FRIENDS OF BRADBURY STAGE READ-IN Nov 13
FRIENDS OF BRADBURY STAGE READ-IN AS FUNDRAISER FOR MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION, PROVING THAT RUMORS OF THE DEATH OF BOOKS ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED
On November 13th, from noon until six o’clock in the evening at Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, “Friends of Bradbury” evoke the spirit of the Sixties and light Ray Bradbury’s favorite bookstore on fire with their passion for books.
Visionaries like Bradbury foretold the future—and it is our today. However unwittingly, electronic data and devices like Kindle assume the role of Guy Montag in Bradbury’s iconic “Fahrenheit 451” and undermine the role of physical books in our culture. Believing ourselves powerless, we stand by and watch our neighborhood bookstores topple.
You have heard the warnings: The bound book is dead or dying! Let us not prove the doomsayers right. Come join the Friends of Bradbury, and show that we will not take this lying down. The marathon read-in will be an all-day happening, as many special guests raise their voices, channel Ray Bradbury, and demonstrate the power that resides in books by great authors, many of which can be found for sale at the Glendale bookstore.
The November 13th event will be a tribute to Ray Bradbury, a benefit for Mystery and Imagination Bookshop in Glendale, and a call to arms for all who love to hold a book in their hands and spend an afternoon treasure-hunting the aisles of their favorite local bookseller. More than anything, the day will serve as a clarion call—let all who love and collect books speak out against the death of books by continuing to support your local bookstore. The bound book will only die if we stand by passively and watch.
All readings will be recorded and sold at Mystery and Imagination Bookstore in Glendale , and all proceeds thereof will be divided between the bookstore and Mr. Bradbury himself. Given his remarkable longevity, Ray Bradbury is frail of health, and does not get out as often as he would like, so his attendance is not expected. The event is being produced by celebrated writer of books, teleplays, and screenplays, George Clayton Johnson—Ray Bradbury’s dear friend and co-author of Icarus Montgolfier Wright, their Academy Award nominated short film.
For More Information, Contact:
Mystery and Imagination Bookshop
238 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale , CA. 91203
818-545-0206
Site Was Hacked! - Sorry
As those of you who are regular visitors to my site have probably discovered, my site was hacked - causing a warning page from Google to display whenever you tried to visit. The situation has been resolved and everything is in order and safe for you to visit again. The hackers used a oscommerce plug-in to gain entry to the site. Ironically, I had never used the plug-in but just having it installed was apparently enough to permit entry. I will be posting items of interest to book collectors, book dealers and book lovers again and invite you to come back often.
[Top]Antiques Dealer Sentenced for Possession of Stolen Shakespeare Folio
Source: Art Loss Register - Excellent worldwide service to recover stolen items, register collections or research that potential buy that sounds a bit too good to be true.
Antiques dealer Raymond Scott received sentences totalling eight years after being found guilty of handling a stolen copy of Shakespeare's First Folio and removing the stolen document from Britain.
The rare 17th century compendium of Shakespeare plays was stolen in December 1998 from Durham University. The document was recognized in June 2009 by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. when Scott offered the work for sale. Suspicious staff quickly contacted local law enforcement, the British Council and the FBI. Though Scott was found innocent of the theft, evidence suggests he was responsible for or had been party to the removal of several parts of the folio in a bid to "hide its true identity". The damage sustained, described by Judge Richard Lowden as an act of "cultural vandalization," is believed to have reduced the value of the folio by approximately £1.5m.
In an interview with the BBC World Service, Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, stated "Persistent criminals like Scott deserve eight year sentences for irreparable damage to national heritage."
[Top]Voynich Manuscript, The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World
Source: socyberty.com
AT THE BEINECKE RARE BOOK and Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, hardly a day passes without an inquiry about a small volume known as the Voynich Manuscript.
The Beinecke contains countless rare books. What makes the Voynich Manuscript of particular interest is that no one has yet been able to read it in full; the text is written in a code that some of the world’s greatest cryptographers and linguistics experts have failed to decipher.
