Author Archives: Garrett

Wise men perhaps consider other business models.

Posted on May 25, 2007 by Garrett

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.

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Garrett

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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Then I was struck with the happy thought that a bookselling blog may in fact be inherently flawed and doomed to failure.

Posted on February 7, 2007 by Garrett

Booksellers as a group (he says, gesturing expansively) exhibit a strange combination of hail-fellow, well-met collegiality and knives-drawn competitiveness. I blush to admit that as a bookseller I can appreciate the impulse to hoard information (the identity of a particularly … Continue reading →

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On the inherent depravity of postlapsarian bibliopolic endeavors.

Posted on February 6, 2007 by Garrett

So there may be a problem with “wide-spread” shill bidding on eBay. The problem may need the ministrations of academic research to correct. Or reports of the problem may be seriously overblown. In any case, those participating in auctions (whether … Continue reading →

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Heritage Book Shop, Inc.: Finely Bound Sets.

Posted on February 5, 2007 by Garrett

Or for those who insist on larding their posts with filmic allusion, “My God, it’s full of morocco!” My eye was caught by item 86, Albert Cohn’s own set of The Comic Almanack (1835-1853), here priced $9,500. 379 sets, from … Continue reading →

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And don’t get me started on Gerrit Smith.

Posted on February 1, 2007 by Garrett

So I noticed that a little something signed by A. Lincoln made some big money last year. The 13th Amendment is all very well and good, though not necessarily the kind of material one is apt to find on the … Continue reading →

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Bromer Booksellers California Book Fair list.

Posted on January 31, 2007 by Garrett

45 items the Bromers plan to bring to San Francisco, with much in the way of fine press and deluxe items — a smattering of Golden Cockerel, Kelmscott, and Gogmagog Press; an 18th century French miniature binding in 18-carat gold … Continue reading →

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Steve Finer – Rare Books, Catalogue 166

Posted on January 31, 2007 by Garrett

244 items, an assortment of material on Agriculture, Beverages, Cookery, Domestic Economy, Horticulture, & Women. The usual range of interesting stuff, including what is billed as the first commercially published soul food cook book, Inez Yergan Kaiser’s Soul Food Cookery … Continue reading →

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Bookworm & Silverfish Catalog 573.

Posted on January 30, 2007 by Garrett

205 items in the characteristic Bookworm & Silverfish fold-out broadsheet format, a heterogenous mix of Americana, Southern material, sheet music, literature and miscellanea. Includes a fugitive Pittsbugh novel, Samuel Young’s Tom Hanson, the Avenger, a Tale of the Backwoods (Pittsburgh, … Continue reading →

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The consumer of books.

Posted on January 30, 2007 by Garrett

A weblog on aspects of buying and selling antiquarian books and ephemera. We pledge to minimize our use of the word “tome.”

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