Rare Book Monthly Articles - July - 2025 Issue

Richard Murian - A Respected Friend has Passed Away

Richard Murian - A Respected Friend has Passed Away

Richard Murian recently slipped away at 87. An active Arizona book dealer over much of his life, he was a friendly and reliable source who bought and sold stock and provided help to those who posed complex bibliographical questions.   Richard was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, on September 17, 1937. He lived in a small apartment with his mother, but books were always present. He would go on to earn several degrees, work as a librarian, and in an unusual step for a bookseller, also serve as a minister. Minister isn't the highest paying job, so he sold scholarly books on the side. That b...

Court Upholds Removal of Books from Library

Court Upholds Removal of Books from Library

Opponents of library censorship lost an important case we have been following the past two years from rural Llano, Texas. A group of citizens petitioned the county commissioners with a list of 17 b...

The ALA Fair at Philly

The ALA Fair at Philly

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 es...

Oscar Wilde Finally Gets His Library Pass Restored

Oscar Wilde Finally Gets His Library Pass Restored

It's been a long time since Oscar Wilde has been able to read a book at the British Library. Of course, a major reason is that he is dead, as he has been for over a century. However, there is a rea...

Thirteenth Amendment and Emancipation Proclamation Sold at Sotheby's for Combined $18.1 Million

Thirteenth Amendment and Emancipation Proclamation Sold at Sotheby's for Combined $18.1 Million

Copies of two of the most important documents in American history brought in record prices at Sotheby's June 26. One was a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln ...

John Shelton Reed: Where have the copies gone?

John Shelton Reed: Where have the copies gone?

John Shelton Reed (born 1942) is an American sociologist and essayist, author or editor of 23 books, most of them dealing with contemporary America. And at 82 he still has some projects to keep him...

Annual Newtown Booth Library Sale Set for July 11-15

Annual Newtown Booth Library Sale Set for July 11-15

Coming soon is one of the biggest and most successful book sales in the entire country. It's time for the annual C.H. Booth Library Sale. This is the one the Boston Globe called “one of the largest...

2025 Detroit Book Fair

2025 Detroit Book Fair

2025 Detroit Book Fair Detroit Festival of Books, Sunday, July 20th, has expanded to over 250 book vendors from 15 different states and Canada. Matching its earlier attendance records, the upcomi...

So You Want To Be A Bookseller? 

So You Want To Be A Bookseller? 

Most people know there is no standard path to becoming a bookseller. Some people, like this writer, are born into it; others work at a shop or library or buy too many books, or sell for a while on ...

Chatbots such as ChatGPT Have Won the First Round Against Authors

Chatbots such as ChatGPT Have Won the First Round Against Authors

In the first court ruling of the legality of using copyrighted books to create answers for chatbots such as ChatGPT, the bots have won and the authors lost. The chatbots need to have access to huge...

Vast Amounts of New Data from Books Being Made Available to AI Chatbox Programs like ChatGPT

Vast Amounts of New Data from Books Being Made Available to AI Chatbox Programs like ChatGPT

A large source of additional information for AI (artificial intelligence) chatbox programs, like ChatGPT or Microsoft's Llama, has been opened. Those are the online search programs that answer just...

Would you Like to Live in a Library? This Library-House is For Sale.

Would you Like to Live in a Library? This Library-House is For Sale.

Would you like to live in a library? What could be more of a dream for the avid book-reader! Well, there is one for sale now, and it is one of classic construction, no less. It is a Carnegie Librar...

The World's Oldest Auction House is Combining with One Almost as Old

The World's Oldest Auction House is Combining with One Almost as Old

The World's oldest auction house has undertaken a major expansion by acquiring one of its closest competitors in terms of age. Stockholms Auctionsverk has acquired Uppsala Auctionskammare. Both of ...

The Severed Head of Princess Lamballe Bouncing from Book to Book

The Severed Head of Princess Lamballe Bouncing from Book to Book

Princess Lamballe was Queen Marie-Antoinette’s close friend, who was put to death during the Révolution. After reading about her terrible execution, I decided to follow her bouncing severed head fr...

Twenty-one New England Auction Firms with Distinctive Offerings

Twenty-one New England Auction Firms with Distinctive Offerings

This list shows 21 auction houses doing business in five Northeastern states whose records are archived by RareBookHub.com  It is not comprehensive, but as a survey of New England auction houses it...

Four New Dealer Catalogues Reviewed for July

Four New Dealer Catalogues Reviewed for July

This month we review four new dealer catalogues. The William Reese Company offers new acquisitions in Americana. David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books also has a new selection of material in the f...

Rare Book Monthly

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  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.

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