The manuscript measures 53/4 by 81/2 inches and is some 200 pages long. Its vellum leaves are covered with extraordinary flowing writing – extraordinary because its author has used a completely unknown alphabet. The illustrations accompanying the text are equally odd – they seem to represent plants, women, and astronomical configurations. Since neither the words nor pictures are easy to interpret, the book has been called the most mysterious manuscript in the world.
Read more:
Why Collectible Investments Today Can Mean Profit Tomorrow
Source: Paul Frasier Collectibles, a great source for very fine books, manuscripts and other collectibles.
When it comes to investment in a recession, there is little to rival collectibles for sheer growth
According to a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the wealth of the average Briton has taken quite a hammering in recent years...
And the effects have been even worse for those groups with greater disposable income. Degree educated individuals have reportedly suffered a £17,600 ($26,400) drop in wealth, while citizens aged 55 to 74 endured a drop of £25,000 ($37,500).
On balance, the recession has dealt a blow of £11,300 ($16,950) to the average Briton's wealth.
Downturns in the property and stock markets, along with a fall in the value of defined pension contributions, have had a significant effect on the wealth of UK households.
In 2007, the value of the FTSE 100 was set at around 6700 points. Two years later, it had dropped to just under 4,000. The UK housing market has also experienced problems. In 2007, the average house price was set at £184,070, but today that figure stands at £167,802 - a loss of 8.7%.
But, while traditional asset values have fallen leading to a loss of wealth, it's a very different story in the world of collectible investments. A similar period has seen investors all over the world turning what has been a £11,000 loss for traditionalists into a profit for collectors.
For starters, some of the world's most sought after autographs have seen incredible short term returns.
An Albert Einstein letter dated January 1954, from Einstein to a Dr Oliver Ford in England, sold at Bonham's in October 2009 for £1626 ($2,440).
Yet just four months later, the same letter reappeared at an online auction with bids reaching £1,810 ($2,716). That's a return of 11% in 16 weeks.
Paul Fraser Collectibles has experienced this phenomenon first hand. After the recent sale of Scottish poet Robbie Burns' Bible for £25,000 ($41,250), international interest around the piece continued resulting in one collector offering us £37,500 ($61,875).
Had the new owner parted with the treasured collectible, he would have seen a profit of over 50% in one week.
Meanwhile, the stamp market has also seen impressive short term gains.
In China, this has led to world record prices. In September 2009, a collector paid £221,110 ($331,671) for one Chinese Red Revenue stamp, only one of 32 left from the 1897.
Yet, just over three months later, another of the Red Revenue stamps sold for £474,400 ($711,600). That is over double the amount paid just four months earlier.
Stamps are also increasing in value at the lower end of the market. Recently, a rare 1d orange-vermilion went up for auction with a £3,500 ($5,250) presale estimate.
The stamp sold for £13,000 ($19,500) - nearly four times the estimated price.
And such value appreciation hasn't been limited to more traditional collectibles either.
A 1960 Green Lantern Comic issue #1 was auctioned in 2003 for £12,650 ($18,975) which was considered an excellent price at the time. This year, the same issue of the comic, sold for £33,250 ($50,787): an increase of 123.9% in seven years.
The world of art and celebrity has also seen high short term profits. In a 2005 Los Angeles auction, one of the Mick Jagger paintings created by Andy Warhol sold for £13,300 ($19,975).
Just two years later, the same painting sold at a similar auction for £26,000 ($39,000.)
Elsewhere, a bathrobe, once belonging to Marilyn Monroe was purchased for $6,000 in 1999. Ten years later, at the height of the recession, this same robe sold at auction for $120,000. That equates to an increase in value of 1,900%.
The long term investment potential for collectibles is equally impressive if not better.
In the world of rare collectible stamps, the GB30 Rarities index, which charts the value of the top 30 rare British stamps for investment over the past 40 years, has shown an overall increase of 6,403% in value. This equates to a compound average annual increase of 11% per annum.
More importantly, at the height of the recent recession, the GB30 Rarities index saw an increase of some 38.6% in value from 2007 to 2008, while the following year recorded a further 45.6% growth.
Collectibles, like autographs have seen equally impressive gains. The PFC40 autograph index, which charts the value of the top 40 most sought after celebrity autographs on the market, recorded an average increase of 335.9% over the last ten years. That's an average compound increase of 15.86% per annum.
