A week’s haul Some time in the late 1970s or early 1980s I stuck poor Anne Marie with the kids and took off on my first scouting trip – a two-day adventure. A friend had given us an old Volkswagen beetle with a hole in the back floor and a floppy right fender, so I […] More >>
Going for a Ride in the Car-Car
It’s been a while since I’ve been on a real road trip… eight years, as a matter of fact. 2016 was my last Florida trip, an excursion that traditionally began with the Washington Book Fair, extended down to St. Pete for the Florida show, and often wound up back in Connecticut at the Ephemera Society […] More >>
Chairs in the Aisles
It’s like crocuses in the Spring. After every New York book fair come weeks of emails on the ABAA chatline concerning the show, arguably our signature event and one of the biggest, richest, and most spectacular of its kind. New York’s where the money is, always has been. What interests me is the shift in […] More >>
Nohow
In January, 2023, I bought a Limited Editions Club book called Nohow On by Samuel Beckett. Like all Limited Editions Club publications, Beckett’s work was illustrated. In this case, the illustrations were aquatints by printmaker Robert Ryman and what they illustrated was… nothing. Each print left an impression of the plate on the paper, creating […] More >>
Getting There the Hard Way
I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my career, mostly due to a lack of financial sense compounded by the idiotic need to try to look like a big shot. Of the few successes I’ve had, most were in the realm of human relations, with which I’m more comfortable. Once a high-end customer from […] More >>