What are the fine pairings of food and book? Is Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano a perfect complement to matzo balls? Are baked chicken legs best served with Catch-22? This is one of the delicious distractions to consider while paging through Michael Popek's new book, Handwritten Recipes: A Bookseller's Collection of Curious and Wonderful Recipes Forgotten Between the Pages (Perigree, $20).

Apparently a closeted vegetarian was reading 365 Ways to Cook Hamburger (Doubleday, 1960) because she left a recipe for zucchini bread inside. Was a Betty Draper-type housewife reading Frank Edwards' Strange People whilst she whipped up macaroni loaf and apricot bavarian cream? Sour cream coffee cake with Less Than Zero is an odd combination, but two different kinds of pickle in The Spy Who Loved Me (NAL reprint, 1963) seems understandable.

Because some of the recipes are untested--let's call them vernacular--Popek goes the extra step and brings in experts for some of the more interesting dishes. Blogger Shannon Weber of A Periodic Table, for example, provides professional measurements and advice for a pineapple chiffon cake recipe that seems thoroughly worth trying out.

Many of these "found recipes" turned up in cookbooks, for obvious reasons. So for cookbook lovers, there's the added bonus of finding interesting new titles. Slenderella Cook Book by Myra Waldo (Putnam's, 1957) contained a recipe for Boston Prune Cake and Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Dainties by Janet M. Hill (Little, Brown, 1914) offered okra gumbo.

Popek, who runs Popek's Used and Rare Books in Oneonta, New York, seems to have a found a recipe for success in scrapbooking the paper ephemera he finds between the pages and among the stacks in his daily business. His first book, Forgotten Bookmarks (reviewed here last year), focused on letters, postcards, photographs, and other bookmarks he has uncovered. The handwritten recipes here were culled from the nearly 5,000 he has found in the past few years and are now published in color alongside the book (with a basic bibliographical entry) that each was in found in. For daring home cooks, food historians, lovers of paper and ephemera, this book is altogether satisfying. Bring one to your Thanksgiving host.

Back in July, I wrote about the efforts of actor Johnny Depp and author Douglas Brinkley to bring to light Woody Guthrie's long forgotten novel: "House of Earth."  At the time, Depp and Brinkley said the novel would be published by a "major New York publisher."  That major New York publisher, as it turns out, will be Johnny Depp himself.

Yes, Johnny Depp is starting his own imprint: Infinitum Nihil, which will be part of the Harper Collins family. Guthrie's "House of Earth," which appears poised to be the first publication from Depp's imprint, will be released in January, 2013.

Also on the slate: "The Unraveled Tales of Bob Dylan," based on a series of interviews between Brinkley and Dylan.  That book, however, won't be out until 2015.

And in between, Depp pledged that Infinitum Nihil "will do our best to deliver publications worthy of people's time, of people's concern, publications that might ordinarily never have breached the parapet."

The imprint is actively seeking "authentic, outspoken and visionary ideas and voices."

So any imprint collectors out there, there's a new kid on the block.  Infinitum Nihil's publications will be well worth watching.

(Photo of Mr. Depp from Wikipedia)

Making My Way Through the 2012 Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair??
Guest blog by Jonathan Shipley????

It started with me holding a first edition of Henry David Thoreau's Walden. It's like magic, that feeling of holding the physical embodiment of philosophical thought. Nearby, at another booth, I held a volume of Edward Curtis' seminal work, The North American Indian. The photographs are breathtaking. A few steps away, I smiled. There, at my fingertips, a first edition of Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Over there - the earliest printing of the Book of Mormon. And there - a signed Gone With the Wind. And The Hound of the Baskervilles. A book nerd heaven I was in last Saturday at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair.

????Featuring 91 exhibitors from seventeen states and Canada, the fair offered thousands of old, rare, used, out-of-print, and collectible books, maps, prints, manuscripts, photographs, posters, paper ephemera, art, letterpress books, and broadsides. I, a book nerd prince (I'm too young still to be a king), wandered in looking for something to bring home. What? I did not know. I just knew that it was out there somewhere. Out there - like Ahab's white whale (Oh, look, an edition of Moby-Dick illustrated by Rockwell Kent!).????

