Blog Posts tagged "members news"


Meet the latest members of the ABAA. Full Membership Robin Beck, Primary Sources, Uncharted Americana Born and raised in the foothills of western North Carolina, Rob Beck came to bookselling after twenty years of deep and focused collecting in a very narrow slice of the Americana pie. In 2017, he and his wife, Laoma, launched Primary Sources, Uncharted Americana, specializing in rare, unique, or u... [more]

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, ... [more]

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 a... [more]

Join the ABAA-Public Google Group, a listserv where ABAA members announce select books for sale, share information on their participation in upcoming book fairs, and showcase their recent catalogs! The ABAA-Public Google Group is a read-only email group, so email traffic is kept to a minimum and only ABAA members can announce books for sale — ensuring all items are in full compliance with our Co... [more]

Virtual book fairs have been embraced by both booksellers and collectors as a way to share new acquisitions and bring the collecting community together during the pandemic. Our next virtual book fair will be the Transatlantic Book Fair -- jointly produced and promoted by the ABAA and our colleagues in the UK, the ABA. The Transatlantic Book Fair takes place from July 22 to July 27, 2021 at transat... [more]

It is with great pleasure that the Northern California Chapter (NCC) of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) announces the winners of the 2021 George Robert Kane Memorial Scholarship, Nicholas Pillsbury and Cecelia Shaw. This year, we had two exceptional candidates who were quite similar. Both were highly recommended, both are currently working as booksellers, and both want t... [more]

ABAA-member Ken Sanders, owner of Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City, has announced an exciting new tactic in the battle to keep his famous bookstore afloat. After offering "investment" gift certificates during the early days of the pandemic, and then launching a successful GoFundMe campaign, Sanders has now partnered with a local brewery to create small-batch beers in commemorative cans cel... [more]


New ABAA Members

By Rich Rennicks

Welcome the latest members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America! Full Membership Charles Bolick, AIGLATSON Charles Bolick has lived and worked in New England for over 50 years, but grew up in North Carolina and attended public schools there, graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1962. He served as an officer in the United States Navy for three years, ... [more]


New Members

By Rich Rennicks

Meet the latest members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. Full Membership Daniel R. Danbom, Danbom & Son Books (Denver, CO) Dan Danbom is owner of Danbom &; Son Books, which deals primarily in modern first editions in Denver, Colorado. Before entering the book business, he was in journalism and corporate communication.. For many years, he was a humor columnist for several ind... [more]

ABAA members are adapting to the new reality of shelter-in-place orders and self-isolation in myriad different ways. Most are finding creative solutions to serve their customers while complying with state-mandated restrictions on movement and opening hours. While larger stores in states currently under shelter-in-place or similar orders are closed and staff are subsequently unable to get to the st... [more]


Rare Book News

By Rich Rennicks

A quick roundup of the news about rare books and collectors from around the world. (Regularly updated, with the latest news items added at the top.) Biography of Texas Bookman Johnny Jenkins Michael Vinson's biography of legendary Texas bookman Johnny Jenkins, Bluffing Texas Style: The Arsons, Forgeries, and High-Stakes Poker Capers of Rare Book Dealer Johnny Jenkins, will be published by the Univ... [more]


The Latest ABAA Members

By Rich Rennicks

The ABAA admitted a number of full and associate members at the end of 2019. Please welcome these new members below: Full Members Alexander Akin, Bolerium Books (San Francisco, CA) Alexander Akin, the son of two labor activists, made his first international trip at the age of 15 to North Korea – an eye-opening visit that sparked an enduring interest in Asian history. He began part-time at Boleri... [more]


New Members

By Rich Rennicks

Meet the latest members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. New Full Members Reagan Bisharat, Reagan's Rare Books (Midlothian, VA) Starting as a hobby collector nearly twenty years ago, Reagan Bisharat, of Reagan's Rare books, has built a business out of his passion. Reagan's Rare Books is a purveyor of antiquarian books and ephemera dating primarily from the 18th, 19th, and ea... [more]

The ABAA's Woodburn Fund provides financial support for scholarly research and education relevant to the antiquarian book trade. This includes annual scholarships to Rare Book School, California Rare Book School, and the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar. Ezra Tishman of Aardvark Books/Ezra the Bookfinder attended the Rare Book School on a Woodburn Fund scholarship this year. (We published his rav... [more]


New Members

By Rich Rennicks

Meet the latest members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. New Members Lillian Fraker, Savoy Books (Lanesboro, MA) Lillian Fraker was born in New York, grew up in Westchester County and met her husband-to-be, Robert Fraker in college. In 1971 they settled in a rural town in Massachusetts' Berkshires where they started Savoy Books, later moving home and business to Lanesboro, M... [more]

