AbeBooks' Reading Copy

Bobbs-Merrill existed in a bygone era of books. This company published L. Frank Baum, Ayn Rand and Irma S. Rombauer’s Joy of Cooking, but is largely forgotten now except by connoisseurs of the used book world. Discover how a Midwestern company put a book into almost every household in America.

Dave Eggers, author of the most excellent Zeitoun and founder of McSweeney’s, is publishing a short story on a shower curtain. No, it’s not a reworking of Psycho by Robert Bloch. The ‘publisher’ is The Thing, a quarterly that issues objects that are art-related or literary. The story curtain costs $65 – it better be [...]

Viggo Mortenson founded a publishing company, Perceval Press, in 2002, specializing in art, poetry, photography books and CDs, helping artists and authors get a start.

The Folio Society is half publisher, half book club, and founded in 1947 on the principle that books should be beautiful to the eye as well as captivating to the mind.

Our latest on-site feature concerns Phaidon Press and the stunning art books produced by this publisher. Phaidon has been one of the pioneers of the art book format since the mid-1930s. Originally founded in Vienna in 1923, this company relocated to London to avoid the Nazis and never looked back. Phaidon’s titles have covered many [...]

Jarvis Cocker, frontman of Pulp and the man who invaded the stage while Michael Jackson performed because Jackson was attempting to be some “kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing”, is the latest celebrity to move into publishing. He is following Pete Townsend, Henry Rollins and Anthony Bourdain. The Guardian interviews him and [...]

This video is designed to help people understand some of the jargon used by booksellers when describing the physical aspects of a book. I’m sure you can figure out what the spine is but do you know your hinge from your joint? What about the endpapers? I recommend the AbeBooks glossary for learning more about [...]

Margaret Atwood’s new book comes out this week and there’s a signed limited edition (300 copies) of In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination printed on straw, “without any harmful impact on forests and their fragile ecosystems,” according to the author. The Globe and Mail has the full story. It’s the brainchild of Vancouver-based [...]

The Guardian reports that HarperCollins is planning to publish a book about Agatha Christie’s ‘gap’ year. The crime writing author took a year-long trip in 1922 and visited Hawaii, Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. The book, The Grand Tour, will collect the previously unpublished letters and photos along with postcards, newspaper cuttings [...]

Polly Courtney, a novelist who quit the banking profession because of its rampant sexism, has now fired her publisher for being sexist, reports the Daily Mail. She didn’t like the HarperCollins cover art featuring a lady in a short skirt with long legs. A case of frying pan and fire I think. She said: “They [...]