2 pm, Tokyo, Japan - ILAB POP UP FAIR AT THE WORLD ANTIQUARIAN BOOK PLAZA

Is there a place in the world where you can browse the shelves filled with modern firsts from the United States, incunabula from Europe, woodcut books from Asia, and children’s books, first editions, illustrated books, precious bindings or rare travel accounts from Australia, the United Kingdom, the Americas, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Austria and the Netherlands? Yes, there is such a place. The World Antiquarian Book Plaza is located in Tokyo’s city centre, only five minutes away from the central station and the famous Ginza: the ultimate destination for bibliophiles – and the amazing venue for this year's ILAB Pop Up Book Fair in Tokyo including a great fundraising for UNESCO's and American actor Forest Whitaker's literacy projects in South Sudan.

Early this afternoon Naoyuki Seki of Maruzen-Yushodo Co., Ltd. has shown some students the most valuable books on display at the Plaza today. Now he is taking them on a tour to the Jimbocho booksellers. What a great idea! Stay tuned for more pictures!

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers

1 pm, Dunkeld, Australia - DUNKELD BOOKSHOP HELPS FILL THE EMPTY BOOKCASES FOR THE CHILDREN IN SOUTH SUDAN

Today, with a great chain of ILAB Pop Up Events spanning from Australia to Asia, Africa, all over Europe and the United States the ILAB booksellers are raising funds for UNESCO's and American actor Forest Whitaker's Peace and Development Initiative. For each symbolic book spine, bought at an ILAB Pop Up Book Fair, a real book will be bought for the school children in South Sudan.  

In country Victoria the Empty Bookcase posters are prominently displayed at Roz Greenwood Old & Rare Books. Roz and Marg, the owners of this lovely bookshop, are asking their customers, friends and neighbours to help turn around the life of many in South Sudan by purchasing a symbolic spine to fill the Empty Bookcases. In South Sudan 84 % of women are illiterate – and 70 % of the adult population as a whole. Something unimaginable to most of us, but this is reality for South Sudanese and something that we can and will change. 

Thank you very much to Roz, Marg and their customers for making a real difference!

Customer Jane Hayes of Hamilton affixes a spine for her donation in Roz Greenwood Old and rare Bookshop, Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia

Dr. Geoff Coggins of Hamilton, Victoria helps fill the poster with a donation for UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day, at Dunkeld’s Roz Greenwood Old and Rare Books in Dunkeld, in Victoria’s Western District

Leigh Coggins of Hamilton, Victoria donates a book spine for UNESCO’s literacy programme at Roz Greenwood’s Old and rare Books, Dunkeld

Cr. Paul Battista adds a donated bookspine to the poster at Roz Greenwood Old and rare Books, Dunkeld

Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia’s Michael Barling adds to the fund-raising tally with his book-spine donation at Roz Greenwood Old and Rare Books in Dunkeld.

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers

SCHOOL BOOKS FOR SOUTH SUDAN: ABEBOOKS AND ILAB FILL "EMPTY BOOKCASES"

A GENEROUS DONATION IN SUPPORT OF LITERACY

The ILAB Pop Up Week 2016 starts with a generous donation!  AbeBooks, a strong supporter of the ILAB Pop Up Celebrations 2015 and again in 2016 - announces to donate US$ 2.500 towards ILAB's project to help fund UNESCO's and American actors Forest Whitakers vital literacy work in South Sudan.

South Sudan is a troubled place indeed. 70 % of all adults and 84 % of women are illiterate. Help and hope are very urgently needed. UNESCO and the Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI) bring help and hope to South Sudan by building a network of youth peace workers across the country which is stunning in its simplicity, power and inspiration. Literacy – schools and books – are a central part of what Forest Whitaker and his passionate team are building. On UNESCO Work Book and Copyright Day, 23 April 2016, the ILAB booksellers will once again show their support worldwide with a global fundraising campaign.

