Author Archives: Garrett

Sure I will make this into Americana.

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Garrett

From an article entitled “Defining Americana” by the late Thomas R. Adams of the John Carter Brown Library in The Book Collector (Winter 2008), page 562, comes this classic illustration of how bibliophily does not always lend itself to neat … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries | Leave a comment

Books have a smell he says.

Posted on November 3, 2008 by Garrett

The New York Times’ Education Life had an article on using rare books to teach undergraduates. The article hints at the those perennially paired  educational components of rare material — the first being of course the allure of the gee … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries | Leave a comment

Graphic bookselling.

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Garrett

Bookseller as melancholy hero, via recent correspondence with Dr. B.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Think globally, act reluctantly.

Posted on September 6, 2008 by Garrett

Tomorrow I will once again be staffing a table on the sunny side of the sixth annual Kerrytown Book Fest here in Ann Arbor. The book fest combines book arts, author panels, and vendors of antiquarian, collectible and various books. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

I despair of providing an appropriately dreadful pun in the headline.

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Garrett

Somewhat souped-up print on demand has come to the University of Michigan library system. This has of course been in the works for a while, and I am not remotely qualified for (nor inclined toward) prognostication, so I will withhold … Continue reading →

Posted in bookselling, libraries | 1 Comment

Representatives of the book trade attempt to describe this bibliopolic elephant.

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Garrett

In response to a moderate groundswell of demand, I have mounted several photographic views of the [relatively] new book shop space. It is perhaps worth noting that within a week or two of the visit from the bookseller who remarked, … Continue reading →

Posted in booksellers | Leave a comment

When noodling around on the Internet adds value to my stock.

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Garrett

One way in which the dissemination of information freely on the Internet may in fact translate into sales of books rather than their obsolescence: the collection of Sarah Wyman Whitman binding designs at the Boston Public Library as seen on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The seasonal emergence of the elusive bookseller.

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Garrett

Just a heads up that I will have a couple of tables at the Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair on May 18. The book fair has been timed to coincide with the Ann Arbor Book Festival. All of which should … Continue reading →

Posted in bookselling | Leave a comment

Talking to the invisible hand.

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Garrett

Louis Sullivan, Mending fences where relevant, While asking around for extreme unction, Said “Forget I said ‘Form follows function.’” I’m fairly certain somebody once noted that a clerihew is the last refuge of a scoundrel, but this is a clerihew … Continue reading →

Posted in bookselling | 2 Comments

Some preliminary notes on the aesthetic merits of interesting catalogues.

Posted on April 22, 2008 by Garrett

I am willing to break my silence when I receive several immensely pleasing bookseller’s catalogues in my post office box in one fell swoop, as I did this morning. Stuart Bennett’s fiftieth catalogue, Unique? A Catalogue of Apparently Unrecorded or … Continue reading →

Posted in bookselling, catalogues | 3 Comments