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Blog posts by Susan Benne

Susan is the Executive Director of the ABAA. She collects material on Brooklyn as well as ephemera and vernacular photography. Susan is focused on making the book trade diverse and equitable.


Countee Cullen's Color has been reported missing from the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center collection. The book appears to have been sold by an auction house, and the University seeks information about its whereabouts. Please contact us if you have any information. First edition, first printing in dustjacket of Harlem Renaissance author Cullen's first book, including more than 70 poems. Inscribed to Augustus Granville Dill. Copy contains bookplate of the Arthur B. Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature. [more Missing from Howard University: Countee Cullen’s Color]

The Booksellers Documentary producers Dan Wechsler (Sanctuary Books), D.W. Young, and Judith Mizrachy recently premiered UNCROPPED, which rediscovers the work of James Hamilton, one of the great photographers of the cultural history of America. For over four decades working on staff at publications such as Harper's Bazaar, The New York Observer, and most notably, The Village Voice, Hamilton captured remarkable people and stories of the last half-century. Hamilton chronicled the punk and jazz music scene in 1970s and 80s New York City, creating iconic images of musicians like Charles Mingus, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed and taking intimate portraits of everyone from Akira Kurosawa and Jean-Luc Godard. He eventually broke off to do set photography for George Romero, Noah Baumbach, and Wes Anderson. He pursued controversial assignments across ... [more Booksellers Documentary Producers Premiere UNCROPPED]

The ABAA and Sanford L. Smith & Associates are proud to announce that the British Library will be the institutional partner for ABAA Connect at this year's New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. A program resurrected from the early 2000's, ABAA Connect will allow our 2024 institutional partner, the British Library, to request items at the NYIABF from exhibitors, and have those items purchased for the Library as recommended by tax-advantaged contributions from donors to the American Trust for the British Library (ATBL). British Library curators will browse a list of items exhibitors will bring to the fair and choose items they are interested in acquiring. Our British Library and ATBL colleagues and donors will attend the fair and discover these items together in person, and donors can either contribute the value of an item in its e... [more ABAA & British Library Bring ABAA Connect to New York Book Fair in April]

The Celluloid Paper Trail: Film Script Identification Course at UCLA August 5-9 2024 Kevin Royal Johnson and Erin McGuirl will teach the first west coast Master Class on film script identification from August 5-9, 2024 at UCLA's California Rare Book School (CalRBS). Kevin Johnson has been a rare bookseller and appraiser for nearly 30 years. He is the author of the first book on film script identification, The Celluloid Paper Trail, published in 2019 by Oak Knoll Press and is the owner of Royal Books in Baltimore. Erin McGuirl/has been the Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America since 2018. She is trained as a special collections librarian, and has worked for over a decade with institutional and private collections in New York City. Course overview: What kind of text is a screenplay? How were they made, and by whom? Ho... [more The Celluloid Paper Trail: Film Script Identification Course at Cal-RBS Aug 5-9]

Items from the collection of James Strand began appearing on the open market in August, seemingly pillaged from Strand's Portland-area residence after he passed away early in the year. Strand was known to collect comics, as well as first editions in horror and science fiction genres, including Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft. Among the known missing items is illustration art, including that of H.P. Lovecraft's horror novella, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, by Frank Utpatel. Anyone offered items they suspect stolen from this collection should contact the FBI Portland Field office: (503) 224-4181 or 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov. [more Missing: Multi-Million Dollar Collection of Comics, Horror, and Science Fiction]

The Library of Congress named Stephanie Stillo the new chief of the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Stillo joined the Library in 2016 and previously served as the curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection and the Aramont Library — two of the division's notable collections. The Rare Book and Special Collections Division is North America's largest collection of rare books. Spanning eras and subjects, its holdings include nearly 1 million books, broadsides, pamphlets, theater playbills, title pages, prints, posters, photographs, and medieval and Renaissance manuscripts. President Thomas Jefferson's library is at the center of the collection, which was sold to Congress in 1815. As division chief, Stillo will lead the collection's development, stewardship, interpretation, promotion, and service to meet the needs of... [more Library of Congress Names Stephanie Stillo Chief of Rare Book and Special Collections]

J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians LLC, established in 1977 and long-time members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, the Professional Autograph Dealers' Association, the Music Library Association, the American Musicological Society, &c., are internationally recognized dealers in rare printed and manuscript music, rare books on music, autograph letters of composers, and music-related iconography, 15th - 21st centuries. We pay special attention to the particular collecting interests of our clientele and over the last 46 years have helped to develop some of the most important antiquarian music collections, both institutional and private, in the U.S. and abroad. We aim to provide accurate and informed descriptions of material offered to best enable our customers to make the wisest decisions regarding their acquisitions. We ... [more J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians LLC Seeks Cataloguer]

Rare Book and Manuscript Cataloguer In our fifty years in business, Donald Heald Rare Books has established itself as one of the leading authorities on fine antiquarian books, manuscripts, prints, drawings and maps. From Donald Heald Rare Books' beginnings in London in the early 1970s, to our present location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, we have honed our specialized knowledge of Americana and Canadiana, voyages and travels, illustrated books, prints, maps and atlases. We have also been fortunate to have contributed to some of the most important public collections worldwide and built some of the finest private collections. Our inventory is unrivalled in content and quality, our client service is of the very highest standard, and our genuine enthusiasm for our remarkable material is unmatched. Rare Book and Manuscript Cataloguer re... [more Job Posting: Donald A. Heald Rare Books is Hiring a Rare Book and Manuscript Cataloguer]

UPDATE: The items below have been recovered. ________________ The following has been reported missing in transit from New York City to San Diego, CA, shipped via UPS: John Gould's Birds of Europe Three Volumes (of Five) green leather bindings with gold tooling (see attached images) Please contact the firm directly if you know the whereabouts of this material: Harry S. Newman The Old Print Shop, Inc. 49 West 24th St., 2nd Floor New York, NY 10010 (212) 683-3950. Ext 109 hnewman@oldprintshop.net [more UPDATE: Missing in Transit: John Gould’s Birds of Europe]

The following has been reported missing, possibly stolen from Amatoria Fine Art Books in Sacramento: LOT OF THREE BOOKS, published by D. Appleton, 1896, two-volume Origin of the Species, one-vol Descent of Man. Quarterbound in oxblood, red, blue and yellow marbled boards. Very Good condition overall. 8" x 5 1/2" half leather over marbled paper over boards, gilt lettering to spines and TEG, darkened spines, some shelf wear to edges, rubbed tips exposing boards, The Origin of Species Vol I and II have chips to top of spine exposing the headband affecting 1" of spine lettering on Vol II, rubbing to hinges of Origin of Species Vol I. Descent of Man has chips to top of spine not affecting lettering. Ink stain to bottom edge of some pages in Descent of Man, ink stain to bottom margin on pages 30-31 and 52, not affecting text. Previous owner boo... [more Missing in Sacramento, CA: Three-Volume set of Darwin’s Works]