As those of you who don’t live under rocks are aware, around this time of year immense attention is placed on discovering what we are grateful for and giving thanks. We here at Tavistock Books are grateful for many things indeed – a finely mixed Manhattan, a wonderful dinner with like-minded bibliophiles… the San Francisco Giants. But most of all we are grateful for our customers. They keep our business, and passion, alive and kicking. Our customers vary widely – like most booksellers we connect with libraries, museums, bibliophiles and collectors on a daily basis. And it is one of these categories (though all are beloved) that we would like to bring attention to this holiday season – to young collectors in our state of California.
Last month we reported on the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, which grants awards to collectors at University level that have put together rather outstanding collections at such young ages. Here in California, the Northern and Southern Chapters of the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America have put together the California Young Book Collector’s Prize – a sought after prize to a young collector (age 35 and under, if you please) that shows the remarkable promise of being a great book collector – one that we will owe our livelihood and our profession to as years go by!
As the ABAA chapters state, “All collections of books, manuscripts, and ephemera are welcome, no matter their monetary value or subject. The collections will be judged on their thoroughness, the approach to their subject, and the seriousness which with the collector has catalogued his or her material.” The prize includes a $500 credit to spend at the upcoming 2019 California International Antiquarian Book Fair, an exhibition space at the fair for their collection (as well as a stipend for exhibiting expenses), a years memberships to both the Book Club of California and the Bibliographical Society of North America, and a year long subscription to The Book Collector. This prize aims to celebrate the pleasure of antiquarian book collecting, and to bring understanding and awareness to others that this is an enjoyment that can be achieved by any – so long as you have the heart and the soul to do so! Congratulations to all applicants – you are one of the things we are most grateful for year-round.
Applications must be sent as a .PDF file to ABAA Northern CA Chapter Chair Ben Kinmont at bkinmont@gmail.com by December 1st, 2018 to be considered. Find out more information by emailing us or commenting!
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
(But you know, especially to our faithful book collectors.)
The defense was aided in part due to the previous year’s 1959 Obscene Publications Act, which Parliament passed saying that in order for censorship to take place, the work in question would need to be considered as a whole – without singular focus on the dirtier bits. The prosecution did not fare well anyway, as, despite a conservative following not wishing to see the book in print and in the hands of anyone, lawyer Mervyn Griffith-Jones called no witnesses to support his argument (as no one agreed to stand for the prosecution) and merely suggested that the book had no literary merit. The defense, led by Gerald Gardiner (who would a mere four years later become Labour Lord Chancellor), had rather a different angle. He stated that the book did have merit, that Lawrence wasn’t simply writing smut, but attacking the “impersonality of the industrial age and loss of personal relationships… he was extolling the life-giving importance of romantic and sexual intimacy” (The Telegraph). Gardiner called 35 witnesses to his side – big wigs in academia and literary worlds. He even had a Bishop – the Bishop of Woolwich, who wrote that, though Lawrence was not a Christian himself, he was “portraying the act of sex as something valuable and sacred – as an act of communion” – he went so far as to say that Christians could easily read this title.
4. We think this quote by Vidal needs no explanation (but everyone please remember that this is Vidal’s quote – not necessarily ours): “There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party … and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt – until recently … and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.” Ouch!
