Clik here to view.
Medusa in the Kidneys, 1608
by Stephen J. GertzI write between bouts of agony.How does it feel?How does it feel?To have pain all your ownLife as one plaintive groanAll equipoise blownAn unyielding moanIn the torture zoneLike a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Art of the Map at Bloomsbury
by Stephen J. GertzFRIES, Laurent. Tabu. Nova Orbis. Lyons, 1535.Bloomsbury-London is offering 100 lots of historic maps during its Books and Maps sale, today, Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Amongst the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eyewitness Account of Hitler Assassination Attempt Surfaces at Auction
by Stephen J. GertzAn important eyewitness account of the July 20, 1944 Hitler assassination attempt signed by General Adolf Heusinger, who stood next to Hitler in the Wolf's Lair when the Operation...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Librarian by Day, Nude Butler by Night
by Stephen J. GertzRussell Davies, a 28-year old a librarian at Hartshill Library, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, U.K., assists the bookworm in need while fully clothed. By night, he assists on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The 45th California International Antiquarian Book Fair Comes to Pasadena
by Stephen J. Gertz200 members of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) from around the globe will exhibit their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Not-So-Great Gatsby
Today's guest blogger is Howard Prouty of ReadInk. by Howard ProutyA first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 masterpiece The Great Gatsby, with its original dust jacket, meets anybody’s definition...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Charles Dickens Met Hans Christian Andersen: The Nightmare Visit
by Stephen J. GertzIn June 1847, Hans Christian Andersen, who had won acclaim throughout Europe and America for his childrens stories, visited England for the first time. The great Dane earned...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Art of Japanese Hair Comb Patterns (Kushi Hinagata)
by Stephen J. GertzSometime post-1905, an anonymous gentleman in Japan, wishing to preserve his collection of rice-paper rubbings of setsu kushi hinagata (patterns of miniature combs), took three...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rudimentum Novitiorum Sells For $1,150,000 At California International...
by Stephen J. GertzMap of the Holy Land, from Rudimentum Novitiorum, 1475.A scarce, contemporaneously hand-colored copy of Rudimentum Novitiorum, the first printed history of the world, published in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Anti-Valentine's Day Card To Huffington Post's Book Section
by Stephen J. GertzOn February 10, 2012, the day that the largest rare book fair on Earth opened - one of the most significant book events in the world with 200 antiquarian booksellers from around the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Life in Paris With George Cruikshank
by Stephen J. GertzIn 1821, journalist Pierce Egan published Life in London or, the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Beautiful Inlaid Pictorial Bindings of Chris Lewis
by Stephen J. GertzChris Lewis was one of Bayntun-Riviere's most talented 'finishers" - the craftsperson who, after the book has been bound, executes the design. He designed and finished many unique...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Magnificent Padded Onlay Pictorial Binding
by Stephen J. GertzYesterday, we looked at inlaid pictorial bindings by Chris Lewis 1960-1980. Today, we examine a beautiful onlaid pictorial binding by Riviére & Son, c. 1920s, just a few years...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unpublished Significant Early Tennessee Williams Poem Surfaces
by Stephen J. GertzBetween the end of May and the beginning of September 1937, Tennessee Williams, 26 years old and a student at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote a startling prose poem, one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lenny Bruce, Screenwriter
by Stephen J. GertzIn 1953, the year that Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot made its first public stage debut, another holy scripture found its place in the pantheon of dramaturgy.Sleaze! Sex! Trashy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Shocking Story Of The First Woman Executed By Electric Chair
by Stephen J. GertzShe bristles with courage, she has poise, assurance, no end of intelligence... she loves like fire and she hates like T.N.T. ... More power and good luck to her, guilty or not. It...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Other Horror Story Set In Transylvania
by Stephen J. GertzFrom: Nachricht von den nach Bontzhida in Siebenbürgen gekommenen Zugheuschrecken."Listen to them, the cicadas of the night. What music they make." On August 23, 1780, a dense cloud...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scarce Letters of Movie Pioneer Georges Méliès, Hero of Scorsese's "Hugo,"...
by Stephen J. Gertz[MÉLIÈs, Georges] BESSY, Maurice and Lo Duca.Georges Méliès: Mage et "Mes Mémoires" par Méliès. Paris: Prisma, 1945. First French Edition, never translated into English. One of 2000...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scarce Original E.H. Shepard "Winnie-the-Pooh" Drawing At Auction
by Stephen J. GertzA scarce, original ink and watercolor drawing by Ernest H. Shepard of Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet, the characters he brought to life in A.A. Milne's classic children's books,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
When Ginsberg & Burroughs Met Samuel Beckett
by Stephen J. Gertz"Vodka with Bill and lisping boyish wrinkled Samuel Beckett - he sang Joyce lyrics he heard from Joyce's lips."On September 26, 1976, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, in Berlin to perform...
View Article