There's just so much to browse through. At the Nudelman's Rare Books display, there was a collection of Kerouac books. The Dharma Bums ($750) called my name. (Too rich for my blood, sadly.) There's a rare set of John James Audubon's Birds of America for $32,000. At the Cookbook Lady's booth, up from El Sobrante, California, Beard on Bread sat on a shelf alongside an early edition of Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.

????Louis Collins' booth (he is one of the fair's main organizers) had quite a lot of books on bats. Yes, bats. Not really sure why I wanted to buy a copy of Bats of Suriname ($45), but I did. I had thoughts of buying all sorts of books that suddenly struck my fancy - A Bloomer Girl on Pike's Peak, Scarabs, The Living Buddha, Applegreen's Bar Book, Camping and Character, a signed copy of Nicholas Basbanes' A Gentle Madness ($75), a first edition copy of the Fred Marcellino's illustrated edition of Puss in Boots ($125).

The subject matter ran the gamut at the fair. It ran the gamut from booth to booth. Antiquariat Botanicum specialized in botany, medicine, and natural history. The Book Bin showcased rare fantasy titles. Fairlook Antiques offered postcards. John Howell for Books specialized in Californiana while Robert Gavora Fine Books had tracks of railroad books.????

At the Chanticleer Books' booth I discussed the great, and oftentimes schlocky, Jack London. The proprietor lives a few miles from London's old ranch in Northern California. He showed me some of his rarer works, autographed works, and some promotional stills of a movie based on one of London's obscure short stories about a white man falling in love with an Indian squaw. The "Indians" look laughable.????

I thumbed through book upon book - Edward Gorey's The Loathsome Couple, Howard Carter's The Tomb of Tutankhamum, Joan Didion tomes, Stephen King titles, books like Practical Basketry, Letters of the Slave Trade, The Complete Angler, Henri Cartier-Bresson's The Europeans, a pamphlet entitled "Do You Lose Your Temper?" - but nothing sang to me. Sure, they're all a chorus of wonders, but I hadn't found THE book.????

And then I was browsing through some random stacks at Jim Kay's Bookbomb. From Sacramento, he has run the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair in the past, and he carries general travel and Americana books. Browsing, browsing, browsing. WHAT'S THIS?! A first edition of The Lincoln Highway, published in 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company. WOW! I'm traveling the Lincoln Highway with my kid next year! Neato! "I'm getting this book for sure," I said to myself. And then I look at another nondescript, unattractive book nearby. WHAT'S THIS?! The Complete Official Road Guide to the Lincoln Highway. Holy moly! And it has still got its map inside! Of all the stacks I browsed through, of all the books I could have passed over, I found not one, but two antiquarian books on the Lincoln Highway. Gadzooks!????

"I wouldn't have thought in a million years I'd sell these books to someone as young as you," Kay said as he rang me up. "No one knows about the Lincoln Highway, not even someone my age." He smiled. "I expected to sell 'em to some old white-haired man saying, 'I remember driving that stretch of highway years ago!'"

No, sir, I'm going on the Lincoln Highway myself. And, thanks to the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair, I'm taking these books with me.

Photo and essay by longtime FB&C freelancer and Seattelite Jonathan Shipley.

Beginning on Thursday of this week, the Museum of American Finance at 48 Wall Street in New York City will be the setting for the Wall Street Collectors Bourse II. The Bourse had its successful debut last year. What is a "bourse"? If you are unfamiliar with the term, you are likely not a collector of coins or stamps; it is a convention where numismatic or philatelic items are offered for sale. Book collectors might see it as akin to a book fair. At the Bourse, financial collectibles--coins, bank notes, stock and bond certificates, etc.--are the primary commodities. Thirty dealers will attend, and Archives International Auctions will host an auction on Saturday.

