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Blog posts by Rich Rennicks

Content creator and publicist for the ABAA. 



Weekly Highlights

By Rich Rennicks

Our members list new acquisitions and recently cataloged items almost every day of the year. Below, you'll find a few highlights from these recent additions... Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie London: W. Collins Sons & Co, 1934. First Edition, First State. Full leather. Near fine. First edition, first state of Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.. Octavo, 254pp, . Red morocco, gilt trim. No additional printings listed. Title in gilt on spine, with five raised bands. Top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Publisher's original cloth cover and spine bound in at rear. Solid text block, a touch of shelf wear, light toning to edge of text. A near fine example of a scarce first edition. Dame Agatha Christie (1890-1976) is the best-selling novelist of all time, outsold only by The Bible and William Shakespeare. Murder on the... [more Weekly Highlights]

Meet the latest antiquarian booksellers accepted as members of the ABAA. New Full Members: Donald Lippincott, Open Boat Booksellers Don Lippincott is a lifelong New Englander and has been involved in the book trade since 2011. Patrick Olson, Patrick Olson Rare Books Patrick Olson has been indulging an interest in old books since high school. He first joined the rare book trade in Chicago in 2003, during his junior year of college. Four years later, after receiving his MS in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he embarked upon a decade-long detour holding a variety of professional positions working with rare books: as a rare book cataloger at the University of Illinois and MIT, as a curator at the University of Iowa, and then as a curator and eventually Head of Special Collections at Michiga... [more The Latest Members of the ABAA]

Rare book donations are being sought for an auction to help "turn the page" on Russian aggression in Ukraine. Helping Ukrainian Books and Booksellers (HUBB for short) is preparing an international rare book sale to support colleagues under fire in Ukraine. They have scheduled an online auction for mid-November and are actively seeking donations of rare and collectible books, manuscripts, artwork, and ephemera. HUBB was founded by Mitchell Kaplan, Jane Unrue of Scholars at Risk, Carolyn Forche, Christopher Merrill, and Askold Melnyczuk shortly after the start of the war. The group has contacted Oleksandr Afonin, president of the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association (UBPA) to offer assistance. So far, they've raised over $30,000. HUBB recently distributed $10,000 among some 60 publishers and booksellers across Ukraine. Afonin sa... [more Rare Book Donations Sought for Auction to Benefit Ukranian Booksellers]

ABAA-member Kenneth Gloss, an internationally known rare book specialist and appraiser who runs the Brattle Book Shop in Boston and appears on national TV, will speak at New York's Grolier Club to talk about the "improbable finds" of his decades-long career. The presentation will take place on Thursday, October 5, 6:00 pm at The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, NY, and is open to the public. As Ken reflects on the surprises he's experienced while bookselling: “One day you find yourself drinking from Thomas Jefferson's coffee service, and the next day you're fumigating your truck of fleas. The house you're visiting could contain a handful of Turner watercolors, or a roomful of live ammunition.” His upcoming talk will cover spectacular finds, such as T. S. Eliot's copy of The Great Gatsby and Isaac Newton's copy of Principia... [more Grolier Club in-person lecture: Ken Gloss]

For most people, managing one career, mastering a sport, or overcoming a major medical challenge are the work of a lifetime. ABAA-member Zhenya Dzhavgova, owner of ZH Books in Fremont, California, has done all these and more in a very short time, as well as successfully navigating the shifting sands of integrating into a new culture, language, and most-recently parenthood. After moving to the US and completing her education, Dzhavgova got involved in the antiquarian book world, and via the well-worn path of Colorado Antiquarian Book School (CABS) and the University of Virginia's Rare Book School (RBS) established herself as a specialist on Slavic and Eastern European books. In 2016, she became a member of the ABAA, but thereafter her story diverged from the “typical” path of an antiquarian bookseller. Her odyssey began in the summer o... [more Zhenya Dzhavgova: Medical Emergencies and Sporting Triumphs]