Last year ILAB booksellers raised well over 10,000 Euros, which bought 1,930 books and 500 pens and paper for the South Sudanese children – delivered by UNESCO's Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative. With another great chain of ILAB Pop Up Events spanning from Australia to Asia, Africa, all over Europe and the United States on 23 April, the ILAB booksellers will raise even more money in 2016! One big step to achieve this goal has been done today through the announcement of AbeBooks to join in ILAB’s celebrations with enormous public support and a donation of US$ 2.500.

"This generous donation by AbeBooks will make a real difference to the children in South Sudan". ILAB President Norbert Donhofer says. "In affluent countries it is so easy to take books and literacy for granted. However for those of us who work with books everyday of our lives, we realise that the debt we owe to those who taught us to read and to the early books we read from is incalcuable. We are indebted to AbeBooks for getting behind the ILAB booksellers and UNESCO in their work towards a more literate world."

For the second time in 2016, ILAB booksellers throughout the world booksellers will once again hold Pop Up Book Fairs on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April, where they will display posters depicting Empty Bookcases and invite visitors to mark the day by "buying" a symbolic spine. Spine by spine the bookcases will be filled. Spine by spine literacy will get closer to reality for a child in South Sudan.

FOLLOW US LIVE ... ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ... ACROSS THE WORLD ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY ... 23 APRIL 2016!

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, AbeBooks

FREE ENTRY TO THE PARIS FAIR AT THE GRAND PALAIS ON 23 APRIL, UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY!

The International Rare Book & Autograph Fair at the Grand Palais in Paris, now in its 28th year, is one of the most prestigious fairs in the world, attracting nearly 200 exhibitors and over 20.000 visitors who enjoy the opportunity to browse, buy and admire more than 100.000 historical documents, rare books, manuscripts, autographs, prints and ephemera from all centuries. In 2016, this international high-class event becomes even greater as the French antiquarian booksellers will join in ILAB’s celebrations on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day by granting FREE ENTRY TO THE FAIR ON SATURDAY 23 April. 

 
Instead of paying an entry fee visitors will be invited to donate money in support of UNESCO’s Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI) – a literacy project in South Sudan, where ILAB booksellers help UNESCO to set up school libraries and thereby bring books to the people where they are really urgently needed. In South Sudan 70 % of all adults and 84 % of all women are illiterate. 

By raising money for the people in South Sudan at the Paris Fair as part of ILAB’s worldwide celebrations on 23 April, the French booksellers give an impressive sign of support to ILAB’s and UNESCO’s initiative to raise funds to buy books for South Sudan and to raise the awareness of the importance of literacy for everybody in our modern world.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO THE FRENCH BOOKSELLERS FOR JOINING US!

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers, Wikipedia

POP UP AT THE OXFORD BOOK FAIR ON 23 APRIL 2016

NEARLY 100 BRITISH BOOKSELLERS IN OXFORD HARNESS THE POWER OF 1,800 COLLEAGUES WORLDWIDE ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY

On Saturday April 23 nearly 100 booksellers in Oxford will take part in a unique worldwide event. For 24 hours a worldwide chain of rare book events will occur. Starting on the East Coast of Australia running through Asia and Europe and ending on the West Coast of the United States, booksellers in 15 countries and nearly 30 locations will hold quick and often quirky events that celebrate rare books, autographs and manuscripts, maps and other paper items. Booksellers will show and talk some of the rarest and most interesting items they own while raising funds for literacy. 

“Fill an Empty Bookcase and change our world!” Oxford Book Fair manager Tom Lintern-Mole from rare booksellers Antiquates Ltd said today. “We are raising funds for the Forest Whitaker Initiative for Peace and Development’s work in South Sudan. Literacy rates in South Sudan are appalling. 84% of women are illiterate and 70% of men - what hope is there for these individuals, this country or even the world as whole with literacy rates like this?” 

