Copyright The Boston Globe
If you find yourself in a room where everything is older than you this weekend, you may be at the 47th annual Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair. From Friday to Sunday, more than 100 booksellers gather at the Hynes Convention Center, selling anything from medieval manuscripts to rare editions of novels written in the last century. The fair is associated with the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, which hosts antiquarian book fairs around the U.S. Alongside fairs in New York and San Francisco, Boston’s is one of their largest endeavors.. “It’s like walking into a museum with the coolest books in the world, except everything’s for sale,” said Julie Roper, who has managed the event since 2015. Some of this year’s most prized and expensive items include a first American edition of “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” priced at $45,000; Caribbean photography taken in 1885 by New England photographer George Perly Bradley, at $65,000; and a first-edition copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s book “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” at $15,000. “The fair can come off as intimidating — the first thing you see are hundreds of thousands of dollars in books," Roper said. Advertisement But for those just looking to dabble in antique dealings, over 40 vendors are designated “discovery dealers.” These booths will display a magnifying glass icon to indicate that they offer items for sale for $100 or less. The fair opens on Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. with a $25 admittance fee for eager collectors hoping to get first picks. (Students and library workers can attend the opening night for free.) Admission is free for the rest of the weekend, with doors open from noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Among the fair’s guest speakers, authors, and institutions are several Boston notables, including, on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., a collector’s roundtable featuring rare collections from local libraries. Harvard’s Houghton Library will present materials from its Ludlow-Santo Domingo Library, a collection of over 50,000 books, scientific documents, and other materials on psychoactive drugs and drug culture. Meanwhile, Boston College’s Burns Library will present a collection of Irish political cartoons, and a collection of counterculture art books will be on display from the Boston Athenaeum’s archives. Advertisement Then, at 2 p.m., University of New England professor Jane Tucker will discuss her book, “Alias Agnes.”Drawing on archival newspapers and research, the novel dramatizes the historical scandal surrounding Jane Tucker, a 19th-century stenographer-turned-detective in Boston, who adopted the alias Agnes Parker to spy on a Congressman’s mistress. Later, at 3:30 p.m., Stephen Beaucher, author of “Boston in Transit,” will give a presentation of antique maps, rare photographs, and other memorabilia documenting 400 years of public transportation around Boston — from the earliest ferries that traveled short distances along the Boston Harbor, to the horse-drawn omnibuses taking between Boston and Cambridge, up until the formation of the MBTA. On Sunday at noon, Richard Kopley, author of “Edgar Allan Poe: A Life” and one of the world’s foremost Poe experts, will present long-lost letters from the Boston-born poet to illustrate Poe’s childhood and teen years in new detail — growing up with a foster family in Virginia, his struggles with alcoholism, and his poverty. Roper says the fair’s goal is to foster an appreciation for the antique, but notes that it’s not only for literary academics or collectors — the fair sells a wide variety of items, including records, photographs, and vintage memorabilia. “It’s a really good place to find items you can’t find anywhere else in the world,” she said. BOSTON INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR Nov. 7-9. Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston St. abaa.org Ryan Yau can be reached at ryan.yau@globe.com.
