How to use this Page

Spring is busting out all over in New York, and it makes me think about poetry. Lots and lots of poetry.

Today, let's celebrate National Poetry Month and Shakespeare's birthday in one fell swoop--the Bard was a poet after all. The Vagabond Scholar blog will guide you through both celebrations, delivering enough poetry links to keep us all happy until the weekend. Dig it:

"Let me praise once again the wonderful Favorite Poem Project and highlight the poetry sites listed near the bottom of my blogroll (Poetry Daily is a nice way to discover new poets). My previous posts for National Poetry Month are far more extensive, and the foolhardy can access them through the too scant poetry category."

If that's not enough content for you, I insist that you visit our friend Edward Champion--he's been mixing up a huge batch of comic convention podcasts. I've barely had time to surf this amazing list of interviews, but I challenge you to find a more comprehensive body of comic reportage than this one.

Finally, congratulations to The Urban Muse for taking The Freelance Leap this spring.

Happy Friday, kids. In honor of this upcoming weekend without blog posts, dayjobs or Google Reader reading, I have three ways to shake up our writing over the next two days.

First of all, following Darby M. Dixon III's one-sentence post (that's his notebook photograph over there), let's all write in a notebooks instead of computer this weekend.

All my important drafts begin on paper--I think faster, I write differently and I love fluttering through pages and pages of inky drafts. Thanks to  Erika Dreifus (who blogged this funny thing too).

Then, let's all jump back on the computer and excise (via find and replace wonderfulness) the seven deadly words of book reviewing from our work. For extra credit, surf the comments for a bazillion new words that drive readers crazy.

Finally, let's all change how we eat lunch--and get off the computer all over again. Just read this burnout avoidance article by Susan Johnston (our buddy from The Urban Muse):

"Three quarters of American workers (including yours truly) eat their lunches at their desk at least a few times a week. It’s tempting to stay put when you’re absorbed in a project or if it feels like everyone else is putting in that extra face time. But trust me, you’ll feel better after you take a few minutes away from your computer."

Note to self, being effectively the last booth as people exit a fair is nice...as everyone pretty much has to go by you...but is not so nice as many/most are so spent by that time that they wander by, dazed and confused and wanting nothing more than to flee. This is the conclusion John and I have arrived at...such is life. It was a good day, just the same.

We started the day comfortably...leisurely morning rituals followed by a nice deli breakfast. The show ran from 12 to 6. It was supposed to be done at 5...but apparently those not in the other room near the exit thought staying there an extra hour would be great fun. It was nice for customers and I can't begrudge it at all. Eli was really great. Overall, very nice and charming and generally the best boy he could be. His reward for this exceptional behavior was a swim in the pool here at the hotel until he got good and prunny (the surest sign of a good swim).

Lots of nice conversations and a good deal of interest in a number of things....we shall see. The highpoint, so to speak, of the day was the amazing spread put out be the fine folks at Pryor and Johnson. At the end of the day, around 4pm (who knew we would be open another 2 hours), they put out fresh fruit, a wide selection of wonderful cheeses, about 5 pounds of pate, shrimp, smoked salmon, etc....and liquor. Nice wines, very nice ports and whiskeys, etc. I had some cheese and fruit and a finger or so of Balvenie Portwood 21 Year Old Single Malt. If I ever produce a book fair, they are my first call (I will not, ever, produce a book fair...ever).

Show opens tomorrow at 12. Closes for good at 4pm (unless, perhaps, the front room decides we should stay until early evening) and then pack up and, most likely, the long drive home. Then no show until March and St. Petersburg.

So after another very nice breakfast at what is rapidly becoming our favorite hotel, we were off to the Concourse. We toyed with walking, but ended up in a cab as we had our carry-ons and show bag and misc. other bits of brick-a-braq. It is only about 1.1 miles from the venue and we were there in short order.

We arrived and found pretty much exactly what can be seen in the first image [N.B. If you right click on any of these pictures (or yesterday's, etc) and choose open in a new tab (or window) and it will open a really nice big image]. It is a big and reasonably well lit hall and the pipe-and-drape system is interesting and quite elegantly designed. Best of all, they is designed to "take" adjustable shelving. I've never seen this before, but it let us put up a "top" shelf, above the folding shelves, to display some oversized books and plate sets in a nice way. When we made it to our booth, we found our 13 big black cases waiting for us (8 of ours, 5 of Don's). Having schlepped a booth full of cases into a hall the previous week, I can not express how nice it was to see that big pile happily waiting for us.

