AbeBooks' Reading Copy

We love books about books. Lolita – The Story of a Cover Girl: Vladimir Nabokov’s Novel in Art and Design is a book about a book’s artwork. The question behind the book is what should Lolita look like? The question that has challenged cover designers since 1955 when Lolita appeared in a plain green wrapper. […]

Look at Ernest Hemingway in this signed photograph that appears on our list of most expensive sales in August. The photo is inscribed “Norma – glad you finally came to Key West – ever, Ernest” and dated 1937. Sitting on a sailboat gunwale, Hemingway looks fit, tanned and totally at ease. This photo sold for$8,250 […]

American pop artist Andy Warhol‘s glory days were the 1960s. Warhol was firmly ensconced in the New York art scene and had a decade of exhibitions and acclaim under his belt. Art-wise, he had already worked his way from shoe advertisements and silkscreened record album covers up to what he became best-known for: the iconic, […]

Our latest video lets you have a glimpse inside the most exciting photographic discovery so far this century. The mystery part begins in 2007 when an amateur historian took a chance at an auction house and bought some negatives and film. The wonder part begins in 1926, with the birth of Vivian Maier, who only […]

O happy day! We reported a year and a half ago that it looked as though the marvelous and mysterious paper book sculptures that had been opping up all over Edinburgh were at an end. Now it appears that may not be the case after all, as another has appeared, this time at Leith Library. […]

Our most expensive book sales in May tell a fascinating story. The British Empire still stretched around the world during the Edwardian era. The British traveled and imposed their colonial ways, but a few were also taking photographs. John Claude White was part of a military expedition to Tibet in 1904 and his pioneering photographs […]

First created over 2000 years ago, illuminated manuscripts had drawings or paintings of ornate initials, borders, flowers, vines and other decoration to accompany text. A true illuminated manuscript was made without machines. Frequently in devotional prayer books, the most exceptional art served as a status symbol. Nowadays, original illuminated manuscripts are highly scarce. But due […]

AbeBooks is all about the business of books, including book-related ephemera: in this case, art. Many authors have tried their hand at drawing or painting, and many artists and illustrators drew and painted long before they became successful or famous. To the lucky collector who finds one, nothing is more priceless or precious than a […]

A fantastic profile on Collectors Weekly about Theodor Geisel’s AKA Dr. Seuss’s secret hat collection. It comes as little surprise, when one really stops to think about it, that Geisel might have a thing for hats. I remember reading The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (which just celebrated its 75th anniversary) as a child and […]

If you’ve never heard the name Frank Frazetta, that doesn’t mean you’ve never seen his work. In the latter 20th century, Frazetta was a prolific artist in the fields of fantasy, science fiction and comic art. As comfortable with swords, sorcery and unnaturally curvaceous space heroines as he was with caricature and parody, his work […]