Bibliophemera

Well, this is never a good look for a book shop. Or any business. What looks like a corpse being wheeled out of Mary's Book Shop in Milwaukee in this 1966 press photo, is a book salesman who survived a gunshot wound inside the store. I suppose his face is covered for privacy. So what happened? Mary's Book Shop, a benign name that belied a second-hand book shop known for its inventory of left-wing political texts, and rare publications, was a gathering space for radicals, activists, and intellectuals in Milwaukee. It's owners, Fred and Mary Blair, were prominent members of the Communist Party in Wisconsin. That earned them the label of major communist bookstore by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. In November 1966, a troubled 17-year-old walked into Mary's Book Shop at 318 W. Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee, carrying a gun and hell-bent on killing a communist (as he would later tell police). Fred Blair was in his sights, but a traveling book salesman, Ralph Sacks, happened to ...

Here is an elaborately illustrated Victorian trade card for bookseller Samuel J.W. Reynolds (or S.J.W. Reynolds) of Cooperstown, New York. I stumbled across it in my collection today and remembered blogging about it years ago—15 as it turns out. I thought I’d lost it! It’s one of my favorite items and deserves an upgrade in both the writing and imaging departments. I don’t recall having a scanner at the time and did the best I could with a cheap digital camera for the images. The die-cut card conveys an image, rich in colorful, busy detail, appropriately in the shape of a book. The binding of that book provides the business vitals, while the cover invokes an imaginative scene of mischievous elves at play while the owner's away. Actually, he's just returned and caught them in the act. See him in the upper-right corner of the card peering in from the doorway behind a slightly opened door. There is actually a method to the madness of the chaotic scene as it provides additional a...

This billhead from 1951 is from the Carnegie Book Shop, one of Midtown Manhattan's premier antiquarian booksellers during the 20th century. During the shop’s lifetime, it specialized in first editions, fine bindings, standard sets, rare autographs, historical documents, and manuscripts. The customer’s purchase reflects an example of the shop’s inventory with the notation  Burns , likely referring to the works of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns. The volumes were priced at $3.75 and $3.00, bringing the total order to $6.75, or $80 in today’s dollars. The shop's address on the bill, 140 East 59th Street, was across the street from Bloomingdale’s in a Midtown hub for high-end dealers for much of the 1900s. David Kirschenbaum, the book shop's proprietor, was a legendary figure in the New York rare book trade. He operated the Carnegie Book Shop for the majority of the 20th century. Kirschenbaum opened for business in 1928 on West 57th Street next door to Car...

Laughter provided by Theodore R. Ernst. The industrialist was H.M Quackenbush. The Great Depression was underway after the recent stock market crash of 1929. A good laugh was probably welcome. The author of this letter and publisher of the Laughter books was the impetus for this blog post when I acquired the letter, but he quickly fizzled out in research as someone of importance or general interest for the theme of this blog. The industrialist who ordered 50 books had the more interesting claim, with much information available on his life, though any ties to the book trades appear limited to being a buyer of books. But let's start with him. Henry Marcus Quackenbush (1847–1933) was an American inventor and industrialist who founded the H.M. Quackenbush Company in Herkimer, New York, in 1871. This letter addressed to Mr. Quackenbush in 1929 confirms he was still running his company, or at least had a hand in it, nearly 60 years after he founded it. He appears to have gotten his bu...

The Protective Association for Publishers and Booksellers was established in New York in 1888 in an attempt to help protect copyrights and enable publishers and authors to keep more of the profits. Regional publishers such as A.M. Thayer, were early pioneers in this effort. Authors such as Mark Twain were paid in royalties tied to the subscription orders. Twain, through his financially backed publishing company, Charles L. Webster & Company, also earned income this way from the publication of Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. A number of publishers used a network of subscription agents to secure orders that they'd take back to the publisher for fulfillment. They were contractually forbidden to sell to retail stores, which in turn would undercut the subscription prices that were generally two to three times higher than similar publications in retail stores. The agents at times wound up with overstock and the temptation was too much to make a buck. Add the piracy issue with cheap k...

A relic now of the pen and ink era, ink blotters fell by the wayside as ballpoint pens gained popularity in the 1950s and all but erased the need for an ink blotter. The ballpoint pen has suffered to some extent a similar fate in the digital world of today where much of our communication is done via texting, messaging, or emailing.  Ink blotters existed to do just that - blot ink on a handwritten piece to keep it from smearing, courtesy of an absorbent paper. For heavier stock paper blotters, such as this one printed on Wrenn's Porcelain Blotting--120-lb Light Buff, one side blotted while the other side advertised. Advertising blotters came about in late 1800s and had a good run to about mid-twentieth century. Union City, New Jersey printer, Herbert Grossman, used this ink blotter for advertising his business in 1932. They were giveaways to anyone who walked in the doors or ordered products through the mail. It seems a rather appropriate medium for a tradesman who dealt with ink on...