Chicago, 23 April 2015 - A review in pictures

Who knows? Maybe Frank Lloyd Wright and Carl Sandburg already had drinks at the elegant premises of the Cliff Dwellers Club. On 23 April the Club high above Chicago and overlooking Lake Michigan was a busy place filled with Chicago's antiquarian booksellers, Cliff Dwellers, Caxton Club members and numerous booklovers who had climbed to the 22nd floor of the skyscraper to enjoy books and bookish talks, to have a drink and to donate money to help UNESCO support literacy in South Sudan.

Pictures courtesy of Kurt Gippert:

 

Chris Rohe, Kurt Gippert

Brad Jonas, Garrett Scott

Sylvia Castle

David Mesnard, Garrett Scott, Susan Hirsch

Garrett Scott

Jan  Lawrence Van de Carr Bookleger's

Jeff Jahns

Paul Garon, Kurt Gippert

Sammy Berk

Virginia Harding, Kurt Gippert, Susan Hanes

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands - More impressions from the ILAB Pop Up Book Fair in Haarlem

The Dutch dealers are amazing, their events on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day clearly belong to the highlights of 23 April 2015. The ILAB Pop Up Book Fair at Haarlem Station, waiting room at perron 3a, was organized by Antiquariaat A.G. van der Steur, Veilinghuis Bubb Kuyper and Antiquariaat De Vries en De Vries. They wrote to us:

"Lots of train travellers found it a lovely surprise to be able to visit a pop up book market just before entering their trains. Unfortunately no delayed trains (unusual for The Netherlands) so mostly short visits with enthusiastic people. The free book and print valuation was a great success. People had to stand in a line to wait for their turn. Many people liked to donate ..."

Thank you very much to the Dutch dealers at Haarlem and especially to Arine van der Lely-van der Steur for sending the lovely pictures.

Some days later - More ILAB Pop Up pictures coming in, and a wonderful video from Amsterdam

It's Monday 27, and we are still receiving pictures from the ILAB Pop Up Book Fairs worldwide, there are still tweets and posts in social media and press mentions, for example in Sweden or Cape Town or such exotic places as the Philippines, also on Book Patrol, Flavorwire and Fine Books and Collections. A list with press links will be on the blog in the course of this week.

The Guardian published a great article about the ILAB Pop Up Book Fairs and created an extra site where visitors could upload their pictures. A wonderful pictorial review of what was going on on 23 April.

And here is something special: a video of the Dutch booksellers and their floating Pop Up Book Fair in Amsterdam.

Good Morning from Germany, Good Night to Seattle – Pictures from the ILAB Pop Up Book Fair 2015, at Seattle’s Sorrento Hotel

Finally, after 23 joyful hours of blogging the day, I had been falling asleep for a moment. So please excuse that the pictures from the ILAB Pop Up Book Fair in Seattle, taking place from 4 to 8 pm, local time, at the Sorrento Hotel, are posted with a short delay.

The ILAB Pop Up Book Fairs have been “a huge success”, Sheppard’s confidential writes in its last night issue (thank you Richard), the fairs had a great media coverage with an excellent article – and a picture gallery – in The Guardian, to mention only one of many mentions worldwide, and an abundance of posts and tweets in the social media. 

Back to Seattle’s Sorrento Hotel, home to artists, intellectuals and business travelers. ABAA/ILAB booksellers Boris Bruton, Taylor Bowie, John Lang, Ed Smith and Priscilla Anne Lowry presented a wonderful array of antiquarian books, maps, prints, and ephemera, and they continued the work of their colleagues around the world filling Empty Bookcase posters with “symbolic book spines” to raise money for UNESCO and the school children in South Sudan. (By the way, if you had not the chance to visit an ILAB Pop Up Fair and wish to show your support, go to the UNESCO website and click the “donate” button.)

