Jeff identified with the boy in Rawlings' story

Jeff Klinkenberg, who writes about Florida culture for the Tampa Bay Times, took time out to talk about his favorite "grown up" children's book, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' The Yearling.

Peter and Jeanne created a book for their children

Poet Peter Meinke shared some of the books he enjoyed as a child and, as a special treat, reads from The Legend of Larry the Lizard, a book he wrote and his wife, Jeanne, illustrated for their children. Join us at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair as we celebrate Children's Literature: Pages of Wonder.

The Stand-Up Librarian at The Dalí Museum

Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers visits with Pam Whiteaker of the Salvador Dali Museum to talk about the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, volunteering, and children's books.

The Stand-Up Librarian visits American Stage

Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers is on her Out and About Tour with a visit to American Stage and a hilarious conversation with Artistic Director Todd Olson. 

Treasures We're Bringing: Ivanhoe, first edition

 From Lighthouse Books, ABAA, St. Petersburg Florida: 
[Scott, Sir Walter] Ivanhoe, A Romance. By "The Author of Waverley," &c. Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., 1820. 3 volumes. 1st edition, 1st issue, with pages 195-306 misnumbered 151-298. Octavo, early full tan polished calf rebacked in calf with contrasting calf labels. Bound with half-titles present, but without the 2 pages of ads found following Volume III. Grolier, English One Hundred, No. 100. $1,750.

TREASURES WE'RE BRINGING: This is a series that reveals some of the special books dealers will be bringing to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Watch for more coming soon.

Treasures We're Bringing: A scholarly Devil

 From Copperfish Books, Punta Gorda, Florida:
The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil by Paul Carus. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company, 1900. First edition, illustrated. A scholarly approach to the exploration of evil and the concept of the devil at the turn of the 20th century.

TREASURES WE'RE BRINGING: This is a series that reveals some of the special books dealers will be bringing to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Watch for more coming soon.

Treasures We're Bringing: Caldecott winner

From Books Tell You Why, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina:
A signed Caldecott Winner AND Academy Awards winner: # 14921
Selznick, Brian - The Invention Of Hugo Cabret; USD 200 Scholastic Press, 2007; 1st Edition, 1st Printing. A First Edition in its First Printing in dust-jacket, SIGNED and dated "2007" by author Brian Selznick directly on the title page. A spectacular, seemingly unread copy, As New. Hugo Cabret lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station. He is orphan, clock keeper and thief, and his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. His undercover life and most precious secret are endangered when he meets the owner of a toy booth and an eccentric bookish girl. With the 284 pages of original drawings Selznick has created a new reading experience, combining elements of picture book, graphic novel, and film. 2008 winner of the Caldecott Medal. Basis for the Academy Awards winning 2011 Martin Scorcese movie starring Jude Law, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone and Sir Ben Kingsley.

TREASURES WE'RE BRINGING: This is a series that reveals some of the special books dealers will be bringing to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Watch for more coming soon.

Delicious visit for the Stand-Up Librarian! Yum!

Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers is out and about around Tampa Bay visiting favorite places and talking about the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Look where she just went.

You can buy Book Fair tickets right now! No waiting.

BUY TICKETS NOW! You can buy your tickets to the 33rd Florida Antiquarian Book Fair right now online. Buy now and have no waiting in the box office line. What's more you can get a discount by using the promotional code "saveabuck" (without the quotation marks). Here's the link.

 Be THAT kind of friend and share this, too.

Treasures We're Bringing: First Caldecott winner

 From Books Tell You Why, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina:
 Here's a remarkable book that fits the Children's Literature: Pages of Wonder theme of the Book Fair. It's the first edition of the first winner of the Caldecott Medal in 1938.

Fish, Helen Dean [; Dorothy P. Lathrop] - Animals Of The Bible; USD 490
Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1937; 1st Edition, 1st Printing. A charming First Edition in Nearly Fine condition in the scarce, chipped dust-jacket with few tears and tape repair to the backside of the jacket. Second state with "Lathrop" correctly spelled on the of spine of book and dust-jacket with $2.00 publication price present, illustrated end-papers with prancing dear in front and back.  Helen Fish wrote the introduction and selected passages from the King James version of the Bible which accompany the beautiful drawings of Dorothy Pulis Lathrop. Winner of the first Caldecott Medal for best illustrated children's book in 1938. An important book in children's picture book history.

 TREASURES WE'RE BRINGING: This is a series that reveals some of the special books dealers will be bringing to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Watch for more coming soon.

The Stand-Up Librarian is out and about

Here is a new video about the 33rd annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair featuring Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers. Meredith interviews Ray Hinst, co-owner of Haslam's Book Store, a fixture in St. Petersburg for 80 years. Haslam's is a member of the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association and a great supporter of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

Meredith holds a master's degree in library science, works as a stand-up comedian, designs literary-themed clothing and accessories, and is a big fan of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, where she sold her first book-themed purse three years ago.

The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair features more than 100 dealers in books of every age and subject matter, antique maps, prints, autographs, ephemera and more. The 33rd annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair will be presented in The Coliseum in St. Petersburg on March 14-16, 2014.

Visit the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair online. 
Visit Meredith, The Stand-Up Librarian online.

