The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America is delighted to announce that Sid Lapidus and Jay and Jean Kislak have been awarded the ABAA and ILAB Patron of Honor. The ABAA feels these individuals demonstrate how the printed word materially affects history, scholarship, and cultural intelligence and the importance of collections to institutions and the public. A ceremony and celebration will take place at the ABAA's annual meeting on April 14, 2012 at 10am at the Park Avenue Armory's Tiffany Room. All are welcome to attend, but should RSVP to hq@abaa.org. Sid Lapidus has generously given his time and support to numerous charitable pursuits, including the American Antiquarian Society, of which he is currently chairman. An alumnus of Princeton University, Mr. Lapidus has donated and exhibited materials, including pamphlets, books, and broadsides from his collection on Liberty and American Revolution, at his alma mater. Jay and Jean Kislak have built a collection which is composed of rare maps and books, including a comprehensive collection on early Florida, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica. They have kindly donated the collection to the Library of Congress. The Kislaks also created the Jay I. Kislak Foundation for the purpose of preserving and advancing knowledge of past cultures, civilizations, and explorations. The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America was founded in 1949 to foster and encourage interest in rare books and manuscripts and to maintain the highest... [more ABAA and ILAB Patrons of Honor Announced]

Today, Swann Galleries in New York will be offering an original manuscript from the Salem witch trials as part of the Eric C. Caren Collection auction, entitled 'How History Unfolds on Paper'. The manuscript is the court indictment of Margaret Scott, a widow in her 70s who was accused and found guilty of "certaine detestable arts called witchcraft and sorcery." Scott was one of the last eight residents executed for crimes of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. She was hanged on September 22, 1692. The pre-auction estimate for the manuscript is $25,000-$35,000, a figure that Richard Trask, a leading expert on the trials, says is too low. Trask has been in the field since 1963 and says that he has "only seen witchcraft documents sold twice during professional life." He continues, "They are very valuable, and this is an indictment — it's an important document. ... This kind of document comes along so infrequently." Rick Stattler, Swann's Director of printed and manuscript Americana, agrees about the rarity of the manuscriptno similar items have come to auction since 1983. Trask is town archivist for what was formerly Salem Village, and laments that he will be unable to procure the manuscript due to budgetary restrictions. "Anybody who has money could buy it," he said. "The problem with these documents is they're really public records. They should be in a public institution." The auction will take place today at 1:30pm. Rare witch document expected to sell for thousands ... [more Manuscript from Salem Witch Trials to be Auctioned Today]

ABAA member Vic Zoschak of Tavistock Books has generously offered a scholarship to any antiquarian bookseller interested in taking Joel Silver's course, "Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books". Vic attended Rare Book School in the past, and considers it to be an invaluable resource in addition to a highly enjoyable experience. He decided to endow a scholarship as a way of 'paying it forward' to other antiquarian booksellers. Additional details are below, courtesy of the Rare Book School website. The Tavistock Books Educational Scholarship is a full-tuition scholarship opportunity that is available to all antiquarian booksellers interested in taking Joel Silver's course, "Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books" (L-25), 23-27 July 2012. One Tavistock Scholarship will be awarded in 2012. Preference will be given to individuals in the early stages of their careers, and to those who would not otherwise be able to attend RBS without scholarship assistance. To apply for the Tavistock scholarship, please submit a 2012 summer application to RBS no later than 16 April 2012. In a cover letter, discuss your reasons for applying for the scholarship to attend “Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books”; please include a brief description of your work in the antiquarian book trade, financial needs, and other relevant information. While not required, a recommendation letter from an ABAA member to accompany the application would be beneficial. Scholarship applicants will b... [more Tavistock Books Offers Educational Scholarship to Rare Book School Course]

