By Bruce McKinney

The December book auctions offer this year, as in past years, an extraordinary array of books, manuscripts and ephemera for the collector to reward him or herself with something for the holidays. Twenty-four sales are scheduled in the United States and Europe offering, in total, more than 14,000 lots. Thirteen of them are at Sotheby's and Christies. The hammer prices will fall in the range of $50 to $1.0 ...more

By Bruce McKinney

While the Jefferson Airplane were singing the lyrics of Volunteers in the late 1960's just across the bay, Moe and Barbara Moskowitz, foot soldiers in the revolution, were building a book store in Berkeley that would in time become a west coast institution. It is known simply as Moe's. There are 360 degrees of book collecting and 360 degrees of book selling. But unlike geometry where every degree is equal, ...more

By Bruce McKinney

It's not supposed to be this way. A library accumulates a million old, and in many cases, rare books. The collection represents years and years of accumulation, care and veneration and then a fire destroys tens of thousands of books. This isn't simply a nightmarish fantasy. It happened this past September at the Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany, and it happens with brain-deadening frequency elsewhere. ...more

By Bruce McKinney

Michael Good of Michael D. Good Books, at 67, is cleaning up the debris and parsing the accumulated inventory born of a thousand buys made for his San Anselmo shop since 1981. After 23 years at 35 San Anselmo Avenue, 30 minutes north of San Francisco, he and his wife Sandra, an established bookbinder, are closing their shop and moving their businesses into their home. Thus closes a chapter but not the book ...more

Reviewed by Bruce McKinney

I recently read a remarkable book, The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria. It is a small book of very large ideas. It speaks not from ideology but from openness and it offers explanations for the changing political environment both in the world and in America. In newspapers and on television we hear about events. This is a book of interpretation.

This is a book that expresses ...more

by Renée Magriel Roberts

As any book collector or seller well knows, properly identifying first editions can be more art than science. There are many similarities, but no standardized way in which publishers communicate the edition (if at all!) to the book consumer, and with the myriad of people selling books now on the internet, the simple designation, "first edition" on a listing is no guarantee whatsoever that what ...more

By Michael Stillman

There's a new search engine on the block. Some of you will be saying, "who is it?" Others will say, "why should I care? Isn't this a site about books?" This is addressed to the former. Those who do not see the connection are probably deeply rooted in the past, living in the present, and not seeing the future. Online sales, or at least online introductions, are an important and growing part of the book business. ...more

By Michael Stillman

I doubt that anyone ever intended it this way, but the book sites appear to have ranked themselves with letter grades, at least by size. The largest sites are the "A's," Amazon, Abebooks, Alibris, and AddAll. So then, who comes next? Well it just makes sense to look at the B's. Here you will find some of the book listing and searching sites that are in the next tier. They aren't as big as the A's, but there ...more

By Michael Stillman

Michael Brown Rare Books of Philadelphia has just released their 36th catalogue of Americana. This is a diverse collection of unusual and unexpected material. Many of the items are letters and other one-of-a-kind manuscripts. There is likely something of interest to any Americana collector to be found within its pages. Here are a few examples.

"Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction...." starts ...more

By Michael Stillman

The William Reese Company's latest catalogue, "Early American Imprints to 1800," offers a wide selection of 18th century printed Americana. There are many items from the colonial period, Revolutionary War era, and the early days of the new nation. At one end we hear the stern voices of the Mathers, at the other, the liberal democratic views of Jefferson, and even early abolitionist works. America ...more

By Michael Stillman

Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books has issued a catalogue of "Recent Travel Acquisitions." This catalogue includes 106 items recent only to Shapero Rare Books, as they range from one to four centuries old. Included is a large collection of travels to the Antarctic, plus many trips to Asia in centuries past.

Sir Richard Francis Burton was one of the greatest explorers of the 19th century. An Englishman, ...more

By Michael Stillman

Oak Knoll Books has issued its third volume of books "From the Reference Library of H.P. Kraus." Kraus was the legendary New York bookseller that closed after sixty years as a local institution when Mr. Kraus' widow passed away last year. Along with a reputation for selling the most important of books in the finest condition, Kraus was noted for one of the most extensive reference libraries in private hands. ...more

By Michael Stillman

Joseph Rubinfine's List 152 is described as a collection of American Historical Documents. These are documents running from the late 18th century to the early 20th, and the great majority are from names everyone knows. They range from the most collectible of American autographs, such as Washington and Lincoln, to those not quite so weighty, like Van Buren and both presidential Harrisons. This is certainly ...more

By Michael Stillman

Catherine Barnes has issued a new catalogue of "Historical Autographs and Documents." The times they are a-changin' and so are catalogues as we know them. Rather than a printed catalogue, Catherine Barnes has sent her subscribers a letter and a link. The link takes you to Catalogue 28, or "Recent Additions." Here are a few of these new documents.

One of the more interesting, and perhaps ...more

By Michael Stillman

John Windle, Antiquarian Bookseller, of San Francisco, has issued his 38th catalogue. It is entitled "English and European Books Printed Before 1800." While this catalogue has a definite old world orientation, collectors with a focus on the new will also find books of interest. After all, even the U.S.A. was still a colony of the old world almost to the end of this period. Here are a few samples of the items ...more

By Michael Stillman

Joseph J. Felcone Antiquarian Booksellers has issued its Bulletin Ninety-Two. This is not the typical publication for the bookseller noted as the foremost expert on and dealer in New Jerseyana. The titles gives it away: Books From Five Centuries: A Miscellany. New Jersey hasn't been around for five centuries, so there must be more. And there is. Here are a few samples.

Long before Europeans ...more