The 2016 Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair will present a special exhibition, Collecting the Boston Music Scene: 1976-2016, in honor of their host city. David Bieber, formerly of WBCN, will display a selection of highlights from his extensive archives of rock posters, albums, and ephemera chronicling 40 years of Boston's vibrant music scene — a collection that features collections of items connected local groups like Aerosmith, The J. Geils Band, and The Cars, as well as many quirky one-of-a-kind pieces by other artists. Boston has always been known as a music town, giving birth to groups of all genres—rock, folk, jazz, blues—and a spate of legendary venues that hosted them—The Boston Tea Party, Paul's Mall and the Jazz Workshop, Club Passim, the Underground, and the Paradise, to name a few. That music scene was aided and... [more Collecting the Boston Music Scene: 1976-2016]

Arizona State University have announced the acquisition of the Robert Lawler Collection of English Renaissance texts, including significant works by Milton, Chaucer, Raleigh and Swift. The sale was made by Alcuin Books & Autographs, LLC., which had acquired the collection from Arizona businessman and book collector Robert A. Lawler. Discussing the collection, Richard Murian, owner of Alcuin Books described it thus: "Besides the 1550 Chaucer, there were also the 1598, 1602, and 1687 editions which according to Professor Richard Neuhauser (editor of the forthcoming 4-volume Chaucer Encyclopedia) adds greatly to the significance of the collection since in some cases it includes Chaucer apocryphal material that has never been recorded as existing in a single copy. The 1527 remarkable Polychronicon was a superb copy as were the Fabian Chronicl... [more ASU Libraries Acquire Robert Lawler Collection]

Full Members Jennifer Johnson, The Book Shop, LLC Jen Johnson is the co-owner of The Book Shop, LLC in Covina, California, along with her husband Brad, a member of the ABAA Board of Governors. The Johnson's are celebrating their 10th anniversary of ownership of The Book Shop, a bricks-and-mortar store that has been serving Southern California for more than 35 years. Specialties of The Book Shop include California and the West, archives and ephemera, and heavy metal music. Jen is a native of Nebraska and a graduate of Pepperdine University. She is a former newspaper reporter and public relations executive. She became an associate member of the ABAA in 2010, serves as the co-chair of the Southern California Book Fair Planning Committee and was recently selected to receive a scholarship as the ABAA's representative to the 2016 ILAB Congress ... [more New ABAA Members]

A quick look at the stories being discussed in book-collecting circles this week. The Highlights: ABAA-Members interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning Starting off with the news that's closest to home, ABAA-members George Koppelman and Daniel Wechsler were featured on CBS Sunday Morning recently. The booksellers' belief is that they may have identified Shakespeare's personal copy of John Baret's Alvearie; or Quadruple Dictionarie, and they have published a book, Shakespeare's Beehive, detailing their exhaustive investigation. Possible Napoleonic-War Journal Found in Second Hand Bookshop A customer rummaging through an old store cupboard in an Australian second-hand book shop unearthed a hand-written diary that appears to have been kept by a British Army officer serving under the Duke of Wellington between 1810 and 1812. Time to give a second gl... [more Rare Book News]

To mark World Book and Copyright Day, April 23, ABAA booksellers had four “Pop-Up” book fairs around the country, donating the profits to UNESCO. We have reports and pictures from some of the organizers below. (Perhaps they will inspire other booksellers to get involved next year.) Chicago Greetings, Booksellers: I want you to know what happened at the pop-up bookfair the Midwest Chapter organized in Chicago in celebration of World Book and Copyright Day. Read on if interested! Our hard work and effort paid off, and we raised $800 for UNESCO. The venue was beautiful, and everyone seemed busy chatting, buying books from each other, and selling to librarians, Caxton Club members, and retail buyers. Parking kind of sucked for customers, but hey, this is Chicago. Quality fixings for sandwiches from a northwest-side European Deli were prov... [more Pop-Up Book Fairs Raise Funds for UNESCO]

The classic Pauline Baynes' map poster of Middle Earth hung on many bedroom walls in the 1970s. Last year, a map annotated with the edits and instructions from J.R.R. Tolkien to Pauline Baynes while she worked on the illustrated map have come to light, revealing a host of interesting facts about Tolkien's vision and inspiration for Middle Earth. The newly discovered map with annotations by Baynes (blue ink) and Tolkien (green ink). (Source: Blackwell's Rare Books) Baynes was a frequent illustrator of Tolkien's books in the 1950s and '60s, but the map was perhaps their biggest collaboration. Blackwell's Rare Books in London sold a number of items created or owned by Baynes, and a map with annotations by both Baynes and Tolkien was found tucked into the artist's copy of The Lord of the Rings. Entries in Baynes' diary and letters between the... [more Bodleian Acquires Unique Map of Middle Earth]

ABAA members are participating in UNESCO's World Book and Copyright Day (April 23, 2016) by organizing several "Pop-Up" Book Fairs around the country. The Pop-Up Books Fairs are organized by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, the parent organization of the ABAA. From the ILAB: What do a film star, the children in South Sudan, and 1,800 booksellers on 5 continents have in common? They are some of the essential components of a worldwide series of events to create a more literate world. On 23 April 2016, the members of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) will celebrate UNESCO's World Book and Copyright Day with a series of spectacular and extraordinary bookish events -- for 24 hours, one after another around the world. Last year and for the very first time, ILAB booksellers decided to think global and... [more ABAA Pop Up Book Fairs]

ABAA members will be bringing their best items to the 56th annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair during the second week of April, 2016. Below, we have a few highlights from our members (in no particular order): exceedingly rare books, unique records, and one-of-a-kind ephemera to give a brief flavor of the treasures that await discovery in New York. Members submitted so many featured items that we've had to split the list into two parts. This is part two, click here to view the first batch of featured items... William Blake, “The Ancient of Days” (Europe, pl. 1). Relief and white-line etching, 1794, printed in blue ink, probably in 1794 by Blake, image and platemark 23.4 x 16.8 cm. on a leaf of wove paper 24.4 x 17.7 cm. Mounted in a window cut into a backing leaf, pen and ink framing lines on the mount which is also inscribed in penc... [more Featured Items: New York Book Fair (Part 2)]

More than 200 rare book dealers, including many ABAA members, from around the world are preparing to exhibit at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Pasadena, CA over the weekend of February 12-14, 2016. Below, we present -- in no particular order -- a selection of featured items that ABAA members are bringing to California. Carroll, Lewis (Dodgson, Charles). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. London: William Heinemann & New York: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1907. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. First trade edition. Signed by Rackham with an original pen and ink drawing of a winged Gryphon and dated 23.3.08 on the half-title page. Original publisher's cloth, housed in a gilt-decorated custom brown half-morocco fleece-lined folding box. The deluxe limited issue of Rackham's "Alice" was not signed by Rackham because he was traveli... [more Featured Items: CA Book Fair]

The schedule for the 49th California International Antiquarian Book Fair (Pasadena, February 12-14, 2016) has been announced, and it promises to be fascinating. Although the main attraction of the California Book Fair is, as always, the opportunity to search through the collections and rare treasures brought to Pasadena by the more than 200 exhibiting booksellers from over 30 different countries -- and buy a few rarities to complete your own collections -- the organizers have planned a host of interesting and educational activities for the fair weekend. Focus on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lecture: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: How One Small Girl Changed the World -- An Illustrated Talk by Chris Loker. On February 13th, the Bibliographical Society of America will host ABAA-member and author (One Hundred Books Famous in Children's... [more California Book Fair 2016]