Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Pope's Bookbinder & other antiquarian news


David MasonDavid Mason, long-time antiquarian book dealer and proprietor of David Mason Books in Toronto has written a memoir about his life in the trade.

From his drug-hazy, book-happy years near the Beat Hotel in Paris and throughout his career as antiquarian book dealer, David Mason brings us a storied life. He discovers his love of literature in a bathtub at age eleven, thumbing through stacks of lurid Signet paperbacks. At fifteen he?s expelled from school. For the next decade and a half, he will work odd jobs, buck all authority, buy books more often than food, and float around Europe. He'll help gild a volume in white morocco for Pope John XXIII. And then, at the age of 30, after returning home to Canada and apprenticing with Joseph Patrick Books, David Mason will find his calling

Sly, sparkling, and endearingly gruff, The Pope's Bookbinder is an engrossing memoir by a giant in the book trade?whose infectious enthusiasm, human insight, commercial shrewdness, and deadpan humour will delight bibliophiles for decades to come.

The Pope's Bookbinder: A Memoir | David Mason | 978-1-927428-17-7 (cl) | 978-1-927428-16-0 (e) | 37.95 CAD / 32.95 USD | 424 pp

For further details and to order a copy click here

                                                            ———————————

The Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham

The British Library is a major lender to the exhibition ‘The Lindisfarne Gospels in Durham’, which now open until 30 September 2013. Six of the Library's greatest Anglo-Saxon and medieval treasures are on display at Palace Green Library in Durham, among them the St Cuthbert Gospel, the Ceolfrith Bible and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The loan of these treasures marks the culmination of many years' planning and collaboration between the British Library, Durham University, Durham Cathedral and Durham County Council. It provides an outstanding opportunity for visitors to examine these books at close-hand, and in the context of other artefacts including objects from the Staffordshire Hoard and from the tomb of St Cuthbert. 

———————————

Samuel Beckett

Yesterday at Sotheby's London, one of the most important 20th century working manuscripts remaining in private hands – Samuel Beckett's first novel, "Murphy" was sold for £962,500 to the University of Reading.

Handwritten in six exercise books between August 1935 and June 1936, whilst Beckett was undergoing psychoanalysis, the manuscript, initially entitled "Sasha Murphy" is heavily revised throughout – the hundreds of cancellations and revisions providing an eloquent witness to Beckett's struggle to give form to his artistic vision.

The notebooks are also full of lively doodles hinting at the author's preoccupations during this period, including recognisable portraits of James Joyce, Beckett himself, and Charlie Chaplin (later an influence on the tramps in Waiting for Godot), as well as astrological symbols and musical notations. Irish-born Beckett, “the last modernist”, was the author of a body of work steeped in the western literary tradition but with its own highly distinctive voice. The centrepiece of Sotheby’s sale of English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations, the manuscript was estimated to realise £800,000 – £1.2 million.

Peter Selley, Sotheby's Senior Specialist in Books and Manuscripts commented: “Interest in this remarkable piece of literary history has been truly global. It is unquestionably the most important manuscript of a complete novel by a modern British or Irish writer to appear at auction for many decades. The notebooks contain almost infinite riches for all those – whether scholars or collectors – interested in this most profound of modern writers, who more than anyone else, perhaps, captures the essence of modern man. The manuscript is capable of redefining Beckett studies for many years to come.”

Sir David Bell, Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading, said: “It is important that world-renowned institutions; such as the University of Reading can continue to fund access to knowledge and the best resources for researchers and students. The acquisition of Murphy will provide unparalleled opportunities to learn more about; one of the greatest writers in living memory, if not all time.”
———————————

Batman

A 1986 pen-and-ink drawing by writer/artist Frank Miller which is a comic book cover ‘The Dark Knight Returns No. 2’ will be sold next month in Dallas by Heritage Auctions. The work expected to fetch in excess of $500,000.

The drawing defines the modern-day perception of Batman and is one of the most memorable images from the 1980s
———————————
To Contact Ibookcollector
Ibookcollector © is published by Rivendale Press. 


No comments: