Get Thee To A Nunnery…

by Laurence Worms - Ash Rare Books

Bibliodeviancy

So, I’m back in my basement after being rudely dragged out into the pale Northern sunlight to fight off Mance Rayder’s Army of Wildlings,  attend both the inaugural York Antiquarian Book Seminar and the amazing York Book Fair.

The first of those has been a labour of love; a two year labour of love in the case of Anthony Smithson of Keel Row Bookshop, and just over a year in my own case; since he invited me to join him at the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (aka: the best week of book related awesomeness I’ve experienced since I became a professional dealer).

Organising such an event, firstly, is an achievement of epic proportions; herding cats has nothing on herding book dealers. It’s not considered a good idea unless 20 people have told you it’ll never work, ten people have told you you’re not qualified and 4 people…

View original post 1,164 more words

ABA support

by Laurence Worms - Ash Rare Books

Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland

Like all academic books, the new edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections began with a proposal for the publisher detailing aim, scope, market and so forth. The heading “Market” listed among potential purchasers antiquarian booksellers, and noted the Directory’s value for vendors offering collections (or, indeed, single items) to libraries on the basis of existing strengths.

Support from the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) was evident early on, as an encouraging comment on this blog. Offered to publicise the published Directory, the ABA has stated: “it’s obviously a book every serious bookseller should have.” (May every acquisitions librarian feel the same way about libraries!) Beyond that, the ABA is helping to ensure that the Directory will be as good as it can be, in two ways:

• Encouraging its members to submit entries of their own collections where relevant. This can be very important indeed, as…

View original post 209 more words

World Rare Book Day

by Laurence Worms - Ash Rare Books

The Bookhunter on Safari

I naturally like to regale the family over the supper table with all the latest news from the world of rare books.  The family is slightly ambivalent about this: stifled yawns sometimes remain unstifled; eyes are exaggeratedly rolled; fathomless stupefactions of chronic boredom are elaborately mimed, and silent departures from the table to go and have a lie down are by no means unknown.

A recent pop-up fair in Australia

Imagine then my surprise, my triumph, when I announced the concept of Pop-Up Bookfairs – and not just one or two, but a worldwide rolling twenty-four hour programme to celebrate a World Rare Book Day – fairs popping up all over the place, time-zone by time-zone, on a single day – right across the globe and all backed-up by the full might of social media.  Tweet-pop, tweet-pop, from Australia to L.A. and beyond.  Pictures, videos and reports on the web,  YouTube, Instagram and…

View original post 840 more words