We shoved the big cases around a little bit and figured out a way to use some of the extra tables we found stacked in our booth. We ended up with a big trophy on each "side" with a four-foot peninsula at the center and we each have one eight-foot table down the side. The center counter case is slightly off center which allowed use to tuck in a little four-foot table on Don's side (at least a picture or two tomorrow showing the entire booth...Don was not set up before we finished). We ended up pulling our big table forward a bit and staking some of the Pelican cases and covering them with the very red plastic table cloth(ish) material we found in the booth...anything for a bit more horizontal surface(s).

Once we got the tables set up and the shelves up, everything just fell into place nicely. Oh, we checked all our leg supports and shelf supports in the cases. I can not stress strongly enough how important it is to check them. I saw a table go down on someone a year go or so and never want it to be me...and did have a shelf let go (luckily, it was with the first book placed and it had not fully left my grip. I check *carefully* before each setup.

We've sold a handful of things...sadly, one of them being one of the items I was most amused to bring out to this show (more on this in a later post). The booth is set up and ready for the morning. I have had email from a half-dozen people or so who have told me they are coming and tomorrow should be really fun.

We left well before set-up finished (close to a first for us (read, "me"). We walked, uphill, to the hotel to get ready to meet some of Suzanne's friends. San Francisco is a great city...in desperate need of an ironing. We met Suzanne's friends at Bourbon & Branch, a speakeasy cocktail bar a few blocks away (down). Reservations strongly recommended, you get a password to get into the unmarked door. It is very well designed, has a great feel and you can actually have a pleasant conversation with your friends without shouting. The drinks were great, the company even better. It was really a place. We left, picked up some great Pakistani food on the way back (up) to the hotel and called it a night. Show starts at 10 tomorrow.

Good morning campers. I feel human again. It is quite shocking. I slept well and long. The water pressure here is such that it can be adjusted to "painful" (something that I wish I could do at home). Breakfast was, as promised, a treat. Great coffee, fresh pastries (the little wild blueberry and mandarin orange danishes were amazing), wild mushroom quiche, sausage and a sort of french toast strata just scratches the surface. It was very good.

We were joined at breakfast by one of Suzanne's classmates from HBS. VC, investment banking, smelt breeding research and the book trade makes for fun and strange conversation.

I checked email before heading off to do some booking hunting and found a message from a friend who is doing some work with/for the Obama campaign. I clicked the link included in his missive and was brought to the page clipped above. It is a very good sign, I think, when support for your campaign is such that it manages to overwhelm your rather robust ecomm servers. Doubly interesting that basically at the same time Hillary is having to loan her campaign $5MM, Obamerama's campaign has raised over $7MM. It is going to be a fun few more weeks... Read the rest of this post

...in the best possible sense. John Wronoski hosted his annual cocktail/dinner party at his shop/gallery space, Lame Duck Books/Pierre Merand Gallery. The main course revolved around the whole wild boar and suckling pig...with far too many other options and sides (and a wee bit of beer, wine, champagne...just a touch).

The boar was hunted for the event (preserve raised) and was extremely good (great taste, subtly gamy) and there were a half dozen options on barbecue sause(s).

The attendees were an interesting and diverse crowd with nearly all engaged in various conversations (between bits). I had a great conversation with Joseph Phillips of Commonwealth Books and Edward Pollack was his always charming self.

It was a great party and a perfect end to a great day.

When you have spent a week or so doing little but cataloguing books, prepping for the Boston show(s) and a myriad of other minor/major tasks and are basically basically frazzled to the point of blathering, taking a few hours off to have dinner and here a presentation might not leap to mind as the best way to spend one's time (sleep, for instance, would be a very good idea). It was, however, the best evening I have had in a very long time. Simon Winchester (of Professor and the Madman, A Crack in the Edge of the World, The Chart that Changed the World and many others) was the speaker at the Baxter Society this evening and we had a lovely dinner before the event.

