If you think you’d shell out a lot for a rare book, I bet you wouldn’t pay this much. At a recent auction a first edition copy of The Hobbit inscribed by J.R.R. Tolkien fetched — are you ready for it? — £137,000, or about $209,000. The buyer paid an unprecedented amount for the rare book, exceeding even the already-staggering projected sale price.
Leading up to the auction, The Guardian reports that the book was expected to go for between £50,000 and £70,000. Until that point, the most a copy of The Hobbit had fetched was around £50,000, back in 2008. Although a record at the time, it looks like a steal in comparison to the latest sale. Book collectors can get seriously into it.
So, what made this particular copy so special that someone was willing to pay for it more than cost of my college education (and without the help of Sallie Mae, mind you)? Besides the fact that people love The Hobbit, it’s one of only a “handful” of inscribed presentation copies. The exclusive group to whom Tolkien gifted them includes the likes of his buddy C.S. Lewis. (I don’t think I even want to know how much that copy would sell for. Probably the equivalent of my undergrad plus a hypothetical medical degree.) This particular book was given to Katherine Kilbride. Now deceased, she was a student of the author at Leeds University back in the 1920s.
On Thursday, May 28, 2015, the 2015 Prizes were awarded at a luncheon ceremony at Low Library on the Columbia University campus in New York City. The names of the Prizewinners had been announced on April 20, 2015.
For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).
Awarded to "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr (Scribner), an imaginative and intricate novel inspired by the horrors of World War II and written in short, elegant chapters that explore human nature and the contradictory power of technology.
Finalists
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: "Let Me Be Frank with You," by Richard Ford (Ecco), an unflinching series of narratives, set in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, insightfully portraying a society in decline; "The Moor's Account," by Laila Lalami (Pantheon), a creative narrative of the ill-fated 16th Century Spanish expedition to Florida, compassionately imagined out of the gaps and silences of history; and "Lovely, Dark, Deep," by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco), a rich collection of stories told from many rungs of the social ladder and distinguished by their intelligence, language and technique.
Contemporary rare book dealers, antiquarian book fairs, forgers… this book satisfies your craving for an authentic, engaging biblio-mystery. I found myself unable to put it down until It was finished. This is an excellent story told by an excellent storyteller. Enjoy!!!
A rather lengthy quote from The Forger that sums up my thoughts on book collecting very well. I finished the book. It is well worth the read...
"Especially poignant to him was a book that looked just it did on publication day decades or centuries before. Looked just as it did when the author held it in his or her hands for the first time. To possess a pristine copy was to share the author's experience, to virtually exist in another era as a time traveler might, and to join in communion with all those owners down the years who had protected it against time's depravities. That to him was the virtue of condition. Nor did his love of signed or inscribed copies have much to do with ordinary fetishism or pure market investment value, although he was both a good investor and surely a fetishist of sorts. Again, it had to do with the proximity of the author. That the writer's flesh-and-blood hand had touched this title page or that piece of foolscap brought an immeasurable significance to the whole object. Made it distinctive and exceptional, yes, but, perhaps even more important, personal and even intimate. Authorial DNA, the inscribed phrases and tender inscriptions, lifted even the commonest works into a higher category of value, not just monetary but, if you will, spiritual."
Review
One of Amazon's Top 100 Books of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
An Indie Next Pick for November
A LibraryReads Selection for November
A Library Journal Editors' Pick for Fall
“From its provocative opening line . . . Bradford Morrow’s latest novel takes on a knowing, noirish tone, like a crime movie by the Coen brothers. . . . The pleasure of reading The Forgers comes not only from trying to figure out what happened to Diehl but also in deciding, chapter by chapter, how much trust to grant the narrator, who is our only source.”—Miami Herald
“The Forgers is quintessential Bradford Morrow. Brilliantly written as a suspense novel, lethally enthralling to read, and filled with arcane, fascinating information—in this case, the rarified world of high-level literary forgery.”—Joyce Carol Oates
“Bradford Morrow’s The Forgers is a bibliophile’s dream, an existential thriller set in the world of rare book collecting that is also a powerfully moving exposé of the forger's dangerous skill: what happens when you lie so well that you lose touch with what is real? In beautifully controlled prose, Morrow traces the shaky line between paranoia and gut-intuition, memory and self-delusive fiction, hollow and real love. It's perfect all-night flashlight reading—Bradford Morrow at his lyrical, surprising, suspenseful, genre-bending best.”—Karen Russell, author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove and Swamplandia!