We invite book lovers, librarians and anyone who cares about literacy to come to the fair at Oxford Brookes Wheatley Campus, Wheatley, OX33 1HX, on Saturday 23 April from noon to 6 pm. For a small amount you can purchase a symbolic book spine and help fill the symbolic Empty Bookcase. Just £ 3 buys a book and £ 15 buys a whole set of 12 specially written for the children of Sudan addressing issues they face in daily life. In 2015 Pop Up Rare Book Events organized by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) raised enough to buy 1,930 books and 500 pens and paper. This year we hope to raise even more!

The Oxford Book Fair, a Premier Fair of the Provincial Booksellers’ Association (PBFA), is one of the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom. Over 100 dealers offer tens of thousands of rare, collectable and second-hand books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera at Oxford Brookes Wheatley Campus on 23 and 24 April 2016. 

So, if you will be in Britain on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day 2016, Oxford should be your destination! 
   
JOIN US ... ORGANIZE IT ... ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ... ACROSS THE WORLD ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY ... 23 APRIL 2016!

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers, Wikipedia

ABEBOOKS BLOGGERS VISIT THE ILAB POP UP FAIRS IN VIENNA AND CHICAGO!

THE ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY IN THE PRESS:

"April 23 is going to be another special day for booklovers. UNESCO’s 2016 World Book & Copyright Day will feature book-related events on a worldwide scale with ILAB’s contribution being a series of pop-up book fairs displaying rare and collectable books from the four corners of the Earth.

ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers) is repeating a successful programme introduced in 2015 on World Book Day that put rare books in front of thousands of people. Last year ILAB activities raised more than 10,000 Euros for UNESCO’s Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI), which provides literacy assistance to children in South Sudan.

This year’s series of pop-up book fairs is promising to be even better. They stretch from Australia to the United States and from the United Kingdom to Russia, and numerous other European countries."

Read the full stories here:

> Celebrate UNESCO’s 2016 World Book & Copyright Day with ILAB’s Pop-up Book Fairs 

> ILAB’s 2016 Chicago pop-up fair to grace Glessner House

> Twelve ILAB Booksellers at Chicago’s Historical “Millionaires’ Row. ILAB Pop Up Book Fair on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April 2016 

> A high-flying book presentation in Vienna on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April 2016  

We are looking forward to read the reports and to see the pictures on 23 April 2016!

REUTERS.COM - 1,800 RARE BOOKSELLERS WORLDWIDE STRIKE A BLOW FOR LITERACY

THE ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY IN THE PRESS:

What do Skype, a film star, literacy problems in South Sudan, and two women dealing in rare books and manuscripts have in common? They are the driving force behind a chain of worldwide events to create a more literate world. This April the booksellers of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) will again celebrate UNESCO's World Book and Copyright Day with a chain of events one after another around the world.  Organising a chain of worldwide events is not easy as Australian Sally Burdon and German Barbara van Benthem, both members of ILAB, have found, particularly as they live 16,285 kilometres apart and all the organisation was done by Skype and email.  Not easy, but it can be done!

> Read the full article on REUTERS.COM 

COCKTAILS AND BOOK TALES ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY, 23 APRIL 2016

BOOKS, DRINKS, MUSIC, FINGERFOOD AND A LECTURE BY KLAUS G. SAUR ON THE 20th CENTURY ANTIQUARIAN BOOK TRADE IN GERMANY

If you are looking for a “typical” English club in Germany, you would do well to start in Munich. The Kaufmanns Casino has been hosting “tout Munich” – business people, artists, lawyers, physicians, authors, scientists – for conferences and cocktails since 1832, the year when Goethe died. It has become one of Munich’s institutions. Munich without the Kaufmanns Casino would not be the same for all who are living in the wonderful capital of Bavaria.

