Please join Jesse Paris Smith in conversation with Julien Paganetti, Jesse R. Erickson, Cara Schlesinger, and Patti Smith, four unique voices connected with the NY Antiquarian Book Fair and the world of rare books and manuscripts. Together they will discuss the importance of the book fair, its relevance in today's culture, and ways that new generations and those unfamiliar with the fair can find their way in with ease. It will be a morning of stories, experiences, and connecting threads which highlight how enriching and special the fair can be for everyone.

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Jesse Paris Smith is a writer, composer, event producer, and Grammy nominated musician based in NYC. She is co-founder of the climate action non-profit Pathway to Paris, a certified grief support coach, and weekly contributing writer on Substack. As an avid reader, former bookbinder, collector of books, and longtime admirer of the fair, Jesse is honored to have been invited in 2024 to be an official Ambassador of the ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. 

 

Julien Paganetti 

Founder and director of Autographes des Siècles, Julien Paganetti is an approved expert with the CNE (National Company of Experts) and the FNEPSA (National Federation of Professional Experts Specialized in the Arts). Autographes des Siècles gallery specializes in the appraisal and sale of autograph letters, manuscripts and works of art relating to the great personalities of the past centuries. 

 

Jesse R. Erickson 

Jesse R. Erickson is the Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings at the Morgan Library & Museum and a private collector of works from the Victorian period author Ouida. Along with Sarah Werner, he is also co-editor of the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America. 

 

Cara Schlesinger 

Cara Schlesinger is the proprietor of Faenwyl Bindery, a private practice in New York City specializing in book conservation, preservation enclosures, and hand bookbinding. She works with the antiquarian book trade, and numerous other institutional and private collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Grolier Club, and Columbia University Libraries.

 

Patti Smith

Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock 'n' roll. Her books include Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Witt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, Auguries of Innocence, M Train, Devotion, Year of the Monkey, and Book of Days. Smith was awarded the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and the Legion of Honor by the French Republic. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. 

All but unknown today, unless it’s for her classic bibliomystery, Murder in the Bookshop (1936), Carolyn Wells wrote 82 detective novels in the early twentieth century, becoming one of the original grande dames of mystery. She also wrote in other genres—children’s, young adult, poetry, humor—totaling 180+ books over her career. Some were adapted into silent films by Thomas Edison, and some became bestsellers. Yet she faded into obscurity after her death in 1942. But an enigmatic bookplate found in a first edition of Walden that belonged to Wells, who was a serious book collector, prompted author Rebecca Rego Barry to embark on a full-scale investigation into Wells’ life and literary legacy. The paper trail led to Rahway, New Jersey, where she was born and is buried; to New York City’s Upper West Side, where Wells spent her final 25 years; to the Library of Congress, where her world-class collection of rare books now resides; and to many other public and private collections where exciting discoveries unfolded and ultimately resulted in the first-ever biography of Wells.

 

Rebecca Rego Barry is the author of The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells: Investigations into a Forgotten Mystery Author (2024) and Rare Books Uncovered (2015). The former longtime editor of Fine Books & Collections, she is now the director of communications at The Raab Collection.  

A program resurrected from the early 2000's, ABAA Connect showcases items our 2024 institutional partner, the British Library, hopes to acquire from NYIABF exhibitors. Visitors to the Fair can contribute in part or in whole to the value of an item and support the British Library in securing these items for their collections!

 

This panel features Michele Burton, the British Library’s Director of Development; Elizabeth Berkowitz, Executive Director of the American Trust for the British Library; and the five booksellers whose items were chosen for the program this year. They will talk about the importance of adding these items to the Library’s collections and explain how you can become a part of this exciting process.

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Find out more about ABAA Connect HERE

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Meet our booksellers: 

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Founded in 1853, Maggs Bros. Ltd. is one of London's oldest antiquarian book shops. Fuchsia Voremberg has worked at Maggs since 2012 and specializes in the history of travel. She is a company director, and occasionally appears as an expert on the BBC Antiques Roadshow. 

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Jonkers Rare Books has been helping private individuals and institutions build exceptional one-of-a-kind collections for about 30 years. Owned by Christiaan Jonkers, they specialize in literature from the sixteenth century to the present day and in book illustration. 

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Esther Jammes is the proprietor of Librairie Paul Jammes, a bookseller in Paris since 1925. Always growing and changing, they offer rare & scholarly books in a wide range of subjects to please all manner of bibliophiles. 

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Madeleine Johnson is a Rare Book Cataloguer at The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. Specialists in law and legal history, they offer a comprehensive selection of antiquarian and scholarly books, 

manuscripts, artwork, ephemera, and current materials for practitioners. They also publish original books and reprints of significant titles. 

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For nearly sixty years, Bromer Booksellers has specialized in all aspects of the book beautiful – from exquisite jeweled bindings to intricately printed miniature books, to early illustrated children’s books. 2024 not only marks the 75th anniversary of the ABAA, but also Bromer Manager Phil Salmon’s 30th year in the book trade. 

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Sunday Steinkirchner is the owner of B&B Rare Books in Manhattan, and the Chair of the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair. In 2022, she rewrote the ABAA’s donor program, titling it ABAA Connect. 

Printing technology accelerated the forces of the Renaissance and the Reformation. But it also created a major new business problem: publishing risk. A book’s publisher had to spend large sums to print a book without knowing whether it could be sold.  The risk publishers faced—and their techniques to cope with it—determined how, and whether, books reached their readers.

 

Mark McConnell has been investigating Christophe Plantin’s business records, still intact after 450 years. These records document the activities of Europe’s largest printer of the time. Mark will probe the challenges Plantin faced, and the risk management techniques he developed, in light of modern business concepts.

 

Mark holds both a law degree and a master’s in business from Stanford University and did his undergraduate work in economics at Johns Hopkins University. He is now affiliated with Johns Hopkins again, where he is Associate Research Fellow of the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Renaissance Book. 

A.J. Jacono, owner of Bibliotheque, and Scott Woltz, Bibliotheque’s wine director, present a novel way to sample literature: through wine. What are the ways in which wine can enhance the reading experience, and vice versa?

 

Bibliotheque is a family-run passion project that aims to offer the New York community an unparalleled literary lounge experience. It's a gathering space for the artists, bookworms, and wine lovers of the world. It was founded by Dr. Andrew Jacono, a world-renowned plastic surgeon, and his son A.J. Jacono, a fiction writer and founder of The Spotlong Review, a literary and arts quarterly. Bibliotheque was born from a mutual love of incredible stories and outstanding wine.

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Must be 21 or over to attend.