The ABAA Gender Equity Initiative is proud to announce the fourth year of the ABAA Mentorship Program, designed to further the ABAA's mission to promote ethical standards and professionalism in the antiquarian book trade, encourage the collecting and preservation of rare and antiquarian books and related materials, and facilitate collegial relations within the trade. Goals � Further the mission of the ABAA. � Provide dealers early in their careers with the opportunity to advance their professional development. � Build a recruitment pipeline for the Association that enhances the number of qualified applicants. � Advance the diversity of new members. � Allow mentees to build a relationship with an ABAA member. � Educate potential candidates about a career in the trade (for example, graduate students looking for a profession outside of academia). Structure With the assistance of the Gender Equity Initiative, mentors and mentees will be paired with consideration of a variety of factors such as any specific requests, specialization/area of focus, and business structure. Location could also be a point of consideration. Once paired, mentors and mentees will commence a one year period of mentorship (May 15, 2024-May 1, 2025). Over the course of the year, mentors and mentees are required to have face-to-face communication for a minimum of 1-2 hours each month (this could be completed electronically). The schedule structure to meet this requirement will be determined by the pair. We e... [more 2024 ABAA Mentorship Program]

View the recording of this event here: To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the ABAA, the March Brown Bag Lunch Series will feature a panel discussion with veteran and young ABAA members. They will share their experiences with book scouting, memorable moments as a dealer in the trade, the ups and downs of a book dealer, and much more! Treasure Hunt Stories Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 2pm ET Advance questions can be submitted to xin@abaa.org by noon ET Monday, March 18th. Moderator: Lizzy Young, Lizzyoung Bookseller (member since 2016) Lizzyoung Bookseller sells rare books, ephemera, and manuscripts with a focus on food and drink History, women's history, cultural history, children's books, and anything else that makes her smile. A former pastry chef, Lizzy caught the bookselling bug when she started working for her father, Roy Young Bookseller. The rest is history. Panelist: Jim Cummins, James Cummins, Bookseller (member since 1981) A lifelong collector, Jim started James Cummins Bookseller in 1978 after running the rare book department at Brentano's. He is a prominent and well respected figure in the antiquarian book world and a fixture at auctions. His expertise is wide and is reflected in the breadth of stock at his namesake firm. You can see Jim in action in the 2019 documentary, The Booksellers. Panelist: Megan Bell, Underground Books (member since 2024) Megan Bell is the co-owner, along with Josh Niesse, of Underground Books, ABAA in Carrollton, Georgia. One of the ne... [more Brown Bag Series: Treasure Hunt Stories]

The Celluloid Paper Trail: Film Script Identification Course at UCLA August 5-9 2024 Kevin Royal Johnson and Erin McGuirl will teach the first west coast Master Class on film script identification from August 5-9, 2024 at UCLA's California Rare Book School (CalRBS). Kevin Johnson has been a rare bookseller and appraiser for nearly 30 years. He is the author of the first book on film script identification, The Celluloid Paper Trail, published in 2019 by Oak Knoll Press and is the owner of Royal Books in Baltimore. Erin McGuirl/has been the Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America since 2018. She is trained as a special collections librarian, and has worked for over a decade with institutional and private collections in New York City. Course overview: What kind of text is a screenplay? How were they made, and by whom? How did their form and function change over time? In hands-on exercises with archival film scripts and through course lectures, students will explore these questions by learning about the history, development, and bibliographical identification/of the American film script, from the silent era to the end of the twentieth century./ Screenplays are guides to the creation of another work of art: a motion picture. Students enrolled in/The Celluloid Paper Trail/will learn to see scripts as “blueprints” for films and to identify the material cues that tell how they fit into the larger filmmaking process, revealing the contributions of both credite... [more The Celluloid Paper Trail: Film Script Identification Course at Cal-RBS Aug 5-9]

Edit: You can view a recording of this event here: -- -- The Brown Bag Lunch Series, presented by the ABAA Gender Equity Initiative, is a series of short virtual talks covering various topics, from crash courses in areas of expertise to best business practices. Please join the Gender Equity Initiative on Zoom on December 13th, 2023, at 2 PM ET for a Brown Bag Lunch Series with Megumi Hill and Mårten Söderblom Saarela from Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller Inc. December 13th @ 2pm Megumi Hill & Mårten Söderblom Saarela - Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller Inc. Manchu Books and Japanese Books CLICK HERE TO REGISTER Dive into a survey of Manchu Books and Japanese Books by two experts from Jonathan A. Hill Bookseller, Inc. Megumi Hill will present the survey of Japanese Books. The survey of Manchu Books will be delivered by Mårten Söderblom Saarela, a newly joined expert in Chinese and Korean Books and MSS at the firm. Megumi K. Hill Megumi is a graduate of Rikkyo University in Tokyo with a major in early Japanese literature. Mårten Söderblom Saarela Mårten received his PhD from Princeton University and has worked at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, for the past four years, most recently as an associate research fellow. His research centered on the cultural and intellectual history of language in late imperial China. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and was trained in Sweden, France, t... [more Brown Bag Series: Manchu Books and Japanese Books]

