Behind the Bookshelves: Recent Episodes
AbeBooks
A podcast from AbeBooks. This series is dedicated to telling the stories behind books and the people who love them. We'll salute classic novels and famous authors, investigate long-forgotten books, and discuss publishing houses, libraries, bookshops, and anyone else with a bookish story to tell.
We're joined by Dianne Jacob, a writing coach who specializes in food writing. Dianne tutors would-be writers on writing and publishing books, and also writing freelance articles, and blogging. Many of her students have signed publishing deals with major publishers. Dianne is the author of Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs and More – a book that is essential for anyone wishing to write professionally about food. We discuss the most common mistakes made by would-be writers, Anthony Bourdain's impact, the art of writing recipes, and much more.
We go Down Under to learn about koalas with Australian zoologist Danielle Clode, who has written a new book called Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future. Koalas regularly appeared in Danielle’s backyard, but it was only when a bushfire came close that she started to pay closer attention to them. Her book shows how complex and mysterious they are. We discuss how koalas are affected by disease, climate change, wildfires, and over population.
We're joined by Tom Ayling who works for Jonkers Rare Books in Henley on Thames, in the UK. Tom has uploaded hundreds of videos to TikTok about a wide variety of bookish subjects, from The Hobbit first edition to rare bibles, Shakespeare First Folios, and collectible Harry Potters. Tom’s a master storyteller. His videos are educational and entertaining, and almost certainly winning a new audience for rare books.
Our Halloween episode. We're joined by Greg Melville, who is the author of a new book called Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of America’s Cemeteries. Greg has toured the United States, visiting notable historic cemeteries from Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and Boothill in Tombstone, Arizona. We discuss colonial sites, graveyards from the slavery era, celebrity graves, architecture, and nature, and never once mention ghosts.
We speak to Ariana Valderrama who has just won the inaugural David Ruggles Prize, which is a new book collecting contest designed to encourage and support young collectors of color. Ariana decided to focus on Toni Morrison but not her rather expensive first editions. Instead Ariana collects books that Morrison edited and books where she provided a blurb. We learn how Ariana started collecting during the pandemic and hear about the books in her award-winning collection.
In this episode, we learn about a remarkable luxury art book that celebrates Rome's Sistine Chapel. Nicholas Callaway and Manuela Roosevelt join us from Callaway Arts and Media. They've produced a 3-volume limited edition book about the Sistine Chapel that features 1:1 scale images of the chapel’s masterpieces by Michelangelo and the other Renaissance artists. We discover how this book - which is listed for sale on AbeBooks - was created over 5 years using state of the art technology. Each volume weighs 20lbs and measures 24 x 17 inches.
Our guest is Steven Ritterman, who joins us from New York. Steven has a collection of more than 300 John le Carré books, including first editions, signed copies, galleys and variants. John le Carré - who died in 2020 - is best known for his spy novels, particularly The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Le Carré wrote from a position of experience, having worked for the British security services in the 1950s and 1960s. Steven describes his quest for the complete le Carré collection, which includes meeting the author at a New York book signing event and comparing notes on le Carré’s debut book with a fellow collector. We discuss the Cold War, mundane spying processes, and the rising prices of rare le Carré books.
We're heading off to Cornwall to learn about the poet Charles Causley. His peers in the 1970s regarded his poetry to be on par with Ted Hughes and John Betjeman. Our guest is Nicola Nuttall who is acting director of the Charles Causley Trust, a registered charity that preserves Causley's legacy. The Trust's 2022 Causley Festival of Arts and Literature takes place in Launceston in Cornwall from July 29-31.
We meet Alba Melgar-C'De Baca who is currently working as an intern at rare book firm Type Punch Matrix through a new internship program organized by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA). The program places students or recent graduates who identify as Black, indigenous, or people of color with ABAA dealers for 10 weeks to learn the fundamentals of the book trade. It’s part of a larger ABAA initiative to promote a culture of diversity. We hear about Alba’s experiences in learning about what it takes to be an ABAA rare bookseller.
We are discussing two of the greatest leaders in Native American history – Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Both members of the Sioux Nation, they led the native forces at the Battle of Little Big Horn where General Custer famously met his end. Our guest is Mark Lee Gardner, the author of a new book called The Earth is all that Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation. It’s a biography of the two chiefs, and also looks at the decline of the Sioux Nation.
We welcome back author Alex Johnson, who has just released a new book called Rooms of their Own: Where Great Writers Write. It’s a beautifully illustrated book that describes the writing locations used by 50 famous authors. Alex show us attics, hotel rooms, huts, bedrooms, and basements where great literature was created. We discuss George Bernard Shaw's revolving hut, W.H. Auden's slum in New York, Roald Dahl's child-free hut, and much more.
The Mainstone Press publishes beautifully crafted books and limited edition prints on a range of British artists, who worked in the first half of the 20th century, artists such as Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Paul Nash, and John Piper. We speak to Tim Mainstone, who runs this independent publisher. about the appeal of Ravilious and these other artists.
We speak to Jennifer Phillips from the Minnesota Antiquarian Book Fair, which takes place on July 8-9 in St. Paul, Minnesota. We learn about the bookselling community in this part of the Midwest and how the fair aims to attract a new generation of book collectors.
The Yiddish Book Center was founded in 1980 by Aaron Lansky, a 24-year-old graduate student of Yiddish literature. He realized that many Yiddish books were being lost and he organized a campaign to save as many as possible. The Center, located in Amherst, Massachusetts, grew out of that campaign. Our guest is David Mazower, who is the Research Bibliographer and Editorial Director at the Yiddish Book Center. We learn about the books that arrive in boxes each day and how they are made available to readers of Yiddish.
We're talking about a new exhibition at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, which celebrates touching, tasting, seeing, smelling and hearing books. It looks at the sensory appeal of reading physical books from flip-books to pop-ups and even a book made from processed cheese slices. They even bottled the smell of books. Our guest is Kate Rudy, Professor of Art History at the University of St Andrews, who is one of the co-curators of this exhibition
We speak to retired bookseller Marius Kociejowski about his new book, A Factotum in the Book Trade. Marius began life in rural Ontario in Canada but moved to London where he embarked a long career in antiquarian bookselling with several notable firms. His book is a series of essays on the colleagues, collectors, literary figures and books that shaped his life from the 1970s onwards.
