France · United Kingdom · engelsbergideas.com
On the opening night, Honey & Wax Booksellers sold a first edition of W
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Yeats’s poem Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1920).
Key facts
- The first American antiquarian book fair took place several years later in April 1960, with 22 dealers occupying 20 booths
- In fact, there has been a 62 per cent growth in visitors from 2022 to 2026
- Then, in 1949, a group of fifty American booksellers met at the Grolier Club in New York City
- Total attendance reached 15,400 over four days, with 2,400 on opening night alone
Summary
Rare book collecting is booming as young people raised in the digital age seek tangible connections to the past. In 1947, booksellers from five countries, Denmark, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden, gathered in Amsterdam ‘with the aim of establishing new hope for international peace through open markets, to foster friendship and understanding, and to counteract the animosity and suspicion engendered by the Second World War.’ A year later, at a second meeting in Copenhagen, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) was officially incorporated. Then, in 1949, a group of fifty American booksellers met at the Grolier Club in New York City. The first American antiquarian book fair took place several years later in April 1960, with 22 dealers occupying 20 booths. Now in its 66th year, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America’s (ABAA) New York International Antiquarian Book Fair (NYIABF) was recently held at the Park Avenue Armory.