Re: Notice of CENSURE of Seyla Martayan and Richard Lan The Board of Governors of the ABAA, pursuant to the Association's ByLaw Article V, section I (2), hereby CENSURE Seyla Martayan and Richard Lan for violations of the Association's Code of Ethics. The Board while appreciative of Ms. Martayan and Mr. Lan's success in satisfying the economic concerns raised by the complainants concluded that these resolutions should have been realized much earlier and without the significant involvement required by the Ethics Committee. Consequently, after a hearing and upon evaluating and considering the relevant documents as well as the testimony Ms. Martayan and Mr. Lan provided concerning this matter, the Board determined they violated the Association's Code of Ethics in their handling of the sale of materials to two customers, specifically Sections 1, 3, 4 (a), and 5 of the Code, in that they failed to: • "share in the responsibility of furthering mutual trust and respect between the trade and the public by conducting their businesses with fairness and integrity”; • “be responsible for the accurate description of all material offered for sale. All significant defects, restorations, and sophistications should be clearly noted and made known to those to whom the material is offered or sold. Unless both parties agree otherwise, a full cash refund shall be made available to the purchaser of any misrepresented material.”; • ”be responsible for the passing to the buyer clear t... [more Notice of Censure of ABAA Members]
In the Jim Crow era, travel was fraught with difficulty for African Americans. The growing black middle class could afford to buy cars and travel for leisure, and throughout the South, the purchase of a car was an important goal for black families as it allowed them to avoid segregated public transport. However, traveling by car to new towns and cities, African Americans did not know which restaurants would serve them, which gas stations would fill up their car, and where it was safe to spend the night. Enter Victor H. Green, a mail carrier in Harlem, who had the idea for a guide book for African Americans to help them navigate the country without injury or harassment — based, in part, on similar guide books from Jewish publishers. The Negro Motorists Green Book (later renamed The Negro Travelers Green Book, but known colloquially as the “Green Book”) was first published in 1936, and initially focused on the area Green knew best, New York; but he quickly expanded it, drawing on the knowledge of his fellow postal workers, who knew their neighborhoods intimately. The guide covered the obvious essentials of travel — where to stay, where to eat, where to buy gas — as well as the less obvious ones — where to find a doctor, a tailor, or black-owned businesses. As the guide book became established, both white and black business owners would seek out Green hoping to be included. At its peak, the guide sold over 15,000 copies a year, and was sold in Standard Oil (later Ess... [more What was a Green Book?]
Please contact us if offered this book. In addition to the description below, it also is housed in a clamshell case. HUGHES, Henry. Treatise on Sociology, Theoretical and Practical. Philadelphia: Published for the Author, 1854. First edition. Octavo. 292 pp. plus two folding charts. Publisher's sage cloth with large blind-blocked arabesques on covers, gilt spine lettering. Tips lightly bumped and light browning to endpapers. A very good copy in the original binding. This is the first American book on sociology and one of the first books to use that term. "The very term, "sociology," was introduced into the American lexicon of social science in 1854 by Henry Hughes, an obscure Mississippi lawyer. His Treatise on Sociology, Theoretical and Practical is the first book-length work to employ that term in its title... Despite the availability of his Treatise, Hughes, a southerner, a slavocrat, and the first self-designated American sociologist, remains an elusive and protean figure in the lyceum of American life and letters" (Saint-Arnaud, African American Pioneers of Sociology). In the same year, 1854, another Southerner, Thomas Fitzhugh, also published a book with the word sociology in the title (Sociology for the South) but his book was merely a thinly disguised racist tract and while Hughes was also racist in leaning at least he was systematic in his approach and thus fulfilling a requirement for a serious text. Hughes used his treatise to proclaim the rightness and necessity o... [more Missing: Henry Hughes’ Treatise on Sociology, Theoretical and Practical.]
In the spring of 2016, I set up a Facebook group called 'We Love Endpapers'. My idea behind it was to create a forum where like-minded people—booksellers, librarians, collectors, book designers—could share, or just drool over, pictures of particularly unusual or beautifully patterned endpapers as and when they came across them. I have always enjoyed the surprise of discovering a hidden gem of an endpaper when opening a book, and thought there may well be others out there who might like to join me in such a group. Sure enough, there are now over 2000 members, and I regularly get people coming up to me at book fairs thanking me for setting it up and saying how much they enjoy it! One thing I have realised since setting up the group is how confusing the terminology of decorated paper can be. With that in mind, here's a brief outline of the kinds of decorated papers you might come across when looking at books from the hand-press period. Many of the examples below have been taken from posts in the We Love Endpapers group (which, I should say, features books from all periods, including modern publications); I hope fellow group members don't mind if I share them here. Marbled Paper The technique of marbling paper was developed in Asia (the oldest examples, from Japan, have been dated to the 12th century) before travelling west, to Persia, Turkey, and Europe. The decoration is achieved not directly onto the sheet of paper itself, but on a liquid called the marbling 'size' ('a glu... [more Decorated Book Papers: a Beginner’s Guide]
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 old books. Twenty-five years later, he jumped at a chance offer to manage a used bookstore in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and spent ten years there, eight as an owner. As his own antiquarian interests developed, he realized that running a general-interest used bookstore would not remain fulfilling for the rest of his working life. So, he sold his share and for nearly twenty years has sold primarily on the internet and at shows. While he characterizes his inventory as “general antiquarian,” over time themes have emerged that reflect a fascination with artifacts where cultures meet — missionary Bible translations and tracts; sailors' photograph albums; foreigners portrayed in Japanese printed books; Western primers and textbooks transmogrified into Greek, Chinese, Armenian or whatever; photographs of the first Japanese/Chinese/Burmese students/diplomats/entertainers in Britain/France/America; relatively unknown US military incursions in Asia prior to World War II; and immigrant religious and political publications in the US. David Spilman, David Spilman Fine Books (Sebastopol, CA... [more New Members]
