🔴 Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK No. 6: What are you reading this summer?

 

Co-hosts Ed Markiewicz and  Lee Linn share their summer reading lists, as does their guest, Rare Book Cafe regular Richard Mori, who is known as The Road Warrior. Also, Lee recently had a birthday and, of course, there was cake.

PLEASE SHARE your reading list in the comments. And SHARE our program with your book loving friends.

This is another one of the earliest episodes of Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK, our new series offering short programs, usually on a single topic. Watch for more in our Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK series.

Rare Book Cafe is on YouTube and Facebook and will soon be available on podcast. Please SUBSCRIBE to our show on your favorite platform, share Rare Book Cafe with your book-loving friends, and LIKE us. Join us in the Book Lovers’ Rendezvous. This program is prerecorded.

Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK is made possible by the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, the oldest and largest rare, used, and collectible book fair in the southeastern United States. The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair will be presented March 1-3, 2024 at The Coliseum in downtown St. Petersburg. More information at floridaantiquarianbookfair.com

The program also is made possible by Biblio.com, a website featuring used, rare, and out-of-print books from independent booksellers. Biblio is celebrating 20 years of serving book lovers. It’s better than ever. Biblio spotlights “the core of our business model: the independent booksellers who bring their expertise, enthusiasm, and professionalism to  soon the used and rare book trade.”

**************
Music by Kevin MacLeod Hyperfun Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
**************

Rare Book Cafe is a periodic gathering of collectors and lovers of old, rare, and collectible books. It is a virtual cafe, accessible anywhere in the world, where the subjects are priceless and the conversation is free. It is truly the book lovers' rendezvous.

Rare Book Cafe is presented periodically on Facebook and YouTube, and will also be available on podcast. Rare Book Cafe features conversations about antiquarian books, rare books, collectible books, unusual books, vintage photographs, antique maps, rare prints, and a wide variety of ephemera.

Guests include antiquarian booksellers, authors, collectors, and anyone else with an interest in and knowledge of these topics.

Rare Book Cafe™ is based in Florida.
Rare Book Cafe
The Book Lovers' Rendezvous™

YouTube and Facebook
Also soon as a podcast.

🔴 Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK No. 1: We're back with Ed's travels abroad and more

In this post is the first episode of the  new video series Rare Book Cafe COFFEE BREAK. In this series, co-hosts Ed Mankiewicz and Lee Linn will offer quick bites of the delectable world of books and book collecting.

Dedicated book collector amasses quite a library on Sacco and Vanzetti in pursuit of a master's degree in literature

Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left) and Nicola Sacco were convicted of murder and executed in an electric chair. 

Now here's an interesting book collecting story that just showed up. There's a young lady at the University of Kansas who is working on a master's degree in English literature, and she has amassed a collection of books on Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the Italian immigrants who many believe were railroaded in the 1920s, convicted of murder and executed.

A feature in the Lawrence Journal-World in Kansas chronicles Megan Jones' book acquisition efforts in pursuit of her advanced degree. She now has about 40 books in her collection, most of which she says she needs for her master's thesis and an earlier undergraduate thesis at Indiana University.

In her collection is a four-volume set containing the court trial transcript, books making an argument for the release of the pair, one book making a case for their guilt, and volumes of their letters from prison proclaiming their innocence. There's also a historical novel with the case as a backdrop. Perhaps her favorite possession is Facing the Chair: Story of the Americanization of Two Foreignborn Workmen, a pamphlet by John Dos Passos, the novelist, one of many famous people who took up their cause.

Quite a collection, and Megan Jones isn't finished yet. She won a national award for her collection and received a $1,000 prize. What did she do with it? Bought more Sacco and Vanzetti books, of course. That's dedication we like to see.

We cannot live without books, and book lovers

This gentleman attended the 2013 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair. We like his way of thinking as reflected on his t-shirt. We cannot live without books, either.

Interesting thing about that Thomas Jefferson quote, though. It's incomplete and it's taken out of context. Here's what happened:

John Adams was the second president of the United States when Congress agreed to spend $5,000 to set up a library. It became the Library of Congress (of course). Jefferson, who was the third president, encouraged expanding the library. So did James Madison, who succeeded him. The Americans had quite a nice little 3,000-volume library by the time the British attacked in 1814, burned the Capitol (where the library was housed) and pillaged the collection.

Jefferson was crestfallen, and decided to do something to help. At the time, the ex-president had the largest personal library in the country. He hit upon an idea that he thought would help the country quickly regain it's national library (not to mention helping himself acquire much-needed cash. He decided sell a large portion of his personal collection to Congress. He received $23,950 for about 6,500, which works out to be about $3.69 a book.

Anyway, he wrote to Adams explaining his reasoning for the sale. "I cannot live without books," he told John Adams, "but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object." Jefferson wanted to send his books to a place where they would be used. So, actually, Thomas Jefferson was talking about downsizing, not adding to his collection.

However, judging from the cottage industry that has grown up putting Jefferson's words on not just t-shirts, but also tote bags, hats, coffee mugs, posters, note pads, tea towels, and pillows, it seems clear that a significant number of people hold the sentiment suggested by the partial quote, which is just fine with us.

We know that many book lovers who agree will attend the 2014 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in March. We'll be there to enthusiastically welcome them because booksellers can't live without them.