Tuesday, June 7, 2011

See you at Georgia Antiquarian Book Fair

Antique map of Georgia doesn't show Atlanta or the Creek village that was there before Atlanta. Click to enlarge


We’re off to Atlanta for the Georgia Antiquarian Book Fair!  The book fair is actually in the Cobb County Civic Center in Marietta, a little bit north of downtown. The show runs two days, Saturday and Sunday, and is one of our favorite.

Among other volumes, we're taking leatherbound
books, Southern writers and Civil War books.
This is the first time the book fair has been in the Cobb County Civic Center, so it will be an interesting new venue for us. Most recently, it was held at a Holiday Inn in Decatur, in conjunction with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Decatur Book Festival.

It’ll be great to see old friends like Dennis Melhouse of First Folio, Cliff Graubart of Old New York Book Shop and Tom Dorn, of Thomas Dorn Bookseller. In fact, if you look at the list of exhibitors, you’ll see a lot of our friends who are usually part of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Petersburg every March.

We’re taking a van full of choice selections for the Atlanta fair. Leatherbound books are immensely popular in Atlanta and we’ll have plenty of choices.  Southern writers are another favorite, so we’ll have a selection of those as well.  Of course, we always take Civil War books. As you might expect, the Civil War is a very popular subject there.

Civil War buffs will be right at home at this book fair. The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History will present an exhibit that includes Civil War sheet music, letters, diaries and other ephemera, as well as books of the era.

It is fitting that we feature a map of Georgia as we prepare for our trip. It is not a map we’d advise anyone using to get there, however. It’s a bit dated, most probably from the early 19th century. The map has no legend or date, so we must use our powers of deduction instead.

Such 18th century cities as New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola and Natchez are clearly shown, as is St. Marys, which was established in 1792 but incorporated in 1802. Elberton, which was founded in 1803, also is shown.

You can find the Okefenokee Swamp, the vast wetland that straddles the Florida-Georgia border. It’s drawn in the right place but it’s labeled Ouaquaphenogaw, presumably a phonetic spelling from a cartographer who couldn’t hear very well. It makes “Okefenokee” clearly a marked improvement. In the Hitchiti language, the name was okifano:ki,  which was also probably a phonetic spelling by Europeans.

The city of Atlanta, settled in the 1820s is not shown, however. Nor is Peachtree Creek or the Chattahoochee River or Standing Peachtree, the Creek Indian village that was once close to where downtown Atlanta is today.

The borders for Georgia were a lot different in those days. On the north is “Tennessee” and on the west is the Mississippi River. A border between Georgia and West Florida is shown but it, too, stretches all the way to the mighty Mississippi, and includes “N Orleans” and Mobile.

If you’re in Atlanta this weekend, we hope you'll stop by to see us, and the map, at the Georgia Antiquarian Book Fair.

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Our specialties

Our specialties include Floridiana (Florida History, Florida Authors, Florida Related Ephemera), American History, Literature of the South, Military History (including, but not limited to, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Korean War), Children’s Literature, Maps, Leather Bindings and Rare & Unusual items.

We also have a wide variety of general stock, including a large Landscape/Gardening section, a great selection of Christian/Church History/Bible Study titles, Beat Literature, and much more. Please browse our extensive category list.

Appraisal service

Michael F. Slicker, is one of about 450 qualified members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, Inc., and its affiliate the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.

Condition of the book, demand for it and history of comparable sales are among the factors considered in evaluating the value of a book. Other factors may apply as well.

Please contact us for more information regarding our certified appraisal services. We encourage you to visit our website, Lighthouse Books, ABAA

Florida Antiquarian Book Fair

Michael Slicker was the founding president of the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association and has served as chairman of its annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair since its inception.

The 39th annual book fair was set for April 24-26, 2020 at The Coliseum in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic intervened so the book fair had to be postponed. It will be rescheduled at a later time.

The fair is the oldest and largest antiquarian book fair in the Southeast. Learn more about the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair and the Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association.

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