The full schedule of events is here: http://wallstreetbourse.com/schedule-of-events/. The photo shown here is from last year's event; more pictures can be seen here: http://wallstreetbourse.com/photo-gallery/.

Catalogue Review: Kaaterskill Books, No. 15

Kaaterskill Books of East Jewett, NY, has the distinction of being my local rare book dealer--I mean local in the rural sense; it's probably about twenty miles from my home, still I'm pleased to know that rare books are out here in the wild. The ABAA bookshop, run by Joan and Charles Kutcher, offers a wide range of books, but the focus of its fifteenth catalogue is one of its specialties, Americana.

Here's an interesting title to consider: Facts Regarding the Disinfecting Powers of Chlorine ... printed in Schenectady in 1832, as the Asiatic Cholera was spreading in New York ($150). Another: The Action, Therapeutic Value and Use of the Carlsbad Sprudel Salt (Powder Form) and its Relation to the Carlsbad Thermal Water from 1891 ($150).

In the interesting-to-look at category: I'd love to frame the United States Historical and Statistical Index broadside on offer, "Exhibiting a Comprehensive Arrangement of Prominent Statistical Facts, as Appertaining to each Particular State: Also of the General Government of the United States, from the Administration of Washington, inclusive, to the present date, June, 1839" ($1,500). Or peruse the souvenir album showing twenty-five albertypes of Brooklyn at the turn of the century ($175). There's also a handsome hand-colored steel engraving, American Seaman's Friend Society Membership Certificate, c. 1844-1848 ($1,000).

Fast forward out of the nineteenth century and find a typed advance copy of Harold L. Ickes' 1939 speech, "Columnists and Calumnists," ($150) or a first edition of Allen Ginsburg's groovy broadside from 1967, "Who Be Kind To," illustrated by Wes Wilson ($275).  

Mexico, the Panama Canal, slavery, and the Mississippi River feature prominently as subjects in this 154-item catalogue. Read deeply, there is so much to take in! Download the PDF here.

"A good way to make a small fortune in the book business is to start with a large one."

Despite that common piece of advice, issued with gusto to beginning booksellers, a teenager in Tennessee recently opened his own bookshop in a brave attempt to fund his college education.  Seventeen year old Trent Crowthers of Nolensville, Tennessee was anxious to attend college and realized he needed to make more money to pay for tuition.  So he borrowed $600 from his parents to purchase books on eBay, then started selling them at his own little space inside Nolensville's antique barn.  He bought thousands of books with his $600 and is now busily selling them off at $3.00 for paperbacks / $4.00 for hardcovers.

Crowthers has no long term desire to be a bookseller; he instead hopes to become a doctor.  In fact, he's already planning for his retirement from the book business.  He aims to pass on the business to his younger brother when he leaves for college. Crowthers hopes his younger brother can fund his own college education with the same operation.

It's like the usual life of a bookseller, but on extreme fast forward:

1) Meander into bookselling from some disparate background

2) Borrow money from relatives to fund ill-conceived idea

3) Actually manage to turn said idea into an interesting, profit-generating business

4) Find a worthy heir and slip into retirement.

Three cheers for Crowthers for packing all of these steps into just two of his teenage years.

You can read more about this story from the local news affiliate.

I recently found out about Smith&Press, a fairly new independent publisher that is producing incredibly useful translations and handsome facsimile editions of early printed books. They caught my eye with their recently completed four-volume translation of The Nuremberg Chronicle. So I asked the founder, Selim Nahas, about his mission and his goals for the company by email earlier this week.

RRB: Tell me how you got started.

SN: I have been an antiquarian book collector for 15 years now and have come to appreciate how rare and expensive collecting may be. For the general public that may have an interest regarding early printed materials and social issues of the Renaissance, there seemed to be three fundamental problems. Accessing the materials (the books) has become too prohibitive in price. Access to special collections is rare for those that are not affiliated with an institution. The material can be difficult to read even for those versed in Latin or other languages and finally, many wonderful works have not received the attention they deserve simply because they are not part of a curriculum or they are simply very rare. The reality is that large projects, such as this one, generally can't happen in the absence of a business approach that finances the talent and drives a schedule.


