Seven fairs displaying rare books, maps, photographs and ephemera have come together to set up the first ever London Rare Book Fair Week from Saturday, 8th to Sunday, 16th June 2013.
The London International Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia, organised by the ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association) is the flagship event of the week, taking place from 13th to 15th June. This major three-day event is one of the highlights in the world for book lovers and collectors. In the light and airy National Hall at Olympia, you will find thousands of rare, unusual and unique items offered for sale by nearly 200 leading UK and international dealers.
NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER! IT COULD BE A HANDBAG, A BISCUIT TIN, A CORSET OR A PAPER HOUSE.
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association will be hosting what is thought to be the first ever "Books NOT Books" exhibition at the London International Antiquarian Book Fair in June 2013.
"Books NOT Books" will be an amusing, informative and deceptive exhibition showing the book in a variety of different forms - Books as Art, Books as Boxes, Books as Anything-other-than-Books.
THE SPY WHO LOVED BOOKS - ABA MEMBERS ON POSTAGE STAMPS
Peter J. Kroger, of Ruislip, was not an ABA member for very long: the minutes of the General Committee say no more than '(October 1960) (Removed from membership April 1961)'. He and his wife Helen ran a modest catalogue business from their bungalow, 45 Cranley Drive, between 1954 and 7 January 1961, when a visit from Superintendent George 'Moonraker' Smith, of Scotland Yard, put an abrupt end to their bookselling - and other - activities.
THE SPY WHO LOVED DRINKS - IAN FLEMING, JAMES BOND AND CASINO ROYALE
Ian Fleming served as an officer in the British Navy. On a wartime trip to Portugal, Fleming went to Estoril Casino. Because Portugal was neutral, many spies from warring countries were present. So it came that the seeds of James Bond were planted here.
As for James Bond himself, Fleming said that his invented secret agent was a "compound of all the secret agent types I met during the war." The casino seemed a logical place to introduce Bond because "skill at gambling and knowledge of how to behave in a casino were seen ... as attributes of a gentleman."
LOST, STOLEN OR SHREDDED - RICK GEKOSKI'S STORIES OF MISSING WORKS OF ART AND LITERATURE
Rick Gekoski has recently released his new book. It simply grabs us by the collar and demands attention. It opens with, "He collected absences. For him they were more intense, vibrant and real than they presences they shadowed ..." and takes us straight to join Franz Kafka and Max Brod queuing at a crowded Louvre to see, not the Mona Lisa, but the gap on the wall where the Mona Lisa used to be (after it was stolen in 1911) ...
YOU DON'T BY ANY CHANCE KNOW THE WAY THROUGH THIS LABYRINTH, DO YOU?
"If I were wandering the earth all besotted with books and suddenly had a windfall from a mysterious Romanian Great Uncle I'd never previously heard of, and I wanted to start collecting books ... how would I go about it? First ... there are rules. They are for you, and like all of the best rules, they are rules that don't just apply to book collecting:"
Collect what you love! Collect the best copy you can find or afford! Never put anything on your bookshelf that is going to irritate you every time you look at it!
COVENT-GARDEN LADIES - HARRIS'S LIST & THE LINEN-LIFTING TRIBE
"It's a common enough problem: you're a young buck newly arrived in the big city, you're eager to find a prostitute, but you don't know where to start - you don't want to be ripped off and you don't want to come down with a disease. Enter Jack Harris, the 'Pimp General of All England,' with his eminently useful reference book: a guide to London's strumpets, their specialties, and their fees. Even though prostitution was illegal, both the author and the users would have taken comfort in the fact that there was no organized law enforcement to do anything about it."
KATE GREENAWAY: LEGENDARY ILLUSTRATOR OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS
One of the few artists to gain true celebrity from illustrating children's books, Kate Greenaway was one of the most influential illustrators of her age. Greenaway, along with Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane, revolutionized illustration. Popular in both Europe and the United States, Greenaway has remained highly sought after, even among contemporary children's book collectors.
THE POPE'S BOOKBINDER - DAVID MASON'S MEMOIRS OF AN ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLER
From his drug-hazy, book-happy years near the Beat Hotel in Paris and throughout his career as antiquarian book dealer, David Mason brings us a storied life. He discovers his love of literature in a bathtub at age eleven. At fifteen he's expelled from school. For the next decade and a half, he will work odd jobs, buck all authority, buy books more often than food, and float around Europe. He'll help gild a volume in white morocco for Pope John XXIII. And then, at the age of 30, after returning home to Canada and apprenticing with Joseph Patrick Books, David Mason found his calling.
"Entertaining, moving, informative, intelligently hopeful: I know of few other books like this one to warm the cockles of a booklover's heart." (Alberto Manguel)
Seven fairs displaying rare books, maps, photographs and ephemera have come together to set up the first ever London Rare Book Fair Week from Saturday, 8th to Sunday, 16th June 2013.
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association will be hosting what is thought to be the first ever "Books NOT Books" exhibition at the London International Antiquarian Book Fair in June 2013.
Peter J. Kroger, of Ruislip, was not an ABA member for very long: the minutes of the General Committee say no more than '(October 1960) (Removed from membership April 1961)'. He and his wife Helen ran a modest catalogue business from their bungalow, 45 Cranley Drive, between 1954 and 7 January 1961, when a visit from Superintendent George 'Moonraker' Smith, of Scotland Yard, put an abrupt end to their bookselling - and other - activities.
Ian Fleming served as an officer in the British Navy. On a wartime trip to Portugal, Fleming went to Estoril Casino. Because Portugal was neutral, many spies from warring countries were present. So it came that the seeds of James Bond were planted here.
Rick Gekoski has recently released his new book. It simply grabs us by the collar and demands attention. It opens with, "He collected absences. For him they were more intense, vibrant and real than they presences they shadowed ..." and takes us straight to join Franz Kafka and Max Brod queuing at a crowded Louvre to see, not the Mona Lisa, but the gap on the wall where the Mona Lisa used to be (after it was stolen in 1911) ...
"If I were wandering the earth all besotted with books and suddenly had a windfall from a mysterious Romanian Great Uncle I'd never previously heard of, and I wanted to start collecting books ... how would I go about it? First ... there are rules. They are for you, and like all of the best rules, they are rules that don't just apply to book collecting:"
"It's a common enough problem: you're a young buck newly arrived in the big city, you're eager to find a prostitute, but you don't know where to start - you don't want to be ripped off and you don't want to come down with a disease. Enter Jack Harris, the 'Pimp General of All England,' with his eminently useful reference book: a guide to London's strumpets, their specialties, and their fees. Even though prostitution was illegal, both the author and the users would have taken comfort in the fact that there was no organized law enforcement to do anything about it."
One of the few artists to gain true celebrity from illustrating children's books, Kate Greenaway was one of the most influential illustrators of her age. Greenaway, along with Randolph Caldecott and Walter Crane, revolutionized illustration. Popular in both Europe and the United States, Greenaway has remained highly sought after, even among contemporary children's book collectors.
From his drug-hazy, book-happy years near the Beat Hotel in Paris and throughout his career as antiquarian book dealer, David Mason brings us a storied life. He discovers his love of literature in a bathtub at age eleven. At fifteen he's expelled from school. For the next decade and a half, he will work odd jobs, buck all authority, buy books more often than food, and float around Europe. He'll help gild a volume in white morocco for Pope John XXIII. And then, at the age of 30, after returning home to Canada and apprenticing with Joseph Patrick Books, David Mason found his calling.
This ILAB Newsletter is made of of the most successful articles on our website.
