One of most most memorable Cool Tools podcast episodes was with rare book expert Rebecca Romney. She recently started a new rare book firm in Washington D.C. called Type Punch Matrix and she sent me a catalog (PDF here).

A first edition of Food of the Gods (1904) by H.G. Wells, inscribed by him to his mother-in-law (who lived with him during the composition of War of the Worlds and his other major scientific romances)

A first edition of Journeys to the Planet Mars (1904) by Sara Weiss, a Spiritualist who used remote viewing to visit Mars. The book includes original illustrations of Martian flora, and a Martian glossary!

There's also a first American edition of Frankenstein next to an 1818 review of the true first edition (spoiler: it was not positive). The idea of the project was to pair books together in ways that created a dialogue.

See more page samples from Journeys to the Planet Mars or Our Mission to Ento here. Read the rest

Kudos to the Kennedy Library at California Polytechnic Unversity for their sweet Vine, showing off the rare book The Tunnel Calamity, by Edward Gorey.

What a rad way to show off the benefit and joy of a paper book while existing on the internet! High fives all around. Read the rest