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A Bookaholic and Bibliophile in Ukraine

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A favorite piece in my Bibliophemera collection is an unused postcard illustrated by Ukrainian artists Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv. It features two interesting, whimsical creatures embracing each other while maintaining engagement with their books. Cat-like and bird-like, one in high heels and one barefoot, one with a long tail and prominent ears and one with tail feathers and no visible ears, both with beaks, and both with books. They can’t put their books down even in this intimate moment. Appropriately, they are labeled Bookaholic and Bibliophile. Might they even be an imaginative rendering of the artists themselves? Romana and Andriy were both born in Lviv, Ukraine in 1984 and continue to live and work there. The illustration on the postcard is a fitting depiction of their artistic lives where books and their illustrations comprise their passion for illustration, book design, and writing. Together, they started Art Studio Agrafka in Lviv where they have produced award-win...
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Boston's Old Corner Book Store: Woodcut by S.S. Kilburn, 1870

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  An 1870 billhead for A.C. Stockin, New England agent for Harper & Bros. Educational Publications, would be a rather unremarkable document of Boston business history were it not for the woodcut in the upper-left corner. In addition to dressing up the old paper receipt, that illustration provides a window into Boston's rich publishing and bookselling history as well as an introduction to the artist who created the woodcut--S.S. Kilburn. The engraving reveals an active corner of publishing and selling books. In addition to the Old Corner Book Store, there is Boston Map Store and A. Williams & Co., Publishers and Booksellers. Noticeably missing, though, is signage for A.C. Stockin, whose billhead hosts Kilburn's woodcut. Kilburn's choice of engraving subject seems odd in light of the fact that his client's place of business is not pictorially represented on their business correspondence paper. However, A.C. Stockin was just up the street a few blocks from the Old ...
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Cinderella Stamp for an Elusive Bookstore

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Here is a Cinderella stamp with a colorful illustration announcing that Knud Rasmussen's bookstore is moving to another location on the Vesterbrogade, the main shopping street of the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. Information on this bookstore is elusive, but it was likely named for Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist, Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933), who has been called "the father of Eskimology." If I can find more information about the bookstore, I will update this post. With a name like Knud Rasmussen, it would be fitting if the inventory consisted of books on polar exploration, the Inuit, Greenland, Anthropology, and the like. Books of science, adventure, and the humanities. Did they relocate for more room (a positive) or cheaper rent (possibly a negative) and did World War II, which was around the corner, have anything to do with the bookstore's demise? Or does it thrive yet under a succession of name changes? There's more to the stor...
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Paris Book Shops: Looking In, Looking Out

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Two apparently different book shops in Paris. Two different women at their windows. One looks in at the books, the other looks out from within the display window where she is arranging books. They are separated in time by twenty years or more, but are united here in this space by their photographs, a display of books, and a little imagination. The top image is a wire photo by Elaine Beery taken from inside the Village Voice Bookstore in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1986. I acquired it because of the way the young woman looked at the books on display. There was something deep and thoughtful in her expression frozen in the blink of a camera's shutter. And was that a hint of sadness in her eyes that had nothing to do with the books or just the wistful gaze of a book lover on a restrictive budget? By contrast, the young woman working in the display window, peers out cheerfully. She smiles and seems to enjoy her task. She is surrounded by books. The back of this vernacular photograph indicat...
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A Bookmobile for all Ages

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So National Bookmobile Day was several days ago--April 22nd to be exact--and I had no idea there was a day for that. Better late than never, I have a couple of wire service photos to share about a bookmobile in 1949 making the rounds for its patrons young and old in Muskegon County, Michigan. The message inherent in the pair, intended or not, conveys the joy of books for all ages, but I also see something in there about reading habits developed early in childhood staying with children throughout their lives. The young children in the bookmobile appear totally engrossed in the books they have found. A line forms outside the bookmobile and anticipation builds for finding a treasure inside. There is equal engagement with books by the older couple in the second photo. The woman, with her warm smile, appears to enjoy her selection while the man intently ponders two books in his hand, perhaps trying to make a decision with the help of the woman in the bookmobile. ...
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A Photographic Bookplate

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I've been wanting to write about this bookplate since acquiring the book I found it in about eight years ago-- Handel,  by C.F. Abdy Williams, published in 1901 by both J.M. Dent & Co. (London) and E.P. Dutton & Co. (New York). The bookplate's setting features a meadow or pasture, where a young man, John Woodroffe Garthwaite, sits in a chair with a book in his hands and a dog by his side. The current pandemic reminded me of this image and the parallels to social distancing activities we are practicing today to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Of course, the scene was composed for reasons other than fighting a pandemic, but the finished product carries a visual message about social distancing into the future some 120 years. Mr. Garthwaite certainly appears socially distanced from any person and is enjoying a fine social distancing activity--reading! The book's publication date and some genealogy research on Garthwaite help date the bookpla...
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1966 Tokyo Bookstore Idea for the 2020 Pandemic

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As businesses close and struggle to stay afloat during these social distancing times, necessitated by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many in the retail sector have been able to adapt by adding delivery or curbside pickup services. I don't know of any bookstores offering this service, but a Tokyo bookstore in 1966 offered a novel concept for the time that parallels 2020 efforts to get control of the deadly virus.  The Japanese bookstore in the wire photo below was called a "drive-in bookstore" by the press. It may well have been drive-in, as the image doesn't appear to show a drive- through for the car. Further research, in an attempt to identify the bookstore by name, was unsuccessful. But some interesting information about the business revealed the bookstore comprised a nine-story building with more than a million books in stock. All one had to do was drive up to the window, tell the "pretty clerk" which book or books you wanted, and the...
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