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.

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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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.

How many hidden words or phrases do you see?

Put your answer in the comments section below and share this puzzle with your friends.

Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, March 14-16, The Coliseum, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Click on the puzzle to enlarge it enough to actually be able to read it.

It's amazing! It's unusual! It's our book fair!

Bookseller Vivian Moore of Alpharetta, Georgia, will return to the book fair in March.

We were pondering the other day all the amazing things you see at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair each year. This year the theme is children’s books, and we know that our dealers will have plenty of unusual children’s books to see. But, as always, the book fair is much more than any one theme.

When you think about it, it’s really hard to take it all in. Veterans of the book fair say it’s a good idea to plan to come all three days because you couldn’t possibly take it all in on just one day. You really need time to leisurely browse all the booths then home in on the items that really interest you.

Actually, the name book fair is so inadequate because it is so much more. Don’t worry, we’re not changing our name to the Florida Antiquarian Books, Regular Cool Books, Children’s-Books-You-Remember-From-When-You-Were-A-Kid, Signed-First-Edition-Books, Antique Maps, Illuminated Manuscripts, Vintage Photographs, Antique Autographs, Cool-Printed-Pieces-From-The-Civil-War, Awesome-Sauce-Extremely-Rare-Published-In-The-16th-Century-Books, And-Other-Stuff-We-Haven’t-Even-Mentioned Fair.

Book Fair will have to do.

Besides, you already know that “Book Fair” really means much more. It’s sort of a code phrase, isn’t it? Sort of like a speakeasy in the Roaring Twenties – knock on the door, say the secret password and they let you in. Those who know the code know the joys of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. Of course, there's no password at the book fair but you get the idea.

This post started out to be about the picture you see at the top but obviously we got a little sidetracked. That’s our friend Vivian Moore, who will be exhibiting at the book fair in March. Vivian lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, now but she used to live in Tampa, and she was part of the very first Florida Antiquarian Book Fair 33 years ago.

We don’t know exactly what Vivian will be bringing to the book fair this year, but we do know that what she brings is always fascinating. In this picture, she’s holding a very cool photo post card of downtown Tampa in the 1920s produced by the Florida News Company.

See, now that’s what we’re talking about. How very amazing! How very unusual!  It is discoveries like these that keep people coming back year after year. There’s only one Florida Antiquarian Book Fair and it only happens once a year. That’s why people mark it on their calendar and make sure they are here.

“Yeah, it’s a Book Fair.” (Delivered with an arched eyebrow and a knowing smile.)

We're counting down to the big day!

Well, it won't be long now. More time has passed since the last Florida Antiquarian Book Fair than still remains until the next one. In just a few weeks, antiquarian booksellers from across the country will gather at The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg for the 33rd annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

We're particularly excited, of course, because it's the time we live for all year long. We realize that not everyone is quite as obsessive about the arrival of the book fair, though we have empirical evidence that we're not alone.

One reason we're so excited is that we'll be seeing a lot of old friends. Many of the dealers who exhibit at the book fair have been coming to the fair for decades. It's part of their life. And they are part of ours.

Another reason we're excited, though, is that there will be new dealers here, too. New friends. It's always great to make new friends.

No matter whether they're regulars or brand new to the book fair, our dealers always bring the most fascinating books, ephemera, prints, maps, and a whole host of other related items. If you like this stuff (and you wouldn't be reading this far into this post if you didn't), this is the place for you.

There's an atmosphere at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair that is quite special, and we'll talk more about that in a later post. In the meantime, you're welcome to share this countdown post with anyone you think might want a reminder about the book fair. It only happens once a year. It's only for three days, and you don't want to miss it.

Here's our new poster. Share it with your friends.

Give 'em an experience they'll never forget

For the book lovers on your Christmas list, here's the perfect gift idea. Don't give 'em a book. Give 'em an experience they'll never forget: a weekend at the 2014 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. It's an adventure.

Consider this. At the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, more than 100 top-notch antiquarian book dealers from all over the country converge in St. Petersburg for one weekend. For the book lover, that's Paradise. Your book lover can browse beautiful, rare, unique, and amazing volumes that go for thousands of dollars or delicious reading copies of favorite classics that cost only a few dollars.

Here's the best part for you, the generous gift giver. Right now there's a Holiday Gift Special promotion available online at Eventbrite that lets you purchase four Weekend Pass tickets for the price of two. That means you can create an event for your book lovers that is remarkably reasonable. For what you would pay later on for just two tickets ($20), you can get four tickets. That's two for you and your best book lover, and two more for other book lovers in your life. What you're giving here is not just some tickets to an event. You're giving a special weekend of quality time spent in pursuit of joy!

Now what are you going to do with all that money you save? Well, you could make one of those gifts extra special by putting some spending money in the envelope, too. Something toward those incredible treasures you're bound to find at the book fair. Just sayin'

Just click on the link to Eventbrite where you can purchase tickets and you'll have this plan in the works without ever leaving your computer screen. Your book fair adventure starts here.

Why we say: 100+ bookstores. Paradise.

So, this "100+ bookstores. Paradise." What's that all about?

Well, to a book lover, having more than 100 bookstores all in one place is paradise. That much is pretty clear. Book lovers revel in the experience of leisurely perusing volumes in a single bookstore. Give 'em many more times that one and they're joyous beyond reason.

We know one such happily afflicted fellow whose wife is always thrilled to find a bookstore (or a bevy of them) when they travel. She's a reader, too, just not as fanatical as he is. She claims she can drop him off at the bookstore, go shopping to her heart's content in all the little curio shops and gift shops and dress shops in whatever place they happen to be visiting, and return hours later to the bookstore where he's still contentedly grazing in the stacks. Hope she drops him off at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in March.

The other reason we use the slogan "100+ bookstores. Paradise." is that the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair happens to be presented in the leading tourist destination on the gulf coast. More than 13 million visitors drop by every year. And why not? We live in paradise! World-class beaches. Great accommodations. Fine dining. Spring training. Great museums. People make coming to the Suncoast a vacation.

No reason why book lovers shouldn't do the same.