2023 NCBCC Winners

By Rich Rennicks

The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) is delighted to announce the winners of the 2023 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest: First Prize Ishaan Prasad (Harvard College) for "Confessions of a Former Sheep Thief: Ten Years of Exploration in Typography". Prasad first became interested in typography while designing arcade-style games for the iPhone, which led to a desire to understand the principles and reasoning behind typography and design. Second Prize Joshua Shelly (Duke University) for "Alte Bücher in Haifa: (Re)building a German Jewish Library in the 21st Century". Shelly came to collecting while working on a dissertation on German Zionist literature and became intrigued by the experiences of “a generation that continued to search for solace in the pages of German literature, even while its members packed ... [more 2023 NCBCC Winners]

Browse the latest catalogs, newsletters, and e-lists of rare books, fine bindings, incunabula, print ephemera, and much more from the members of the ABAA below. (Also includes podcasts, blog posts, and other digital formats.) *New* indicates any catalogs brought to our attention since the start of September 2023. AARDVARK BOOKS/EZRA TISHMAN BOOK APPRAISALS Irish List #1 New (Irish-Themed) Arrivals ABACUS BOOKS Rubaiyat War, Peace, and Protest ABRAHAM LINCOLN BOOK SHOP April List Holiday Gift Book List CHARLES AGVENT LITERARY MANUSCRIPTS & LETTERS: Part 5 New York Book Fair 2023 ANDERSON BUTLER RARE BOOKS April Miscellany E-list #25: A Baker's Dozen of Recent Acquisitions ANTIPODEAN BOOKS, MAPS, PRINTS E-list #44 ~ W.W.I., Americana, Australia, Photographs, Maps, Ephemera E-list #43 ~ Antipodean Books at the Brooklyn Virtual Book Fair ARCH... [more Latest Catalogs of Rare Books]


2023 Boston Book Fair

By Rich Rennicks

The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair (BIABF) returns to the Hynes Convention Center in Downtown Boston, October 27-29, 2023. Celebrating its 45th year, this three-day event features fine and rare printed materials from around the globe, including illuminated manuscripts, modern first editions, children's books, ephemera, photographs, maps and autographs, as well as antiquarian books on a vast array of topics. For more information, visit www.bostonbookfair.com... ABOUT THE FAIR More than 100 rare-book dealers from Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Serbia, the UK, and the US will exhibit an alluring treasure trove for seasoned bibliomaniacs and first-time attendees. Prices range from the millions to the eminently affordable. Each item on view, whether immaculately preserved or intriguingly weathered, tells its own story. Each... [more 2023 Boston Book Fair]

Max Beerbohm: The Price of Celebrity The New York Public Library Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY October 20, 2023–January 28, 2024 Today we live in a world of celebrity culture. Celebrity became an international industry in the late-nineteenth century, and the English artist and author Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) was at the center of it. From the 1890s through the 1920s, to be a celebrity meant the hope—and fear—of turning up in a drawing or a parody by “Max,” as he was known in both Britain and the U.S. His brilliant skewering of famous people in his visual caricatures and of their writing styles in his satirical works made him a celebrity himself. This was an identity he enjoyed, but later shrank from. In essays and fiction, he explored the price in h... [more Max Beerbohm: The Price of Celebrity at the NYPL]

The California International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to San Francisco in 2024! The fair will take place February 9-11 at Pier 27, a new venue located on the Embarcadero between Fisherman's Wharf and the Ferry Building. The building is well-appointed, with remarkable views of the San Francisco Bay and downtown San Francisco. There is easy access for visitors, ample parking, and nearby public transportation, including San Francisco's historic street cars. The neighborhood is bright and open, frequented by tourists, and well-loved by locals. There are numerous restaurants in the neighborhood and a wide range of hotels. In addition, the Exploratorium, Coit Tower, North Beach, and City Lights Bookshop are all within a short walk. The new venue promises to be popular, and we strongly encourage you to register soon! The dates of the fair a... [more 2024 California Book Fair Registration Open]