The Raab Collection is looking for a Medieval Manuscript Specialist. See below the job description. Medieval Manuscript Specialist at The Raab Collection Rare opportunity to help build and develop a medieval manuscript department from the ground up, joining an established firm in the historical document field, The Raab Collection. Main Responsibilities – Acquire and catalog inventory, following dealer and auction sites – Liaise and be a point of contact for buyers and sellers – Write blog posts and other pieces that aid promotion – Maintain relevant sections of the website using WordPress content management system (no coding required) – Support public relations efforts Requirements: – Self-starter, multi-tasker, well-organized – Existing network of contacts within the collecting community – Background in Medieval art history or paleography, particularly English - Minimum 3 years industry experience - Salary commensurate with experience. Full-time position Starting date: ASAP Location: this is a remote position; no location requirement. Occasional visits to Philadelphia. Interested applicants should contact nathan@raabcollection.com, attaching their resume. [more Job Opening: Medieval Manuscript Specialist at The Raab Collection]

Mystery Pier Books on Hollywood's famed Sunset Boulevard has no shortage of celebrity clients, and their instagram account captures some of the famous faces that visit their shop in search of first editions, from Margot Robbie to Johnny Depp, and from Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (a faithful client and good friend for 25 years) to the great director Guillermo del Toro. But a recent post bears witness to perhaps their highest-profile client yet: His Holiness, Pope Francis. While His Holiness did not visit the store in person, a personal friend of the Pope's is a long-time customer of Mystery Pier, and they came to owners Harvey and Louis Jason seeking a very specific book as a gift for the Pope. The Jasons sourced the book in question, a 1845 first-edition of St. Ignatius Loyola's “Spiritual Exercises” in Spanish, from another ABAA member, Owen Kubik, owner of Kubik's Fine Books. And His Holiness was very pleased when presented with the gift. In fact, Harvey and Louis Jason have received two blessed rosaries from Pope Francis in thanks for their services. [more Mystery Pier Books Blessed by Pope Francis]

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 Michigan State University. For six years, he taught rare book cataloging for the University of Illinois's Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Patrick returned to the trade, under his own name, in 2018. He specializes in early print in all fields, with a particular fondness for unusual continental material. Richard Thorner, Resser-Thorner Americana Richard Thorner of Resser-Thorner Americana first exhibited as a specialist in paper/ephemera at several New England shows in 1993. His “paper roots,” however, are verifed as having started around 1972, through a childhood photograph of him examing a library of books purchased by his mo... [more The Latest Members of the ABAA]

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 Mathematica. On a particular occasion, Ken remembers, “a customer walked into the Brattle Book Shop with a Nuremberg Chronicle and a Kelmscott Chaucer!” And he's experienced some unexpected challenges, too—when he was invited to look at “about 500” books, Ken instead encountered three floors of more than 20,000 nearly perfect dust-jacketed books that he simply had to buy (and figure out how to transport). The unusual and the extraordinary will abound in this illustrated lecture. Ken will talk in part about the history of his historic bookshop (www.brattlebookshop.com/about...), which goes back to circa 1825. He is a second-generati... [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 of 2021, in the middle of a global pandemic, when Dzhavgova was diagnosed with breast cancer, and not one, but two types at that! Here is the story of her medical odyssey in her own words: I have been told I had pretty much achieved an impossible goal. I am a former athlete, I eat a healthy diet, I never do drugs, I am active, I had always been very healthy, until I wasn't! Exactly two years ago, at the end of Summer 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic during a routine checkup – I was diagnosed with not one, but two types of breast cancer. I was 41, with a 4-year-old daughter. Even worse, it turned out that MRI, the most advanced imagi... [more Zhenya Dzhavgova: Medical Emergencies and Sporting Triumphs]

J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians LLC, established in 1977 and long-time members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, the Professional Autograph Dealers' Association, the Music Library Association, the American Musicological Society, &c., are internationally recognized dealers in rare printed and manuscript music, rare books on music, autograph letters of composers, and music-related iconography, 15th - 21st centuries. We pay special attention to the particular collecting interests of our clientele and over the last 46 years have helped to develop some of the most important antiquarian music collections, both institutional and private, in the U.S. and abroad. We aim to provide accurate and informed descriptions of material offered to best enable our customers to make the wisest decisions regarding their acquisitions. We operate from private premises in the township of Syosset, on the north shore of Long Island. The area is known for its attractive parks, pleasant villages, and proximity to the Long Island Sound, as well as very good schools, hospitals, and high-level healthcare. Syosset is approximately one hour by train from New York City. This is a full-time, on-site position, with compensation commensurate with qualifications and experience but in the range of $45,000-$60,000. Responsibilities - Create original cataloguing for rare music-related material utilizing an in-house music reference library of approximately 5,000 volumes together with online reso... [more J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians LLC Seeks Cataloguer]