We are talking about collecting books and art associated with JRR Tolkien, the author who gave us The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Our guest is Mark Faith, who runs Festival Art and Books, a bookselling firm located near Machynlleth in Wales that has specialized in rare Tolkien books and fantasy art since 2001. From the impact of American paperback editions to the influence of Peter Jackson's movies, Mark reveals how demand for Tolkien's work has evolved over the decades.
Last November, Emma Littler could only look on in shock as her employer's warehouse filled with 400,000 books burned to the ground. The fire was devastating for Berwyn Books, located in Wales. But a new bookselling business, called the Berwyn Bookshop, is rising from the ashes. Emma and her husband Adam reveal how support from their local community helped to launch this new bookselling venture.
We are talking to journalist Oliver Milman about his new book, The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires that Run the World. Oliver, who is the environment correspondent on The Guardian newspaper, addresses the shocking decline in the number of insects in the world. He outlines the overall importance of insects from the pollination of plants to their vital role in the food chain, and describes how bees, butterflies and countless other insects are simply disappearing due to the loss of their natural habitat, pesticides, and climate change.
We are talking about the art of reading dangerously with guest Iranian American author Azar Nafisi, who was written a book called Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times. In 2003, Azar’s memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran became a worldwide bestseller as she shared her experiences of living, working and reading in Iran under its repressive regime. Read Dangerously is composed of letters to Azar’s father. Azar addresses immigration, Donald Trump, The Handmaid's Tale, George Floyd and James Baldwin, and Pandemic existence, while also contemplating her former life in Iran.
Today we are learning about the David Ruggles Prize, which is a book collecting contest designed to encourage and support young collectors of color. Our guests are Sara Powell, who is one of the prize judges, and Pat Olson, who is Assistant to the Prize Jury.
On Gold Mountain by Lisa See was published in 1995. It’s a remarkable memoir that tells the story of one Chinese American family and their immigrant experience. The book is still making headlines today. It has been adapted into an opera with a new production planned for May, and it has also become a teaching resource. Lisa explains how the memoir has impacted her own family and influenced her career.
Author Neal Thompson is our guest as we discuss his latest book - The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty, which describes the early years of the family made world famous by John F Kennedy. We learn how two young Irish people arrived in Boston, met and married and created a family that would go on to shape American politics. The book’s principle figures are Bridget, one of those two immigrants, and her son PJ, who was JFK’s grandfather. PJ was the first Kennedy elected to public office.
Today we consider broken hearts. Our guest is journalist Florence Williams who has written a book called Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey. Sadly, Florence’s marriage unexpectedly collapsed after 25 years and she decided to investigate the science behind a broken heart and turned her learnings into a book. This is a podcast about love, loneliness and recovery.
In 1950, poet Gwendolyn Brooks became the first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize following her second book, Annie Allen. We speak to Nic Caldwell from the Morgan Library & Museum in New York about their latest exhibition - Gwendolyn Brooks: A Poet’s Work In Community. We learn about Gwendolyn's Chicago roots, her passion for mentoring, and the importance of her poetry.
We speak to Steve Powell, who runs the Bar Harbor Book Shop on Mount Desert Island in Maine. He sells as the Mystery Cove Book Shop on AbeBooks. Steve's been selling books for 40 years and is an expert in collectible mystery and crime books. Learn about his most expensive sale, a couple of bookshop dogs called Simon Templar and Lord Peter Wimsey, and life in this corner of the United States.
Join us as we speak to Mikko and Mari Vartiainen from Moraine Books in Finland. This is a family business selling used and antiquarian books - Mari is Mikko's daughter. We learn about the evolution of their business, which included publishing, and discuss the huge influence of Tove Jansson and the Moomins on Finnish culture. With only 5.5 million people in Finland, Mikko and Mari provide a wonderful insight in this country's deep love of books and literature.
This episode is about the great American author John Steinbeck and his novel, The Grapes of Wrath. We are speaking to Ellen Ffrench from SP Books, which has published a large format reproduction of Steinbeck’s original handwritten manuscript. Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath in 1938, writing in 2 oversized ledgers. The book would become his greatest achievement and the defining novel of America’s Depression era. Listen to Ellen explain about the manuscript's notes and marginalia, and how Steinbeck crafted this masterpiece.
Join us as we speak to Nialle Sylvan from the Haunted Bookshop in Iowa City. We learn about the 1847 building that houses her used bookstore and numerous cats, life in a university town, and how this bookshop got its name.
We are joined by Jovanka Hammond who owns Hammonds Books & Antiques in St Louis, Missouri. Jovanka's journey into bookselling began in 1979 with Art Deco collectibles. Today, her store features books, jewelry, antiques and prints. We learn about Jovanka's dogs and a parrot with a taste for literature, the prohibition tunnel in the basement, and how customers sometimes get locked in the store.
We speak to bookseller Vic Zoschak, who runs Tavistock Books in Alameda, California, and has sold on AbeBooks for 25 years. Vic explains how he took up bookselling after many years of rescuing people. He discusses his interest in Charles Dickens and the most memorable Dickens object that he ever handled (and it wasn't a book). Join us for 20 special minutes with a remarkable rare bookseller.
To continue our 25th anniversary celebrations, we speak to Jenny and Patrick Kalahar, who runs The Story Shop bookselling account on AbeBooks. Jenny and Patrick previously owned bookshops in Michigan and Ohio, while Jenny, an author, has published 14 books. Listen to their adventures in books from dressing up as Edgar Allan Poe to writing books about cats and answering bookish questions on a call-in radio show.
We interview Dr Adam Stern about his just-published book, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training, which describes his four-year residency in Harvard's Medical Program. Adam offers an insight into the psychiatry profession, from the unpredictable experience of treating patients for the first time to suffering from the imposter syndrome.
