4 pm, Seattle, United States - THE FINAL ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIR ON UNESCO WORLD BOOK AND COPYRIGHT DAY 2016

And then it was over…

In Seattle, Washington, after a journey of thousands of kilometres the day of Pop Ups comes to a close (while we are waiting for the pictures of the Pop Up Fairs in New York and Chicago.) To the final minute of World Book and Copyright Day 2016 booksellers in Seattle work to improve the world in the way they know best – through books. Money for UNESCO’s literacy work in South Sudan has been raised, local people given expert advice without charge, and rare, quirky and interesting books have been shown to the citizens of Seattle and beyond! Seattle booksellers encapsulate all that is wonderful about the trade of antiquarian bookselling. They are generous, knowledgeable and supportive. 

What a 24 hours 2016 World Book and Copyright Day has been! Inspiring, stimulating, and, we admit at times it has been exhausting and concerning (will enough people come?), BUT so much has come out of it. Relationships have been  built, books talked about, admired and appreciated, libraries both public and private added to, and money raised to make this a more literate, equal world – what a day…. There will be many great days to come but not another quite like April 23, 2016.

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

2 pm, Portland, United States - BOOKSELLERS, LIBRARIANS AND TEACHERS SAY NO TO ILLITERACY IN SOUTH SUDAN

Further on from Europe to America - the great chain of ILAB Pop Up Fairs has now reached the fifth of five continents where the ILAB booksellers have been popping up on UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day 2016. What started nearly 20 hours ago this morning in Perth, Dunkeld and Sydney, Australia, has become a worldwide celebration of books, reading and literacy.

And here we go! The Portland ILAB Pop Up Book Fair is about to begin. Come on out to the West Linn Library to see some amazing books & ephemera, bring your books for appraisal and help the Portland booksellers -  Elisabeth Burdon, Nat des Marais, Charles Seluzicki - raise funds for the UNESCO literacy projects. Help UNESCO's Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative bring literacy to South Sudan!

 

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

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

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.