It happens often, especially when you attend so many rare book shows, but this is one instance in which I really wish I had a lot of cash to spare! On May 8, Bonhams auction house will present Visions of Garcia, an auction of very unique Jerry Garcia memorabilia. The offerings are diverse and sound very cool. An illustrated catalog will be posted on Bonhams.com in the weeks preceding the auction, but below are some of the items that will be included in the lot. Artwork: 'Mood River', one of five known oil paintings by Garcia A set of airbrush originals by Garcia (circa 1985) of 'Alien Craft & Brain' Two sketchbooks (circa 1991), that include 30 previously unseen drawings Original preliminary cover artwork for the Grateful Dead's Europe '72 album, 'Rainbow Foot' by Mouse and Alton Kelly 'Wetlands II', a popular airbrush piece by Garcia 'Purple Dog', an original Garcia watercolor Instruments Acoustic Takamine guitar, played from 1985-1988 for acoustic shows and seen on the covers of Pure Jerry Vol. 8 and Ragged but Right Ibanez guitar custom designed for Jerry by Ibanez and Bob Weir in 1977 Billy Kreutzmann drum set Equipment- speakers, amplifiers, etc. Other Goodies: A .9999 pure gold and enamel Owsley Stanley un-numbered Steal Your Face pendant, circa 1979 Handwritten set lists Garcia's sunglasses Skull and Roses banner from The Grateful Dead Movie Rick Geffen's original artowrk from the Dylan and Dead album cover, signed by both Griffin and Garcia 1983 Garcia-owned Harley D... [more Jerry Garcia Memorabilia to be Auctioned at Bonhams]

Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, a non-profit dedicated to "building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form", has broadened his preservation efforts to include the physical realm as well as the digital. He purchased a wooden warehouse just north of San Francisco to act as a repository for books, and he has spent $3 million thus far purchasing and operating the facility. Kahle's goal is to "collect one copy of every book", and libraries and institutions are delighted to donate materials to the Physical Archive of the Internet Archive rather than recycle unwanted books and periodicals. (And there are certainly a lot of unused/"unwanted" books out therethe repository receives about 20,000 new volumes a week.) Some may question the value of some material in the repository"All New Crafts for Halloween" and "What to Do When Your Son or Daughter Divorces" were two recently received titlesbut Mr. Kahle believes that "you can never tell what is going to paint the portrait of a culture." The repository was modeled after the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which "holds 740,000 seed samples as a safety net for biodiversity", and Mr. Kahle hopes that his work on the Internet Archive and the Physical Archive of the Internet Archive will help him realize the lofty goal of creating a "library that would offer universal access to all knowledge". “We must keep the past even as we're inventing a new future,” Kahle said. “If the Libr... [more Repository Aims to Preserve One Copy of Every Published Work]

The Rare Book and Manuscript Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is offering RBMS Preconference scholarships for first-time attendees! This year's preconference is being held in sunny San Diego from June 19-22, and will "explore a multiplicity of futures for the rare book, manuscript, and special collections community". Numerous seminars, workshops, tours, and discussion sessions will be offered to participants, who will also be treated to a special ABAA Booksellers' Showcase. The deadline to apply for a scholarship is March 30, 2012. Additional details are below! In partnership with the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of ACRL is offering scholarships to subsidize first-time preconference attendance by professional librarians and qualified paraprofessionals and students. RBMS is committed to increasing diversity in its membership and the special collections and archival professions. Accordingly, several preconference scholarships have been designated for applicants of underrepresented ethnic and racial groups. For more information about the RBMS commitment to diversity, please visit the RBMS website. Full and partial scholarships will be awarded. Full scholarships include a waiver of the preconference registration fee (up to $280 for professional and paraprofessional ACRL members, and $125 for full-time student members) plus a travel and accommodation stipend of $700. Pa... [more Scholarships to the 2012 Rare Book and Manuscript Section (RBMS) Preconference in San Diego]

