Member Blogs > Tavistock Books

• "We sit in the mud… and reach for the stars": A Tribute to Ivan Turgenev

  Wed, 09 Nov 2016 11:58:31 Permalink
  Recently I sat down and made a list of some authors and book-related events that I wished I knew more about. Too often we can find ourselves leaning towards what we already know – authors we are comfortable with and like. So to avoid stagnancy, we are going to do a couple blogs on things […] Read More

• Boston or Bust! One Bay-Area Bookseller's Look at the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair (Said Bookseller Being our Very Own Vic Zoschak)

  Wed, 02 Nov 2016 10:51:41 Permalink
  If it’s the second weekend in November, I must be in Boston.  Wait, I was in Boston last week, late October…?  Yes, this year, due to a date conflict at the Hynes, the Boston fairs were right in the middle of the 2016 World Series.  Can you imagine the craziness in town if the Sox […] Read More

• A Birthday Cheers to Pablo Picasso, Father of Cubism

  Wed, 26 Oct 2016 10:40:37 Permalink
  Ask ten people near you right now who the most famous artist of all time is. I guarantee you (in the way where I can’t really pay up if I’m wrong) that at least half will name Pablo Picasso as the first artist who comes to mind. Picasso, a Spanish painter, sculptor, designer, poet and […] Read More

• The Migratory Habits of Booksellers

  Thu, 13 Oct 2016 06:54:14 Permalink
  Ahh, book fair season is upon us once more: when booksellers of every stripe take to the skies and highways of America in search of fresh resources and temporary bibliophilic nesting grounds. It’s one of the book trade’s enduring mysteries, and a sight to behold. Drawn by forces scientists have not yet managed to explain — collective memory, […] Read More

• Happy Birthday to our Favorite Children's Book Serialist… Mr. Edward L. Stratemeyer!

  Tue, 04 Oct 2016 02:21:36 Permalink
  On October 4th, 1862, a children’s literature tycoon was born. With his humble beginnings, of course, no one ever would have suspected that a talented writer and publisher was in their midst. Stratemeyer was born the youngest of six children in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a young tobacconist and his wife. Both of Edward’s parents […] Read More

• Our Fearless Leader Reports from the 42nd ILAB Congress in Budapest!

  Wed, 28 Sep 2016 01:24:58 Permalink
  In 2010, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of Hungary was admitted to be a member of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB). They marked their admittance with a promise to be active within the community, and they took their promise very seriously! Thus marked the beginning of a plan to hold the ILAB Congress in […] Read More

• [Insert Clever Title Here]

  Fri, 16 Sep 2016 02:24:05 Permalink
  One thing has become abundantly clear since I worked my first book fair a year ago: these post-fair blogs have gotten harder to write. I’m no longer the wide-eyed book fair ingenue I once was, after all, fresh off the bus (or pickup truck, as the case may be) from Ohio and armed with a […] Read More

• Happy International Literacy Day! All Hail the Printing Press

  Thu, 08 Sep 2016 01:37:46 Permalink
  As everyone (at least, everyone who is reading this blog) probably knows, the advent of the Printing Press in 1454 (the year the Gutenberg Bible was printed) instigated a major boom in reading and literacy worldwide. Suddenly even the common man could afford a booklet or even a book… there was no longer an aristocratic or […] Read More

• Happy Birthday to Mary Shelley… and the Birth of Frankenstein

  Tue, 30 Aug 2016 11:30:49 Permalink
  Once upon a time, there was a large house that sat alone on a cliff in the countryside. It contained more dark corners and cobwebs to count. On one dark and stormy night, inside that house a birth took place. One young lady (and a terribly naive young and handsome doctor) created a terrible creature […] Read More

• Welcome to the Biennial Reference Book Workshop with Tavistock Books (For All You Lazies Who Didn't Sign Up)

  Wed, 24 Aug 2016 11:19:57 Permalink
  1. Hooray! Another Reference Book Workshop! Who attended and how was the vibe of the event in your eyes? This was like the 11th or 12th I’ve hosted this workshop since the first in 2001.  Due to space constraints, I limit registration to 7, which was attained this year shortly after the announcement but relatively […] Read More

• Happy 170th Anniversary to the Smithsonian Institution!

