Coming Events
NYC Rare Book Week
Join us for Rare Book Week in New York City. From April 7 to April 15, dozens of antiquarian book fairs, auctions, and exhibitions are open and available to collectors and bibliophiles. There’s so much to see and do—here’s a short guide to help you navigate. For a complete guide visit RareBookWeek.org.
New York Antiquarian Book Fair
Called “The Best Book Fair in the World,” the ABAA’s New York Antiquarian Book Fair opens with a preview Thursday evening, April 9, and runs through Sunday, April 12, at the Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Ave. More than two hundred American and international dealers will display an astonishing array of rare books, fine art, maps, manuscripts, and ephemera. Admission: $60 preview pass (includes run of show), $20 day pass, $10 for students with ID, free for children under 16. For more information, visit nyantiquarianbookfair.com.
Among so many wonderful items—e.g., a new artist’s book from Dorothy Krause called PreScribe, Alexander Calder’s 1971 Fêtes, and a new limited edition from Peter Kingston called Mackerel Beach—Priscilla Juvelis of Kennebunkport, Maine, will also have a complete set of Walter Hamady’s Interminable Gabberjab series, comprising eight volumes, all signed and in fine condition, from the archives of The Perishable Press Ltd. Price: $37,000. juvelisbooks.com
Yesterday’s Gallery of East Woodstock, Connecticut, specialists in Jazz Age and Depression-era fiction, will show two stand-out modern first editions: Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera (1911), a legendary rarity featuring the first issue variant dust jacket, for $25,000, and Booth Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) in its first issue unsophisticated dust jacket, for $12,500. yesterdaysgallery.com
Offered by Bruce McKittrick Rare Books of Narbeth, Pennsylvania: Speculu[m] Sapientie, one of the first medieval fable books. This very rare first edition, printed in Strassburg, not after 1474, is rubricated and bound in late nineteenth-century gilt ruled half vellum and marbled boards. Price: $95,000. mckittrickrarebooks.com
Of the many collectible children’s and illustrated books in the booth of New York’s Aleph-Bet Books will be an inscribed Shel Silverstein and two rare modern firsts: Harold and the Purple Crayon and The Velveteen Rabbit. But Mickey takes the cake—here’s the first Mickey Mouse book, Hello Everybody, written by eleven-year-old Bobette Bibo and published in 1930. Price: $7,500. alephbet.com
In UK bookseller Justin Croft’s stand, two highlights beckon. One, the 1669 bible belonging to Émilie du Châtelet which she worked on (and annotated) while at the Chateau de Cirey with Voltaire, for $42,000. Two, the first English edition of William Harvey’s De Motu Cordis (1653), called the most important book in the history of medicine, for $65,000. justincroft.com
Whitmore Rare Books of Altadena, California, will bring to New York the 1790 first separate edition of Goethe’s Faust. This excellent copy is bound in contemporary half calf over original marbled paste-paper boards. The spine is stamped with a floral pattern in gilt on a newer brown morocco spine label. Price: $27,500. whitmorerarebooks.com
Buffalo’s Old Editions Bookshop will offer the first American, first octavo edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America from Original Drawings (New York: 1840-44), containing five hundred colored plates in seven full leather volumes. Price $65,000. oldeditions.com
Images courtesy of the featured booksellers.