This item was still reported missing as of June 4, 2019. The following book went missing while in transport to Illinois. Oldroyd, Osborn H. ~LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN, Or The Political Revolution of 1860. Profusely Illustrated. With Fourteen Portraits and Biographies of Presidential Possibilities for 1896. ~Laird & Lee, Chicago: (1896). pp. vi, 241 + Portrait Frontis and full page plates. Text drawings. Fourteen portraits and biographies of presidential possibilities for 1896. Front hinge cracked. Paper beginning to brown at edges. XLib from Amherst College Library given by Arthur Curtiss James of the Class of 1889 for books in American History. Large 12mo. Original full blue gray cloth binding with gilt portrait of Lincoln on front board. Old library label on spine. Hardbound. If you have any information on this item, please contact Ron Lieberman at 717-442-0220 or RareBooks@POBox.com [more Missing: LINCOLN'S CAMPAIGN, Or The Political Revolution of 1860…]

The following items have gone missing from the Buffalo area: JOHANNES CHRYSOSTOMUS, SAINT. 345?-407. Accipe candidissime lector opera divi Joannis Chrysostomi archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani. Basel: Jacob Wolff for Wolfgang Lachner, 1504. CARACCIOLUS, ROBERTUS. 1425-1495. Sermones de quadragesimales, de adventu, de timore.... Venice: Gabriel de Grassis, 1485. VALLA, LAURENTIUS. 1406-1457. Elegantiae de linguae latinae. Venice: Philippus Pincius, February 8, 1492. BEAUVAIS CATHEDRAL. GRES, GUILLAME DE. Manuscript on vellum, in Latin, March 24, 1258. 1 p, oblong 4to (155 x 210 mm), 20 lines, in a fine secretarial Bâtard hand; later docketing on verso. Fine condition. ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT, on vellum, 6 ll, in Latin, 12mo (130 x 85 mm), , being fragments of a Breviary, initials and rubrications in red and blue with extensions, with later FULL-PAGE MINIATURE of Virgin Mary in a rose-garden bound in, later blindstamped sheep over boards. BALAINIUS, JOANNES. Index generalis in omnes D. Bonaventurae super quatuor libros sententiarum. Venice: , 1580. Please contact ABAA HQ at hq@abaa.org or 212-944-8291 if you have any information on these items. [more Missing Books From Buffalo Area]

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]

UPDATE: This item has been located. The following item has been reported missing: The Quark and the Jaguar by Murray Gell-Mann First edition. Encased in a clear plastic protective cover (which may have been since removed); pristine condition. Inscribed by the author to Mel Schwartz. The inscription read something like "To Mel Schwartz from 'the top quark'." The inscription may have been signed "Murray". If you have any information on this item, please contact David N. Schwartz by telephone, 212-787-5017 or 917-209-5660, or email, david.schwartz@dnschwartz.com [more UPDATE: Inscribed First Edition of "The Quark and the Jaguar"]

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]

This item was still reported missing as of June 10, 2019. The following book was reported stolen from the 2012 Washington Antiquarian Book Fair: Dahl, Roald. JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. A Children's Story. Illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, (1961),small 4to., publisher?s red cloth with blind stamped illustration, dust jacket. (viii), 118, (2) pages. First edition, first state of the author's first book for children. Bound by H. Wolff. The US edition preceded the British edition by six years. There are four full-page color plates and many other illustrations, including one full-page, which are in black, white, and shades of peach. The book is fine, but the dust jacket shows wear at the spine ends and corners, with a few additional creases and tiny closed tears. Quite attractive. If you have any information about this item, please contact Oak Knoll Books (302) 328-7232 or oakknoll@oakknoll.com. [more First Edition of "James and the Giant Peach" Stolen]

Below is a video of renowned chef Daniel Boulud talking about his favorite items from his rare book collection. Chef Boulud began collecting as a young chef, and his library currently houses thousands of volumes. Thanks to Gilt Taste for posting this video! Reading about Eating from Gilt Taste on Vimeo. [more Video: Daniel Boulud's Rare Book Collection]

One of the very cool special exhibits at the 45th International California Antiquarian Book Fair was hands-on demonstration of how a colonial era printing press worked, courtesy of The International Printing Museum. Below is a very brief video from the fair demonstrating how the press works. Thanks to AbeBooks for posting this video in their blog. And a personal thanks to another special exhibit by the Society for Calligraphy, Southern California, which had two representatives making beautiful gratis bookmarks for anyone interested. (And you didn't even have to waityou could drop-off your name and return when you were done at the fair!) Here's mine: [more Colonial Era Printing Press]

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]