New NYC top cop's special childhood book

NYC Police Commissioner Bill Bratton with his special book. | NBC News via The New York Times

Our theme for the 2014 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair is built on the principle that reading for children and to children is a good idea for civilization. The childhood reading experience is fundamental to a person's development. So it was a delight to see The New York Times' article about the city's newly appointed police commissioner. During a news conference, he was holding up a children's book.

2014 book fair children's theme poster.

This is actually the second time Bill Bratton has been Gotham's police commissioner. The first time was back in 1994, when he had a hand in significantly reducing the crime rate during his two years in the job. The passion of the prominent crime fighter for police work, though, began when he was a nine-year-old Boston youngster. That's when he went to a local library and picked up an illustrated book titled Your Police (Garden City Books, 1956) by George J. Zaffo.

In its day, the book was a favorite and found in libraries throughout the country. It told how to become a police recruit, the training involved and the duties of officers. Bold illustrations and typography showed guns, police helicopters, mounted police, and a forensics lab and equipment. It had everything a kid needed to know to become a policeman.

A Times article quoted ILAB rare book dealer Helen Younger, of Aleph-Bet Books in Westchester County, as saying the book was beautifully designed and unusual for its time. The book is long since out of print, and remaining copies listed online were bought immediately from abebooks.com and other websites. 

Turns out the book has had a special place in Bratton's life throughout his four-decade career in law enforcement. He has taken his copy to every police department he has work for, including Los Angeles, where he was police commissioner for seven years.

"I've taken this book everywhere I've ever gone, every department," The Times quoted him as saying at the news conference. "It's always proudly displayed because it had such a profound influence on me."

We hope fairgoers will have equally good fortune in finding the meaningful books in their lives when they come to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in March.

Here's a link to The New York Times article about Bill Bratton's appointment and a video from the news conference.

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.

You'll find amazing ephemera at the book fair

Famous Chicago Tribune of November 3, 1948 was on display at the 2013 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

Sometimes people who haven't been to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair before wonder if it's all books, and nothing else. Not that that would be a bad thing but the book fair is so much more.

Case in point. Ephemera, those pieces of printed matter not intended to last a long time but that give us insight into our past. There is always tons of ephemera at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

Correction type was put in upside down.

Last year, one of our dealers had this gem. The famous 1948 Chicago Tribune edition that prematurely declared that Republican Thomas E. Dewey had defeated Democratic incumbent Harry S Truman for president. Oops!

Story is that the returns were coming in very slowly and early returns showed Dewey would win. Deadline was looming and editors decided to go with a story based on the early returns. In fact, there was such haste to get the edition out that a compositor inadvertently put a five-line correction into the page upside down. Another oops!

When they discovered the major error, Tribune executives sent circulation employees out to recover papers from newsstands and the Chicago suburbs. Naturally, they didn't recover all of them. Staffers took some home and some were recovered from the trash after they had been clipped to indicate they were returns. This particular copy was completely intact and not clipped – a remarkable find!

All of this just serves as an example of the kinds of amazing items you'll find at the book fair. No, it's not just about the books.

Book fair tickets are available online

Tickets for the 2014 Florida Antiquarian Book Fair can be purchased online now.

For a limited time, you can take advantage of a special offer that gets you tickets at a remarkably low price.

Just in time for the season of gift-giving, we have the Holiday Gift Special. What a great opportunity! You can purchase four Weekend Pass tickets for the price of two. That means you can buy the tickets you were going to buy anyway to go to the book fair and get two more tickets free to give to other book lovers you know.

Tickets for the entire weekend normally cost $10 each but with this deal you can get four tickets for the price of two. Wrap up three of them as gifts and you've made great progress on your Christmas list.

When you give tickets to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, you're giving so much more than admission. You're giving a weekend experience that you and your friends will always remember. Plus, when you and  your friends discover the remarkable treasures that await at the book fair, you've given delight for the ages.

Who knew a simple, very astute purchase on your part could give so much?

Here's a link to Eventbrite where you can purchase tickets.