“Book Tales & Cocktails” was such a big success on 23 April 2015, that the Munich dealers and their customers immediately decided to celebrate UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day there once again. And so, the antiquarian booksellers invite their customers on 23 April 2016 to a five o’clock tea (without tea) with books, drinks, music and fingerfood:

Abeceda Antiquariat Christof Groessl · Hartung & Hartung · J. J. Heckenhauer · Eberhard Köstler oHG · Kunkel Fine Art · Antiquariat Kurz · Antiquariat Dasa Pahor · Thomas Rezek · Uwe Turszynski

The main course will be books. If you have received one of the coveted invitations, you will be personally welcomed by the butler Jürgen Goldfuß – very charming, in white gloves and tails. A Jazz piano player will tickle the ivories in the background. In the elegant rooms, with a view of the English Garden and a discreetly lit bar, the antiquarian booksellers will await their guests. They will display rare and beautiful books, prints and manuscripts on tables, ready and eager to show, to explain and to talk about them. If you feel inclined to buy, no-one will stop you, but the emphasis is on the conversation: “Cocktails and Book Tales” in the real sense of the word.

This year the Munich booksellers will even offer a delicate amuse-gueule. Before the cocktails and books will be served, the renowned, no: legendary collector and publisher Klaus G. Saur will hold a highly informative and entertaining lecture on the “20th Century Antiquarian Book Trade in Germany”.

“Cocktails and Book Tales” is only one of a great chain of events on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April 2016, which are being held under the auspices of ILAB and UNESCO from Australia, Japan, Korea, South Africa to Europe and the USA. In busy and sometimes unexpected places – cabarets, clubs, museums, libraries, on markets and in the streets – ILAB booksellers will pop up showing rare and expensive books and, at the same time, raising money to buy school books for the children in South Sudan.

What is taken for granted in Munich and many places across the world, is a luxury in South Sudan: the access to books, to knowledge, and thus to a better and free life. Together with UNESCO's Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI), the Munich antiquarian booksellers support the schools in South Sudan. They will fill the symbolic empty bookcases with symbolic book spines, and each donation will be spent by UNESCO to buy real school books for the children in Africa.

Munich is but one link in a worldwide chain of spontaneous bookish flashmobs spanning the whole world!   

JOIN US ... ORGANIZE IT ... ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ... ACROSS THE WORLD ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY ... 23 APRIL 2016!

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers

ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ALL AROUND THE WORLD ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY, APRIL 23, 2016

Popping Up In VERY Unexpected Places

By Sally Burdon

As one of the organisers of ILAB’s world of Pop Up rare book events on April 23 I find I spend quite a lot of time caught up in organising printing, answering questions of the inspiring ILAB affiliates worldwide who are the local organisers, writing material and also being a local organiser myself. It is difficult to keep clear focus on the true priorities of the day at times.

However one priority that keeps playing on my mind of late is raising enough money on April 23 to really make some significant difference to literacy in South Sudan. The Forest Whitaker Initiative for Peace and Development is the UNESCO backed program that booksellers around the world are working to raise money for. Of course I realised that if UNESCO said this programme was important and Forest Whitaker was their ambassador in South Sudan, it must be doing good but then I saw the video… This video says very clearly that literacy is at the root of justice and world peace and it really came home to me. Our work raising money for literacy was not just to change the life of a child or even a family but potentially a whole nation and beyond! I had to do my very, very best to make sure ILAB’s donations are greater this year than the laudable 10,000 Euros we raised in 2015.

I thought back to the discussions Barbara and I first had about how ILAB should celebrate UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day. We were charged with the brief of raising awareness of the antiquarian bookselling trade and decided that the best way to do this was to leave our “natural habitat” and show rare books to people who might not even realise that they exist. So why not go to a really unexpected place? 