And luxury collectibles are seeing even better returns than an investment with Warren Buffett. According to figures, if you had invested in Buffett's famous Berkshire Hathaway Group over the last 20 years you'd have seen returns of 18.83% per annum.
In comparison, in 1986, one avid collector bought Andy Warhol's 200 One Dollar Bills for £256,600 ($385,000). Earlier this year, the same painting was sold for £29,200,000 ($43,800,000) at auction in New York. That's a return of almost 23% per annum.
Ultimately, the recession dealt a £11,300 blow to Britons because their wealth was directly correlated to the traditional investment markets of shares and property.
But unique collectible values hold little correlation with other traditional financial investments. Furthermore, they are tangible: you can hold them, and they will always hold value.
With an estimated 200 million serious collectors worldwide underpinning the market, and early projections forecasting this consumer base to double in the next twenty years, the future looks good for investment grade collectibles.
[Top]Over 2 Million Books
I think I will stop saying how my books are taking over my home. This fellow has a barn and three homes full of books... Now THAT is collecting!
A Mid-Michigan man has indulged his passion for buying and selling books for nearly 60 years.
His inventory and his personal collection have to be seen to be believed. His home and store are stuffed.
Berry picking isn't the only thing to do at Russell's Blueberry Farm and Book Barn near Freeland. Some folks come to browse through his collection of 500,000 used books.
"I've always been selling books," said book collector and seller Carl Russell. "I've always sold books when I was in the military. Thirty years in the military and I was always buying and selling."
And don't give up if you don't find what you're looking for in the store. Russell has three houses nearby and they're all stuffed with books.
"I have in excess of two million, I would say. I don't count them all," he said.
Russell not only collects books to sell, he's also an avid reader. He'll have as many as 10 different books going at one time -- history, biography, fiction, it doesn't matter.
"I read every day, every night," he said. "If it's 2 a.m. I read for 30 minutes to an hour."
Organization is not Russell's strong suit. In the Book Barn there are general categories, but the Dewey Decimal System is not in effect.
[Top]Raymond Scott Cleared of Stealing Shakespeare Folio
Raymond Scott found guilty of handling stolen goods and removing stolen property from the UK
An eccentric would-be international playboy was facing a lengthy prison sentence last night, despite being cleared of stealing a priceless Shakespeare volume from Durham University.
A jury at Newcastle Crown Court found self-styled rare book dealer Raymond Scott not guilty of stealing the Shakespeare First Folio from Palace Green Library in December 1998.
But he was found guilty of handling stolen goods and removing stolen property from the UK in relation to the book.
Adjourning the case for reports, Judge Richard Lowden remanded the 53-year-old into custody, telling him: “There will, in due time, be an inevitable substantial custodial sentence.”
Scott was accused of stealing the 1623 folio and concealing it for nearly a decade before producing it at the Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, US, in June 2008, when he ran out of money.
He claimed to have acquired the book in Cuba – home of his fiancee, Heidi Garcia Rios, a 23-year-old nightclub dancer upon whom he had lavished thousands of pounds. He denied it was the Durham Folio.
But, despite the book being “damaged, brutalised and mutilated”, experts at the Folger quickly recognised it as the stolen copy and called in the FBI.
Scott was arrested in a raid on his home in Washington, Wearside, three weeks later and charged.
A jury of seven women and five men took just under a day to reach their unanimous verdicts.
Scott, of Manor Grange, Wingate, County Durham, will be sentenced next month.
The folio has been returned to Durham University.
After yesterday’s hearing, Detective Constable Tim Lerner, of Durham Police, said: “I’m extremely happy that the book has been returned to Durham.
“From the very start of the investigation, he has been difficult.
He is a liar. His whole story from start to finish was a complete lie and he launched a desperate attempt to sell the Folio because of the serious financial position he was in.”
Bill Bryson, chancellor of Durham University and a popular travel writer, said: “Shakespeare’s First Folio is arguably the most important book in English literature. It is fantastic that Durham’s copy is coming home at last.”
The folio included 36 of Shakespeare’s plays and helped establish his reputation as the greatest dramatist in the English language.