Enjoy this selection of preview items that our members will be exhibiting at the upcoming 42nd annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. We'll be adding items to this page all week, so check back daily for more extremely rare and beautirful items! Fantaisie-Fantasia-Fantasie-Fancy- Scenes for Ladies of Leisure to Construct c1840. A large folio with die-cut opening in cover to create a "picture frame". It includes 2 plates and an array of cutout hand finished engraved images of women, children and accessories. The two 12" x 9 ½” plates have numerous slits at the base Each of the images has a tab at the base. The individual women are placed in the incisions or slits creating elegant scenes from the serene to the severe. Includes two pattern sheets with eight (8) different scenes. Endless scenes can be created beyond the scenes shown. Twenty-four (24) images and accessories. Offered by Eclectibles (Booth 204). CROZE, Austin de. . La Lumière Magique. Paris, 1920. 4to. 92pp. 37pp. text and illustrations, distributed over 92pp. overall. Various papers and media utilized running the gamut from heavy card to glassine via what appears to be brown wrapping paper and other diverse elements. Bound in later full burnt yellow morocco gilt, black title labels to spine, embellished with pentagrams to both boards. A beautiful volume, strong, clean and clearly well looked after. Original cover and spine bound in. Filled with numerous pen, ink and watercolours designs with the unpu... [more Boston Book Fair: Featured Items]
The following book went missing or was stolen from the main sorting facility of the USPS in Los Angeles between October 17 and October 21, 2018: Twain, Mark. THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG. London: Routledge Later printing. Contemporary quarter dark blue calf and dark blue pebbled cloth sides, red non-pareil marbled end papers. The incorrect date “(1871)” is penciled in on the title-page. Binding a bit scuffed. If you have any information on the item, please contact Kevin Mac Donnell at (512) 345-4139 or info@macdonnellrarebooks.com. [more Missing: ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog’ (1872)]
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, utilities, etc., and many rare booksellers — like their trade bookselling counterparts — found it challenging to maintain an open shop. Unlike those in the new-book trade, antiquarian booksellers have the option of operating as a “closed shop,” and focusing on rare-book catalogs, rare book fairs, and selling to institutional collectors directly instead. Recently, a new trend has emerged, with the five ABAA members below opening new stores or significantly expanding their existing ones. Whitmore Rare Books (Pasadena, CA) Whitmore Rare Books recently moved from a second-floor walk-up space to a ground-level showroom on a much more heavily trafficked street in Pasadena. Owner Dan Whitmore explains the attraction of the new space: "We opened our new retail shop at 121 E Union St., Pasadena, CA 91103 in October 2018. The space was previously used as an art gallery. I fell in love with the high ceilings, the vintage purple-lead glass, hardwood floors and big window bays. We sit just on the edge of Old Town Pasadena and a short walk to the convention center where the CA International... [more ABAA Members Expanding]
It's back! The Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Hynes Convention Center in Boston's beautiful Back Bay for its 42nd year, November 16-18, 2018. Special events at this year's event include documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman on the making of Ex Libris: The New York Public Library; political guru Michael Goldman on 1968: The Year of the Century; Sumio Yamazaki from the Kyoto Book Artists Society in discussion with Charles Vilnis on Japanese art books; Editor Peter K. Steinberg on Sylvia Plath; and the 17th annual Ticknor Society Roundtable panel discussion on starting a collection. One of the oldest and most respected antiquarian book shows in the country, the Boston Book Fair offers a top selection of items available on the international literary market. Attendees have the unique chance to get a close look at rare and historic museum-quality items, offered by some of the most prestigious participants in the trade. Whether just browsing or buying, the Fair offers something for every taste and budget—books on art, politics, travel, gastronomy, and science to sport, natural history, literature, music, and children's books—all appealing to a range of bibliophiles and browsers. TICKETS Admission is free on Saturday and Sunday! Friday night's exclusive Opening Night event is ticketed ($20). HOURS Friday, November 16, 5:00-9:00pm Saturday, November 17, 12:00-7:00pm Sunday, November 18, 12:00-5:00pm Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston Street, Boston,... [more Boston Book Fair 2018]
A couple of literary first editions caught to eye this week, along with an original WWII propaganda poster, and an entertaining and very honest description of a first edition Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. THE COLOSSUS AND OTHER POEMS by Sylvia Plath New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 84 p. First American Edition. With this startling, exhilarating book of poems, Sylvia Plath (1932-63) burst into literature with spectacular force. In such classics as "The Beekeeper's Daughter," "The Disquieting Muses," "I Want, I Want," and "Full Fathom Five," she writes about sows and skeletons, fathers and suicides, about the noisy imperatives of life and the chilly hunger for death. This copy belonged to Anne Wilder, the confidant and lover of poet Anne Sexton, with Wilder's signature to the front flyleaf. The two engaged in a passionate affair and a prolific correspondence (Wilder is identified as "Anne Clarke" in Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters), which reveals much about Sexton's work and her psychological struggles during the mid- to late 1960s. Like Plath, with whom she shared a brief but intense friendship while attending Robert Lowell's graduate writing seminar at Boston University, Sexton was among the finest confessional poets of her generation. The two remained inextricably linked by their work, which explores the darker, feminine aspects of the American experience, and by the nature of their untimely deaths. Octavo. Or... [more Books of the Week]