The dinner before the presentation was at Ciaola's in Portland's West End. The food was wonderful and our charming little private room was very nice. The company was outstanding. Among the group of 12, we had the author and wife, the owner of one of Maine's great fine press shops, the head of the Maine Historical Society's Library, a medical historian, a vinophile, a book artist, and others...it was a great group. Great stories, great conversation and just a great time.

Simon spoke on his soon-to-be-published biographical work on the life of Joseph Needham. I will not go into details of the man's life...but his life is a remarkable story and I can not wait to read Simon's new book The Man Who Loved China: Joseph Needham and the Making of a Masterpiece (ARCs in Dec with a Jan release). Suffice it to say, he was an chain smoking Cambridge educated scientist, communist, serial philanderer nudist who created one of the truly great works of the 20th century. His book, Science and Civilization in China, was originally proposed as a single volume 6-800 page work. As it turned out, the first volume was published in 1954...the 17th volume in 1995 at Needham's death and is now at 24 volumes (using his notes and/or structure). It is, apparently, the longest book ever published and it quite literally changed the West's conception and perception of China at nearly all levels. The "Needham Question" remains at the core of figuring what happened with China in the "modern" age and what/or what may happen going forward...

This was the first time Simon spoke about this work in public and he read the entire prologue to set the stage. In addition to the tales about and around Needham, he told some wonderful stories that arose during/from his adventures in researching this book. For example: Having copies of Needham's diaries (he was meticulous diary keeper), Simon quite literally followed in Needham's footsteps on many of his journeys.

He told of following his route to one of the remote university cities, quite literally on the far side of the Gobi Desert...while en route and quite literally in the middle of nowhere and with no traffic about, he broke down with an oil leak. When his temporary repair of chewing gum only worked for about 5 miles, he was dead at the side of the road. Quite worried about his prospects, he turned on his cell phone, hoping that there might be the hint of a signal...only to discover that China has apparently built towers pretty much everywhere...not only did he have solid coverage, he had data and was able, at the side of the road, in the middle of the Gobi Desert, in the dead of night, to google his hotel, get a number and call them [N.B. this annoys me a great deal, as there are at least 3 *major* dead spots between Portland and Tentants Harbor, Maine (and no coverage at all in TH....but high speed data in the Gobi]. After a brief description of his situation, he was told by the hotel clerk (500 miles away) to put his flashers on and go to sleep and to look for lights in 5 hours. 5 hours later, he saw two sets of lights, a tow-truck for the car and a vehicle for him...complete with noodles and beer. Just remarkable.

As many of you may know, he had written about 14 books *before* Professor and the Madman (The Surgeon of Crowthorne if you have a British edition). These books, in his words, "went from the publisher directly to the remainder tables". While not entirely true, it was clearly his breakthrough work...but do track down some of those early, easy as most have been republished in recent years. I strongly recommend, The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time.

I'll stop here. I could rave about his presentation for hours. Do not miss an opportunity to hear Simon speak, it is hard to think of a way to spend one's time more pleasingly.

[photo shows Simon Winchester, his wife Setsuko (in back) and Dr. Harold Osher (per Simon, "Ahhh, the Map Chap"]

Well, so much for slow Sundays. This was possibly the best Sunday show day we’ve had. Again, the crowd was good sized and steady throughout the day…better yet, they were engaged and interested in strange bits of this and that (a strength of mine, strange bits of this and that). Better still, the engaged and interested people were buying. Pretty much a perfect storm for a book fair.

The highpoint of the weekend for me was helping sell what I think may have been the “coolest” thing at fair this weekend (sadly, not my book). Don Lindgren, whom I shared a booth with, had a truly spectacular item from 1971…a “book” printed on tractor fed paper, one of 10 numbered copies (16 total) that is comprised of every permutation of a 4 by 4 grid of dots. The runtime was 9 hours 44 minutes and a handful of seconds (the length of time it took to print the job and it included a colophon and the signatures of the authors/programmers. It found a great home…one where its significance will be enjoyed for a very long time.

