Ann Arbor, John Moore cover 8 5-8ths x 6.25

Ann Arbor, John Moore cover 8 5-8ths x 6.25
Originally uploaded by Exile Bibliophile

A giant leap forward of information on this gentleman bookseller from Ann Arbor, Michigan at the previously mentioned Flickr group. Anyone have a better name for this group? US Book Trade Index? Well, whatever you want to call it, it can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/493902@N20/

Belated Introduction

Just what the world needs: Another blog. Hopefully, it won't be just "another" blog, but one that will have stuff at least one other person will think interesting. First of all, I collect books, and that will be the general gist of this blog. And probably whatever else I think is neat. Don't worry, it usually comes back to books. I collect in several areas: 19th Century Book Trade (especially in the Western US), Bookbinding, Letterpress Printing, Book Collectors, Bibliomysteries, the Modern Library Series (yes, I'm a longtime modernlib.com member), and stuff for work. I work for a big museum, so I have books for there too. I like old museum theory stuff too. Every once in a while I also sell books. What book collector these days doesn't? Anyway, I may occasionally post the more interesting stuff I come across as it goes to ebay.

Now, my hobby horses:

1. The US Book Trade Index:

I've been trying for a while to get an American version of the British Book Trade Index (BBTI) rolling no avail. The idea was basically a database searchable, organizable by nearly any field(s). Since I'm not good enough with databases, I came up with another solution. I posted everything I've collected so far into a Flickr group: "Pre-20th Century American Book Trade Ephemera". Catchy, I know. It's searchable, and is based on primary documents, a strength over the BBTI. Why bother? Well, it can be an interesting research tool, not only for bibliographers, curators, archivists, and librarians, but to book collectors, sociologists and those psychos who collect Victorian trade cards. Just kidding about the psycho remark. I have several myself. Why limit to pre-1900s? Well, by my wild guess, there's probably more stuff 1900-2007 as there is 1650-1899. I think 1900-present should be done, but let's document the old stuff before it disappears.

2. The Bibliophiles of Oklahoma

Dear reader, you may have guessed. I live in Oklahoma. The Mrs. and I moved to Oklahoma City, a much larger town than any these country mice had lived in before. I thought that surely a city as large and cultured (remember: country mice) would have a book collecting club of some kind. Nope. I think there is a group in Tulsa, but they don't have much of a web presence, and Tulsa is kind of a drive.... After all, 1,172,339 people live here; there have to be a handful of bibliophiles. Right? More on that later.

So, there you have it. If you hung with me this long: THANKS. Photo: WPA Library poster. Don't worry, I have more. Next month's is very cool.

Testing, Testing, 1-2-3-4

Is this thing on? Hello? Test. Test. Trying to get my feed to burn. A delightful little graphic from an old publication rediscovered at www.archive.org.

Score!!

I did well today. Scored my first real 19th Century book trade document from Nebraska. I grew up there and still have strong ties. It was a shade more than I generally like to spend on that kind of thing, but it was just too cool. It can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benjclark/1428828067/

I also bought what I hope to be a good resource, as well as eye-candy: Victorian Publishers' Book-Bindings in Paper, by Ruari McLean. Berkeley: University of California; 1983. I'll review it after it arrives.