Le célèbre et remarquable libraire membre de la LILA, Frits Knuf, est décédé aux Pays-Bas dans la nuit du 9 février 1999, à l’hôpital près de la ville de Buren dans laquelle il habitait et qu’il aimait tant. Le 15 février, des centaines d’amis et collègues ont accompagné son épouse et sa famille jusqu’au paisible cimetière de Buren où Frits repose à tout jamais.
Leona Rostenberg, who died Thursday at age 96, was one of New York’s outstanding rare book dealers, and half of a remarkable team of literary sleuths who discovered the secret “blood-and-thunder” writings of Louisa May Alcott.
Max Israel, antiquarian bookseller and publisher, died on Friday October 12, 2001 at the age of 85. He was one of the last representatives of a generation of antiquarian booksellers who founded flourishing companies, mostly in Amsterdam, after the second World War; companies that were soon highly respected both at home and abroad.
We are very sorry to report the death of Anthony Rota, peacefully on Sunday 13th December. There will be a private family cremation. Details of a memorial service will be announced in the new year. Anthony Rota was President of the ABA from 1971 to 1972, a long-serving ILAB Committee Member, Treasurer and Vice-President, President of the ILAB from 1988 to 1991, and subsequently an ILAB President of Honour ...
The death of Alan Shelley from cancer at the age of 68 on November 18th at Chailey Hospice, near Lewes, is an occasion of great sadness to his family and to his many friends both within and without the rare book trade. He had resigned from the Presidency of the ABA only three weeks before on the grounds of ill health after a notably successful spell at a difficult time in the Association's affairs.
The Gravell Watermark Archive (www.gravell.org) is bringing together more than 50,000 watermarks from America and Europe, including 7,500 images collected by American-watermark expert Thomas L. Gravell and about 45,000 unpublished marks documented by Charles-Moise Briquet. On the website, you can search for stags, swans, or unicorns, creatures from a medieval bestiary produced long ago by wire attached to a paper mould. (Watermarks are made by placing a design made with thin wire on a paper mould. The paper formed over the wire is thinner and translucent when held up to a light source.)
The Swedish Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Svenska Antikvariatföreningen alerted ILAB to the recently published bibliography: “Swedish Contributions to Classical Philology” by Per Rålamb.
July 10, 2012: It is the birthday of the French novelist Marcel Proust (1871), whose seven-volume Remembrance of Things Past (published 1813 to 1827) is considered his masterpiece. It is an ambitious work, including some 3,200 pages and almost 1.5 million words. There are 2,000 characters in the book. Critics call it one of the greatest works of the 20th century. It is certainly one of the longest.
Online: The Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books - Miniature Books Exhibition and Catalogue - UNT Libraries Digital Collections - 4000 Years of Miniature Books IU Lilly Library Exhibition
Twice shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for Poetry, Tim Bowling has won the Canadian Authors' Association Award for Poetry and two Alberta Book Awards. Nigel Beale met the author in Ottawa to talk about his new book In the Suicide's Library. Topics covered include book collecting, coincidence, suicide, the spirit, passion and harmony of books, the use of hands, the line between bibliophiles and maniacs and the importance of physical books to the culture.