My local gym, Curves Belconnen, in a local suburban shopping centre seemed particularly unexpected! They often run charity fundraisers but what would they make of ILAB and the Empty Bookcase poster? I talked to the owner Anita and asked her what she thought about it and she was very interested and keen. Two days ago the poster was attached to their wall, with some explanatory text about both ILAB and the Forest Whitaker Initiative for Peace and Development. Within minutes symbolic spines had been bought by the women who attend the gym, were attached to the Empty Bookcase and within just 2 days several hundred dollars has been raised. The enthusiasm of Anita and her staff is humbling. I have been very moved and impressed. People are asking questions about South Sudan of course but also asking about the antiquarian bookselling world. Sometimes taking the unexpected to new places has unexpectedly good results for all concerned! Maybe there is somewhere near you that is very unexpected too!

JOIN US ... ORGANIZE IT ... ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ... ACROSS THE WORLD ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY ... 23 APRIL 2016!

April 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers, Curves Belconnen

AUSTRALIA THE FIRST LINK IN THE CHAIN OF WORLD POP UPS ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY 2016

SYDNEY GOES SHAKESPEAREAN

Being the first in the world chain of rare book fairs is a pleasure and a responsibility. This year, being the 400th anniversary of both Shakespeare’s and Cervantes death, there is no better place for East Coast Australian booksellers to Pop Up than The State Library of New South Wales (SLNSW). The State Library, justifiably proud of their collections of both Shakespeare and Cervantes – including 1,100 different editions of Don Quixote in many different languages – will  be celebrating all things Shakespearean on Saturday 23 April 2016. They will be inviting children and adults to come into the library for, dare we say, a dramatic day. There will be balloons, wandering players, a Sonnet Slam, the beautiful Shakespeare room will be open, and their first folios will be on display – and that’s just some of what is happening!

As the The State Library of New South Wales “goes Shakespearean” on April 23 the Sydney Pop Up Book Fair will fit in beautifully. At 11 am Dr Alex Byrne, State Librarian and a former President of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), will launch the 24 hours of rare book activities around the world. ANZAAB’s Rare Book Pop Up Fair will be open from 11 am to 4 pm on Saturday 23 April. That gives Sydney book people just five hours to come and see the highlights from the stock of booksellers many of whom will have come from a great distance. This is 5 hours not to be missed by any book lover!

The Pop Up Fair will display large posters showing an Empty Bookcase. We hope all visitors will buy a symbolic spine and place it on the bookcase. Each spine sold symbolises another world opening for children who need this help so badly.  Across the world book lovers will be filling book cases just like these in an effort to make a change in South Sudan, a country where literacy rates are shockingly low.  We think Shakespeare would definitely have approved.

DUNKELD BOOKSHOPS FEATURES EMPTY BOOKCASE POSTERS

In the beautiful country Victoria the desire to improve literacy rates in South Sudan is very strong indeed. Last year the owners of Roz Greenwood Old & Rare Books organized a great ILAB Pop Up Fair in a woolshed nearby, this year the Empty Bookcase posters will be prominently displayed at Roz and Marg’s lovely bookshop in Dunkeld. They are asking their customers, friends and neighbours to help turn around the life of many in South Sudan by purchasing a symbolic spine. In South Sudan 84 % of women are illiterate – and 70 % of the adult population as a whole. Something unimaginable to most of us, fortunately, but this is reality for South Sudanese and something that we can and will change.  Join Roz and Marg as book spine by spine they affect a change!  And as if this were not enough, they will pack their boxes with beautiful books right in time to travel the long way to Sydney to exhibit at the ILAB Pop Up Fair at The State Library of New South Wales. Bravo!