RRB: Is your mission to produce beautiful books or to provide translation and access to early books? Or a little bit of both?

SN: I consider the experience of reading books from this period in history a portal into the thought process of the day, both socially and technologically. To truly enjoy the experience of early books, one must have the means to touch and read them. Much too often, the public will center on the prints and illustrations, the rubrication or illumination of these books. While I too gravitate to the tactile experience of books, I believe they have much more to offer. My objective, therefore, became to solve the following three problems:
 
1) Provide access to institutions and the general public to these works by offering a cost- effective, high-quality Reference Facsimile as well as a full-size, high-end Facsimile.
 
2) Provide translations with clear notes explaining elements of the text that may not be evident to the reader and cite the sources from which these works were derived or compiled (keep in mind that works at this time in history were subject to use by anyone with the means, since copyright law did not exist).

3) Respect the art of the book by offering the work in a format that always roots the reader in the original work. We achieve this by juxtaposing the original page with the translated one to allow the reader to follow along without the need to turn pages. We also provide a full-size facsimile with a conservation-grade binding. Unlike most facsimiles, the full-size facsimile is made from super high-resolution scans (1200 DPI). These scans provided us the resolution we needed to extract the text and image to print on a page as the press would have originally. We did not want to transfer stains and other imperfections by providing a high quality image of the page. We wanted the book to look the way it did when originally printed in Nuremberg on the Koberger presses. We also did not add color in the process because the original was printed in black and white. Any color would have been added by hand after the printing process was complete. The paper we selected matches in thickness and weight of the original paper and is a nice representation of what the Chronicle would have looked like had you purchased it in the fifteenth century. The binding is also made in the same manner as an original. We have seen original examples in both pigskin and calf on a variety of different boards. We selected the final design based on real examples of the Chronicle as well as details referenced by J.A. Szirmai (The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding). The tooling is appropriate for the period and region as well as the type of end bands and boards. The final touch is added using bronze-cast clasps and bosses that are fully functional to complete the binding. The result is a book that I have as much pleasure handling as my original copy. (Yes, I'm not exaggerating.) The facsimile feels and behaves the same way the original does. The journey to complete this level of quality required no fewer than three excellent binders and conservators to work on this project. I encourage you to take a look on the website to view the images of the full-size facsimile if you have not done so already.  

RRB: Smith&Press has just completed a full translation edition (in four volumes) and reference facsimile edition (one volume) of the Liber Chronicarum (a.k.a. Nuremberg Chronicle). This seems like a huge undertaking for a new and independent company. Why such a big project?

SN: I selected the Nuremberg Chronicle for a few reasons. This work holds a very misunderstood place in history. It has often found its demise at the hands of dealers who sell individual pages in anticipation that individual leaves will bring more than the book as a whole. The Chronicle is the most ambitious integration of text and illustration of the fifteenth century. Having worked with it digitally and owning an original copy of my own, I have come to appreciate the challenges to edit and produce such a work.
     I also selected the Chronicle because many share my enthusiasm for this book. I felt that institutions would benefit from the broad spectrum of material that it covers. I am aware of the translation that Walter Schmauch produced of the German edition. I was also convinced that the German edition differed from the Latin edition for a number of reasons. This is the only English translation of the Latin Edition of the Chronicle in the world. I believe that the scale of the project was also one that did not lend itself to translation as a hobby type of project. I funded the translation and took the risk of producing the books irrespective of whether they would sell or not. I began by offering the first volume which covered the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th ages. I used it to gauge whether the market would support my ambitions. To my pleasant surprise, the response turned out to be quite favorable. I also felt that if I could produce a quality project of this scale and provide it with the proper credibility, then I could potentially pursue this into a small company with the charter of providing more materials like this.