In 1898 author Morgan Robertson published the novella Futility, in which the largest ship in history, the Titan, which was proudly touted as "unsinkable", hits an iceberg on its maiden April voyage and sinks. Sound familiar? The actual RMS Titanic experienced an eerily similar fate to the fictional ship fourteen years later on April 14, 1912. There are many distinctions between the sinking of the fictional Titan and the actual Titanicmost notably in the number of survivors (705 survived the Titanic and only 13 survived the fictional sinking), the course taken by the ship, how it hit the iceberg, and how long it took to sinkbut even some of those differences have odd similarities (for instance, the Titanic was travelling from England to New York when it sank whereas the Titan was headed on the opposite course). As Mark Dimunation, Chief of the Rare Books and Special Collections division at the Library of Congress, commented, "I challenge anyone not to raise an eyebrow. It's all within inches of being completely identical." The remarkable similarities between the plot of Futility and the actual disaster of the Titanic fourteen years later has fascinated historical experts and Titanic authorities for years. Adding to that intrigue is the fact that very few first editions of Futility exist, with only one known copy in circulation in the United States. The owner of that copy, Vaughn Barber of Bicentennial Books in Kalamazoo, Michigan, bought the book years ago and plans to put ... [more Rare Book that 'Foretold' the Titanic Disaster to be Sold]

If you are already here reading this blog, then you are most likely aware that the ABAA is not a misspelled fanclub for disco era superstar group ABBA, but rather a trade association of the best rare booksellers in the US. You may not, however, be familiar with the application process and the benefits of membership in the ABAA. If you are an antiquarian bookseller and fall into this category, then our upcoming informational webinar is just for you! Geared toward prospective members and those otherwise interested in learning more about the Association, the approximate one hour session will begin with an overview of the Association, its history, goals and membership requirements, followed by a question and answer session between the webinar 'attendees' and a panel of ABAA members. The webinar will take place on March 7 at 2pm ET. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to hq@abaa.org. [more ABAA Informational Webinar]

Today marked the public opening of Torn in Two: the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, a new exhibit at the Grolier Club that presents a history of the U.S. Civil War through historical maps and other rare items. The exhibition was organized by The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center of the Boston Public Library, and revolves around the monumental role geography played as a cause of the Civil War. Grolier Club Director Eric Holzenberg observed that "Torn in Two is the first large-scale public show in the Grolier Club's 128-year history to tell a story exclusively in maps." This cartographic narrative is supplemented by other rare historical items, however, and photographs, prints, letters, political cartoons, and press clippings are on display as well. Included in these additional items are photographic images of 19th-century slave life, the first American demographic map, and Ensign, Bridgman and Fanning's railroad map, which highlights the contrast between the industrialized North and the agrarian South. New Yorkers will have a special connection to the exhibit, as Curator Ronald Grim notes that newspapers were the main source of information at the time and that "these newspapers had some of the first maps in them, and most of them were published here in New York City. The New York Times, the New York Tribune, the New York Herald&and Harpers Weekly, all had maps and illustrations that told the story of the war". Torn in Two will be on display, free and open to the public for vi... [more Rare Maps the Focus of Civil War Exhibit at The Grolier Club]

On Tuesday the Morgan Library & Museum opened an exhibit that will display nearly thirty rare works taken from its extensive holdings. The following items provide a taste of the exhibit, and I'm sure they will entice you to plan a visit. The only surviving portion of The Scarlet Letter manuscript, a single sheet containing the title and table of contents. A letter from Madame Roland to Jacques-Bernard-Marie Montané, written while she was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror (only two months before she met her fate at the guillotine) The typescript of two chapters from Henry James's novel What Maisie Knew Paul Revere's first bound printing of a compilation of Handel's music, which is though to be the first American publication of the composer's work A first edition of Faulkner's only pulp novel, Sanctuary The first edition of Edmund Spenser's The Shepheardes Calender, which is "considered by many to be the first great non-dramatic work of the Elizabethean era" Tarot cards from the 15th century A receipt by Picasso that includes a quick sketch of his Woman Seated in an Armchair This exhibit will be on display in the Morgan's McKim building (which was recently restored and is breathtaking) until June 3, 2012. The Morgan Library and Museum [more Rare Works of Americana, Literature, and Music on Display at The Morgan Library & Museum]