A while ago, Ed Smith wrote: “We don't have to tell you how great Seattle is, or its environs, we just might mention the home of the Seahawks and Mariners, Microsoft, Boeing, an historically great music scene – where Jimi Hendrix was born and Ray Charles played his first piano lines -, The Seattle Aquarium, University of Washington, The Space Needle, the Great Wheel at Colman Dock, Starbucks, the EMP Museum, The Seattle Art Museum, the Tate Museum, Bill Gate's house …”

Now we may add: Seattle is also the home of the final event of an amazing and exciting series of ILAB Pop Up Book Fairs across the world on 23 April 2015. See the pictures:

 

By Barbara van Benthem, ILAB Web Editor

23 April 2015 - ILAB booksellers have brought the books to the people!

Now, as the UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day is almost over - two more events are taking place right now in Chicago and in Seattle and we are waiting for the pictures - I think of all events which appeared in ILAB's bibliophile Mexican Wave from Sydney to Tokyo, Cape Town, all over Europe and then to the United States. They were all different, in woolsheds, on boats, in pubs, campervans, libraries, streets, clubs, and yes, the ILAB booksellers have brought the books to the people. What a wonderful idea, and what a wonderful species of ILAB booksellers who put it into practice, all at one day, 23 April 2015.

Here are some more pictures from Groningen, where Antiquariaat Isis and the Dutch colleagues created something unique: an ILAB Pop Up Book Fair Street.

Look at the pictures and simply enjoy!

11.30 to 4 pm, Portland, Oregon - Bridge City, Beer City, BOOK City: a brew pub hosts one of the final ILAB Pop Up Fair on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day 2015!

24 hours of ILAB Pop Up Fairs across the world on April 23, 2015 – this is ILAB’s contribution to the UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day! As the earth turns, book fairs "pop up" in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. The day started with an ILAB Pop Up Fair celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday at the State Library of New South Wales followed up by antiquarian booksellers showing amazing books, prints and manuscripts in the most unusual and unexpected locations: in woolsheds, restaurants, museums, libraries, a synagogue, in the streets of New York, in Groningen’s Folkingestraat or on a boat cruising the canals in Amsterdam.

Here in Portland, Oregon local ILAB dealers Elisabeth Burdon, Nat Des Marais, and Charles Seluzicki present a display and sale of antiquarian books and ephemera to highlight the cultural heritage of the book. Recognizing the important place that books hold in the dissemination of knowledge, they continue the work of their colleagues around the world to fill a "virtual bookcase" as participants and visitors donate money to buy books for schools in South Sudan.

To make the event authentically “Portland," - the home of "more breweries (and bookshops) than any other city on earth," - they are gathering at a brew pub, the Lucky Lab on Hawthorne Boulevard, a short walk over the Hawthorne Bridge from downtown Portland.  Whether you think of this beautiful city on the Willamette River as Book City, Bridge City or Beer City, Portlanders are mixing fun with the serious purpose of the international community of booksellers of promoting literacy around the world.

Thanks to Jessica Doyle from AbeBooks for representing them and their generous donation.

1 to 5 pm, New Castle, Delaware – Three American antiquarian booksellers pop up at Oak Knoll Books

By Bailey Kung

In celebration of UNESCO’s World Book, and Copyright Day, antiquarian booksellers from all over the world are hosting Pop Up Book Fairs on April 23, 2015. Members of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) are bringing rare books, prints, manuscripts, and ephemera to unexpected places – train stations, brew pubs, rooftop terraces, and even boats! In addition to promoting the rare books, these events also act as fundraisers for UNESCO’s literacy projects in Africa. Each fair displays a large poster of an “empty bookcase,” and encourage visitors to fill it by purchasing symbolic book spines, with the money from each going directly to provide books to schools and libraries in South Sudan.

Oak Knoll Books is hosting a Pop Up Book Fair in New Castle, Delaware, outside our shop in the old Opera House, built in 1879 by the Masons. Fellow booksellers Ian Brabner Rare Americana(Wilmington, DE) and Between the Covers Rare Books (Gloucester City, NJ) are also exhibiting.

We thought it would be fun to give you a little tour of New Castle and our fair so far. Enjoy!

Our journey begins at the Delaware River Wharf! That’s the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and New Jersey in the distance.

 

Turning around and heading into town

 Battery Park, looking over the Delaware River

 

The old ticket office for the New Castle Frenchtown Railroad, 1832

 Delaware Street and The Strand

 

Delaware Street and The Strand 

 

The town square

Directions to the fair outside Oak Knoll owner Bob Fleck’s house

 

Tom Doherty from Ian Braber Rare Americana mans the tables at the Pop Up Fair

 

Rob Fleck from Oak Knoll makes a donation to UNESCO

 

Tom Doherty from Ian Brabner Rare Americana contributing to the cause

 

The spread from Between the Covers

 

Books from Oak Knoll Books and Press

Originally published on the Oak Knoll Biblio Blog.