RRB: According to Morse Library at Beloit College, the only known English translation of the Chronicle was done by Walter Schmauch, whose unpublished manuscript, now resides in the Free Library of Philadelphia. Does that make your translation the only one?

SN: Yes, this is the only English translation of the Latin edition of the Chronicle. Unlike the translation from Walter, this one has been internally edited for accuracy and provides extensive notes clarifying people and places of interest. Also added in the notes are the sources from which Schedel (the original author in 1493) compiled this work. It turns out that a large percentage of it actually comes from other sources.
    To be clear, I think Walter must have been an amazing person for doing this as a project, for he did this on his own. I, on the other hand, worked with a team of two scholars and used modern technology to my advantage.

RRB: What has been the response so far, in terms of reviews and/or sales?

SN: Our reviews: I took the first two volumes to the ALA 2011 Conference in New Orleans where I had the pleasure of meeting Carolyn Wilcox, Reference & Humanities Editor for ALA Choice Reviews for Academic Libraries. The volumes were favorably reviewed in the February issue of the magazine. It is our intention to have all our works independently reviewed.
    Concerning  sales: We produced 220 large-format, hand-bound sets of this book. By the time the final two volumes became available (this occurred this week), we had already pre-sold 112 sets (more than half our inventory when you consider the copies for internal and personal use). The books have been very well received and our customers have been generous with kind words. We have confirmation that a few are currently teaching with them.

RRB: I see you are also in the process of publishing a facsimile and translation of De Quatuor Signis, a seventeenth-century astrological work that is a less well-known title. The price is $215. Is the intended buyer a student? a collector? institutions?

SN: The author, Philippo Finella, is well known for other books that he has produced, and there is an inexpensive facsimile of one of his other works from Kessinger publishers. The book that we are offering is actually very rare. WorldCat only shows three copies and sales records only surfaced one prior sale. The intended audience is a range from universities to the private collector. This book will be a color limited numbered series edition. We only intend to make a small numbered production run of 220 copies of this work. Once they are gone, we will not reprint it. Access to it will only be available in our digital library project (I must explain this, for it is an ambitious project as well that we are currently working on). The digital library is also the future of Smith&Press in conjunction with the limited series translations.

RRB: How do you choose what to publish?

SN: I previously mentioned that I am a collector myself. I focus on subjects that are culturally interesting for one reason or another. The advent of the printed book had a profound impact on the education of the masses. I myself have an engineering and fine arts education. I have always gravitated to works that have somehow played a role in the evolution of society. Works like the Finella represent a wonderful view into the world of astrology and the role that it played in subjects such as business and personal relations. Other astrology works that we are currently working on provide a portal into the world of medical astrology.

RRB: Who are your translators, and how are they selected?

SN: The primary translator of the Chronicle is Michael Zellman-Rohrer who finished his undergrad at Harvard and is currently doing his PhD at Berkeley. Constantine Hadavas, PhD, who is currently the chairman of the department of classics at Beloit College, also contributed to the translation but focused primarily on the editorial and notes. Michael is one of the best translators I have ever seen. This opinion is shared by Dr. Hadavas as is evident by his commentary and the accuracy of the translation. Dr. Hadavas is intimately familiar with this work as he is the one that augmented the Walter Schmauch translation with commentary. He and I both share a passion for the Chronicle, so I am glad I was able to rope him into this project.

RRB: What else is in the future for Smith&Press?

SN: Earlier, I hinted that Smith&Press is working on a digital library. If you recall one of the original goals of the company is to reach the masses and provide a platform upon which anyone could enjoy early works such as the Chronicle. All Smith&Press translations will eventually be placed into a subscription- based library that will allow universities & institutions to use the material on their intranet for students and faculty. This will be provided based on an annual subscription license. Private individuals will also have the ability to subscribe for a very small fee (our goal is less than $100 per year). I want this to be available to students as well as enthusiasts that don't have the means to purchase a $200 book. Granted, the experience is strictly technology based, but the quality of our images and text are second to none on the web. This digital library will not allow the user to download the work or take it for resale. The most a user can do is a screen capture, which will not provide the person the ability to reproduce the quality which we offer. We are currently looking into technologies from Google and others to provide good search features and security of the library.
    We will always make small printed production runs of our books. We do not believe in making large runs. We expect to add at least 4 more translators to the team in 2013. We also plan to produce at least 5 books in 2013.