To continue our 25th anniversary celebrations, we speak to Tom Lecky from Riverrun Books & Manuscripts in Ardsley, New York. Riverrun Books has sold with AbeBooks since 1996 with Tom buying the business in 2016. Previously, Tom was head of the printed books & manuscripts department at Christie’s in New York. He is also a book appraiser on PBS' Antiques Roadshow. As you can imagine, we have a lot to discuss.
To kick off our 25th anniversary celebrations, we interview bookseller Ray Boas from Walpole, New Hampshire, who has sold with AbeBooks since 1996 - our first year in business. We learn about Ray's adventures in bookselling from the early days of the internet to opening his own bookshop after retiring from the US Navy.
We are joined by Meg Dillon, a former BBC librarian, who explains about her new adventure in books. Meg runs the Small Library Company where she buys, sells and organizes books for small private collections. We also learn about Meg's first impressions of life in the rare bookselling business.
We are pulling on our hiking boots and stepping out on to the Appalachian Trail with author Philip D’anieri. Philip has written a book called The Appalachian Trail: A Biography which looks at the people behind the conception and construction of the trail over a period of 150 years. We discuss Bill Bryson and his 1998 book about the trail, the first person to walk the length of the trail, the volunteers who created and still maintain the trail, and how hiking is a relatively modern pastime.
Books written in blood, poisonous books, and edible books are just three of the topics covered in this episode. We are joined by Edward Brooke-Hitching, the author of The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and other Literary Curiosities from History, who also explains about a book made from slices of cheese and numerous other literary oddities. This is a podcast episode devoted to the weird, unusual and eccentric.
We speak to grammarian Bryan Garner about rare grammar books. One hundred books from Bryan’s collection of 1,900 books about grammar and 4,000 dictionaries are currently on display at the Grolier Club in New York. We learn how a teenage crush sparked Bryan’s love of grammar, how Noah Webster was instrumental in the spelling differences between British and American English, and how grammar continues to evolve.
Allie Alvis is our guest as we explore book history. Allie creates easy-to-understand bite-size YouTube videos to explain rare book terminology. We discuss her love of rare books, including how Led Zeppelin and Monty Python can help us understand book collecting terms.
We interview Julia Cooke, who has written a book called Come Fly the World: The Jet Age Story of the Women of Pan Am. Julia’s book looks at the young women who became stewardesses with Pan Am in the 1960s and 1970s. She tells the stories of several American women who were the right height, right weight and under 26 years of age to qualify for a job at Pan Am. From women’s rights to the Vietnam War, Julia explores the role played by these women as the world became a whole lot smaller.
In this episode, we learn about rare Islamic books in the company of Roxana Kashani, who was recently hired to lead a new Islamic department at Shapero Rare Books in London. From the importance of the Quran to an early pioneer of fiction, we take a journey through the rare books of the Islamic world
They were the bestsellers of the Middle Ages. In this episode, we speak to Sandra Hindman, who runs Les Enluminures, a business dedicated to selling manuscripts and miniatures from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Sandra explains what books of hours contained, who owned them, how they were decorated and the purpose they served. Step back in time with AbeBooks and this expert bookseller.
Annie Buscemi and Natasya Zambri are booksellers who have gone mobile. Located in Queenstown, New Zealand, they have a bookstore on wheels - a Nissan van filled with books for sale. Listen to our interview as we hear about their adventures in mobile bookselling.
What's the definition of bookishness? We are joined by Jessica Pressman who is the associate professor of English and comparative literature at San Diego State University. Jessica is the author of Bookishness, Loving Books in a Digital Age. She explains how bookishness is represented in 21st century culture and how print is loved while surrounded by digital media. We discuss book-themed objects, films, Instagram, experimental writing and... mermaids.
Several years ago, AbeBooks created a reading list called 100 (Fiction) Books to Read in a Lifetime. We are joined by Monica MacMillan, who is attempting to read every book on the list, which ranges from famous classics like Moby Dick and Fahrenheit 451 to contemporary fiction such as The Road and Life of Pi. Join us and learn about Monica's literary quest.
We investigate one of the great literary mysteries – the 11-day disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926 - with Marie Benedict, the author of The Mystery of Mrs Christie. Marie used a fictional narrative to imagine the disappearance and the events leading up to it. A real-life mystery about the queen of fictional mysteries.
We are joined by Pen Vogler who is the author of Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain. The book investigates British food traditions from humble fish and chips to posh dinner parties. We discuss tea, comfort food, curries, Cornish pasties, pork pies, avocado, and oranges in Christmas stockings.
We are joined by Cheryl Alexander, a conservation photographer based in Victoria, British Columbia. Her book, Takaya Lone Wolf describes the remarkable life of a wolf that lived for 7 years on a group of small islands just off the coast of Victoria, a city of 300,000 people. We learn how Cheryl studied and photographed Takaya on numerous visits to the islands, and about this animal's lasting legacy in British Columbia.
We meet the team from The Sifter, an international, collaborative database of cookbooks designed to help people answer their food-related questions. Containing details of 8,000 authors and more than 7,000 works, The Sifter is a remarkable research tool detailing cookbooks and their contents down to the ingredients for particular recipes. We learn how the database has been years in the making and how it’s going to help scholars, researchers, cooks, scientists, and historians.
We return to Portland, Oregon, and speak to Rachel Phillips and Roger Hucek from Burnside Rare Books. They specialize in 20th century literature and signed books, and they have been selling books together since 2006. We discuss their bookselling evolution, the importance of photography, book fairs and much more.
We're at the ballpark, talking baseball. Bookseller Bobby Plapinger, from Ashland in Oregon, joins us. Bobby is a specialist baseball book dealer. Babe Ruth, early baseball books, cards vs books, and the belated interest in the Negro Leagues are just some of the topics we discuss.
Learn how John Stone, from the University of Barcelona, discovered a rare 1634 edition of Shakespeare's play The Two Noble Kinsmen, co-written with John Fletcher, in the library of a small Scottish college in Spain.