It is January 4, 2019. Payroll Friday. This morning I stopped into my accountant's office to pick up the checks. I signed a number of forms and checks for the various taxes and fees and other government necessities that were due. I've been going in to that building almost every other Friday for 35 years. Before that I calculated the taxes for the few employees I had myself. That would be impossibl... [more]


New Members

By Rich Rennicks

Welcome the latest full- and associate-members of the ABAA. Full Members David Meikle, Archway Books (Dover, NH) David Meikle bought his first “old books” at age eleven, paying a bargain price for three handsome 125-year-old books. Only when he got home did he realize most of the engravings were razored out and had probably been for sale individually in that very stall. Still, he was hooked on... [more]


ABAA Members Expanding

By Rich Rennicks

A number of ABAA members have either opened new stores or renovated their existing premises recently. This is significant because for years, antiquarian booksellers were either retiring or converting to “closed shops,” which only sell by appointment, on the internet, and/or at rare book fairs. It's an expensive undertaking to keep a shop open to the public with regular business hours, staff, u... [more]

Many booksellers have insurance policies that protect against loss, damage, and even liability, but what can you do to protect against crime? We asked experts from Risk Strategies and Michals Insurance to give us the low-down. In the case of credit card or check fraud, certain policies can cover loss. Kierstin Johnson of Risk Strategies says that certain Fine Art and Rare Book policies will treat ... [more]

Every famous poet and writer started small, usually with cautious publishers who printed small batches of the first edition of their early books. For most, the cautious print runs continues, even after winning awards, because poetry has ever been an relatively low-volume business, even for the big names. When they later became reknowned, even famous, at home and abroad, these relatively scarce fir... [more]

ABAA-member Vic Zoschak, owner of Tavistock Books, sponsors an educational scholarship to support antiquarian booksellers in the early stages of their career. The scholarship provides full tuition for a bookseller to attend Joel Silver's course, Reference Sources for Researching Rare Books (L-25), at the Rare Book School (RBS). The 2018 recipient of the Tavistock Books Educational Scholarship is b... [more]

ABAA members and book lovers the world over mourn the loss of William Reese, antiquarian bookseller of New Haven, CT, and founder of the William Reese Company. He was universally acknowledged to be the greatest American antiquarian bookseller of his generation, known for his expertise in Americana, color plate books, natural history, exploration, literature, and the history of the book, and also w... [more]


Meet the Class of 2017

By Rich Rennicks

Meet the newest members and associate members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America. These booksellers have proven that they are well-established, knowledgeable, and of excellent reputation within the trade, have been sponsored by current members, and have undergone a rigorous screening process. Full Members William B. Allison, William Allison Books (Houston, TX) Books have been o... [more]

The controversial “California Autograph Law” has been amended by an ABAA-sponsored bill, AB 228, which was signed into law by the Governor of California last week and is now in effect. Many ABAA members were involved in the effort to pass a bill to address the unforeseen consequences of the previous law, among them Brad and Jen Johnson, Marc Kuritz, Laurelle Swan, and Vic Zoschak. It is the ti... [more]


Books of the Week

By Rich Rennicks

Q: What stopped me in my tracks as I perused this week's batch of new catalogs? A: Everything from the national importance of a presidential inaugural address to the particulars of a menu from a dinner in 1959. Menu: A Dinner in Honor of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (1959) Given that I am a sucker for The Crown, Downton Abbey, and most other British television shows, spotting a menu from a forma... [more]

ABAA-member Books of Wonder, which specializes in new, classic and collectible children's books, have announced they plan to open a second storefront later this summer in the Upper West Side. Owner Peter Glassman, told the New York Times that he'd been searching for a suitable space for years, but economic conditions had not been optimal for the project. "Now that the city is thriving again the ti... [more]

The ABAA Benevolent Fund recently received the largest contribution in the fund's history from the estate of Gyngr Schon, who owned Old London Books in Bellingham Washington with her husband Michael Schon. Gyngr Schon became an ABAA member in 2008, after her husband's death, though the Old London Bookshop had been an ABAA member firm since 1994. She had worked as a secretary in her twenties and be... [more]

At a time when some brick and mortar antiquarian bookstores are closing their doors in favor of an internet-only presence, Matthew and Adrienne Raptis, of Raptis Rare Books, have gone against the grain and recently opened a rare bookstore on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. Worth Avenue, like Madison Avenue or Rodeo Drive, is synonymous with luxury brands and caters to an island that is home to the ric... [more]


New William Blake Gallery

By Rich Rennicks

Longtime ABAA-member John Windle has a new endeavor, The William Blake Gallery, a new exhibition space in San Francisco dedicated to works created by the massively influential 18th and 19th century poet, artist, and engraver. The gallery is the largest of its kind devoted solely to the artist, as well as the largest collection in the world of pieces by Blake available for purchase. The opening exh... [more]

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