“The Forgers is remarkable. Bradford Morrow is remarkable. The Real Thing, which is rare on this earthly plane.”—Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours and The Snow Queen
“Delightful to read.”—NPR.com
“Bradford Morrow illuminates the seamy side of the rare-book trade in The Forgers.”—Vanity Fair
“In The Forgers, Bradford Morrow hits the sweet spot at the juncture of genre crime fiction and the mainstream novel with an almost mystical perfection. Readers of either form will be gratified and impressed, and those who are readers of both will be thrilled. In its deep knowledge of books and those who trade in them, and in its thousand vivid, unexpected turns of phrase—its depth of both subject and language—The Forgers could have been written only by Morrow and at only the rare and striking level of mastery he has now achieved.”—Peter Straub, author of A Dark Matter and Ghost Story
“[A] consistently unnerving mystery. . . . The best moments in The Forgers come . . . from its intimate knowledge of books, details about signatures, ink, bindings, the slant of Arthur Conan Doyle’s handwriting . . . creating an ambience of old-fashioned gothic suspense that bibliophiles in particular will enjoy.”—USA Today
“With The Forgers, Bradford Morrow has masterfully combined an exquisitely thickening plot, an informed appreciation of the antiquarian book world, and a deep understanding of what makes the obsessive people who inhabit this quirky community do the sort of impassioned things they sometimes do, up to and including the commission of horrific crimes. Morrow has hit the ball out of the park—The Forgers is a grand slam, in the bottom of the ninth, to boot. This is a bibliomystery you will want to inhale in one sitting.”—Nicholas Basbanes, author of A Gentle Madness and On Paper
“The Forgers . . . stuns from its first line. . . . Morrow offers a suspenseful plot that coexists with gritty characters and ominous imagery.”—Fine Books Magazine
“[An] artfully limned suspense novel. . . . The insights Morrow offers into the lure of collecting, the rush of forgery as a potentially creative act, and underlying questions of authenticity render the whodunit one of the lesser mysteries of this sly puzzler.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“The Forgers is a reader’s dream: intelligently written, with beautiful details paid to the use of inks and stationary, pen pressures and hand flourishes. Bradford Morrow has created in Will a character rich in criminal indignation.”—Bookreporter
“As Morrow pulls back the curtain to reveal the murky world of book sellers and buyers and ushers readers into the mind of a forger for whom falsifying the perfect signature is a thrill, he also draws us deeper into the puzzle . . . Morrow writes with a sure, clear voice, and his prose is lush and detailed. . . . Recommended for readers who enjoy atmospheric literary thrillers such as Caleb Carr’s The Alienist.”—Library Journal
“Will, the narrator of Morrow’s seventh novel, is a fine creation. . . . A pleasurable study of the lives of book dealers. . . . Morrow’s well-researched passages on the collector’s art meshes well with Will’s romantic longueurs about the life of fakery he left behind.”—Kirkus Reviews
“So well written, The Forgers will take some time to finish as readers might want to reread every sentence.”—Jean-Paul Adriaansen, Water Street Books, Indie Next selection
Source: NY Times Books
By CAROLYN KELLOGG
Maurice Sendak's books are the subject of a dispute between a museum and his executors
Maurice Sendak was the author of the beloved children's books "Where the Wild Things Are," "In the Night Kitchen," "Chicken Soup with Rice" and many more. The author and illustrator, who could be delightfully gruff (see his not-safe-for-work interview with Stephen Colbert), passed away in 2012 at age 84.
In his will, he directed his rare book collection and items of his personal work be gifted to the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, and they haven't been, according to a lawsuit filed by the museum last week.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Sendak's relationship with the museum dates to the 1960s, when he began placing his work there on deposit. He was at times a board member and its honorary president. The museum presented dozens of shows of his work.
"According to the suit, the Sendak trustees have turned over fewer than half the hundreds of items in Sendak's rare-book collection," the Inquirer reports. "In fact, the estate has told the Rosenbach it had no intention of transferring ownership of several extremely valuable volumes by Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter because they are children's books, not rare books, the suit states. The Rosenbach calls that reasoning not only faulty but rife with irony: Sendak argued that divisions between adult and children's literature were invalid - in his work as well as that of others. He called Potter's works 'the literary equivalent of the greatest English prose writers that have lived.'"
The suit was filed in Connecticut, where Sendak lived. There are tentative plans to establish a museum and study center there. The Inquirer reports that many of the items left in the Rosenbach's care are intended to support that museum. "But his will directed the estate and Rosenbach to reach a deal whereby the museum would continue to display many items," the Inquirer writes, "Such a deal, long expected, has not been reached."
The lawsuit asks the probate court to compel individuals who overlap as executors of Sendak's estate and officers of the Maurice Sendak Foundation to carry out Sendak's wishes.