Today, we are Flintshire in the UK, visiting the UK's only residential library. We speak with Peter Francis who is the Warden and Director of Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, which is a few miles west of Chester. William Ewart Gladstone served 4 separate terms as Britain's prime minster between in 1868 and 1894. Today his personal library is available to the public, housed in a building where you can also spend the night. Join us to learn more about this remarkable library.
Today, we head to County Mayo on the west coast of the Republic of Ireland and speak to Roger Grimes, who is the co-owner of a bookshop and antiques business located in Mulranny. Vanessa Parker Rare Books and its sister business Greenway Antiques share a beautiful white-walled cottage. Vanessa does the books and Roger sells the antiques. Join us to hear about life and business in this beautiful part of the world.
We are joined by author and printmaker Nick Hayes, who has written a book called The Book of Trespass. Nick takes us into some of England’s grandest country estates… as a trespasser. He writes about how easy it to trespass and what he encountered while trespassing. He also writes at length about the history of trespassing in England – from the years following the Norman Conquest to today’s campaigns over the right to roam through the British countryside. We discuss the history of land ownership and the importance of having access to the countryside.
We are talking about bookselling in the Balkans with Ian Dodds, who is an AbeBooks bookseller based in Bulgaria. Ian and his wife left the UK in 2007 to live and work in Bulgaria, and we hear about how they established an online bookselling business in a mountain village close to the border with Greece.
In our latest podcast, we speak to Church of Scotland minister Richard Frazer, who is the author of Travels With a Stick, a book about walking the Camino de Santiago. We discuss blisters, Robert Macfarlane’s influence on walking literature, John Muir’s dislike of the word 'hiking', and why pilgrimages are important.
We return to the subject of things found in used books. Our guest is Emma Smreker, a school teacher from Oklahoma City, who collects secondhand books in order to discover the forgotten things left inside. When she comes across something particularly poignant, such as a letter or a photo or a poem, she researches the item and tries to return it to the original owner. Learn about the remarkable connections that Emma is making through these forgotten objects.
We visit the theatre and discuss Shakespearean deaths with author Kathryn Harkup, who has written a book called Death by Shakespeare. Kathryn looked at how the Bard killed off his characters and asked if these deaths were realistic. She considered science, medicine, disease, weaponry, poisons, crimes and punishments, and Elizabethan history. We discuss Shakespeare's bloodiest play, how he didn't always get it right, the Bard's stagecraft skills and how he probably got some assistance from his son-in-law. And also the ups and downs of being pursued by a bear.
We are joined by Julie Anne Lambert, who is the Librarian of the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, to discuss the Bodleian's Art of Advertising exhibition. We talk about the origins of the Johnson Collection, what ephemera tells us about history, the importance of soap, and the early advertising posters.
We’re discussing the American artist Jo Mora (1876-1947) with Peter Hillier from the Jo Mora Trust. Mora should be much better known than he is. He worked across many mediums, including books and maps, and dedicated much of his work to the American West and particularly California. Mora was a cartoonist, a sculptor, a painter, a photographer, an author and an illustrator. He traveled and lived in Arizona and California where he recorded, through his art, the lives of the Hopi and Navajo Native Americans. He grew to understand the Cowboy culture firsthand by extensively travelling through California on horseback on his own. As his career blossomed, his sculptures appeared throughout California.
We are discussing the legacy of pioneering botanist Joseph Banks with Mark James from Type & Forme, a rare bookselling firm in the UK. Banks traveled to Australia with Captain Cook on a voyage that began in 1768 and ended in 1771. Along the way, Banks and his colleagues discovered and recorded around 1,300 previously undocumented botanical species. We learn how Banks revolutionized botany and yet failed to publish a book of his work during his lifetime.
We are joined by Christin Geall, the author of Cultivated: The Elements of Floral Style - a new book about floral design. With almost 100,000 followers on Instagram, Christin is a designer, writer, gardener, and photographer. Her book features stunning photography of arrangements and offers advice to anyone who wants to get creative with cut flowers.
Today, we are going on a journey to Middle-Earth. We speak to John Garth, the author of The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired Middle-earth. John's book identifies the real places that inspired the fictional locations of The Shire, Rivendell, Mirkwood, and Mordor. Learn about Tolkien's childhood, his WWI experiences in the trenches, and his dislike for Oxford traffic.
The Book of Black Magic, written by mystic A.E. Waite, was first published in 1898. A prolific author, Waite was a member of a secret magical society devoted to the occult and he also co-created one of the most popular of all tarot decks. Discover the story behind Waite's Book of Black Magic.
Our guest is Michael Vinson, the author of Bluffing Texas Style: The Arsons, Forgeries, and High Stakes Poker Capers of Rare Book Dealer Johnny Jenkins. A bookseller who blazed a trail through Texas and the rare book world, Jenkins ended up dead through a gunshot to the head as his debts and crimes spiraled out of control. Listen to our interview and learn more about the capers of this poker-playing rare book dealer.
They always say that you should try, try and try again. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M Persig, has sold more than 5 million copies since being published in 1974. And yet, it was rejected by 121 publishers before finally being printed. Discover how this book became one of the most unlikely bestsellers of the 20th century.
Daniel is a specialist map dealer and co-owner of Daniel Crouch Rare Books, which offers antique atlases, maps, plans, sea charts and descriptions of voyages. The business has galleries in London and New York. We discuss the importance of knowing the story behind a rare map, data visualization maps, pictorial maps, and why collectors are drawn to historical maps and atlases.
Today, we are going fishing… in a podcast way. We’re joined by Jim Dixon, who is a bookseller on AbeBooks and located in Derbyshire in the UK. Jim specializes in antiquarian books about the English countryside, including the pastime of angling. He also has an exceptional collection dedicated to The Compleat Angler, the most important of all angling books.
