28.09.07.
Kelmscott Chaucer makes $180,000
At the inaugural auction held today at Bloomsbury Auction House, 6 W. 48th Street,
an undisclosed phone bidder paid $180,000, including the auctioneer's commission,
for The Kelmscott Chaucer, a complete works for Canterbury Tales author, Geoffrey
Chaucer, published in 1896. Only 48 copies of the book, bound in full pigskin,
remain today ... more Add
a comment US
Prisons to restore purged religious books
Facing pressure from religious groups, civil libertarians and members of Congress,
the federal Bureau of Prisons has decided to return religious materials that had
been purged from prison chapel libraries because they were not on the bureau's
lists of approved resources ... more Add
a comment Offsetting
your reading habit
I love having a house full of books. And yes, I know: books are made of paper.
Paper comes from trees, and I love trees, too. Live ones. So what’s an eco-conscious
reader to do? Eco-Libris thinks it has the answer. Welcome to offsetting…for your
books. Here’s how it works: for every new book you buy, you pay Eco-Libris to
"balance" your books ... more Add
a comment Student
theif sold books on eBay
A university student who stole books from his campus library to sell on eBay has
been ordered to pay £1,500 in compensation. Lincoln magistrates were told that
Thomas Ashton of Wrangle, near Boston, stole more than 120 books from the University
of Lincoln library between October 2006 and July 2007 ... more Add
a comment
27.09.07.
Library defends freedom of expression
Each year since 1982, the American Library Association designates the last week
in September as Banned Books Week, where libraries nationwide celebrate the freedom
to read. The freedom to read is supported by the First Amendment rights of the
U.S. Constitution in which Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of
speech ... more Add
a comment Rare
books benefit from her rare talent
For nearly four months last spring, Chicago-based rare books expert Ellen Middlebrook
Herron combed through the rare books collection at New Orleans Baptist Theological
Seminary's John T. Christian Library.
Herron discovered
and cataloged a number of important early books and Bibles in the NOBTS library,
including several 15th-century works from the earliest days of the printing press
... more Add
a comment Past's
guardian looks to future
With 465,000 volumes, the Klau Library has the largest collection of printed Judaica
in North America. Worldwide, only the Jewish National and University Library in
Jerusalem has more ... more Add
a comment
26.09.07.
New York library fines dead woman for overdue book
Elizabeth Schaper said she was charged a 50-cent late fee while turning in a book
that her late mother had checked out of a Harrison Public Library branch ... more Add
a comment English
Heritage creates 'new Domesday Book'
Resembling something like a digital
Domesday Book, images of the greatest architectural treasures in England have
been collected together online for the first time in order to show off the richness
of the nation's heritage to the world ... more Add
a comment Muslim
faces jail over terror book
A teenage Muslim has been warned he faces
jail after being found guilty of having an explosives manual. An Old Bailey jury
cleared him of having the manual for an act of terrorism. Instead he was found
guilty of having a document likely to be useful for terrorism ... more Add
a comment The
books that changed our lives
Six leading feminists recall the writing
that first opened their eyes to the women's movement ... more Add
a comment Portrait
of Dylan as a young man
A new portrait of the young Dylan Thomas has been
found and will be displayed at the poet's Boathouse in Laugharne ... more Add
a comment
25.09.07.
Library finds abolitionist text
Volunteers sorting through donated books for a book sale found an abolitionist
text and a slave's memoir, both dating back to the 1800s ... more Add
a comment Gosh!
Mystery of how Blyton got her revenge
New biography claims the beloved
children's author hid a secret code in her work to make cruel jokes at the expense
of her first husband ... more Add
a comment British
Library faces threat to treasures
The public's free access to many of the most important original documents in world
literature held at the British Library is under threat because of funding cuts
... more Add
a comment Rare
Magna Carta to be sold at Sotheby's in NYC
A rare 710-year-old copy of the Magna Carta valued at up to $30 million is due
to be sold by The Perot Foundation at Sotheby's in New York in December, the auction
house said on Tuesday ... more Add
a comment
21.09.07.
Taking liberties with Agatha Christie
The best biographies are labours of love and this fascinating book is just that.
Laura Thompson has read and enjoyed every word Christie published, and believes
that the best of the books 'were both perfect geometric puzzles and perfectly
distilled meditations upon human nature' ... more Add
a comment Book
fair aims to uncover city’s literary past
An organizer of next month’s Santa Fe Antiquarian Book Fair says he hopes the
event will bring attention to the city’s literary traditions ... more Add
a comment Signed
Broons book fetches £1,350
The 1959 book, which was sold in St Andrews, was given as a birthday present by
Dudley D.Watkins, who wrote a personal message in the front sleeve. There was
also an original drawing of Oor Wullie, another of the famous cartoon characters
penned by Watkins ... more Add
a comment City's
historic library reopens
A historic library containing one of England's greatest collections of printed
books, manuscripts and archives is officially being re-opened ... more Add
a comment
20.09.07.
