By Bruce McKinney
The book collector, who has ever been a solitary creature, is seemingly less visible and hence more difficult to find today. Who's looking? Every dealer on the planet is interested to know who they are. So too are the listing sites and various publications and services that cater to them. These collectors are elusive. You can almost believe they are a vanishing breed, drawn in a thousand directions, all of them away from the collecting of books, manuscripts and ephemera. Almost.
Recently I asked four gray-haired dealers for their perspective on this question. In this...
By Michael Stillman
The value of rare and collectible books inched up ever so slightly last year, auction records compiled by the Americana Exchange have revealed. The median price for books an...
By Michael Stillman
Abebooks has issued its top 10 lists of books sold and searched for in 2006, and the results are fascinating. What makes them so interesting is not just what they say about ...
By Bruce McKinney
Every other year the ABAA [Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America] abandons Southern California for the San Francisco bay area. They set up camp at the Concourse Exhi...
By Bruce McKinney
In February, as the ABAA comes into San Francisco for its once every two year antiquarian fair February 16-18, auction houses gear up to offer collectible material that appeal...
By Carl Burnham
This is the time of year when resolutions come to mind. For a bookseller, it is a good time to take stock of their inventory, to weed out the worthless books that have lost most...
By Michael Stillman
The beginning of the new year marked a milestone here at the Americana Exchange. The crown jewel of our services, the Americana Exchange Bibliographic Database ("AED" for sh...
by Renée Magriel Roberts
Books come in and out of our shop like driftwood on the tides; there is a constant ebb and flow of materials. Since we do not have a bricks-and-mortar shop, the large m...
By Bruce McKinney
This past October Bonhams sold "The William H. Guthman Collection Part I" in New Hampshire. Mr. Guthman was a life-long antiquer and Antiques Road Show luminary who left ample...
Seventeen new booksellers' catalogues are offered for your consideration in Section Two of February's AE Monthly. Aquila Books covers the polar regions, while Helen Kahn moves slightly south to Can...
