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Showing posts from 2019

Abbey Road (the book): A Bookstore Poster

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The photo of the Beatles, led by John Lennon, crossing the street above is from a photo shoot that produced one of the most recognizable and iconic record album covers of the 1960s, and all time for that matter: The Beatles' 1969 Abbey Road album. But this isn't the photo used for that album's cover, although it may appear to be at a glance. Fifty years ago on August 8th, 1969 (I'm a day late getting this out), this photo of the Beatles was taken outside of London's Abbey Road Studios. The Beatles titled their 1969 album after the historic studios in which they recorded it and crossed Abbey Road in a photo shoot that resulted in the album cover below. Another image from that photo shoot was used for the promotional bookstore poster below that advertised Brian Southall's book, Abbey Road, published in 1982, with a Foreword by Paul McCartney and Preface by George Martin. The book's dust jacket illustration matches what you see on this 12 X 17

R.I.P. William D. "Bill" Wittliff (1940-2019)

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I'm sad to hear of Bill Wittliff's passing yesterday, June 9, at age 79. He was a creative force in Texas as an author, screenwriter, photographer, publisher, bookseller, book collector, and designer of books and ephemera. Al Lowman, in Printing Arts in Texas (1975) ,  wrote, "Quite likely there is no more diversely creative talent in Texas today than this gifted designer, artist, sculptor, historian, writer, photographer, and poker player." I never really got to meet him other than exchanging greetings and thank yous at a book signing in Houston in 2007. I bought five copies of A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove , a collection of his photographs on the set of the Lonesome Dove miniseries in 1989. He was the screenwriter for that much beloved and now classic Western. He personalized a few copies for gifts, signed just his name on a few copies, which went up for sale later in my online shop, and, of course, I kept one copy he signed for my wife and me. It is

Emil Jeschke - German Books in Cleveland

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Here's an old billhead from 1887 for Cleveland, Ohio bookseller, Emil Jeschke. He was a dealer in German books and periodicals. As stated above the graphic in the upper-left corner, he regularly imported books on every German steamer: "Books for technical and artistical use." Speaking of "artistical," Jeschke employed a local engraving firm, Mugler Engraving Co., to create a fitting logo for his correspondence. The result, which is featured on this billhead, is a display of German books (authors Goethe and Schiller are indicated as is publisher Kosmos). Atop the stack of books is what appears to be a bust of Beethoven. This July 1st transaction appears to be for one of the periodicals Jeschke advertised - three current year issues of "Season" (May, June, July) at 30 cents each. "Season" may be an abbreviation of a title and from the English spelling, it does not appear to be a German language periodical. Emil's prof

Harry Falkenau - Bibliophile and Antiquarian

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Bibliophile and antiquarian are but two words to describe Harry Falkenau (1864-1907) of Chicago. And he was quite accomplished at both, as well as oration, but his real passion was music. This 1903 postal card, however, introduced me to Harry the bookseller and his penchant for rare books as both collector and dealer. The postal card here served as a business communication, or receipt,  to Iowa College Library in Grinnell, Iowa, acknowledging receipt of payment for an unnamed book.  Falkenau gained some notoriety as a Cornell University student when he defended Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass against obscenity charges in 1882. A gifted orator, Falkenau was selected three years later to deliver a commencement speech at Cornell and Whitman surfaced again. His speech was titled, The Poetry of the Future as Foreshadowed in the Writings of Walt Whitman . He also composed music and played violin and pianoforte. He was a member of the Irving Literary Society (a regular venue fo