Indeed, “Books don’t just furnish a room,” Michael Dirda writes in Browsings. “. . . Digital texts are all well and good, but books on shelves are a presence in your life. As such, they become a part of your day-to-day existence, reminding you, chastising you, calling to you. Plus, book collecting is, hands down, the greatest pastime in the world.”
The Paris Review, 7th September 2018: In 2017, Honey & Wax Booksellers established an annual prize for American women book collectors, aged 30 years and younger. The idea took shape when Heather O’Donnell and Rebecca Romney, the bookstore’s owners, observed that “the women who regularly buy books from us are less likely to call themselves 'collectors' than the men, even when those women have spent years passionately collecting books."
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), member association of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, ILAB has just announced a new book collecting prize for young collectors, recognizing the next generation of bibliophiles! Deadline: 1 December 2018!
“I belong to that class of unfortunate beings who are addicted to a habit which it is not easy to break off. This sounds alarming, but let me assure you that neither drug nor dram is the cause of my undoing, and that I have no intention of following in the foot-steps of the English Opium-Eater. The truth is that I am a bibliophile, and I suffer a complaint common to the tribe, namely a feverish appetite which can only be assuaged by choice tit-bits in the form of ancient quartos and duodecimos”.
The 2017-18 Colin Franklin Prize for book-collecting has been awarded to Ekaterina Shatalova (Keble College), for her collection of works by and about Edward Lear (1812-1888), the poet and illustrator famous for limericks in "A Book of Nonsense", and for poems recounting the nautical adventures of "The Owl and the Pussycat" and the "Jumblies" ('who went to sea in a sieve').
Arthur der Weduwen, PHD candidate at the University of St. Andrews in the UK, has just received the James D. Forbes Collecting Prize which has been awarded annually since its inauguration in 2015. The prize is named after the university's famous graduate and later professor (1833) and principal (1859), James David Forbes (1809 - 1868). Arthur der Weduwen has permitted ILAB to publish his report here.
In his 1930 work on book collecting, Anatomy of Bibliomania, Holbrook Jackson claimed that "book love is as masculine (although not as common) as growing a beard." Times have changed; the recent inauguration of a new book collecting prize by New York bookseller Honey & Wax, "an annual prize of $1000 to be awarded to an outstanding book collection conceived and built by a young woman", is possibly the final nail in the coffin of the idea that bibliophilia is a man's pursuit.
Ten famous book "hoarders" were selected for this article by Emily Temple for Lithub.com, published on 22 June 2017. Book collecting is a passion and lifelong occupation. Some celebrity collectors are named in the article; fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld, TV chef and author Nigella Lawson, filmmaker and producer George Lucas and more. While we might disagree with the term "hoarder", this is an interesting insight into the world of book collecting. To build a valuable and curated collection, it is advisable to contact or work with a bookseller affiliated to the International League of Antiquarian Books (ILAB).
Congratulations to Michael Steinbach! At the 53th General Assembly of the Austrian Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (Verband der Antiquare Österreichs, VAO) on 25th March 2015, Michael Steinbach was elected new president. He succeeds Dieter Tausch who served as VAO President from 2012 to 2015. In the new VAO Committee Dr. Paul Kainbacher will serve as Vice-President, supported by the new VAO Committee members Erhard Löcker, Andreas Moser and Robert Schoisengeier.Michael Steinbach, well-known to most ILAB affiliates, was ILAB President from 2006 to 2008, is ILAB President of Honour and Member of Honour of the German Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (VDA).
In the case of titles published before 1900, the key to first-edition identification is often the date on the title page. The vast majority of first editions published before 1900 had the year of publication on the title page (this is true for fiction and non-fiction titles). The presence of a date on the title page alone may identify books published prior to the mid-1800s as first editions. A matching date on the copyright page (or the back of the title page) often identifies a book published in the mid - to late 1800s as a first edition. After 1900, a number of publishers did not or currently do not put the date on the title page of their first editions.
I have a confession to make. At one time I wanted to become a professional writer. After all, I know that I can write. Write well in fact. And most importantly I realize that I have the ability to write better. However, I'm not ready to cash in my chips on the "who you know, not what you know game" (at least not for the moment even though I do indeed know a fair number of authors, publishers, editors and agents). Yet, this very same desire to write along with the revelation below is the key to my beginnings as a publisher.
The new edition of the ILAB Directory has recently been published. The Directoy gives easy access to information on the almost 2.000 ILAB booksellers around the world that are experts in their chosen fields and stand behind the ethical standards of ILAB. In this new electronic world you will find this expertise and adherence to standards an essential part in making your buying experience a pleasant one.
Mailer has enjoyed great public esteem, exceeded perhaps only his own opinion of himself, ever since his first book The Naked and The Dead was published in (1948). The book is notorious for the cheapness of the materials employed in its construction, and don't be surprised when you have to pay a chilling premium for a truly fine copy. However, just because a dealer says its a truly fine copy, don't accept it at face value. Among its usual flaws are extensive rubbing to the bottoms of the boards (which seems to have a thinner skin than George W. Bush at a Mensa meeting), and tanning to the white lettering on the spine.
