BOSTON, MASS.- The annual fall gathering for booklovers, the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the Hynes Convention Center in Boston’s beautiful Back Bay for its 42nd year, November 16-18, 2018. Featuring the collections and rare treasures of 132 booksellers from the U.S., England, Canada, Netherlands, France, Germany, Russia, Denmark, and Argentina, the Boston Book Fair gives visitors the opportunity to see, learn about, and purchase the finest in rare and valuable books, illuminated manuscripts, autographs, graphics, maps, atlases, photographs, fine and decorative prints, and much more.

Special events at this year’s Fair include Documentary Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman on the making of Ex Libris: The New York Public Library; political guru Michael Goldman on 1968: The Year of the Century; Sumio Yamazaki from the Kyoto Book Artists Society in discussion with Charles Vilnis on Japanese art books; Editor Peter K. Steinberg on Sylvia Plath; and the 17th annual Ticknor Society Roundtable panel discussion on starting a collection.

One of the oldest and most respected antiquarian book shows in the country, the event offers a top selection of items available on the international literary market. Attendees have the unique chance to get a close look at rare and historic museum-quality items, offered by some of the most prestigious participants in the trade. Whether just browsing or buying, the Fair offers something for every taste and budget—books on art, politics, travel, gastronomy, and science to sport, natural history, literature, music, and children’s books—all appealing to a range of bibliophiles and browsers.

Among the highlighted items for sale at this year’s fair will be the legendary Blue Map of China from the 19th century Qing Empire—one of the rarest, largest, and most aesthetically magnificent maps ever made; Sylvia Plath’s own proof copy of The Bell Jar; America's National Game by A.J. Spalding, published in 1911—a classic in baseball collecting; an original handwritten manuscript by Martin Luther King Jr. for his first book, Stride Toward Freedom; a newly discovered and never published 14th century commentary on The New Testament, published in Paris around 1350; the original unpublished 1980 typescript of Luis Buñuel's last screenplay, Agón o El Canto del Cisne [Struggle or Swan Song]; a rare collection of documents evoking the climax and the dawn of decay of the mighty Medici dynasty, the most influential family of the Italian Renaissance; a rare copy of the first printed Sea Chart to correctly locate Boston, 1647; an elaborately illustrated 16th century gilded vellum folio from Spain of Regla y constitutiones de la cofradia del Sanctissimo sacramento de la yglesia de San Christoval de Granada; autographed letters and memorabilia from the 1960s of Ethel Kennedy and Richard Nixon; a wondrous work of fin de siècle art and occultism—Austin de Croze’s unpublished illustrated poetic collection La Lumière Magique, created in 1920s Paris; and rare and first editions of works by Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, William Blake, Albert Camus, Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Betty Friedan, Aldous Huxley, Beatrix Potter, Marcel Proust, Ayn Rand, Sir Walter Scott, P.L. Travers, Kurt Vonnegut, and Edith Wharton.

The Fair gives visitors the opportunity to see, learn about, and purchase the finest in rare and valuable books and ephemera. For attendees wanting to start a collection without breaking the bank, there will be dealers offering “Discovery” items priced at $100 or less, including a selection of children’s books and decorative cloth bindings. The Fair is an opportunity to learn tips on how to start a collection and talk to dealers who are experts in their specialties.