To learn more about Smith&Press, visit their website at www.smithandpress.com. You can also follow them on Twitter @SmithandPress. Thanks to Mr. Nahas for this in-depth look at his brainchild.

Our series profiling the next generation of antiquarian booksellers continues today with Cassandra Hatton, proprietor of the soon-to-launch Cassandra Hatton Rare Books in California.

NP: How did you get started in rare books?

CH: It was really by accident, as is often the case. I got my start a little over eight years ago, when I had moved back to Los Angeles from France. I was broke, and honestly took the first job I could find, which was as a cataloguer and assistant for Rootenberg Books. I had no real experience handling rare books, but they needed someone with a background in history and knowledge of several languages, so they hired me. Serendipity! I had always been interested in the history of science and old books, (I actually started collecting books when I was about seven years old) but really had no idea what I was getting myself into. On the first day they handed me a copy of Hildegard von Bingen's Physica (1533), and a stack of illustrated 17th century medical books to collate and research. It was the best first day on the job ever - a few weeks later, I had Einstein's manuscripts on Unified Field Theory on my desk, next to a copy of Euclid's Elementa (1533) and Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica (1543). I can't think of a more exciting job (other than being an astronaut), and still can't believe that I was lucky enough to fall into it.

NP: You've just recently decided to branch out on your own, after managing Dragon Books for several years. What inspired the move?

CH: Ever since my days at Rootenberg, I knew that I eventually wanted to go out on my own - while I loved doing the research and cataloguing, I was also very interested in the business side of things. I was lucky enough to be in a position at Dragon Books where I was trusted to do everything, from the general cataloguing, buying and selling to making financial decisions, handling the books, signing all the checks, doing the payroll and the like. It was really a crash course in running my own business, and after five years there, I realized I was quite good at it. When Dragon moved from Bel-Air to Venice, I decided it was time - the new location was going to be much larger, and have a lot more foot traffic which meant more and more of my time would be spent running a retail shop, and less would spent doing what I loved about the rare book business - going to book-fairs & auctions, scouting, and handling books. Running an open shop can be a lot of fun, and you meet some really fascinating people, but ultimately, you are forced to be more of a generalist in an open shop situation. I knew that working for myself would give me not only the opportunity to really narrow the focus of the books that I deal in, but also the freedom to get back to what I really love about the business.

NP: What will you specialize in?

CH: Anything that interests me really - that is often early science, especially astronomy, natural history, physics, medicine, etc., but I am also interested in original photography, erotica, scientific instruments, manuscripts, history, counter-culture... I have so many interests that it is hard to narrow down - I guess the common theme is rarity. I really like things that are one of a kind, be that a scientific manuscript, an album of original silver prints, or a really spectacular association copy. Certain things just make my heart beat a little faster- so I guess really my specialty is books that raise your pulse!

NP: Will you be exhibiting at any upcoming book fairs?

CH: I will be at the Santa Monica Book, Print, Photo and Paper Fair in February 2013.

NP: Any catalogues coming up?

CH: For now, I am really putting most of my energies into developing my website, which I am hoping to launch by December, so my first catalogue probably won't be issued until Fall of 2013.

NP: Favorite or most interesting book that you've handled?

CH: That's a tough one to answer. I have handled so many great things, from firsts of Newton's Principia to Feynman manuscripts, to a super rare LP recording of James Joyce reading from Ulysses, which was signed by Joyce. That being said, I would have to say that handling Einstein's manuscripts on Unified Field Theory definitely made my pulse race - I get really excited about a lot of things, but that actually made me feel light headed.

NP: What do you personally collect?