Chicago's Festival
of Maps
The
city's "Festival of Maps," is being billed as the biggest show of rare and important
maps ever assembled. Thousands of maps—among the rarest, most important and beautiful
ever created—are to be featured in coming months at 30 institutions ... more Add
a comment Signed
Broons book at auction
A Broons annual - bought for 5p at a car boot sale
years ago - is expected to sell for thousands at auction today. The 1959 annual,
which was left in a loft for years, features an original drawing of Oor Wullie
and a signed message from the artist, Dudley D. Watkins, on a sleeve ... more Add
a comment A
defining dictionary moment for the Jaffa cake
Wags, yummy mummies and
a host of other new coinings have made it to the latest five-yearly revision of
the Oxford English Dictionary, published today - along with one humble term which
has waited more than half a century for inclusion ... more Add
a comment Rare
Devil’s Bible goes on display in Prague
The exhibition of the illuminated
Devil's Bible (Codex Gigas), which is of Czech origin but has been kept by Swedes
since the 17th century, was opened by Swedish Princess Christina in the National
Library in Prague today ... more Add
a comment
19.09.07.
Iran to display
unique golden Qur'an
“The unique Russian-made golden artifact contains
more than 160 pages made of the highest quality pure gold,” reported Svetlana
Korkina, Press TV correspondent in Moscow ... more Add
a comment A
man of letters, books and lectures
Boston bookshop owner and rare book
collector/appraiser Ken Gloss compares himself to Jim Hawkins, a character from
Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island:” he’s a treasure hunter who never knows
what he’s going to find next ... more Add
a comment Sprechen
Sie Potter?
Publisher Bloomsbury revealed yesterday that its English-language
version of the boy wizard's final tale has sold as many copies overseas as in
the UK. In Germany alone 1m copies were sold in the last month. Pre-orders in
China were more than 200% higher than those of the previous book ... more Add
a comment Super
X-rays could unravel Dead Sea Scrolls
Hidden secrets of the Dead Sea
Scrolls could be unlocked by British scientists using super-powerful X-rays. The
Diamond Light Source (DLS) in Didcot, Oxfordshire is a machine the size of five
football pitches that generates X-rays – a type of high energy light – 100 billion
times brighter than those in a hospital ... more Add
a comment
18.09.07.
'Perfect murder'
author hunted after two deaths
A Russian émigré is being hunted in New
York after two of his girlfriends died in almost identical circumstances to those
he described in a collection of murder stories. Eugene Perchikov collected £500,000
life insurance after the death of a mistress in Brooklyn in 2002 but two other
insurance companies refused to pay a similar amount following the death of the
second woman in Manhattan two years later ... more Add
a comment Critic
of sex education book refuses to return library copies
A Lewiston woman
who was upset by the content of an acclaimed sex education book published 14 years
ago has checked out copies from two libraries and refuses to give them back ...
more Add
a comment Solution
or disaster?
The Bodleian's plan for £29m store divides Oxford. Critics
say library's answer to shortage of space would affect flood plain and harm view
of 'dreaming spires' ... more Add
a comment British
Library contest winners
A 12th-century manuscript containing the earliest
record of the English language, a war record of life on the homefront during World
War II, and a Scottish illuminated manuscript detailing a "blood-curdling" right
of excommunication are among the five winners of a year-long contest sponsored
by the British Library seeking manuscripts for digitization into virtual texts
... more Add
a comment
17.09.07.
Cue the sighs
– the Shakespeare wars are on again
The opening volley was fired last
week with a "Declaration of Reasonable Doubt" issued in England by acclaimed actors
Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance on behalf of 287 others, including sundry dead people.