The Dawn Treader Book Shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, needs help after being forced to close due to Covid-19. It has launched a GoFundMe appeal to raise funds. Africa Schaumann, the shop's manager, explains how the Dawn Treader serves the local community and what they are doing to stay afloat.
Conan the Barbarian was created by pulp writer Robert E Howard and we are joined by Arlene Stephenson from the Robert E Howard Museum in Cross Plains, Texas. We discuss Howard's pulp fiction writing career, the enduring popularity of Conan, the author's tragic death at just 30, and how this small museum attracts Howard fans from around world.
We’re talking about law with bookseller Greg Talbot from the Lawbook Exchange. Founded in 1983, the Lawbook Exchange specializes in all aspects of law and the history of law. We learn how the business began and its international scope. Greg reveals the historical importance of law books from the Magna Carta to Napoleon and the Federalist in the US. Did you know there’s also legal poetry?
We are joined by bookseller Brian Cassidy who, in 2019, launched a bookselling firm called Type Punch Matrix, along with Rebecca Romney. Brian describes his journey from poet to bookseller, and reveals why he teaches at bookseller education events. Our conversation ranges from modern duplicating technologies to Sex Pistols flyers.
We are joined by Sandra Hindman, the owner of Les Enluminures, a business dedicated to selling manuscripts and miniatures from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Sandra describes her transition from the academic world. She talks about her galleries in New York, Paris and Chicago, and her customers around the world. She explains why Books of Hours were so important in the Middle Ages and what it is like to handle a book once owned by a French king.
We speak to Emily St John Mandel about her latest novel, The Glass Hotel. You may remember her worldwide bestseller, Station 11, from 2014. Emily tells us about her fascination with the shipping industry, her journey from ballet to New York, and how a financial scandal inspired The Glass Hotel.
We speak to book collector John Blaney about famous authors who wrote for adults but yet also wrote children’s books. Examples include James Baldwin, Truman Capote, William Faulkner and Graham Greene. An exhibition at the Grolier Club in New York showcases some of John's modern first editions where he has selected 40 children’s books from his collection and paired each one with a famous novel from that particular author’s work for adults.
We are joined by David Pacheco, who is a creative director at Disney. David collects books and journals about origami. We learn about the history and traditions of origami, the cultural significance of origami in Japan, and the most prized item in David’s extensive collection.
In this episode, we look at Margot Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures following the death of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, and we also ask if Hilary Mantel can win a third Booker Prize with her latest Tudor-era novel about Thomas Cromwell. Plus we remember adventure author Clive Cussler.
In this short episode, AbeBooks looks at some of the things making headlines in the book world this week, including the loss of author Charles Portis, the effect of Outlander on Scottish tourism, an unusual tribute to Iain Banks, and the most expensive item to sell on AbeBooks last week.
Sherlockian is the American term for someone who is devoted to Sherlock Holmes. We interview Denny Dobry from the Beacon Society – an organization dedicated to providing educational resources about Sherlock Holmes to schools and libraries. We discuss Sherlock’s first appearances in print, why Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories are still relevant today, and how the stories have remained popular thanks to Hollywood, television and Sherlockian societies like the Beacon Society.
We speak to Peter Robinson from the University of Saskatchewan about how his team has just launched an app that brings us Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the original colloquial Middle English. The free app is the first edition in a planned series. It features a 45-minute audio performance of the General Prologue from the Tales along with the digitized manuscript and supporting content. We discuss Chaucer's influence on the English language, his social status in the 14th century and his other writing work.
We are joined by bookseller David Abel who owns Passages Bookshop in Portland, Oregon. David discusses his life in bookselling from being a book scout to running bookshops in New York, Albuquerque and now Portland. We also learn how a break-in recently affected Passages Bookshop and how a famous bibliophile offered to help.
Bestselling author David Baldacci speaks to us about the Amelia Island Book Festival, which occurs in February. David, honorary chair of the 2020 festival, explains the appeal of Amelia Island, why he supports book festivals, and reveals the most unusual question that he's been asked at a festival.
If you like pubs and literary history then you will enjoy this podcast. We interview Eric Chase. His company offers literary pub crawls and walking tours around New York's Greenwich Village and Brooklyn too. We discuss Dylan Thomas and the White Horse Tavern, Washington Square's long history, and numerous authors from Edith Wharton to Jack Kerouac. We also discover who is most likely to over-indulgence on a literary pub crawl. Buckle up for a books and beer podcast.
We are joined by Erik Kwakkel, a professor in book history at the University of British Columbia. Erik explains the commercial trade behind medieval manuscripts, including the role of scribes in the period before the invention of movable type. We learn how these tradesmen advertised their services, where you'd find them, and about their customers.
We're talking about mountaineering books with Eric Rueth, the library manager of the American Alpine Club in Golden, Colorado. The library has more than 50,000 books covering mountaineering history, mountain culture, and climbing routes. We discuss George Mallory, Everest, Into Thin Air, and the origins of mountaineering books.
We are joined by Aimee Peake, who is the owner of Bison Books in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. This antiquarian bookshop opened in 2000 and Aimee took over the business in 2010. It offers around 20,000 books for sale. We discuss Aimee’s start in bookselling aged 19, her mentor, the infamous Winnipeg winters, her bookstore dog-in-training, and the joy of Kitchen Confidential.
We are joined by author & bibliophile Stuart Kells, who has written a book called Shakespeare’s Library. He investigates the mystery of what happened to Shakespeare’s library. For centuries, people have searched for it – but there has been no trace of the Bard’s manuscripts, books, or letters. We also touch on booksellers, fraudsters, actors and the vital question of who actually wrote the Shakespeare plays.
We are joined by William Kalush, who is the director of the Conjuring Arts Research Center in New York. The Center is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of performance magic, including the history of playing cards, ventriloquism, juggling, deception, and sleight of hand tricks. The Center offers an extensive library of books and periodicals. and aims to provide the world’s most expansive collection of material relating to conjuring. We discuss Ricky Jay, Tommy Cooper, Houdini, the history of conjuring books, and how the Center was created.
