The Last Slave Ship: The Story behind Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon

A Daring Bet, and the Consequences that Fell in the Wrong Place In the late 1850s tensions were rising between the North and the South in the United States, and the South’s desire to hold on to slavery was a key issue in those tensions. Many laws had been made toward the abolition of slavery, including a bill passed in March 2, 1807, that made it illegal to import slaves into the United States after January 1, 1808, or to … Continued

Rare Journal of a Young Privateer Rediscovered in a Linen Closet

  A treasure was recently found in a strange hiding place – a linen closet in Kansas City. While the relatives of Margaret Davis sorted her estate, they came across the handwritten journal of one of their ancestors: Christopher Hawkins. His journal was penned in 1834 when he was 70 years old, and it recounts his tales as a young privateer during the Revolutionary War. At the tender age of 13 years old, apprentice Christopher Hawkins turned privateer to help … Continued

You Can’t Read in Prison

Censorship in Prisons Recently, there has been news coverage of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander being banned in New Jersey Prisons. The book, which argues that the US criminal justice system today functions as a form of racial control similar to the Jim Crow laws of the pre-Civil Rights era, was taken off of the banned list in New Jersey shortly after the story broke. The book was also banned in … Continued

16 Must-Have Poetry Books for Your Collection

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman First published in 1855 Leaves of Grass was a small book consisting of twelve poems. Whitman revised and republished it throughout his life, resulting in vastly different editions, the last including more than 400 poems. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson Although Dickinson wrote over 1800 poems during her lifetime, less than a dozen were published before her death in 1886 at the age of 55. Her younger sister, Lavinia, who lived at … Continued

Biblio.com is offering a scholarship for the 2018 Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar

2018 Colorado Antiquarian Bookseller Seminar scholarship from Biblio!

We are excited to announce that we are again offering a scholarship to the 2018 Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS).

Are you a bookseller, or a serious book collector who wants to increase their knowledge about the identification, valuation, restoration, and selling of rare and antiquarian books? CABS is the educational conference of your dreams! Our scholarship is now open to you. Here’s what we cover:

  • the full cost of tuition for the seminar ($1250)
  • $250 towards accommodations at the facilities provided by the seminar
  • $250 to be donated to a literacy or education-based non-profit of your choice

To apply for the scholarship, you must provide an essay of around 500 words that introduces your chosen field of expertise or specialization in your book collection. We may publish this article on its websites will full attribution, of course! Please also provide a brief description of your preferred literary charity and why they are your choice.

The deadline for applications/articles is May 7, 2018. Please send all applications to scholarship@biblio.com. A drawing is held among qualified entrants to find the winner. The scholarship winner will be notified within 7 days of the application deadline.

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The Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, now in its 41st year, provides an opportunity for leading specialists to share their expertise and experience with booksellers, librarians, and collectors in a comprehensive survey of the rare book market, both antiquarian and modern.
https://www.bookseminars.com/scholarships.php

The Biographies of Billy Graham

Evangelist Billy Graham speaking at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida

 

Although Billy Graham wrote many autobiographies including the 1997 Best-seller Just As I Am, Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well (2011), and Where I Am: Heaven, Eternity, and Our Life Beyond (2015), many others took an opportunity to examine the popular evangelist’s life as well. With Graham’s recent passing near the approach of his 100th birthday, there should no doubt be multiple re-releases of Graham’s titles as well as many new retrospective biographies on his life and legacy. (more…)

The Gentle Grace of Faith in A Wrinkle in Time

With the cinematic adaptation of Madeline L’Engle’s seminal work A Wrinkle in Time soon premiering, it’s worth examining the aspect of the book that has made the novel a frequent guest on banned books lists. In short: it really confused and challenged conservative Christians. And I got to witness it all firsthand. In the late 90’s, I went to a very small, very conservative evangelical Christian school, and the religious instruction was more fire and brimstone than love, peace, and … Continued

Ten Romance Novels to get you through Valentine’s Day

Cheesy, but beloved by many.

Valentine’s Day is a happy occasion for some and less so for others – if you aren’t seeing enough roses, chocolates, and unbearably fancy dinners headed your way today, here’s a few romantic reads to delve into.

1. Dear John, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook: take your pick of Nicholas Sparks’ books. Eleven of his nineteen best-selling novels have been turned into films, so although they may be easy to criticize, something about them makes them undeniably popular.

2. Doctor Zhivago: Boris Pasternak won the Nobel Prize for Literature following the publication of this book in 1957 after the manuscript was smuggled from the USSR to Italy. The love story between Yuri and Lara during the Russian Revolution was further immortalized in film in 1965.

3. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë), Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë): Yep, I just lumped all of those together, just like I did with everything Nicholas Sparks. These titles make up a niche of undeniably popular romantic literature! (more…)

Copyright Confusion: Trademark? Patent? Copyright?

ironically enough, this photo was listed as “free for reuse without credit”

There has been a lot of attention on the new book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff, and some of that attention has been from unhappy customers who ordered and received: Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany 1942-1945 by Randall Hansen, published in 2009 and now hitting the bestseller list. {See this post here about other Trump book mishaps and the importance of searching by ISBN.)

How did this happen? Basically, titles cannot be copyrighted. That’s right – if you want to write a new book called Moby Dick? go ahead – just check to make sure, like Chicken Soup for the Soul and Harry Potter, that the title is not “Trademarked.”

Trademark? Patent? Copyright?

A trademark is a word, phrase, or symbol that identifies a brand and can be federally registered, patent protects ideas. A copyright protects original works of authorship, like books, songs, or poems. (more…)