An educational and informational site about rare, old and antiquarian books.
The year 2025 marked the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth (December 16, 1775). This milestone sparked increased interest in the years leading up to it. On the collecting side, skyrocketing demand and prices across Austen memorabilia drove record-setting results, including the most expensive Austen printed work sold to date: an inscribed Emma selling for […]
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The 2025 Booker Prize winner will be announced on November 10 at the Old Bailey in London. Between now and then, there will likely be lots of buzz, interviews, and speculation, which sometimes shifts perceptions of the frontrunners. The shortlisted books are: “Flesh” David Szalay “The Land in Winter” Andrew Miller “The Rest of Our […]
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On the occasion of what would have been James Baldwin’s 100th birthday, let us assess the collectability factor of this brilliant author’s works: novels, essays, letters, plays and poems. Collectors often seek first printings of these works in their original books, magazine or journal publications, as well as signed copies or first editions of the […]
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Financial analysts have been aware for quite a long time that excess market volatility is a phenomenon which cannot be rationalized by the principles of fundamental analysis and statistical technical analysis alone. The task to identify what drives stock prices and what drives investors’ decision making is incomplete without the addition of the emerging field […]
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In one study, scientists at McGill University in Canada used eye-tracking technology to study which news articles volunteers paid most attention to. They found that people often chose stories about negative criticism in preference to positive or neutral stories. They concluded that people in general are more interested in inappropriate, offensive, or controversial news, […]
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Back to Boston for the first time since the pandemic, the in-person format had an impact on the performance of the 3rd ABAA Virtual Book Fair: Boston. This year the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) decided to combine the convenience of online commerce with the community of in-person book fairs. The 44th Boston Book […]
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Ahh spring, with its new life, warm weather, and flowers and trees coming into leaf and blossom. In literature, it is perhaps the most popular of the four seasons. Authors, poets and artists find inspiration in the season’s delightful, blooming fruit trees, native plants, edible annuals and perennials, and plethora of culinary and medicinal herbs. […]
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The Cambridge University Library has announced that the two notebooks written by Charles Darwin, worth many millions of pounds and which have been missing for more than two decades have been safely returned. Apart from the content of the notebooks, one of which contains his iconic 1837 ‘Tree of Life’ sketch, there is no more […]
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2021 will go down, among other things, as the year with a lot of people having a lot more money than they know what to do with. Aggressively escalating rare book prices set the tone for future market conditions: scarcity wrapped in higher prices. Is $471,000 too much to pay for a J. K. Rowling, […]
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