June 30, 2025. As I write this note the ALA’s (American Library Association) annual fair is wrapping up in Philadelphia. Soon visitors and exhibitors will make their high-speed descent down the escalators at the Philadelphia Convention Center back into the real world. For Rare Book Hub, this has been our first appearance. We enjoyed meeting hundreds of librarians. They are overwhelmingly women, and interesting people. They are their community’s interface between the everyday world and the printed word. They provide vital, necessary and needed alternatives to the internet and television.
Books have long been the standard solution for ignorance. These days the internet broadcasts predigested opinions embedded with memory triggering commonplaces, encouraging hate, disrespect, and disregard. When you read, you absorb ideas in your left brain and it encourages you to think, and better understand the greys. When you absorb pre-digested crap in your right brain, you often feel emotions that tend to be negative. Bingo, you remember every slight, every perceived crime. Oh gosh, you’re a victim!
Research suggests that the human brain shrinks when you hate.
The solution: turn off your social media. Read a book every month. Go to your library or nearby bookstores.
Does it matter? Your children learn from you.
Your children and your children’s children will thank you.
My hat's off to the ALA. Democracy lives in our libraries.
Il Ponte, Sep. 30-Oct. 1: BOETTI, Alighiero - Classifying the thousand longest rivers in the world. Ascoli Piceno: 1977. € 15.000 - 18.000
Il Ponte, Sep. 30-Oct. 1: GOYA Y LUCIENTES, Francisco José - Los desastres de la guerra. Madrid: 1863. € 12.000 - 18.000
Il Ponte, Sep. 30-Oct. 1: HEVELIUS, Johannes - Selenographia sive lunae descriptio. Danzica: 1647. € 10.000 - 15.000
Il Ponte, Sep. 30-Oct. 1: REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph - Douze Bouquets. Parigi e New York: [s.d., ma ca. 1835]. € 15.000 - 25.000
Koller, Sep. 17: NEWTON, ISAAC. Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. London, Joseph Streater, "Prostat apud plures Bibliopolas", 1687. CHF 250,000 to 300,000.
Koller, Sep. 17: ORTELIUS, ABRAHAM. Theatrum orbis terrarum. 3 parts in 1 volume. Antwerpen, Plantin, 1612. CHF 120,000 to 160,000.
Koller, Sep. 17: BECKMANN, MAX. Apokalypse. Frankfurt a. M., Privatdruck der Bauerschen Giesserei, 1943. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.
Koller, Sep. 17: BOISSERÉE, SULPIZ. Ansichten, Risse und einzelne Theile des Doms von Köln. AND: Ders. Geschichte und Beschreibung des Doms zu Köln… CHF 30,000 to 50,000.
Koller, Sep. 17: SCHEDEL, HARTMANN. Buch der Chroniken und Geschichten. Nürnberg, Anton Koberger, 23. Dez. 1493. CHF 25,000 to 40,000.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: Ian Fleming. Casino Royale, London, 1953. First edition, first printing. $58,610.
Sotheby’s: A.A. Milne, Ernest Howard Shepard. Winnie The Pooh, United Kingdom, 1926. First UK edition. $17,580.
Sotheby’s: Ernest Hemingway. Three Stories And Ten Poems, [Paris], (1923). First edition of Hemingway’s first published book. $75,000.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: L. Frank Baum. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, 1900. First edition. $27,500.
Sotheby’s: Man Ray. Photographs By Man Ray 1920 Paris 1934, Hartford, 1934. $7,860.
Sotheby’s: Thomas Pennant. Zoologia Britannica, Augsburg, 1771. $49,125.
![<b>Il Ponte, Sep. 30-Oct. 1:</b> REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph - Douze Bouquets. Parigi e New York: [s.d., ma ca. 1835]. € 15.000 - 25.000](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/52dd1cf6-f094-4432-955c-f3b20077eb95.jpg "<b>Il Ponte, Sep. 30-Oct. 1:</b> REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph - Douze Bouquets. Parigi e New York: [s.d., ma ca. 1835]. € 15.000 - 25.000")
![<b>Sotheby’s:</b> Ernest Hemingway. <i>Three Stories And Ten Poems,</i> [Paris], (1923). First edition of Hemingway’s first published book. $75,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/acf970a0-a15d-4c79-aa24-5e8e414cb465.png "<b>Sotheby’s:</b> Ernest Hemingway. <i>Three Stories And Ten Poems,</i> [Paris], (1923). First edition of Hemingway’s first published book. $75,000.")