The doubt? William Shakespeare's authorship of the greatest plays in Western literature
... more Add
a comment Rare
Potter books to go on sale
The world's only complete collection of signed
Harry Potter books are due to go on sale this week ... more Add
a comment Travelling
hopefully
The Royal Society of Literature is more likely to produce gentle
rumination and poetic encomium than the tension of the debating chamber. So it
was something of a surprise when an event this week turned into a standoff between
Rory MacLean, now working on his seventh travel book, and Rory Stewart, author
of an account of walking across post-Taliban Afghanistan, about the value of truth
in travel writing - about whether modern-day travel writing had, in fact, completely
lost its way ... more Add
a comment Rare
manuscripts ‘rediscovered’
Egyptian archaeologists have found rare medical
and astronomical manuscripts at the country’s National Library (also known as
Dar al-Kotob). A senior official at Alexandria Library said the ancient documents
were just laying forgotten in the Dar al-Kotob archives for many years, but were
then “technically rediscovered” due to the efforts of the Centre for Documentation
of Cultural and Natural Heritage ... more Add
a comment
14.09.07.
‘Welcome to
my book collection’
Life is short, and YouTube is long, but this may be
just about my favorite clip up there. It’s an interview with the rumbling Goth
rocker Glenn Danzig, clearly from early in his career (he’s now in his 50s), in
which he takes readers on a guided tour of his spooky book collection ... more Add
a comment Artist
brings BFG to life in shop window
As part of the celebrations this year,
illustrator Chris Riddell was invited to create a new poster for The BFG in the
window of a London book shop ... more Add
a comment 'Guy
books' are most coveted rarities
The Great Tool Emporium and Cab Forward:
the Story of the Southern Pacific Articulated Locomotives may sound like candidates
for the Oddest Title award. In fact, perhaps surprisingly, they are some of the
most sought after books in the United States ... more Add
a comment 'Lost'
Noel Coward play uncovered
A Noel Coward play which had been untouched
for almost 90 years has been rediscovered by Welsh academics ... more
Add a comment Leafing
through 500 years of history
Tomorrow, it will be 500 years since King
James IV of Scotland signed the paperwork and issued a licence that finally allowed
book printing to happen in Scotland ... more Add
a comment
13.09.07.
Diocese contemplates
legal action
The Diocese of Truro is seeking legal advice to see if it
has any cause for redress after losing out from the sale of antique books ...
more Add
a comment Dahl
beats Rowling as young adults' favourite author
Roald Dahl remains the
most popular children's author among young adults, a survey has found. JK Rowling,
whose first Harry Potter book sparked a publishing sensation when it hit the bookshelves
10 years ago, is only the fourth most popular author ... more Add
a comment
Rare Hemingway proof to be auctioned
A signed proof of Ernest Hemingway's
novel, "For Whom the Bell Tolls," will be offered at auction in November. The
proof, which contains Hemingway's handwritten corrections, will be offered at
Swann Galleries' auction of 19th and 20th century literature on November 29. The
auctioneer says it is the first signed advance proof copy of the novel ever to
surface ... more Add
a comment Battle
on to save books from floods
A desperate battle to save thousands of historic
books was launched last night after the National Library of Scotland was flooded.
Five floors of the George IV bridge building were affected after a sprinkler pipe
was split by a contractor working on a refurbishment project ... more Add
a comment New
Book Blog
AntiquarianBookNews.com
describes itself as: "A collaborative news site gathering information on
Antiquarian & Rare Books. Content is entirely powered by users. All items are
submitted and voted upon by the Antiquarian community."
Too
early to tell what Hervé Fulchiron's blog might add to an already crowded field,
but I will certainly look in on it from time to time. Add
a comment
11.09.07.
Roald Dahl Day
Roald Dahl’s widow Felicity will be in Cardiff on September 13 for the second
annual day to celebrate the author’s life ... more Add
a comment E-books
from Amazon Coming Soon?
It makes sense that the premier online book retailer
would want to become the premier digital book distributor. According to the New
York Times, Amazon.com is finally getting ready to show off the Kindle, an e-book
reader that can wirelessly download material from Amazon's store ... more Add
a comment One
of USA's oldest colleges buys one of the world's oldest printed books
The College of Charleston, founded in 1770, has obtained the 1502 Aldine edition
of Herodotus' "The Histories" with the help of a donation, said Marie Ferrara,
head of special collections at the college's Addlestone Library ... more Add
a comment Could
you read 100 novels in 100 days?
The Man Booker prize judges' task of
reading a hundred novels in a hundred days sounds an arduous one, but can we learn
to do it with ease? And in this age of information overload do we all have to
learn to read a little bit quicker? ... more Add
a comment
10.09.07.
