By Hal Kanthor, M.D. I first discovered the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas as a teenager, after seeing a high school production of The Pirates of Penzance. I was so impressed that I began reading the librettos and listening to recordings of their other operas. Recognizing an affinity for Gilbert’s […]
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by Kathy Roberts I collected nineteenth-century decorated cloth bookbindings, or publishers trade bindings, for 25 years. All were octavo size or slightly smaller. In any case, they were full-sized books. My collection spanned early 1830s calendered cloth, 1840s striped, printed, and ribbon-embossed cloth, the brilliant reds and blues of the […]
by Mark Warner (February 2025) I think I’ve always been a list maker and I’ve always been a completist, and those two quirks have certainly helped in my latest venture in the world of books. I started making lists of authors’ works when I was reading over 100 books a […]
by Marcia McBrien The best children’s literature doesn’t only entertain – it also helps young people develop empathy and confront difficult issues through reading, explained Dr. Kristy Spann, educator and member of the Book Club of Detroit. At a July 13 meeting of the Book Club of Detroit, Dr. Spann […]
By Nadeem Toodayan I am not infrequently introduced by family members to visitors as a hoarder of books. My mother thinks I’m crazy about them. But I for one cannot see what all the fuss is about, as mine is but a modest and mostly well-kept collection. I can draw […]
by Jennifer Larson “Do you find it easy to get drunk on words?” “So easy that to tell you the truth, I am seldom perfectly sober.”–Busman’s Honeymoon (1937) To my mind, only two sleuths in the mystery genre exert a never-ending fascination: Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey. (I admit […]
By Marcia McBrien In war, not all battles are about taking territory or capturing enemy forces. An important – but largely hidden – aspect of war is a fight for hearts and minds. On April 13, thanks to retired U.S. Army Major Joseph L. Tebor, members of the Book Club […]
By Marcia McBrien A library gem hyper-focused on all things aviation – and housed, appropriately enough, in an airport hangar – was the venue for an April 13 visit by the Book Club of Detroit. The Paulson Aviation Library, located at the Mettetal Airport in Canton, Michigan, began in the […]
Editor’s note: This essay was adapted from a submission Doug made last year to the George and Anna Eliot Ticknor Collecting Prize, for which he was awarded Honorable Mention. by Douglas Scott Brown “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I may be the […]
By Alexander Ames and Mark Samuels Lasner We wish to make the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies aware of a new book from the Grolier Club that illuminates an important specialty of book history and collecting: the art of the ex-libris. Edited by Alexander Lawrence Ames and Mark Samuels Lasner […]