Sendak's executors have a Christie's auction scheduled for Jan. 21. The auction, titled "The World of Maurice Sendak: Artist, Author, Connoisseur," has not yet released the items to be offered for sale. Sendak's estate has said that none of the items in question will be auctioned.
Separately from its lawsuit, the museum has sought a court order barring the executors from transferring, disposing or distributing any books until the dispute is resolved.
www.abe.com has a signed first edition of Where the Wild Things Are offered for $13,500.00
Clever you if you bought The Narrow Road to the Deep North and asked Richard Flanagan to sign it on publication last year (and even better if you read it). The online rare book dealer AbeBooks sold a rare "unread", mint-condition, signed, Australian first-edition copy for $US1313 ($A1500) after his Man Booker Prize win last week - the company's best ever post-Booker price.
"Today a signed first edition of a Booker Prize-winning book is worth three figures as soon as the announcement is made," says Richard Davies at AbeBooks. "The phenomenon of signed copies selling like hot cakes in the immediate aftermath of a book prize announcement is a relatively new thing" - a product of online bookselling, he says and the Booker is the only prize with that effect.
AbeBooks has no sales record for True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey after it won the 2001 Booker, though a copy sold for $US475 this year. But signed copies of Life of Pi by Yann Martel sold online for $US250 immediately after its 2002 win and reached a top price of $US3,720 in 2008.
Davies says the only "highly collectible" Booker winner is Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie from 1981: an uncorrected proof sold for $US14,000 last year and signed first editions sell for about $US4000.
Emory University will house the archives of acclaimed American author Flannery O'Connor, university officials said Tuesday.
The school's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library acquired the archives of the novelist and short story author from the Mary Flannery O'Connor Charitable Trust in Milledgeville, university officials said in a release.
Among other honors, the author posthumously won the 1972 National Book Award in the fiction category for "The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor." O'Connor, who was born in Savannah and lived in Milledgeville, died of lupus at age 39 in 1964.
Rosemary Magee, director of Emory's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, said in a written statement that the collection of writings, artwork, photos, journals and more will "provide new opportunities for teaching and research about O'Connor and modern literature."
The collection also includes more than 600 letters between O'Connor and her mother, university officials said.
Former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway, who directs Emory's creative writing program, said O'Connor's work influenced her own growth as a writer.
"I carried her collected stories with me when I went off to graduate school, and I learned a great deal form the precision of her stories — her clear-eyed look at the world around her, her unflinching investigation of human nature," Trethewey said in a statement. "This archive is a great resource for those wishing to see the inner workings of the mind of a great writer dealing with the ongoing issues and difficult knowledge of our historical moment."
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/article2560634.html#storylink=cpy
The book was signed by Joyce while he was staying in Torquay, Devon, on August 4, 1929, and it was presented by him to Jacob Schwartz, proprietor of the Ulysses Bookshop in London.
On the inside cover, Joyce wrote: "To Jacob Schwarz (sic) James Joyce."
A spokesperson for Sotheby's told the Sunday Independent: "Despite Joyce's slight misspelling, the recipient (of the book) is almost certainly the proprietor of the Ulysses Bookshop in London, Jacob Schwartz. There are several references to Schwartz in Joyce's letters where Joyce omits the letter 't'."
First edition copies of Dubliners signed by Joyce are particularly rare and only two other signed copies of the book have been sold at auctions in the last 40 years.
The copy is coming up for sale at Sotheby's in London on July 15.
Joyce signed Schwartz's copy of Dubliners during the writer's two month holiday at the Imperial Hotel, Torquay, with lover and Connemara baker's daughter, Nora Barnacle.
Schwartz privately published Joyce's 'James Clarence Mangan' under the Ulysses Bookshop imprint in 1930.
He was also the purchaser of the 'complete and final' proofs of Ulysses.
- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/whats-in-a-name-james-joyce-and-a-rare-misspelt-encounter-30391723.html#sthash.GWQoXmRI.dpuf
From Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian: this sentence gave me a vision of literary godhood. It’s from the point of view of a bunch of ragged cowboys who have noticed a band of Comanches coming toward them from the distance. These cowboys (land pirates, really) are about meet near-total annihilation:
A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained weddingveil and some in headgear of cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or saber done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses’ ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse’s whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen’s faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools.
What about it folks? Does anyone have a "more literate" sentence to compare? Leave a comment if you do...
The estate sale at his home in Bloomfield Hills — about 30 minutes outside Detroit — runs Thursday until Saturday and features first edition and signed books as well as furniture, lamps, linens and rugs.
Photos of what’s available for purchase can be found at estatesales.net.
Many of Leonard’s 45 novels were adapted into movies, including Be Cool, Jackie Brown and the made-in-Toronto Killshot.