Thomas Harris: A Modern Master of Suspense

By Abigail Bekx. Feb 8, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Horror, Legendary Authors, Book Collecting

Thriller and horror have long been a part of readers’ diets. From the Gothic to Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King, readers find joy in the macabre. One of the most popular contemporary thriller writers is Thomas Harris. Already popular through his writing, the film adaptations of his work has helped to build his devoted audience. His creation of Hannibal Lecter has led to television series, plays, and parody musicals about the world’s favorite cannibal all while catapulting Harris into fame. 

     
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How a Signature Increases a Book's Value

By Kristin Masters. Jan 30, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Rare Books, Book Collecting

How much is a baseball worth? Maybe a dollar or two, right? Get that same baseball signed by Alex Rodriguez, and you have a collectible item. If that baseball happened to be a home run ball, you've hit the jackpot! Signatures and autographs in books work much the same way. The rarity of both the book and the signature help determine the value of a book.

     
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The Friendship of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens

By Kristin Masters. Jan 8, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Rare Books, Book Collecting, Charles Dickens

On January 8, 1824, author Wilkie Collins was born. He'd rise to veritable stardom as one of England's best loved authors. Collins enjoyed the tutelage and collaboration of "the inimitable" Charles Dickens, who would become a fast friend to Collins.      
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Book Spotlight: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose

By Abigail Bekx. Jan 5, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Legendary Authors, Book Collecting

Throughout his life, Umberto Eco worked as novelist, literary critic, and academic. In much of his work, Eco makes literary and historical references, exemplifying a subtle intertextuality, the connection between different works of literature.  The Name of the Rose , originally published in Italy in 1980, uses Eco’s previous study to make many such references to medieval sources that the reader must solve, adding a certain Sherlock Holmes feeling to the work.      
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A Quick Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth

"Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast ofer middangeard monnum sended"

The above quote comes from a line of Anglo-Saxon poetry. J.R.R. Tolkien, a linguist and scholar of Anglo-Saxon culture, encountered the line in his research and became fascinated with the word "earendel." Though his Anglo-Saxon dictionary translated the word as "shining light," Tolkien believed that the word sounded like it came from a language "far beyond ancient English." 

     
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Five Book-Based New Year's Resolutions for 2019

By Leah Dobrinska. Jan 1, 2019. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Book Collecting, Literary travel

Happy New Year! We hope you awoke this morning full of hope and excitement for what 2019 holds. For many of us, the turning of the calendar is an opportunity to reflect on the past year and set goals and plans for the upcoming one. These may be health and fitness related, social and relational, work-based, or any of the many other types of resolutions you hear being thrown around by January 1 optimists. We’ve been thinking of some resolutions of our own, specifically book-based resolutions. Whether you’re a seasoned bibliophile, a novice collector or reader, or an avid fan of all things written word, what follows are some suggestions that might be right up your New Year’s resolution alley.

     
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Rudyard Kipling: A Retrospective

Today marks the anniversary of the birthday of Rudyard Kipling, the world renowned author who brought a new (and often controversial) perspective to British imperialism. During his lifetime Kipling would cross continents, win a Nobel Prize, and befriend the celebrated authors of his day.

     
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Childhood Classics: The Night Before Christmas

By Katharina Koch. Dec 24, 2018. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Book Collecting, Children's Books, Christmas Books

It's Christmas Eve! As adults, sometimes we can lose sight of the joy, wonder, and magic of this season. But one book that has always encapsulated those emotions is The Night Before Christmas. This childhood classic has enraptured generations, so much so that some rare book collectors even focus all their efforts on this single title.

     
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Collecting Saul Bellow

By Audrey Golden. Dec 13, 2018. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Book Collecting, Awarded Books

During his long writing career, Saul Bellow wrote 17 books that were reviewed in The New York Times over a period of six decades. Many of those reviews were written by prominent writers in their own right, such as Cynthia Ozick, Irving Howe, and Alfred Kazin. Even earlier, Bellow himself was writing articles for the newspaper on other authors’ works and questions about his own texts. And that’s not all. He also wrote a play, and he was interviewed hundreds of times over the years in which he wrote. He also began editing a literary magazine, News from the Republic of Letters, when he was 81 years old. During his lifetime, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the same year, and the National Book Award on three separate occasions. All of this to say that Bellow not only was extremely well-reviewed and prolific over the course of his career, but that it’s not really a surprise that his books have become so collectible. Bellow was born in Quebec in 1915, spent most of his adult life in Chicago, and died in 2005 in Brookline, Massachusetts. We want to give you some advice for building a collection of Bellow’s work.

     
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Cornelia Funke: Fantasy for All Ages

By Adrienne Rivera. Dec 10, 2018. 9:00 AM.

Topics: Book Collecting, Children's Books, Movie Tie-Ins

German writer Cornelia Funke was born in 1958 in Dorsten in what was formerly West Germany. She studied pedagogy at the University of Hamburg and after graduation, worked for three years as a social worker. She married book printer Rolf Frahme in 1979 and shortly after, left social work to briefly pursue illustration. However, she quickly turned to writing her own books, and her efforts have been supremely successful. Her first books, which in English were titled Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost and C.H.I.X., were published in 1993, and each were the the first book in a series for elementary-aged readers. She published her first novel, The Thief Lord, in 2000 and has gone on to write many successful novels for young adults, including Dragon Rider and the Inkheart trilogy, and most recently the MirrorWorld novel The Golden Yarn and picture book The Book No One Ever Read.

     
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About this blog

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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