January 2009
Contents37
special report
Let Freedom Ring
a nautical library collector and the former president of the San Francisco National Maritime Park Association, reveals the private journal of a young British navy lieutenant who died fighting the 19th-century African slave trade.
Featured Columns
Sold@Auction
Flush This Book
finds a 19th-century Johnny-on-the-Spot disguised as a book. Also, rare editions of works by Evelyn Waugh, Madeleine L’Engle, Jack London, Raymond Breton and others, sold last year.
Departments
Digest
Inaugural Follies
This month’s First Family inaugurals may be historic, but Marvin Kranz, the Library of Congress’s retired American History specialist, says he’s seen it all before.
Vintage Rose Bowl
The New Year’s Day Rose Bowl is nothing new. Vintage Rose Bowl photos and memorabilia, a collectors’ thirty-yard-dash of them, date back to 1890.
Dear Reader
Resolved: To Wise Up, a Little Bit
Fine Book's editor
offers her first message to our readers.Quotes & Comments
Printed Matters
Loyal readers respond to the new format.
Calendar
Find book fairs and auctions in your area or around the world.

Gently Mad
Viva Vancouver
finds book culture vibrant in Vancouver.
Book Arts
The Da Vinci Creed
talks to Peter and Donna Thomas, whose new book celebrates American ingenuity using paper handmade from okra, fennel, Spanish moss, tobacco and even marijuana.
Fine Maps
Tracking America
admires the 19th-century railroad maps and brochures that sent a nation out west.