A rare, first edition of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens with illustrations by Arthur Rackham was recently discovered in a UK charity shop. The 1906 limited edition is bound in vellum, has approximately 50 color plates illustrated by Rackham, and is signed by the artist. The book was donated to the Oxfam Book Shop in Alderley Edge along with a number of more commonplace titles (the donor remains unknown). Needless to say, the shop's manager deemed the find "extraordinary" and offered it for sale at the Alderley Edge Community Book Festival last weekend. Original estimates guessed the book could fetch up to £800, but excited bidders quickly surpassed that figure. In the end, the book was purchased by a 37-year-old Englishman for £1,700. Peter Pan book given to charity shop makes £1,700 [more First Edition Peter Pan with Illustrations by Arthur Rackham Found and Auctioned]

Young bibliophiles, pay heed! The Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies is sponsoring an essay contest for the 30 and younger crowd, and the grand prize is $1,000. That's enough to buy a lot of books with (or at least a few rare texts)! In addition, the essay will be published in the FABS newsletter, so you will get some great exposure as well. Full details are below. American Book Collectors & Collecting from 1940 to the Present A $1000 award for an original essay of 3000 to 4000 words by a writer aged 30 years or younger on any aspect of book or manuscript collecting by private collectors or institutions in the United States from 1940 to the present. The essay should be based on original source materials and documented by appropriate endnotes and citations. In addition to the cash award, the winning essay will be published in two parts, in the September 2013 and January 2014 issues of the FABS Newsletter. The text should be set in Times Roman, follow the Chicago Manual of Style and be formatted as a Microsoft Word document. Only electronic submissions will be accepted, and should be sent to the newsletter editor, Scott Vile, scott@ascensiuspress.com. The submission deadline is May 1, 2013. The deadline isn't until May, but this is a wonderful opportunity, so I would mark your calendar and start thinking about your essay now! [more Calling Young Writers: FABS Essay Contest]

A Columbia graduate student discovered and authenticated a previously unknown manuscript by Claude McKay, a poet and intergal figure in the Harlem Renaissance. (McKay is best known for his poetry and his novel The Negroes in America.) The manuscript, a satirical novel set in 1936 entitled Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem, was discovered in a previously untouched archive by Jean-Christophe Cloutier. In 2009, Cloutier discovered the McKay manuscript while working in Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library going through an archive of materials belonging to Samuel Roth, an American bookseller, writer, and publisher who became best known as the plaintiff in Roth v. United States, a landmark Supreme Court case that redefined obscene material. The 300-page manuscript was bound between cardboard-like covers that listed the novel's title and McKay's name. Cloutier also found two letters from McKay to Roth about the possibility of ghostwriting a novel (not Amiable). The connection between Roth and McKay was previously unknown, and Cloutier and Brent Hayes Edwards, Cloutier's dissertation adviser and an expert in black literature, had to do a bit of literary sleuthing to authenticate the manuscript. It passed the first test: thematic elements in the novel, like Communism and labor strikes in Harlem, echoed other writings by McKay, and the term "Aframerican", which McKay used to denote black people in the Wes... [more Manuscript by Claude McKay, Seminal Figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Discovered]

The following items have been reported stolen: Title : Paradise Lost Authors : John Milton Date of publication : 1691 Publisher : Richard Bentley Description : Leather bound, illustrated, in good condition. On inside of front cover there is a sticker with a family coat of arms and the name "Geilston". There maybe also a name "Geils" (being the owner's maternal grandmother´s family name) in pencil. Title : Herball Authors : John Gerarde Date of publication : 1633 Publisher : Norton & Whittacker Description : Leather bound (restored?), illustrated, in good condition. On inside of front cover there may be a sticker with a family coat of arms and the name "Geilston". There maybe also a name "Geils" (being the owner's maternal grandmother´s family name) in pencil. The frontispiece had been lost and replaced by a facsimile. If you have any information on either of these items, please contact John Bryant at johnshielbryant@gmail.com or (506) 8393 3227. [more Stolen: Leather-bound editions of "Paradise Lost" and "Herball”]

Rare Book School has posted five lectures from the 2012 summer sessions online. Listen to Stuart Bennett on "Trade Bookbinding in the British Isles, 1660-1800", Matthew P. Brown's lecture on "Bell's Liberties", Anne-Marie Eze's presentation on "A Most Fascinating and Dangerous Pursuit: Rare Books at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum", Ezra Greenspan's discussion on "The Biographer and the Mysteries of the Archive: The Case of William Wells Brown", and Johan Kugelberg speak on "Documenting Counter-Culture: Problems and Solutions in the Preservation of Unpopular Historical Narratives." Here a link to a list of past lectures at Rare Book School; additional audio links can be found on the page. If you enjoy these lectures and the other resources on the Rare Book School site, please consider making a charitable donation to the school. Contributions directly support the RBS mission and help the school educate over 300 students every year. [more Rare Book School Lectures Available Online]