  Wed, 10 Aug 2016 11:00:19 Permalink
  In 1829 an English chemist and mineralogist name James Smithson died. This, in and of itself, should not have influenced the United States in any grand way… but it did! This English chemist, born in Paris and the illegitimate song of the 1st Duke of Northumberland donated all of his lifetime of earnings and his […] Read More

• "You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm." A Look at Colette – Scandalous & Beloved French Writer

  Wed, 03 Aug 2016 10:00:44 Permalink
  I readily admit that I am a fan of the badass literary woman. Give me Anais Nin, Marguerite Duras or Virginia Woolf any day – women who tell it like it is, who aren’t afraid to examine deep parts of the psyche, of feelings on sex, attraction, anger… any and all of the above. It […] Read More

• The Lost Generation: Expatriates Living in Paris in the Roaring 20s

  Wed, 27 Jul 2016 10:34:50 Permalink
  Once upon a time, there was the Roaring 20s. There was plenty of jazz, shorter skirts and illegal booze all over the place. The End. Just kidding!  I could never stop a 20s blog with that – not when it is one of my favorite periods! (In an “I would live then only if I […] Read More

• Some Books-on-Books Titles That Might Be Missing from Your Reference Library

  Wed, 20 Jul 2016 02:05:07 Permalink
  Do you ever wonder what the most useful reference books are for your collection? Whether you are a bookseller, a librarian or even just a customer, it is important to know what you are buying, what you are selling, and what you’ve got! Reference books are one of the keys to being a responsible cataloguer, […] Read More

• "It is better to learn wisdom late, than to never learn it at all" The Life of the Great Creator of Sherlock Holmes

  Thu, 07 Jul 2016 12:10:36 Permalink
  On the 7th of July, 1930, Arthur Conan Doyle died at age 71 from a heart attack. On this the 86th anniversary of his death, we’d like to look at this famous author, spiritualist & physician and his lifetime contribution to so many different fields! Conan Doyle (as he is often called, though Conan Doyle […] Read More

• Rare Books and Manuscripts Galore! We Get a Low-Down of Last Week's RBMS Conference from Our Very Own Attendee!

  Wed, 29 Jun 2016 12:47:34 Permalink
  Vic, how many years have you attended RBMS for now? My first RBMS Conference, then called the Preconference for the conference precedes the big ALA event, was in San Francisco, 2002.  I was the local ABAA rep to the RBMS Local Affairs committee, and helped with things like stuffing the book bag, helping arrange the […] Read More

• Charles Dickens & the Beginning of "The Pickwick Papers"

  Thu, 09 Jun 2016 01:11:55 Permalink
  Get yourselves ready for one of the most morbid (therefore, we celebrate it in high style) days of the year… the anniversary of Dickens’ death! Every year we do a Dickens blog around this day, though I prefer to think of it more as a celebration of life blog, rather than as a homage to […] Read More

• "Perhaps life is just that… a dream and a fear": A Brief Biography of Joseph Conrad

  Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:26:01 Permalink
  A large genre of antiquarian books collected and sold by many is known as “Modern Firsts”. Now, quite obviously that refers to Modern First Editions, right? Right! However, what many don’t realize is that the scope of Modern Literature is truly as wide as it is varied! Some “Modern” authors that people recognize the names […] Read More

• Look no further… than the Latest Items at Tavistock Books!

  Wed, 25 May 2016 12:47:11 Permalink
    Does the name Victoria Lucas ring a bell to you? She’s a super famous poet! We recently wrote a blog about her, even. Not ringing with understanding yet? Hmm… she also struggled with depression her whole life and wrote some of her most famous poems at the peaks of her despair. Here’s a hint […] Read More

• "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move." OTD in 2001, the Universe Lost … "a dreamer, a thinker, a speculative philosopher… or, as his wife would have it, an idiot."