It was an interesting show for sales…we sold pretty much across the board. Book arts, illustrated, books on books, Americana, fine press and antiquarian. We brought a thin sampling of reasonably special/pretty/sexy things from many areas…hoping to have something interesting for just about anyone to look at…at the same time, we didn’t expect to sell broadly…most shows tend to track in one direction or another. This show seemed to have real interest in many areas.

The fair ended at 4pm. We were able to get everything packed and to FedEx by 545pm…very good, as it closed at 6pm. We schlepped the rest back to the hotel and then had a very nice dinner at the Icon Grill. Tomorrow we are going to meet with a friend or two of Suzanne’s and do a bit of book hunting.

It was a great fair. Great dealers from all over, met some folks I’ve been wanting to meet, met some folks I didn’t know I wanted to meet, but am very pleased to have met them (and look forward to doing so again). Sold some good books. Met some new clients. Life is good. Have I mentioned recently I truly love this business.

Sunday started a bit slow and then picked up a great deal. It was, I think, the busiest Sunday at any fair we've done. I had a client (one of my favorites) I was expecting show up with her husband and she and 3 or 4 others made it yet another solid day in Baltimore.

I did my seminar at 1pm and it was well received (no one fell asleep and no one threw anything, so it was a success). I had a number of people tell me afterward that it they enjoyed it and a dealer who I respect a great deal (and who has been in the business about as long as I have been alive) told me he learned something...which was pretty much the nicest thing he could say to me...

The show closed at 6pm. We were packed an ready to go by about 830ish (not bad for us, sadly). Unfortunately, by that time the line to get it was so long that it was about 10ish or so before Suz was able to get the car into the hall (400 plus vehicles takes a very long time...). We made it back to Annapolis around 11:30.

It was a great show and a great weekend. We are already signed up for next year. I think I will be doing another post on the "meta" of this show...there is a lot about this show that I would love to see integrated into others...genuine PR efforts being a biggie.

We are taking the slow path back to Maine. We are planning to stop by the Bradywine Museum and make our pilgrimage to the Rosenbach Museum (I am, as usual, way too excited about this).
Then one more meal at Rein's Deli and be home... Updates to follow as connections allow... Read the rest of this post

Well, I was up at 5:45 to get ready for my 49 seconds of fame on the local Sat. morning show. I did the wee interview with the antique dealer George Subkoff (a wonderful gentleman with simply stunning items). We both showed off a bit of wares and spoke (very briefly) about collecting. It was pretty fun.

The day started a bit slow, but was very busy overall. I think a lot of the DC/PA (and perhaps NY) folk wrap up work and head to Balt. on the weekend. It was pretty much as busy yesterday as it was on the first day. Great interest, some potentially strong leads and very solid sales (and the buying remained good too...the longer the show lasts, the more books one finds...).

Suzanne trekked off to visit Royal Books and Kelmscott Books shops...conveniently located next to each other. There she found Brian of Appledore Books and Joe Maynard (book dealer, artist and raconteur) and The Colonel (Robert) from Blue Ridge Books and they all did some damage at both shops (Joe and Brian having left their long suffering partner to fend for themselves among the teaming bibliophiles at the show for 3.5 hours...if you listen closely, you can almost hear the gnashing of teeth).

We finished the day by going to dinner with Brian, Joe, Robert, Ira (Prints Charming), Ian and a friend/client of mine (and respective spice) all went to dinner together at Salt. The company was great fun and the food was simply outstanding. I had our wonderful waitress (Teresa) write me a note as to what I had because it was so good I wanted to be certain I would miss nothing in describing it. I started with their "Trio of Soup" (three perfect servings of Cream of Asparagus with goat cheese, Roasted Red Pepper and Crab Bisque, Cool Yellow Tomato). For an entree I had one of the last two plates of the venison special: Grilled Venison Tenderloin with caramelized endive, a cassolet of fingerling potatoes with goat cheese, parmesan, bacon and caramelized onion finished with a juniper berry demi-glaze. It was, with no exageration, the best meal I have had in months and months. I would recommend a trip to Balt just to eat here.

Sunday should be long and painful (I have blisters on my feet). I am speaking at 1pm. We run until 6pm and then have to pack up. I expect to get to Annapolis to night around midnight or so. Urgh.