About 750 copies were printed and sold, of which about 230 survive – with the largest collection, 79, held at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
The folio was part of Cosin’s Library, created by the 17th Century Bishop of Durham John Cosin, who is thought to have bought it new.
The so-called Cosin copy is the only one known to have stayed in the same personal library since its original purchase.
It was previously distinguished by a shelfmark of Peterhouse College, Cambridge, proving Cosin owned it before 1644. In the past, it was said to be worth £15m.
However, following its theft it was vandalised, with its title page – which bore the Cambridge shelfmark – removed.
It is now thought to be worth about £1m.
The folio was stolen while on display in Durham University’s Palace Green Library, on December 17, 1998.
It was the highlight of a 50- piece exhibition charting the progress of English literature from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century, staged to coincide with an academic conference.
The 380- year-old treasure was kept in a g l a s s - topped cabinet, protected by three mortice locks.
Librarian John Hall rec a l l e d : “ A t some point somebody broke into the case.
“As soon as that was discovered, I was informed. I can remember being in a meeting with one of the Durham (University) colleges and being pulled out of that to be told. It was a sinking feeling.”
Also stolen were six exceptional manuscripts and early printed books, which remain missing.
They included two late 14th or early 15th Century manuscripts.
[Top]The Future of Books - The Collectible Future
There is much discussion about the "future of books". Opinions vary widely. The following article is both well written and interesting. I will include a few paragraphs here but suggest you will want to visit The Globe and Mail to read the entire article.
"The book may be doomed in the digital age, but a first edition of The Great Gatsby still costs $150,000.
In the waning years of the last century, Thomas Cahill scored an international success with How the Irish Saved Civilization. It wasn't about the brewing of the first pint of Guinness, but rather the story of how, in the wake of the collapse of the Roman Empire and the destructive rise of the Visigoths (“Aristotle? We don't need no stinking Aristotle!”), groups of plucky Irish monks in isolated monasteries “took on the great labour of copying Western literature – everything they could lay their hands on.”
Had it not been for these dedicated, flea-ridden scribes and the Catholic missionaries who then carried their works and words to Europe's scrofulous hordes, the world would have been entirely different. It would have been a world without … books!
Today, 550 years after Gutenberg's invention of mechanical movable type, not a few pundits believe we are on the verge of undoing what those Irish clerics did – that is, establishing a world without books."
Lurid Story of Book Dope and Lives Twisted By Mad Desire
Stephen Gertz is one of my favorite writers about the book world. I have read his work quite a few times but a recent post to is hands down my favorite for this favorite. Be sure Booktrystto go to the site to read the entire piece. It is GREAT. He is writing about posters like the ones below that are being sold by Heldfonds Book Gallery in San Francisco - a place I must get to the City to visit soon. I just ordered one of these great Bibliopulp images. You can visit online HERE. Hard-boiled dames caught in the grip of a habit beyond their control; corrupt dolls seeking cheap thrills between the sheets of a book; innocents ensnared into the rare book racket, underage girls seduced by slick blurbs, and grown men brought to their knees by bibliographical points that slay dreams in a depraved world.
It's rare book noir, the dark underbelly of collecting. Human wreckage litters the streets of Booktown, the vice-ridden gotham that kicks its victims into the gutter margin, slaves to their twisted desire and lost in a sick world where condition is everything, obsession is the norm, and compulsion the law.
That first book seen in a window display, an Internet image, held in the hands - soon, you're furtively ducking into dens of iniquity with bookshelves and rarities behind a bamboo curtain; you've got the shakes and you need something, bad, right now. The rent is due, the kids need food, mama needs a new pair of shoes but let 'em all go to hell, you're a quarto low, you need your shot of heaven, a mainline hit straight to the pleasure centers to bathe in a flood of dopamine unleashed by a new acquisition and sink into careless ecstasy.
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Bookshelf Porn - Site For Booklovers
Hi, all. I just found a great site for booklovers. It has page after page of bookshelves. Neat bookshelves. Chaotic bookshelves. Famous bookshelves (see image of Shakespear and Company bookstore). Libraries. Art installations and much more. All can be found at Bookshelf Porn
Here are a few of the great images -
Shakespear and Company Bookstore