PERTH BOOKSELLERS POP UP UNDER THE BEAUTIFUL PERTH SKY

Perth, in Western Australia, is the most remote capital city in the world – and one of the loveliest. In 1962 Perth became world famous as the "City of Light" when the inhabitants lit their house lights and streetlights as American astronaut John Glenn passed overhead while orbiting the earth in his spaceship. This year Perth booksellers will shine a light on literacy. They will be joining the world celebrations and popping up together in the very large courtyard in front of the beautiful two story heritage listed stables where Muir Books is located. Here, in walking distance from the State Library, the Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia Robert and Janet Muir, Tara Surry and their colleagues will show an abundance of rare and fine books, maps and prints from all centuries, while raising funds for UNESCO’s literacy projects in South Sudan. Perth has enviably wonderful weather – so be prepared to enjoy an amazing bookish event as part of the great chain of worldwide ILAB Pop Ups on 23 April 2016. And just in case it should rain (or be too hot), Janet, Robbie and Tara from Muir Books have hired a marquee for the day.


Perth booksellers are a very collegiate group and a number of Muir Books bookseller friends are bringing their best books and coming along for the day to sell books and raise money for South Sudan, too, and – I have no doubt – have a lot of fun.  I just wish it wasn’t on the other side of the continent as I know that this would definitely be a great place to visit on UNESCO’s World Book and Copyright Day. 

JOIN US ... ORGANIZE IT ... ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ... ACROSS THE WORLD ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY ... 23 APRIL 2016!

March 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO. Shakespeare Room, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Roz Greenwood Old and Rare Books, Dunkeld, Victoria, Muir Books, Perth. Courtesy: Sally Burdon and the organizers.

ILAB GOES DADA AT THE CABARET VOLTAIRE IN ZURICH

ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY, 23 APRIL 2016

For bookish people 2016 is a year to celebrate and to commemorate in many respects. 400 years ago Shakespeare and Cervantes died, and a hundred years ago one of the most innovative artistic movements – which, in fact, denied to be an artistic movement at all - was brought to light in Zurich: Dada. On 5th February 1916 Hugo Ball and Emmy Ball-Hennings opened their “Künstlerkneipe Voltaire” in Zurich, Spiegelgasse 1, together with artists like Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck and Jean Arp.

Dada was the first art movement where the focus of the artists was not on crafting aesthetically pleasing objects but on making works that often upended bourgeois sensibilities. Influenced by Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism it arose as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thought had led to the war. Dada’s output was wild and wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage. Its aesthetic, marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful influence on artists in many cities, from Zurich to  Berlin, Hanover, Paris and New York.

The Dada members were so strong on opposing all norms of bourgeois culture that the group was barely in favor of itself, and so they said: "Dada is anti-Dada!" The founding of Dada in the “Künstlerkneipe” or Cabaret Voltaire in the centre of Zurich was appropriate: the Cabaret was named after the 18th century French satirist, Voltaire, whose novella Candide mocked the idiocies of his society. As Hugo Ball, one of the founders of both the Cabaret and Dada wrote: "This is our Candide against the times."

Right there, at Cabaret Voltaire, where artists like Hugo Ball, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, André Breton, Jean Arp, Tristan Tzara, Hannah Höch and Kurt Schwitters accompanied by his beautiful “Anna Blume” made their first steps to world fame – although they did not want to be famous at all - the Swiss antiquarian booksellers will gather a hundred years later on 23 April 2016 from 2 pm until late at night.

Right there, where words were formed to Dada performances celebrating literacy in its very literal and sometimes highly absurd sense a hundred years ago, the Swiss booksellers will hold an ILAB Pop Up Book Fair on UNESCO World and Copyright Day 2016 to celebrate literacy once again with (maybe) more Dada performances, (certainly) a great show of rare books and (definitely) a gorgeous fundraising to help UNESCO’s Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI) fill the empty book-shelves in the schools of South Sudan.

DADA IS ANTI-DADA!

CELEBRATE WITH US!

AT THE CABARET VOLTAIRE ...  23 APRIL 2016, 2 pm ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY!