  Wed, 11 May 2016 01:38:49 Permalink
  As a child, I was required to listen to many different things. Classical music, for one. Teachers getting annoyed with me for asking too many questions, for another. And… The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy quotes, for a third. For that last particular factor I have my father to thank. (Though actually, now that I think about […] Read More

• "It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both"… As we lose one "Prince", We Study Another

  Wed, 04 May 2016 11:17:42 Permalink
  Niccolò Machiavelli is a name known to many. We all know (with a name like Niccolò… it’s pretty obvious) he was Italian, we know he wrote “The Prince” and we know that he is quoted by posh academics. Often. And at length.  But what else is known about our man Machiavelli? For instance, did you […] Read More

• "And then I spent two years wandering the Sahara Desert before being rescued by a wandering trio of exiled German princes who brought me along as their entertainment… a court jester, if you will…"

  Wed, 20 Apr 2016 12:07:38 Permalink
  Personal confession: normally I am a proponent of all types of blogging. Though I believe the (not-so-old) adage “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet” – I also find the internet to be a most useful place for information. Some of it genuine… some of it not quite so genuine… some of it kind, some […] Read More

• There and Back Again: a New York Book Fair Tale by Vic Zoschak

  Wed, 13 Apr 2016 12:18:56 Permalink
  So you have now attended your… what, 27th New York ABAA fair? How does it feel? Well, perhaps not quite that many, but have gone, either as an exhibitor, or as an attendee, pretty much every year since becoming an ABAA member in 1995.  I haven’t exhibited at the fair since sometime in the early […] Read More

• The Art of Freeing the Mind (and Body) with Henry Miller

  Fri, 08 Apr 2016 12:59:34 Permalink
  Normally our author blogs are based on a date in the life of said author – birthdays, publishing dates, even memorials to their deaths. I’d like to take this moment to say that this is not one of those types of dates. This blog is completely and utterly random… all because I recently dreamt about […] Read More

• Who cares that Gold was found near Sacramento? Check out these Gems we Mined at the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair…

  Thu, 31 Mar 2016 11:00:16 Permalink
    Circa 1869, this pamphlet titled “God is Love. A Sermon” was authored by George Storrs – one of the leaders of the Second Advent movement, affiliated with William Miller and Joshua V. Himes. After a fair amount of study, Storrs preached to some Adventists on the condition and prospects… for the dead. OCLC records […] Read More

• It's Always Sunny in Sacramento

  Thu, 24 Mar 2016 02:00:42 Permalink
  Our main lady, the lovely Kate Mitas, reports on the recent Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair. That’s not all… perhaps I should call it (for Tavistock Books, at least) the most recent and successful Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair. Stay tuned! Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m willing to bet that by now, if you’ve been following Tavistock’s less […] Read More

• Be on the Lookout! Come to the Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair for…

  Wed, 09 Mar 2016 09:42:40 Permalink
  The Sacramento Antiquarian Book Fair is coming up and as usual we will have some hot new items with us for your perusal! Check out our list below for the latest acquisitions that may be of interest. Also, please feel free to ask us to bring anything you may want to take a look at […] Read More

• "You're wrong as the deuce, and you shouldn't rejoice. If you're calling him Seuss – he pronounces it Soice." (But then changed it to Seuss, so…)

  Wed, 02 Mar 2016 11:58:05 Permalink
  If someone says “Children’s Books” to you, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Picture books? Perhaps here is the better question… what author first comes to mind? I would venture to bet that at least 90% of you come up with the same name. However, did you know that the name […] Read More

• Pride and Prejudice and Bookselling: Confessions from the 49th California International Antiquarian Book Fair

  Fri, 19 Feb 2016 02:37:09 Permalink
  This past weekend Team Tavistock (Vic Zoschak & Kate Mitas) braved the 49th Annual California International Antiquarian Book Fair. How was it, you ask? Well, we’ve asked Ms. Mitas and she kindly volunteered her thoughts on the fair. Find out below! It is a truth universally acknowledged that a bookseller in possession of a good book […] Read More

• Lurking in Person at the San Francisco (Mateo) Book, Print & Paper Fair

  Wed, 10 Feb 2016 04:17:08 Permalink
  I have done many “my first book fair” blogs for Tavistock Books. I wrote about my first ever book fair working behind the booth, I wrote about my first ever book fair that I had to fly to exhibit at. I wrote about my first ABAA fair. Unfortunately for you, this blog will be of […] Read More