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A True Rare Bookman – Dr. John Carson

The medical and book worlds lost a giant on 17 April 2019. Dr. John Carson, MD, of La Jolla, CA, passed away at the age of 92. He was a cardiologist at Scripps and only recent retired. He was an active, serious book collector and bibliophile: a past president of the Zambarino Club; a Grolier Club member since 1994 (in 2004, John was one of my sponsors from membership in the Grolier Club); and a leader of the Fellowship of Antiquarian Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), among other activities. I originally met
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Founder of One of the Original Books-for-Sale Sites

Piet Wesselman, founder of Antiqbook.com, died Saturday, 16 March, at 79 years. Antiqbook evolved organically out of the original wide web of the 1990s, where Piet established an information resource page full of links to libraries, poetry foundations, research groups, and other knowledge databases (a very new concept at the time). Piet established NAN, an acronym for Nederlands Antiquaren Netwerk, which eventually became the online bookselling site Antiqbook. Piet resisted Amazon’s frequent offers to make him wealthy, preferring to remain small, personal, and happy in his work. Please read Piet’s
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Brevoort Family Papers

A while ago I appraised a collection of the Brevoort Family Papers, donated to the Special Collections Department of Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island. About ¾ of the collection consists of correspondence between family members, with several ALS written by famous 19th century figures, some of which are “letters of content.” While the Brevoort name is not as well recognized as the Astors or the Vanderbilts, many Brevoorts were prominent in social, business, literary, and artistic circles of Old Dutch New York from the late 17th century to the
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Horatio Alger Collection

I recently performed an appraisal of a major collection (750 volumes) of 19th century author, Horatio Alger, of popular juvenile books. The largest and most significant collection of an important social impactor that I have ever encountered. If not a complete collection of a prolific author’s entire output, it is very close. It was compiled over decades with individual purchases. This collection has been donated to the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, RI. Alger’s books were extremely popular and were often reprinted by a various number of publishers which
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February 2018: FABS 2018 Tour

The Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS) 2018 Tour will be hosted by the Delaware Bibliophiles and will be held 16 – 19 May. The Sheraton Hotel, Wilmington, will be the event hotel, with rooms at $124/night. The tour cost is $625 per person, not including hotel, and includes all receptions, lunches, dinners, library and museum admissions, and bus transportation. For more information visit, www.fabsocieties.org. Mark Samuels Lasner is the organizer and point of contact, marksl@udel.edu.
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January 2018: C-Span City Tour – Newport, RI

The January 20-21 edition of C-Span Cities Tour is Newport Rhode Island. To view other tour cities and get additional information the Newport, RI edition, click here.
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December 2017: Which U.S. President has written the most books?

Teddy Roosevelt was the author of over 40 books in many fields and genres. An interesting and useful web site providing more detail is: www.theodorerooseveltbooks.com.
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November 2017: CSPAN2 BOOK TV

I found CSPAN2 Book TV many years ago and find it indispensable as a book resource. Every weekend programming starts on Saturday at 0800 am, ends on Monday at 0800 am, and is extended if Monday is a holiday. All programming is non-fiction related and includes lectures, panels, author presentations, in-depth interviews, book festival coverage, and much more. They often travel to different cities, visiting local bookstores and libraries. All segments are also archived on-line, www.booktv.org. You can sign up to receive a weekly email with the weekend schedule. This
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October 2017: The Army and Navy Club Library – an Historic Private Library

The Army and Navy Club (ANC) Library, founded in 1891, is one of the oldest private libraries in Washington, DC. The private Army and Navy Club is on Farragut Square, just blocks from the White House. Like most social clubs, the ANC has overnight rooms, dining facilities, bars and meeting spaces. The ANC library is staffed by a full-time librarian and provides an important source of information with its wide range of books, scores of periodicals, and a fine private military collection. It is one of the largest private libraries
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September 2017: Loss of Bibliophilic Giants

The Rhode Island, and indeed the national, bibliophilic community has sadly recently lost two highly regarded collectors: Nicholas B. Scheetz and John J. (Jerry) Slocum, Jr. Both were residents of Newport with extensive book collections. Both had been board directors of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum and members of its Library Committee. Both were long time members of the John Russell Bartlett Society, RI’s long standing book organization. Nick was also a member of the Grolier Club, the Manuscript Society, and the Club of Odd Volumes. Jerry was very active
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August 2017: The Nine Cities of Newport

August 2017 The Nine Cities of Newport Theopholus North – Thornton Wilder Wilder is probably best known for a play – Our Town. Theopholus North was his last novel in 1973. It was made into a movie in the 1980s. Wilder spent a lot of time in Newport researching, especially at the Redwood Library. The book was a Pulitzer Prize winner written in the 1970s and set in the 1920s. There are many good micro studies regarding Newport and its founding, colonial history, triangular trade, architecture, military presence, John Hattendorf’s
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July 2017: Your Collection – Share it Forward

July 2017 Book collecting represents expanding your knowledge, a challenge, capturing beauty, and more. For the true book collector, this addiction begins slowly and eventually builds to a crescendo. Book collecting can focus on an author, a subject, a specific book binder, printer or publisher. The true collector builds the collection over years finding pleasure in growing and nurturing the collection. Pleasure comes in the expansion of knowledge related to the collection, in the beauty of the books themselves, and in the sharing knowledge of the collection with others of
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