We interview collector, bookseller and activist Lisa Unger Baskin, who has amassed a vast collection of books and printed material dedicated to showing women in work over the centuries. Now placed with Duke University, highlights from the collection will be exhibited at the Grolier Club in Manhattan. Lisa describes how she put the collection together, and how humble objects can shed light on women’s role in work and society.
Michael Ciancone works as a NASA engineer. In his spare time, he collects early books about rockets and spaceflight. His collection spans more than 600 books published prior to 1958, including many hard-to-find titles from Russian authors. In our latest podcast, Michael discusses his collection and the challenges of collecting books on such a specialist subject.
We interview Doris Moskowitz, owner of Moe’s Books in Berkeley. With four floors of books, Moe’s has been a bookselling institution since the 1960s when Berkeley was at the heart of America’s free speech movement. We discuss her father, Moe, her mom, Barbara, cigars, hippies, the 1960s, being a working mom, being fired, the nearby university, millennial confusion, and why Moe’s has a huge philosophy section.
We are joined by Shawn Sheehy from the Movable Book Society. The society was founded in 1993 to share enthusiasm about pop-up and movable books. Shawn is a book artist and a paper engineer. Discover how pop-up books are created, their long history, and why paper engineering fascinates children, collectors and people who love books when the art that literally pops up off the page.
We are joined by Sadie Hirst, a food historian from Lincolnshire in the UK. Sadie is a collector of antiquarian and vintage cookbooks. She also speaks about food history at numerous events and runs historical cookery workshops. We discuss what cookbooks tell us about history, Georgian recipes, butter-making kitchenalia, and other mouthwatering topics.
We’re at the movies and talking about the growing phenomenon of collecting film scripts. Bookseller and author Kevin Johnson reveals why film scripts are so desirable, how studios and production teams have created and used scripts over the decades, the most expensive script he has ever sold, and why scripts from Night of the Living Dead are so difficult to find.
We are joined by Lisa Fagin Davis, who is the Executive Director of the Medieval Academy of America, to discuss the on-going mystery of the Voynich Manuscript. Housed in the Yale library, this 15th century manuscript is written in a language that can't be decoded. Lisa explains why so many theories about its meaning and creation just don't add up.
We are joined by bo0k restorer Sophia Bogle, who has just written a book called Book Restoration Unveiled. Sophia now teaches book restoration. Her book explains the craft through case studies, illustrations, and interviews with clients and people in the industry. Our interview tackles the tools, the terminology, the most common forms of damage, the pros and cons of restoration, and some of the remarkable repair jobs that have come her way in the past 25 years.
The Dance of Death is a grim art genre, found in books and art, that began in the 15th century where Death appears in the living world in order to claim its next victim. Professor and author Elina Gertsman from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio explains the origins of these grisly illustrations where Death can never be avoided.
Iron Dog Books is a red van - a mobile bookshop that brings affordable books to many parts of Vancouver. We speak to Hilary Atleo who runs, and drives, this bookselling business with her husband Cliff. We discuss the van's connection to boat-building, city bylaws, and how people react to a bookshop on wheels.
Medellee Antonioli is part of the new generation of booksellers. The 34-year-old is now the proud owner of a used bookstore after buying the Used Book Emporium in Bozeman, Montana. She joins us to discuss the joys and challenges of buying a bookshop, and fulfilling one of her dreams. If you’ve ever wanted to own a bookstore, then this podcast interview is for you.
A bestiary is an encyclopedia of animals, both real and mythical. Popular in the Middles Ages, these books often featured beautiful illuminated illustrations of unicorns and other fantastic beasts. The Getty Museum in LA is currently staging an exhibition called 'Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World', and Larissa Grollemond, from the Getty, joins us to explain the significance of these remarkable books.
Our is guest is Matthew Budman, the author of Book Collecting Now: The Value of Print in a Digital Age. His book is a complete guide to collecting in the modern world. We discuss the new generation of young book collectors and the rise of female collectors.
Author Jen Campbell has numerous strings to her bow. She's written non-fiction, poetry, short stories and children's picture books, as well as being a book reviewer and a podcaster. Jen's love of books, fairy tales and storytelling shines through in her writing. We discuss dragons, bookshops, bookselling, and how villains have been traditionally portrayed in fiction.
We interview Ciara Farrell who is the Library and Collections Manager at the Kennel Club, the UK’s largest organisation dedicated to protecting and promoting the health and welfare of dogs. If you have almost any question about a dog, then this specialist library, founded in 1873, has the resources to answer it.
We interview Carly Maris, the founder of the Pinup Book Club, a community dedicated to reading the books from Marilyn Monroe’s personal library of 400+ titles, and also appreciating pinup culture.
We interview Nicole Kilburn, who is an anthropologist at Camosun College in Victoria, BC. Nicole is the author of a book called The Future has an Ancient Heart: Southern Italian Food Traditions in a Modern World. So that means we are talking about Italy, food and history.
We interview Anthony Casillo who repairs, collects and sells vintage typewriters. He is the author of a book called Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing, which features 80 machines from his personal collection. We speak about Tom Hanks, Ian Fleming, carrying typewriters on the subway, repairs and the dusty typewriter that started Anthony's interest in these machines.
Our guest is British author and journalist Alex Johnson, who has written about garden sheds, book lists, and book towns. The interview ranges from George Bernard Shaw's writing shed to the books that Ikea use in catalog photography and Scotland's beautiful book town.
Should be simple? But there’s a whole world of jargon to understand. From foxing to marginalia, we attempt to explain the terminology of the used book business and offer some golden rules to remember when buying a secondhand copy.
The Doors, Thompson Twins, Supertramp, Tears for Fears.... there are numerous bands that took their names from books. We look at the stories behind some of these band names, and discover the impact of Billy Idol's mum and the villain in David Copperfield.
Simon Garfield is the author of In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate The World - a study of miniature things and the people who create them. We discuss model trains (and Rod Stewart), miniature villages, flea circuses, matchstick models of ships, tiny books and so much more.
