Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2023 Issue

Calling All Book Townies ... And Others: Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair, October 1st -- Be There!

 

A Benefit for the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

 

Bibliophiles on the Ann Arbor-Detroit circuit will be at the 43rd Annual Antiquarian Book Fair this Sunday, October 1st, in the lovely college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Fair welcomes an impressive gathering of booksellers. This Forty-Third Annual Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair is being held on Sunday, October 1st, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM, at the Michigan Union on the campus of the University of Michigan. For antiquarians, there is nothing more tantalizing than a crowded room of old books. And an opportunity to meet kindred spirits.

The Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair has brought together booksellers and dealers from across America for nearly five decades; and it offers a wider range of old and rare books, Americana, children’s books, autographs and manuscripts, maps, prints, ephemera, photography, fine press material, and more.

 

With special pleasure, we include some good words from Paul Erickson, Randolph G. Adams Director,

Clements Library, University of Michigan:

 

"We are so delighted to have the Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair as a fixture of our fall calendar on the Ann Arbor campus, and we are so grateful for the support it provides for the Clements Library. I go to a good number of book fairs every year, but this one is special: it's the only one I know that takes place on a major university campus when school is in session. Seeing the future generation of collectors learn about the world of rare books and prints from some of the nation's leading dealers is one of my favorite things about the Ann Arbor fair."

 

Thank you for that, Paul Erickson. And special thanks to Emiko Hastings, Curator of Books & Digital Projects Librarian, Clements Library, for bringing his voice into this article.

 

And others merit a deep bow: Jay Platt, Book Club of Detroit member/bookseller, helped organize the Ann Arbor Antiquarian Book Fair in 1976. Mr Platt has been the director of this event since the 1990’s. All hail, Jay Platt!

 

For information about the Ann Arbor Book Fair, contact Jay at the West Side Book Shop, (734) 995-1891, or visit annarborbookfair.com

 

Here’s the hearty list of the Fair’s exhibitors:

 

Autumn Leaves Books, Crown Point, IN

Lorne Bair Rare Books (ABAA), Winchester, VA

Bookleggers Fine Books (ABAA), Park Ridge, IL

Capitol Hill Books (ABAA), Washington, DC

Caroliniana Rare Books (ABAA), Aiken, SC

Carpetbagger Books, Woodstock, IL

Centigrade 233, Ann Arbor, MI

Curious Book Shop, East Lansing, MI

Dawn Treader Book Shop, Ann Arbor, MI

Doyle’s Books, Fayetteville, NY

gallerybfa (ABAA), Prospect, PA

Martin Hartzold, bookseller, St. Louis, MO

Jeff Hirsch Books (ABAA), Wadsworth, IL

Little Button Rose, Elkhart, IN

Peter Luke Americana, New Baltimore, NY

Mossback/McCormick Books, Hartland, MI

Motte & Bailey Booksellers, Ann Arbor, MI

Doug Price Photographs, Ann Arbor, MI

Garrett Scott, Bookseller (ABAA), Ann Arbor, MI

Shell Beach Books, Ypsilanti, MI

Third Mind Books, Ann Arbor, MI

Walnut Street Paper, Kutztown, PA

West Side Book Shop (ABAA), Ann Arbor, MI

White Raven Books, Ypsilanti, MI

Jett W. Whitehead Rare Books (ABAA), Bay City, MI

 

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th May 2026
    Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
    Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
    Forum, May 28: The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th May 2026
    Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th May 2026
    Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
    Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
    Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th May 2026
    Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
    Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
    Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000

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