The well known magician David Copperfield recently purchased a previously posted about rare audio interview of Martin Luther King, Jr. Copperfield called the tape "priceless", declining to share the actual purchase price. "Not much amazes me, because of what I do, but to get a discovery like this is just mind-boggling," Copperfield said. The Manhattan dealer who sold Copperfield the tape said its value was appraised as $100,000. Copperfield intends to donate the tape to the National Civil Rights Museum, which plans to put the original reel on display and allow visitors to hear the full interview. History professor and head of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute at Stanford University Clayborne Carson said the tape was rare because of the content and nature of the recording (a one-on-one interview), but he also said that he didn't consider the tape to be "valuable as a historical document." He went on to say that he was "suspicious of the story that this was part of a book project" because the interview was so brief (it's only ten minutes long). I wish Professor Carson, or the Chicago Tribune, had elaborated on why he didn't consider the tape to be of historic value since that assessment seems contradictory to his other comments. What do you think? Magician David Copperfield buys rare Martin Luther King audio tape [more Magician David Copperfield Purchases Rare Martin Luther King Audio Tape]

Early findings in an interdisciplinary study at Stanford University provide biological evidence that supports the value of literature. Neurobiological experts, radiologists, and literary scholars have joined forces to examine the relationship between reading, attention, and distraction, specifically the "cognitive dynamics of the different kinds of focus we bring to reading." Participants in the study are asked to read a chapter from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park in two different manners: first, to leisurely skim a passage and then to read more closely, as if they were studying for an exam. The experiment takes place while participants are in an MRI machine so that researchers can monitor the blood flow in the brain during these activities. This shows "where neurons are firing, and when" and also tracks eye movement. If you've ever had an MRI, this probably sounds a little bizarre, as the machine has very tight quarters and you cannot move while the test is in progress. In this experiment, the text is projected onto a mirror inside of the MRI scanner. In addition to color coding within the text, participants receive a verbal cue to switch reading styles (reading for pleasure versus reading with heightened attention). After subjects finish the chapter, they exit the scanner and write a short literary essay on the section they were asked to analyze closely. (All participants are literary PhD candidates from the Bay Area, chosen because researchers thought they would be more adep... [more Literary Neuroscience: Stanford Researchers Demonstrate Value of Literature Through Brain Imaging]

Henri Cartier-Bresson was one of the most renowned photographers of the twentieth century, considered by many to be the father of modern photojournalism and a "master of candid photography". From 1967-1997, the majority of Cartier-Bresson's beautiful black and white photographs were printed by Voja Mitrovic, a master printer at Picto, the famed Parisian photo lab. During the time they worked together, Cartier-Bresson presented Mitrovic with 28 inscribed prints, a number of which were never seen by the public. Now an upcoming auction at Christie's has brought these wonderful, previously unseen photos into public view. On October 4 & 5, Christie's will be auctioning off all 28 inscribed prints and an additional four signed prints by Cartier-Bresson. The collection is being offered by Peter Turnley, an award winning photojournalist who acquired the prints from Mitrovic in 2004, shortly after Cartier-Bresson's death. Turnley befriended both Cartier-Bresson and Mitrovic in the late 1970s when he began working as a printer at Picto. After Turnley became a successful photojournalist in his own right, Mitrovic began printing his images. Turnley said that Mitrovic offered him the rare collection because Mitrovic knew he "would preserve not only the collection but also this beautiful story of relationship with Cartier-Bresson." Through the auction, Turnley says the public will "become even more aware of the important contribution that a great photographic printer can make to the visual... [more Henri Cartier-Bresson Prints Going to Auction]

Recently, the ABAA committed to a redesign of its website, ABAA.org. We've hired a great design firm and are spending lots of time working on ideas. In 2013, we'll be rolling out a new site, better looking and easier to use, with more of the features we hope you will use to explore the world of rare books. To do this, we'd like your input. We have a simple survey with questions about use of the ABAA.org website and other online book buying, which can be found at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CHZGBHP We'd very much appreciate your help with this, so please take a minute to take the survey. Thanks! [more ABAA.org Redesign: We Need Your Input!]

One of Mr. Locke's pay phone libraries (via his blog) John H. Locke, a Manhattan architectural designer, has found a unique use for NYC phone booths: turn them into libraries. With the advent of cell phones and smart phones, the use of public telephones has taken a nosedive in recent years but 13,000 still remain on city streets. In July, the Department of Information Techonology and Telecommunications began soliciting the public for ideas of what to do with the remaining booths once contracts expire in 2014. Mr. Locke is not interested in the city's initiative, however, but started the project to repurpose the pay phones to benefit city communities. He designed a custom set of bookshelves to fit inside the Titan brand of kiosks last winter. The bookshelves are lightweight and have hooks that allow them to be snapped into place without the use of any hardware. A fabricator in Brooklyn cuts the shelves and Mr. Locke paints, assembles, and intalls them himself. Once he snaps a bookshelf into place, he stocks it with a variety of books and then waits to see what happens. The whole installation process only takes about five minutes. Four pay phone libraries have been installed thus far. The first was empty in a few days and another lasted a month. One even saw people adding their own books to the shelves. "It's a spontaneous thing," Mr. Locke said. "People like it, people are inspired by it, but then it disappears again." Mr. Locke has been approached by publishers, bookstores, ... [more Pay Phone Libraries]