We pull on our hiking boots and discuss writers who made some seriously long walks and then wrote about them.There's Patrick Leigh Fermor, who walked 1,590 miles across Europe, and Laurie Lee who walked around Spain. There's also Thoreau, Wordsworth, Bill Bryson, Cheryl Strayed and several wandering poets. Enjoy the show.
Annie Barrows is the co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, one of the most popular novels of the past 10 years. Hear how Annie became involved in a project started by her aunt Mary Ann Schaffer. We discuss occupied Guernsey, early book clubs, epistolary fiction, and the challenge of writing for both children and adults.
Our guest is award-winning Canadian wine critic Natalie MacLean. She is the author of two books about wine, hosts a podcast about vino, and runs a website that is a huge resource for winelovers. We discuss the world’s top vineyards, $15 wines versus $30 wines, tasting in the digital age, wine in literature, pairings with food, & much more.
With The Very Hungry Caterpillar celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019, we speak to Courtney Waring from The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, an institution dedicated to inspiring a love of art and reading through picture books. We trace the history of Carle’s classic book, which began as A Week with Willi the Worm, his involvement with the museum and discuss the importance of picture books.
A new book fair is about to make its debut. Rare Books Los Angeles occurs on February 1 and 2. We interview Brad and Jen Johnson, the husband and wife bookselling team, who are organizing the event. We discuss the fair, their bookshop dog, heavy metal books, Wayne's World, acting, menus, vintage board games, and Hugh Hefner's library.
Scott Wallace Baker has been proclaimed Australia's biggest Agatha Christie collector. Scott describes his book collection and the other objects that he also collects. Dedicated to the world's most famous writer of detective fiction, Scott has traveled to places associated with Agatha Christie and has a deep knowledge of this author's remarkable life. Enjoy our interview with this very special collector.
"A boot camp for booksellers," that's how Anthony Smithson describes the York Antiquarian Book Seminar in the latest AbeBooks podcast. Anthony is a co-founder of this annual event and he also owns Keel Row Books, an antiquarian bookshop in North Shields in the UK. Enjoy our interview with bookseller Anthony Smithson.
We interview Rebecca Baumann about her collection of books covering crime, science fiction, horror and pulp paperbacks. Rebecca's day job is working as a librarian at Indiana University's Lilly Library but this interview covers her wide-ranging personal book collection, which stretches from HP Lovecraft to Arthur Machen, and Shirley Jackson, as well as a host of less famous authors.
We interview Lisa Grimm, who collects books about ghostlore, general folklore and weird fiction. Her shelves are filled with ghosts, hauntings and nasty things going on in the woods. Lisa, a former librarian, describes her collection and the inspirations behind it.
Lee Israel was a run-of-the-mill author of non-fiction books, who became an exceptional forger of literary letters by the rich and famous. Melissa McCarthy plays Israel in a movie adaptation, released this week, of her 2008 memoir. Discover the story behind Israel's journey from author to criminal.
Sons who have followed in their literary fathers' footsteps and become authors are surprisingly common. Perhaps it’s the genes? We look at 1o pairs of fathers and sons who wrote, visiting France, the UK, Canada and the United States along the way.
He's looking good for a bear from Darkest Peru who is now 60 years old. Paddington Bear is much more than just a hero of a children's book series. His introduction was inspired by wartime evacuees, and there are several other aspects to his bear that make him exceptionally lovable. Discover the story behind Paddington.
Rockwell Kent had three special talents – art, writing and adventuring. Best known for his Art Deco illustrations, Kent was also shipwrecked off the coast of Greenland and he described the experience in a 1930 book called N by E. Learn about this remarkable artist with a passion for traveling.
We all make them but mistakes in the publishing world can come back to haunt you. From Harry to Carrie and le Carré, discover how some of the world's bestselling books were initially rejected by publishers who thought they were not good enough.
Many of you will be familiar with the dark Netflix crime drama Ozark. But did you know Ozark has sparked interest in a 1929 first edition by Thomas Wolfe worth thousands of dollars? Listen to the show and we'll unravel the mystery.
The Voynich Manuscript has been confusing clever people since the 15th century. It's an illustrated document written in an unknown language that has defeated all efforts to decipher it. Herbology and pharmacy, astronomy and cosmology, and human biology appear to be the main subjects. Join AbeBooks as we consider this on-going mystery.
The Hobbit was published on 21 September, 1937, and only 1,500 copies were printed. It was a landmark day for modern literature. Learn how the original version was altered after JRR Tolkien realized he had written a book that was going to become immensely popular.
In 2015, AbeBooks sold an original, Russian-language copy of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak for $11,000. The bookseller's description read: "Original blue cloth. The true first edition in Russian, one of 1,160 copies, which was printed as part of a covert CIA publishing and propaganda program for distributing banned material to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe." A dramatic claim but it's true. Learn about this epic story of love, loneliness and the CIA's desire to destablize the Soviet Union.
Amy Stewart is an old friend of AbeBooks. We've been following her writing career for many years and saw her move from non-fiction to historical crime fiction. She is also the co-owner of Eureka Books, a bookshop in Northern California. In September, Amy's latest novel is released. Called Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit, this book is the fourth installment in the Kopp Sisters series. A mystery set in the middle of hotly contested election in 1916, Constance Kopp, one of the America's first deputy sheriffs, battles prejudice as a woman is declared insane. Amy shares her thoughts on historical research, book clubs and crime-fighting women.
An unlikely bestseller from 1968 was the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada - a handbook for Americans who wanted to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War by fleeing to Canada. Discover the origins of a book that shaped the lives of thousands of young people during a period of immense social turmoil.
Amy Bronee has a wonderful cookbook to her name. It's called The Canning Kitchen 101 Simple Small Batch Recipes, and it was published by Penguin in 2015. Amy works just around the corner from the AbeBooks HQ, and she visited our office to explain how she got noticed by a major publisher. This podcast is all about relishes, pickles, jams and jellies, and what it takes to become a publisher author.
