AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Our top 10 most expensive book sales list for April is topped by the poetry of none other than Emily Dickinson. Dickinson was unheralded during her lifetime but today, 127 years after her death, the poet’s work is treasured by collectors. Three volumes of her poetry were sold last month on AbeBooks and became our [...]

One of my favorite blogs, Fine Books Magazine, has  just brought it to my attention that an unpublished work from William McGonagall is going to auction and is expected to raise somewhere in the vicinity of £3,000.  Now, an unpublished Victorian poem fetching four figures isn’t exactly groundbreaking – the truly remarkable part of this [...]

Have you ever heard of a trick poem? What about this one, from the 17th century, called I Saw A Peacock With a Fiery Tail? Depending on the way the poem is read, with what line breaks, it takes on two very different meanings for the reader. This edition, breathtakingly illustrated by award-winning, central Indian [...]

Last November and December The Mayor Gallery in London featured an exhibition of 44 drawings between – all by Sylvia Plath. The exhibition was successful and well-received, but many viewers did comment on the detachment of the images – given Plath’s struggles in life and tragic ending, one might expect an emotional intensity in the [...]

This is the way this poem should always sound. Goosebumps. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. ” ‘Tis some visitor,” [...]

Remember our March Madness Battle of the Beautiful Books? Well, we have an interview with the poet whose book “The Crow’s Vow” won the whole enchilada. Read on to learn more about the lovely and bird-crazy Susan Briscoe. And I came across another book today which reminded me that two designs, while very similar when [...]

Celebrating National Poetry Month with book spine poetry.

It’s exactly 100 days until the opening of the London Olympics and the event needs poets, according to the BBC. They are short of 20 poets for a cultural event featuring a poet from every nation competing in the 2012 Olympics. Apparently, they still need poets from places like Mali and Liberia. I suspect Mali’s [...]

The love letters between poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning have been digitized and can now be viewed online.

Happy Robbie Burns Day – enjoy perusing these collectible copies of Robert Burns’ works.