N. & W.W. Billings Archive (see below) Everybody knows how to research an old book. You go on the Internet and type the title in Google. After a few minutes of fumbling around you come upon Addall, or Bookfinder, or viaLibri, or ABE or Amazon or any of dozens of sites with searchable databases. On […] More >>
Archives for 2013
All I Want for Xmas is a Droid with Apps
It’s that time of year again, and for the fourth year running I am reprinting my classic Xmas blog, first published to great acclaim in 2010. (Well, the guy who worked for me said he liked it, but of course it was payday.) I love tradition. And I love the tradition of getting a Christmas […] More >>
Hens, Chicks, and Whales
According to author Joan Druett a hen frigate “traditionally, was any ship with the captain’s wife on board.” In fact, Joan wrote a wonderful book on the subject titled, reasonably enough, Hen Frigates: Wives of Merchant Captains Under Sail. The book came out in 1998, but for years before that I’d known about these sailor-wives, […] More >>
This is what it’s come to…
A call from a longstanding customer who is at death’s door and wants to be sure his collection is properly taken care of. He was avid and wealthy in the 60s and 70s and was able, with the help of a legendary Boston antiques dealer, to vacuum important material from the attics of Back Bay […] More >>
The Amazon Problem
Everybody in the book biz – antiquarian, used, and writing ‘em – seems obsessed with the dominance of Amazon. So, after watching the Patriots – Texans game, and then the Brocos – Chiefs, I snuck in a segment of “60 Minutes” which featured an interview with Jeff Bezos before tuning in the Redskins – Giants […] More >>