We go beyond Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle to recommend books set in London. From a genre-defining non-fiction book about Arsenal FC to fictional descriptions of the immigrant experience by Zadie Smith and Hanif Kureishi, we cast our eye across a wide selection of books.
Snow White, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid. We all know and love these gentle fairytales. But are you familiar with the original versions? Many popular fairytales started as gruesome tales of violence and killing. Discover the grisly origins of these stories and that there isn't always a Prince Charming.
Be careful what you use as a bookmark. Thousands of dollars, a letter written by CS Lewis, a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a 19th century marriage certificate, a baby’s tooth, and a diamond ring are just some of the stranger objects discovered inside used books by AbeBooks sellers over the years.
AbeBooks visits Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of British Columbia Library to learn about how they work and who they serve. From early exploration to immigration and settlement, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad, learn about some of the remarkable books, art, ephemera and other objects that are housed in this specialized institutional library.
An ex-library book is a book that once belonged to a public library or institution and has been 'discarded' after being deemed no longer useful. They are humble but useful things. This podcast pays tribute to these former library books getting a second lease of life on the used book market.
Discover the background to Ray Bradbury's classic dystopian book-burning novel from 1953 and why it's still relevant today.
F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel from 1925 can be found everywhere. It’s loved by readers for its exquisite prose but it’s also adored by collectors, primarily for its dust jacket. When complete with its original dust jacket, a first edition of The Great Gatsby is one of the most expensive modern editions. Just such a copy sold for $180,000 in 2009. Discover the story behind that beautiful blue dust jacket and why it's so valuable.
Of all the memorable tales to emerge from the Great War, the most remarkable one is untrue. The Angels of Mons is a legend that evolved from a ghost story. In 1914, Arthur Machen published a short story called The Bowmen in a newspaper. It described how phantom archers from the Battle of Agincourt had come to the rescue of British soldiers fighting against the Germans in the Battle of Mons a month earlier. People thought Machen's story was factual and the myth of the Angels of Mons began.
The Savoy Cocktail Book is the coolest book in the world. Firstly, it's a one-off, the author, Harry Craddock, never wrote another book. Secondly, cocktails, in modicum, will never go out of style. And finally, it's beautiful and perfectly captures the mood of the Art Deco era. Discover the magic of this famous cocktail recipe book from 1930.
We’re talking Pulp with Mike Chomko, programming and marketing director of PulpFest. Discover the origins of the early Pulp magazines, how authors churned out story after story, the formula behind the lurid cover artwork, and how “new” pulp is bringing crime, sci-fi and adventure writing to a new audience with modern editions.
Jordan and Andrea Minter are the husband and wife team who run Russell Books, a bookshop in Victoria, British Columbia, that now employees 50 staff and offers thousands of new, used and rare books. We learn how the shop started in the 1960s in Montreal. We learn about the odds things that customers say. We learn about the strange things that are left behind in used books.
Ryan M. Place is the creator and chairman of the Detroit Bookfest. This festival of books is a huge event on July 15, dedicated to everything bookish with a major focus on used and rare books. We ask Ryan about the Motor City's book culture, John King's epic bookstore and how the festival began.
Eleven years ago, author-chef-TV star Anthony Bourdain came to town and took a group of foodies to brunch. This episode features memories of that brief encounter and remembers the impact of his ground-breaking memoir about the New York restaurant trade, Kitchen Confidential.
Although LGBT is now a thriving literary genre, it wasn't always this way. Discover the pioneering authors who paved the way with key books in the 19th century and early decades of the 20th century. From big names like Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf and Patricia Highsmith to long forgotten authors who have faded into obscurity, we take a tour of pen names, court cases and the simple struggle to be accepted.
In an interview with bookseller Jon Gilbert, we learn about the legacy of 007 author Ian Fleming and how his remarkable life shaped these famous spy novels. We discuss Fleming's work in journalism with Reuters and newspapers, and children's literature with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
While at the 2018 ABA Rare Book Fair in London, we interviewed Marysa de Veer of Otter Bookbinding about how she is keeping this traditional craft alive and the skills required to restore, preserve and enhance books. Marysa founded Otter Bookbinding in 1993 and you can find her bindery in Midhurst, West Sussex, in the UK.
Book burning. Two words to strike fear into bibliophiles. From Nazi Germany to Harry Potter, we look at what makes people burn books.
It all started with a book called Manifold Destiny: The One, The Only, Guide To Cooking On Your Car Engine by Bill Scheller and Chris Maynard.
Discover the pain and the glory of dog books. From memoirs about abuse and companionship to fiction ranging from mysteries to horror and science fiction. We ask why canine literature is so popular and look at some of the most significant dog books ever published.
'Is my copy of Harry Potter valuable?' This is one of the most frequent questions received by customer support people at AbeBooks. This episode reveals how first editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone became collectible in a few short years and how the odds are stacked against there being a valuable copy on our bookshelves.
Mark Twain is most often associated with the great Mississippi river but the author traveled far and wide. He was a globetrotter at time when globetrotting took months, visiting five continents and sailing across the Atlantic 29 times. Discover how Twain's travels inspired and influenced his writing.
Masquerade is a children's picture book that was published in 1979. It contains a puzzle that, if solved, revealed the location of a golden, jeweled hare that had been buried somewhere in the UK. Discover how the book captured the attention of a nation and yet it all ended in controversy. Who doesn't love buried treasure?
Explore the bookish history of the city of dreaming spires - Oxford in the United Kingdom. From the pub loved by JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis to Inspector Morse and one of the world's greatest libraries, we'll guide you around this city of fine literature and famous authors.
It's the book that launched the self help genre as we know it today. Published in 1939, Alcoholics Anonymous' so-called Big Book helped start a movement that has helped men and women around the world. First editions are also highly collectible. Discover the remarkable story behind the beginnings of the AA's Big Book.
Discover how Penguin Books revolutionized reading in the 1930s by publishing quality literature in affordable color-coded paperbacks. From the first blue Penguin to all those novels in orange and a ground-breaking court case over censorship, listen to the story behind Penguin and its paperbacks.