March 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers, Wikipedia, Cabaret Voltaire

TWELVE ILAB BOOKSELLERS AT CHICAGO'S HISTORICAL "MILLIONAIRES' ROW"

ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIR ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY, 23 APRIL 2016

"Sweet home Chicago" is worth visiting for its architectural gems. Glessner House, for example, was designed for the family of famous industrialist John Jacob Glessner by noted American architect Henry Hobson Richardson. A radical departure from traditional Victorian architecture, the structure served as an inspiration to architects such as Louis Sullivan, Mies van der Rohe and the young Frank Lloyd Wright, and helped redefine domestic architecture.

 

The Glessner family lived in this house for fifty years, through the heyday and decline of the Prairie Avenue neighborhood, once known as Chicago’s “millionaires’ row” . John Glessner cherished his home as a symbol of happy family life, and the interiors demonstrate the nearly perfect collaboration between the architect and his clients. Designed during the so-called Gilded Age, when America’s newly rich industrialists were living in modern-day castles, Glessner House represents architect Henry Hobson Richardson’s response to the Glessners’ desire for a simple, comfortable, and cozy home.

Completed in 1887, Glessner House is today an internationally-known architectural treasure. As early as 1960, it was named an honorary Chicago landmark, in 1970 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1976, the former home of the Glessner family was honoured as a National Historic Landmark. The 17,000 square foot home now houses a museum and hosts highly-class cultural events – lectures, exhibitions – in its premises.

On UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day, 23 April 2016, twelve Chicago booksellers will hold an ILAB Pop Up Book Fair at this wonderful historical venue. All members of the Midwest Chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), they will show a fine selection of rare books, manuscripts, prints, autographs and ephemera from all centuries and for all tastes at Glessner House to take part in the worldwide ILAB/UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day celebrations and to raise funds in support of the great work of UNESCO’s Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI) in South Sudan. The following ILAB booksellers invite you to enjoy a day among beautiful books in the former beautiful home of  Chicago’s famous Glessner family: 

Jeff Hirsch (Jeff Hirsch Books), James M. Borg (Borg Antiquarian), Paul and Elizabeth Garon (Beasley Books), Owen Kubik (Kubik Fine Books Ltd), Larry Van De Carr (Bookleggers Used Books), Annette Kolling-Buckley (Columbia Books), Bradley A. Jonas (Powell's Bookstore), William L. Butts (Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts, Ltd.), Sammy Blade Berk (Harlan J. Berk, Ltd.), Daniel Weinberg (Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, Inc.), Rob Rulon-Miller (Rulon Miller Books), and the organizer of this great event: Kurt D. Gippert (Kurt Gippert Bookseller).

All dealers have agreed to donate 10 per cent of the proceeds of any sale made during the ILAB Pop Up Fair to UNESCO. Their generous support for literacy will be echoed by main sponsor Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, represented by Mary Kohnke, and co-sponsor The Caxton Club, represented by Jackie Vossler. Several other organizations have agreed to also attend and promote this amazing Chicago contribution to the ILAB Pop Up Celebrations 2016: the Cliff Dwellers Club, the Union League Club, the American Institute of Architects-Chicago Chapter, the Society of Architectural Historians-Chicago Chapter, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, the American Writers Museum, the Glessner House and their association of house museums, as well as the local Midwest Antiquarian Booksellers Association (MWABA). Other organizations are expected to join.


Take a virtual tour through Glessner House, and be prepared for a really big event!

WHERE AND WHEN?

CHICAGO, GLESSNER HOUSE, 1800 S. PRAIRIE AVENUE, 23 APRIL 2016, 10 am to 5 pm.

Meet the ILAB booksellers there, admire their excellent rare books on display, buy some schoolbooks for the children in South Sudan by making a donation to UNESCO, and have a glass of wine or beer or – maybe – champagne to celebrate the very heart of our culture: literacy.

JOIN US ... ORGANIZE IT ... ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIRS ... ACROSS THE WORLD ... ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY ... 23 APRIL 2016!

March 2016 – For immediate release. Pictures: ILAB, UNESCO, the Organizers, Glessner House