Rebinding of one of the World's oldest cookbooks is completed
Conservators have completed the rebinding and restoration of the oldest cookbook
in the West, popularly known as the Apicius, which dates back to the 9th century
and is owned by The New York Academy of Medicine. This treasured book is part
of our Rare Book Collection, housed in the Academy’s Library at 103rd St. and
Fifth Avenue ... more
Via Bibliophilebullpen
Add a comment Biblical
error costs Church £½m
An historic collection of religious books whose
sale for £36,000 was approved last year by a Church of England diocese has been
sold on by a book dealer for more than £500,000. The decision to sell at such
a low price has astounded antiquarian booksellers, who have described it as “one
of the killings of the century” ... more Add
a comment Chaucer
Book Expected to Fetch $100,000
Bloomsbury Auctions first US sale will
feature the Pamela and Richard M. Estes Collection comprised of fine bindings
and illustrated books dating from the 15th to 20th centuries. Most notable in
the collection is The Kelmscott Chaucer, one of only 48 surviving copies. With
type and decorative borders designed by William Morris, one of the greatest English
designers of the 19th century, the book is expected to fetch upward of $100,000
... more Add
a comment US
prisons purge books on faith from libraries
Some inmates are outraged.
Two of them, a Christian and an Orthodox Jew, in a federal prison camp in upstate
New York, filed a class-action lawsuit last month claiming the bureau’s actions
violate their rights to the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First
Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act ... more Add
a comment
07.09.07.
Doubts raised about Davy Crockett letter
Two experts in historical
documents say they doubt the authenticity of a Davy Crockett letter that the Texas
Historical Commission bought this week for nearly half a million dollars ... more Add
a comment The
Exeter Book short-listed in national competition
The manuscript, dating
from around 965-975, is probably the oldest book of vernacular poetry from Anglo-Saxon
England ... more Add
a comment Research
centre to open its doors
A chance to see inside the award winning library
and research centre at the Wordsworth Trust at Dove Cottage, Grasmere, is being
offered tomorrow as part of the national Heritage Open Days scheme ... more Add
a comment Rare
Judaica at Russian State Library
The exhibition, “Jewish Mysticism and
Hassidism,” began Thursday and includes selections from the library’s holdings
of more than 80,000 Jewish books and manuscripts. Sponsored by the Russian Jewish
Congress and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, it is the first
such exhibit ever mounted in the country’s largest library ... more Add
a comment
06.09.07.
Polish author jailed over killing he used as plot
A Polish pulp
fiction writer was sentenced to 25 years in jail yesterday for his role in a grisly
case of abduction, torture and murder, a crime that he then used for the plot
of a bestselling thriller ... more Add
a comment Audubon's
Birds and Darwin's `Origin' to Star in Auction
Endangered whooping cranes
can thank Brooks McCormick, a Chicago philanthropist and former chief executive
officer of International Harvester Co. who died last year, for an expected $2
million gift.
McCormick's collection of books and
prints on ornithology will be sold at Sotheby's in New York in an auction of 99
lots on Oct. 5. Proceeds will benefit the Wisconsin-based International Crane
Foundation, which works to protect cranes worldwide ... more Add
a comment Major
golf library donated
Sam Martz, a retired Vancouver businessman, has donated
his 4,730-volume collection of golf books to the library at the University of
British Columbia. The collection, noted both for its size and for the pristine
condition of several rare volumes, has been valued at about $450,000 ... more Add
a comment Are
books passé?
Two new offerings this fall are set to test whether consumers
really want to replace a technology that has reliably served humankind for hundreds
of years: the paper book ... more Add
a comment Israel’s
Holocaust porn
It was one of Israel’s dirty little secrets. In the early
1960s, as Israelis were being exposed for the first time to the shocking testimonies
of Holocaust survivors at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a series of pornographic
pocket books called Stalags, based on Nazi themes, became best sellers throughout
the land ... more Add
a comment
03.09.07.
Fay Weldon attacks British library closures
A painful programme
of library closures around the world has led to accusations that the council is
downgrading reading as a cultural pastime, and starving readers overseas of access
to classic and modern British books. Council staff are unhappy at what they see
as a "step too far" ... more Add
a comment Anger
over abuser's school book
A woman molested by her stepfather as a child
has spoken of her anger that his books are being sold to schools ... more Add
a comment Rare
treasures left to charity
A charity shop is set for a huge cash windfall
after a vast collection of books was left to it in a will . . . some estimated
to be worth £600 ... more Add
a comment Library
head resigns after rare maps stolen
The head of the National Library of
Spain, the writer Rosa Regàs, quit her post this week after it emerged that two
valuable world maps from its rare 1482 editions of Ptolemy’s Cosmographia had
disappeared from the Cervantes Hall. Police who searched the hall, which is restricted
to professional researchers, found pages torn from four other books, dating from
the 16th and 17th centuries ... more Add
a comment | 
