around,' he said."
"She owns more than 600 hardbacks and 200 paperbacks, including many foreign editions. She has Nancy dolls and games, a lunch box and a diary, and the tapes of past Nancy movies and TV series."
"The Irish are known for their storytelling," Conroy said. "So we wanted to put in a prestigious library that captured the best of what Irish literature has to offer."
"...the Sears, Roebuck heir who in his late 30's came down with what one writer diagnosed as "a most virulent case of bibliomania."
(It's a news story about the Grolier Club's Exhibit of Early Printed Books)
(You have to register (only once) to read the New York Times, but it's free and worthwhile.)
"Drive down to New York, to the Lower East Side. That's where Yiddish-readers used to live, that's where you'll find Yiddish books!"
(He was the Duke of Wellington’s lieutenant general in the Peninsular War.)
"He regularly browses through the Fishing Collectibles section at the Cherry Hills Book Store."
"For the complicated questions, Keneller did research at the library, using microfiche in the pre-Google days."
(...the private library of golf professional and past captain of the PGA, Alan Walker.)
"Her selection of mint condition first editions and complete dated series is reason why Rebecca York, author of the 43rd Light Street part of the Harlequin Intrigues series, dubbed her service “The Candy Store."
Charles Blockson is "best known for his book collection, housed at the Temple University Library."
See Blockson's important Afro-American book collection here.
Mysterious program to debut soon. "It's a book addict thing."
The "coming soon" website is here.
Tai Kawabata is "a cheapskate let loose in Tokyo paradise of print."
"J.K. Rowling published the very first Harry Potter story in England.
A signed copy today is worth over $35,000 dollars."
"His stories were full of dog teams, dog sleds, the beauty of the country..."
Susan says: "Now, I can’t wait to go on-line book-shopping again!"
"...old Torah scrolls from defunct synagogues; scrolls that stand unused and forlorn in their lonely arks of velvet and wood, in buildings now silent of the laughter of children, or even the drone of elderly worshippers."
(John Zubal says look for the early diaries and the personal histories.)
"...which he unearthed in an antique book store in Tokyo."
"Most of the display cases held Civil War books. Apparently, the library has a vast collection of materials — old and new..."
"FAU owes most of its Judaica books to the late Mark Swiatlo, a volunteer-turned-staffer who acquired most of FAU's Judaica collection. He traveled to Argentina, Israel and Poland to obtain religious texts to Yiddish translations of Shakespeare."
"The first one I read was a trilogy. It was 1500 pages and I didn't think I'd ever get through it."
"I have been to libraries, bookstores, museums and artifact showings all over Texas."
"He collects prints of movies, first editions of novels, he has an impressive back catalogue of ex-wives and girlfriends; when he was taking drugs, he seems to have tried to take all the drugs."
"Jeremy studied Native American religious traditions and I have a Master’s degree in Irish folklore, so you could say we were both fascinated with older cultures," she said.
"Vigía prints and illuminates books by hand."
As described by a Connecticut newspaper.
But the newspaper guy listed a wrong link to the Australian wine site, unless he changed it by now. (The wine must have gone to his head.) He meant to link to CLICK HERE.
"When they take a break, it might be to browse in a bookstore..." (Evidence: Buying tons of books brings tons of bliss.)
"Charlie liked books. In a really big way..."
"Jewish community leaders said they are ecstatic. Gary Krupp, a Jewish man from Long Island who was knighted by the Pope in 2000, made the loan happen."
"The collection of over 7,000 books is typical of a learned clerical library of the 18th century"
"He once spent months ransacking old issues of Delicatessen,, to disprove the validity of a rare spelling of “pastrami” in Webster’s."
(Doesn't matter. Collectors value books as historical objects and as objects of art.)
"Sometimes boxes were carried by lorry, ox cart and raft, or on foot, but always a few steps ahead of potential robbers."
"His quest for the rare, the forgotten and the unsung-but-beautiful leads him on overseas book-hunting trips several times a year."
...but why are so many of Pakistan's books mould-damaged?
Arkansas Arabian Horse Breeder Collects Western Americana
"...the shelves of Seddon's library and the walls of his ranchhouse stir up sentiments of awe and wonder..."
California man has "the world's largest collection of original documents and manuscripts
Is it really "the world's largest?"
Bookish Bookworm Family Rescues Car in Cleveland
"Some of us even have the annoying habit of correcting others' grammar..."
Albert Small: Collector of Rare Declaration of Independence Items
A Collection of Important Americana (including a Declaration-of-Independence floorboard)
Rare Comic Book Collection Donted to French Museum
"A mint-condition, first-edition Spider-Man from 1963, for example, would be valued today at $32,500 US"
Rare Torah Scrolls being Restored in Moscow
"Rabbi Ovadya Isaakov ...discovered many rare books and Torah scrolls stored in the Synagogue, part of which he took to Moscow for restoration."
North Carolina says Antiquarian Books are a Hot Trend
"This is a trend worth reading about: turn-of-the-century, leather-bound, dust-filled books. That's right, the obsession with classic books continues to grow among young people craving ways to disconnect from an overly connected world."
A British Collector's Photobook Fetish
'Oh, it's obsessive all right,' says Parr almost ruefully, 'just ask my wife, who has to live with all this stuff."
Bruce Lee: Antiquarian Book Collector
"We used to go and look for an old book on fighting it was one of his hobbies and he loved to collect and read. "
Susan Sontag's 25,000-Volume Personal Library to be Housed at UCLA
"...her 25,000-volume personal library were acquired by the UCLA Library in 2002 and will be housed in the Charles E. Young Research Library Department of Special Collections."
Novelist Louis Auchincloss: Book Collector
"One wall in his living room is covered with old books, including all of his own in a long line on one shelf, gold-stamped and bound in green leather."
Alison Rood Reminisces about her Bibliophile Boyfriends
"It's easy to get lost in a daydream of ancient exploits with bibliophile boyfriends "
John Updike Sells His Book Collection (He's Downsizing at Age 72.)
In some of the books' margins are handwritten questions and analogies from the novelist and essayist -- writings that Updike called his "scribblings."
A Hunter / Outdoorsman Confesses "I am a Bibliophile."
I became a book junkie, prowling dusty shelves for hardback highballs and soft-cover fixes.
Daniel and Janice Donate their Culinary Books to the University of Michigan
American culinary history has found a home at the University of Michigan’s William L. Clements Library, thanks to the donation of thousands of items from Daniel and Janice Longone of Ann Arbor.
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