“Have you heard of this artist,” one auction-buyer asked as he walked up to another who was checking out books on an auction table. His friend had never heard the name Stuart M. Egnal before, and neither…
Category: Books
Lying discarded on table after table in the back room of the auction house were piles and piles of books from someone’s library. The auctioneer kept saying that the books and more tables of stuff…
Japanese comic books I can’t read
Posted in Books
You know how you sometimes buy things for no rhyme or reason? That happened to me recently at one of my favorite auction houses. I was sitting there waiting for some items I actually wanted…
The cover of the book was so marred by water damage that I could only make out the word “Negroes.” Instantly, I knew it was something I had to examine a little closer. It was…
Life mag’s unfinished Mark Twain novel
Posted in Books
An unfinished novel by Mark Twain? That’s what the front cover of the old Life magazine blared when I discovered it beneath some papers on a tray at auction this week. There was the writer…
A book of Southern rhymes
Posted in Books
It was a good day of ephemera at one of my favorite auction houses this week. Not a lot of it, but enough to enough to get me excited. The house had it grouped together in at least…
Maurice Sendak’s book ‘Wild Things’
Posted in Books
A few years ago, I heard about an exhibit of Maurice Sendak’s original artwork from one of my favorite children’s books “Where the Wild Things Are.” The works were on display at the Rosenbach Museum &…
The wonders of children’s books
Posted in Books
I love children who love books. Children riding in their strollers who, when they come upon a slew of books, instantly reach out to them. Or children walking with their moms and dad who get…
When Terry McMillan walked onto the stage at the Free Library in Philadelphia this week, the packed room of women applauded her. Some jumped to their feet. She was so overwhelmed that she left the…
For years, I collected children’s books illustrated by African American artists. I imagined that that these artists found it liberating to be painting for children, their stories simple yet imaginative. I’ve never found any of…