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Joachim Koch
Book buyer. Bookseller. Factotum Generalis. Believes in not attempting to be the smartest person in room and enjoys growing success.

Recent Posts:

Rare finds for book sale

     
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Scrawled in the Margins, Signs of Twain as a Critic

By Joachim Koch. May 8, 2010. 4:12 AM.

Topics: American Literature, Biographies

By the end of his life, Samuel Langhorne Clemens had achieved fame as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, a globe-trotting lecturer and, of course, the literary genius who wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and other works under the name Mark Twain.

     
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Your Tweets in the Library of Congress

By Joachim Koch. Apr 14, 2010. 11:23 AM.

Topics: Book Collecting, Book News

Entering new territory.  Amazing.  Speechless. Puzzled.  The following from the Blog of the Library of Congress, i.e., it must be true ?!  As this posting is being twitterized too, Library of Congress, here we come:

     
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Kipling First Edition with author's poignant note found

By Joachim Koch. Apr 9, 2010. 12:50 AM.

Topics: Rare Books, Nobel Prize Winners, Modern First Editions

A rare first edition of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter, has been discovered.

     
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Printmaking Processes: Screen Printing

By Joachim Koch. Apr 7, 2010. 1:00 AM.

Topics: Book Making, Learn About Books

Screen printing is a printmaking technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate. A roller or squeegee is moved across the screen stencil, forcing or pumping ink past the threads of the woven mesh in the open areas.

     
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Letterpress Printing - A Vocational Film

By Joachim Koch. Apr 5, 2010. 1:00 AM.

Topics: Book Making, Learn About Books

Letterpress printing is a form of relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image.

     
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A List of Bookish Firsts

By Joachim Koch. Apr 4, 2010. 6:17 AM.

Topics: Book History, Book Making

For joint record keeping, here's a list of bookish firsts:

     
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Book Making in the early 20th century, hot metal typesetting

By Joachim Koch. Apr 2, 2010. 1:00 AM.

Topics: Book Making, Learn About Books

Hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) refers to 19th-century and early 20th century technologies for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs. The cast metal elements are later used to press ink onto paper.


     
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Signed Jane Austen novel sells for £325,000

By Joachim Koch. Mar 31, 2010. 11:00 PM.

Topics: Rare Books, Book Collecting, Book News

A signed copy of a Jane Austen novel published in 1816 has been bought for £325,000.

     
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Rare comic of Superman debut fetches $1.5 million

By Joachim Koch. Mar 30, 2010. 11:00 PM.

Topics: Rare Books, Book Collecting

The comic debut of Superman has sold for an out-of-this-world price.

The copy of Action Comics No. 1 from 1938, which features the first appearance of the "Man of Steel" was bought by an undisclosed buyer for a record $1.5 million Monday on the online auction site ComicConnect.com. "This is the Holy Grail of Holy Grails," said Vincent Zurzolo, co-owner of the Web site.

     
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How can I identify a first edition? Where do I learn about caring for books? How should I start collecting? Hear from librarians about amazing collections, learn about historic bindings or printing techniques, get to know other collectors. Whether you are just starting or looking for expert advice, chances are, you'll find something of interest on blogis librorum.

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