June 2012 |
Between the Covers
Catalogue Review: Between the Covers, #176
As I considered catalogues to review today, I was thinking about a comment I read on Twitter yesterday. I've been following tweets from the 53rd Annual Preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Sections of the Association of College and Research Libraries in San Diego, CA, this week. The three most prominent voices I've heard are Molly Schwartzburg @bibliomolly of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia; Ian Kahn @luxmentis of Lux Mentis Rare Books; and John Overholt @john_overholt of Harvard University Library. (The hashtag for the conference is: #rbms12)
Yesterday one of them remarked that booksellers' catalogues have to be more varied to attract buyers, and he cited the most recent Between the Covers catalogue as an example. I checked my desk for the most recent BTC and found #176. I wanted to see for myself what the tweeter was referring to, and I did. BTC routinely produces excellent catalogues, and what they offer is variety: books, art, ephemera, manuscripts. From an illustrated broadside, "One Day Marriage Certificate" of Richard Brautigan ($3,500; sold) to original dust jacket art for Carl Van Vechten's novel, Spider Boy ($12,500) to an uncorrected long galley of the first American edition of Sylvia Plath's Crossing the Water ($2,000) to the more traditional first editions of modern literature. There are also fabulously fun 'book' finds like Confessions of a Lesbian Prostitute from 1965 ($225) and a first edition, limited issue, of Katherine Dunn's Geek Love ($1,200).
Not only does this make for fun reading, but the bookseller reaches a wide audience of collectors, with a broad set of interests.
(Previously reviewed: BTC #169)
As I considered catalogues to review today, I was thinking about a comment I read on Twitter yesterday. I've been following tweets from the 53rd Annual Preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Sections of the Association of College and Research Libraries in San Diego, CA, this week. The three most prominent voices I've heard are Molly Schwartzburg @bibliomolly of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia; Ian Kahn @luxmentis of Lux Mentis Rare Books; and John Overholt @john_overholt of Harvard University Library. (The hashtag for the conference is: #rbms12)
Yesterday one of them remarked that booksellers' catalogues have to be more varied to attract buyers, and he cited the most recent Between the Covers catalogue as an example. I checked my desk for the most recent BTC and found #176. I wanted to see for myself what the tweeter was referring to, and I did. BTC routinely produces excellent catalogues, and what they offer is variety: books, art, ephemera, manuscripts. From an illustrated broadside, "One Day Marriage Certificate" of Richard Brautigan ($3,500; sold) to original dust jacket art for Carl Van Vechten's novel, Spider Boy ($12,500) to an uncorrected long galley of the first American edition of Sylvia Plath's Crossing the Water ($2,000) to the more traditional first editions of modern literature. There are also fabulously fun 'book' finds like Confessions of a Lesbian Prostitute from 1965 ($225) and a first edition, limited issue, of Katherine Dunn's Geek Love ($1,200).
Not only does this make for fun reading, but the bookseller reaches a wide audience of collectors, with a broad set of interests.
(Previously reviewed: BTC #169)
