Learn about rare books from the experts
Posted in Rare Books on Mar 16th, 2008
“Flashes of Genius by an Expert in Self-Destruction” In 1925 Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby to immediate critical acclaim and popular success. Eight years later, he was no closer to delivering another novel. His editor at Scribner’s, the legendary Maxwell Perkins, worried about Fitzgerald but never lost faith, writing to him in August of 1933, [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Mar 2nd, 2008
“We ain’t gonna die out. People is going’ on – changin’ a little, maybe, but goin’ right on.” In November of 1933, a vast dust cloud rose over an area stretching from Texas to the Great Plains, the beginning of an ecological disaster that would blacken the sky all the way to Chicago. Over the [...]
Posted in Rare Books, Signed Books on Feb 24th, 2008
“It was a great idea to bring them together; celebrities of the same generation, of similar virtuosity” – Monroe Wheeler on the Joyce-Matisse Ulysses George Macy’s decision to commission Henri Matisse to illustrate Ulysses was a bold move for his fledgling Limited Editions Club in 1935. Scandal still swirled around James Joyce’s masterpiece, which had [...]
Posted in First Edition Books, Rare Books on Feb 4th, 2008
“America’s First Great Scientific Contribution” Until the mid-18th century electricity was little more than a parlor trick used to delight kings and amaze crowds. One such itinerant “electrician” aroused Benjamin Franklin’s curiosity, and he embarked on a series of experiments that would “snatch lightning from the sky,” opening up the new field of electrical science [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Jan 20th, 2008
“Leave My Book, I Beg You, To The Immortality That It Deserves” – Oscar Wilde When The Picture of Dorian Gray first appeared in Lippincott’s simultaneously in Philadelphia and London, on June 20, 1890, the story sparked a sensation. “No novel had commanded so much attention for years, or awakened sentiments so contradictory in its [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Jan 4th, 2008
“The Most Sustained Achievement In Fantasy For Children By A 20th-Century Author” An Oxford professor who also wrote literary criticism, fiction for adults and Christian apologetics, C.S. Lewis is primarily known for his extraordinary fantasy series, the Chronicles of Narnia. “All my seven Narnia books,” Lewis once wrote, “began with seeing pictures in my head… [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Dec 16th, 2007
“A Remarkable Work” (T.E. Lawrence on Richard Burton’s El Medinah and Meccah) Arguably among the greatest and most fascinating figures in British exploration, the brilliant and intrepid Burton was granted permission by the Royal Geographical Society in 1853 to map the as yet unknown portions of the eastern and central Arabian peninsula. Burton resolved to [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Dec 2nd, 2007
“His Acknowledged Masterpiece” Arthur Rackham’s captivating illustrations of fairies, goblins and a host of other-worldly creatures firmly established his reputation as one of the preeminent illustrators of the “Golden Age” of children’s literature. Without question, one of his finest and most desirable works is Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, published in a deluxe signed limited [...]
Posted in Rare Books on Sep 1st, 2006
Natalie and David Bauman have been in the rare book business since 1973. Bauman Rare Books is one of the nation’s largest and best-known rare and antiquarian book sellers, with two locations, one in New York City on Madison Avenue and the other in Center City Philadelphia. Rare Finds offers individuals interested in Rare Books, [...]