Monthly Archives: May 2007

A further salvo in the war against the precious culture of dusty tomes.

The happily periphrastic entry on Harry Houdini (and the pizzas of Minnesota) is but one recent example of a blog being used to get an institution’s name and mission in front of the public, presumably for less than the cost … Continue reading

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Brian Cassidy, Bookseller, Catalog No. One.

40 items, from a New York School anthology to Louis Zukofsky, with a number of interesting association items. The catalog includes a well-researched batch of material (a typed letter and a typed manuscript from William Burroughs sent to Allen Ginsberg … Continue reading

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David M. Lesser, Fine Antiquarian Books, Catalogue 98.

124 items, the usual interesting mix of Americana and American imprints. In one instance, an abolitionist pamphlet writer excommunicates the First Church in Newbury, Mass. (Henry Clark Wright’s Duty of Abolitionist’s to Pro-Slavery Ministers and Churches, Concord N.H., 1841, $250); … Continue reading

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The pen is mightier than lighter fluid.

A Kansas City bookseller has made the news over the past weekend for burning portions of his unsold inventory in “protest of what he sees as society’s diminishing support for the printed word.” He might have noted that this event … Continue reading

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Wise men perhaps consider other business models.

Much has been written about the demise of the Gotham Book Mart, nearly all of it lamenting the end of an institution. Having never been a wise enough man to have fished there, I have not felt much of a … Continue reading

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The supposed gentility of the world of books is oft but a mask for duplicity.

Bookseller Ken Sanders has been a long-time scourge of the biblioklept and bunco steerer, and he will be honored as such at the upcoming Gold Rush Book Fair. (Note that “Sanders” is the preferred spelling of his surname; the misspelling … Continue reading

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