CH: When I was first starting out, a colleague told me "You never smoke your own dope. You are either a collector, or a dealer, you can't be both." I think to a certain extent they were right; if I were not a dealer, and money were no object, then I would collect early science. I am however a dealer, and money is an object. Dealing is very much a way for me to be able to handle more books than I could if I collected. I get to own them for a while, and then place them in someone else's hands before buying some more. That being said, I do have a few collections that are in areas I would not deal in. I have what is probably the largest collection of children's books in Latin. I have been collecting them since I was a kid and have some really fun titles, Magis Mirabilis, Alicia in Terra Mirabili, and Maria Poppina Ab A ad Z, are just a few. I am also obsessed with Galileo and one of his rivals, the jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner, both of whom I am actually writing my thesis on, so I have a collection of books about both of them, and on the history of science in general. I also have a collection of books on secret codes, or books that have been written in code - things like the Codex Seraphinianus, the Voynich Manuscript and the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (in facsimile of course!)

NP: Any thoughts to share on the book trade in general or where it's heading?

I think that the trade is heading in some really interesting directions. The market for rare books has become much more global and far more transparent thanks to the internet, and we can now see that a lot of the books that people thought were rare before are not really all that rare. It has really colored our perception of what rare is - I think this has led to a shift in the types of materials that dealers are handling.  I am seeing a lot more dealers offering archival material, manuscripts and the like - the kinds of items that are one of a kind. As we move forward I think that we are going to see more movement in the direction of unique copies, and one of a kind material. As people become more and more adept at finding books themselves on the internet, I think that dealers are going to be the people that collectors turn to for those items that just can't be bought online.

Last week a first edition (1605) of the Bodleian Library Catalogue sold for a whopping £19,000 (£23,750 including premium) at an auction of Early Printing and English Books to 1640 held at Bonhams, London. Auctions exclusively offering books printed before the English Civil War not only show the vitality of interest in early books, but their relative immunity to the E-Book Blues threatening younger books today. The dusty little Bodleian catalogue, bound in contemporary limp vellum, unwashed and looking just as it ought to for its age, was among the high earners in a sale that made over £1 million.

"Sir, as touching your Catalogue, which you writ for me in London, I should have little reason to think to find it in perfection, considering then your troubles. But my desire is only now, than in making anew, you would take the pains to do it by the books themselves, and that very exactly and deliberately. For I do find every day many errors in the former, of sundry sorts." (Feb 5 1602)

"The very first impression, that men shall have had upon the sight of your Catalogue, will be it that shall give credit or discredit to the Library: because the Appendix perhaps will either not be bought, or not perused after. The general conceit as well of other nations, as of our own at home, of the Library store, is so great, that they imagine in a manner, there is nothing wanting in it: wherein when they find their expectation greatly frustrated, I doubt the credit of the place will be hardly recovered, with many after Appendixes. And hereof I pray you consider very thoroughly. I am further to tell you from Mr. Norton [King's printer and bookseller], that there are many books forgotten to be put in the Catalogue, which are in the Library, of which I willed him to send me some for example, which I have here enclosed, and know most assuredly they are in the Library." (Oct 26 1604)

Book artist Jill Timm sent me this photo of her 'Book of the Month,' Falling Leaves, and it seemed so appropriate to share on this perfect autumn day. It's a tunnel book--a 3-D book that you can look into--which holds leaf images and poetry. The images were real leaves, scanned into a computer for arrangement and then printed out on archival transparency film. Falling Leaves was made in an edition of one hundred. More images can be seen here.

Timm runs Mystical Places Press, "a publisher of limited edition, hand-crafted books that celebrate the spirit of and aesthetics of the natural environment" in Wenatchee, Washington. What a fine combination -- nature and books.

Another of her books is titled Earth Magic and it is literally covered in sliced, polished rock. It's a miniature book in an edition of fifty, and the insides are filled with postage stamps about gems and minerals. As a former rock collector and current book collector, I find this one very cool.