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Treasures We're Bringing: Stephen King, signed

From Blind Horse Books, Key Largo:
 Stephen King. The Eyes of the Dragon. Signed with Inscription by King on the half title, dated 7/18/92. /For Dan – Best Wishes/. New York: Viking, 1987 Illustrations by David Palladini. (8vo) cloth-backed boards, Dust jacket. First Trade Edition. 326 pages.

TREASURES WE'RE BRINGING: This is a series that reveals some of the antiquarian books, rare volumes, and special titles dealers will be bringing to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Hope you enjoy it. Watch for more.

Stand-Up Librarian Meredith Myers touts Book Fair

We're delighted that Stand-Up Libriarian Meredith Myers will be working to help draw attention to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair this year.

Meredith, who holds a masters degree in library science, performs stand-up comedy at libraries and book events across the country. In connection with the Book Fair, Meredith will make appearances around the Tampa Bay area to highlight this year's theme, Children's Literature: Pages of Wonder.

In this video, Meredith introduces herself, gives a brief tour of her studio, and reveals her favorite childhood book. Meredith has been performing stand-up comedy for a dozen years, ever since she checked out a library book (of course) on comedy.

Meredith designs and constructs her own literary-themed costumes and accessories. During a visit to the Book Fair three years ago, fairgoers expressed interest in her book-themed purse and she sold it on the spot. That led to her development of a literary fashion business. You can find out more about Meredith at StandUpLibrarian.com and StandUpLibrarianDesigns.com

Feel free to share this video and others we'll be posting here soon. We want everyone to know about the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair and our celebration of children's literature this year.

Pass this on to someone who will appreciate it

The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair theme for 2014 is Children's Literature: Page of Wonder. We're featuring a series of quotations from children's books and from writers about children's books. We hope you enjoy them. Please feel free to share them with people you think will appreciate them.

He identified with the hero in Pioneer Sodbuster

Theme of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair this year is Children's Literature: Pages of Wonder. In this video, Bob Devin Jones, artistic director of The Studio@620, discusses his favorite childhood books, Islands of the Dolphin and Pioneer Sodbuster, and why he enjoyed them. What's your favorite childhood book? Leave your comments below.

A lifetime of reading began with books on sports

Theme of this year's Florida Antiquarian Book Fair is Children's Literature: Pages of Wonder. In this video, Steve Bolter of Sleuth Books in Palm Coast, Florida, shares his childhood books. Steve will exhibit at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in March. What's your favorite childhood book and why?

Childhood books led to career as a writer

Theme of this year's Florida Antiquarian Book Fair is Children's Literature: Pages of Wonder. What's your favorite childhood book?

The younger fans of the book fair

These fun-loving people were at the 2013 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. We came across their picture the other day and it reminded us that the book fair appeals to all ages.

Granted, their attendance probably helps skew the average age of fair-goers a bit lower but it's a welcome trend we're seeing year-after-year. And why not? Love of traditional books certainly isn't limited to the silver-haired crowd. It's a trend being noted at book fairs all across the country. Indeed, Booktryst observed a couple of years ago the large number of young people seen walking the aisles at the California International Book Fair, and even imagined them becoming passionate book collectors.

Four years ago,  Sally Burdon wrote on the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) blog about seeing young collectors at the Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair. And last year, Chris Volk, writing in the IOBA Standard, the Journal of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, noted seeing "lots and lots of young adults" at places like the Los Angeles Times Book Festival and the Tucson Book Festival.

For years, the doom and gloom set have been predicting the demise of printed books, but we're not having any of that theory. From our observation and what we're seeing around the country, the young of America (at least some of them ) are discovering a passion for antiquarian books. We're thrilled.

Grover Cleveland and the Mugwumps

Love that headline. (Sounds like an early '60s rock band.)

We spotted this poster at the 2013 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. It must have been delicious discovery for students of American political history. It's from the presidential campaign of 1884. Grover Cleveland and Thomas Hendricks ran against James G. Blaine and John A. Logan. Household names, all. ;-)

Okay, so Grover Cleveland may be one of the more obscure presidents in American history. Still, as any history major will tell you, there's an interesting story there, even for civilians.

Seems Cleveland won that election because of the Mugwumps. (Now there's a term you don't hear every day but you might have come across it sometime or other.) Cleveland was a Democrat; in fact, he was the first Democrat to get elected president since Reconstruction after the Civil War. Six terms the Dems were out of office, and Republicans ruled the roost.

Anyway, the reason Cleveland won: Mugwumps. They were renegade Republicans who took a dim view of their candidate's financial scandals (railroads had paid him off to dispose of mortgage bonds and land grant bonds for them). So the Mugwumps decided to buck the system and support Cleveland. They were ridiculed as fence sitters, political creatures with their mugs on one side of the fence and their "wumps"on the other.

So, the point of all this?  It's just another illustration of the amazing items you'll find at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Okay, so maybe 130-year-old political ephemera isn't for everybody but this kind of thing will thrill some people.  We know a history prof who'd love to get his hands on something like this.

Stay tuned. In future posts, we'll have more examples of the kinds of must-have items you're likely to find at the 2014 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

He read to his children 'til the book fell apart

Larry Baker is the author of The Education of Nancy Adams (2014), Love and Other Delusions (2012), A Good Man (2009), Athens, America (2005), and The Flamingo Rising (1997), which was adapted for television as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. He teaches writing at the University of Iowa.