W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera

W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera Specializing in books, manuscripts, and ephemera relating to unusual collections, exhibitions, and performances.

R.I.P. Matty D’Angelo, beloved of booksellers, Brooklyn ... just loved by all. We miss you.Photo by Evan Miller, 718 Put...
05/30/2025

R.I.P. Matty D’Angelo, beloved of booksellers, Brooklyn ... just loved by all. We miss you.
Photo by Evan Miller, 718 Putnam Avenue, August 2022.

The material we are offering at this year’s ABAA holiday Virtual Book Fair includes original art and signed first editio...
11/30/2023

The material we are offering at this year’s ABAA holiday Virtual Book Fair includes original art and signed first editions of Edward Gorey’s, from the estate of Gorey’s friend and publisher George Bixby, founder of the Albondocani Press. We are particularly excited to share the original art for one of the famous Christmas cards Gorey created for Albondocani, his 1987 drawing captioned, “In Stubville, Nebraska on December 23, 1911 Christmas tree ornaments fell from a cloudless sky.” To view this, other items previewed above, and more, please visit our virtual booth between 12:00 noon (ET), November 30, and 7:00 p.m., December 2, at https://fairs.abaa.org/exhibitor/2015672.

The 2023 ABAA Virtual Book Fair, Holiday Edition, begins today, November 30, at Noon! We are exhibiting twenty items, mo...
11/30/2023

The 2023 ABAA Virtual Book Fair, Holiday Edition, begins today, November 30, at Noon! We are exhibiting twenty items, mostly new acquisitions, from illustrated 19th-century patent medicine publications to the scarce first edition of A DOCUMENTARY HERSTORY OF WOMEN ARTISTS IN REVOLUTION (W.A.R.) - previews above! Half of the material will be newly acquired first editions and original art by Edward Gorey (previews in our next post). To visit our virtual booth, please follow this link: https://fairs.abaa.org/exhibitor/2015672

Announcing E-List No. 7! One dozen printed works in various fields, from sociometry to ecstatic poetry. To view, please ...
08/14/2023

Announcing E-List No. 7! One dozen printed works in various fields, from sociometry to ecstatic poetry. To view, please click the link in the bio.

The ABAA Virtual Book Fair, Spring Edition, has begun! We are pleased to join more than 60 fellow dealers offering rare ...
05/11/2023

The ABAA Virtual Book Fair, Spring Edition, has begun! We are pleased to join more than 60 fellow dealers offering rare books, manuscripts, art, and ephemera live online from Thursday, May 11, at noon to Saturday, May 13, at 7:00 p.m. Our virtual booth features a wide array of material, from the first American book on distilling to a rare catalog of traveling automata to Kathmandu imprints from the circle of Angus Maclise and Ira Cohen. To visit, please click the link in the bio.
Image: "A Play," from TWELVE POSTCARDS, by Joe Brainard (Z Press, 1975).

Avant le déluge… We survived the first night of our debut at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair! And, we’l...
04/28/2023

Avant le déluge… We survived the first night of our debut at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair! And, we’ll be here at Booth E18 (together with the inimitable ) through Sunday - please stop by if you can!

This Earth Day, it is with heartbreak that I share the news of the sudden and unannounced drainage of one of Northeast O...
04/21/2023

This Earth Day, it is with heartbreak that I share the news of the sudden and unannounced drainage of one of Northeast Ohio's most diverse and important animal habitats, the marsh at Tinkers Creek State Nature Preserve, by a railroad company. We need your help to stop and reverse the damage. To learn more, please continue reading below and please consider following the link in the bio to an urgent petition.
This January, my father, Geoff Baker, called with the devastating news that the expansive wetlands that had been his refuge since childhood, a sacred space that had, since the glaciers receded, been an essential part of the region’s wider ecosystem, was being drained - despite its protected status - without warning by the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway company. The “before” photographs above are his, taken over the past 20 years.
Geoff has been working for months now with various state and federal agencies to stop the drainage (and consequent flooding in another part of the area) but has found state and federal agencies with their hands tied with regard to enforcement thanks to dismantling of federal regulations by the last presidential administration.
This area has been widely recognized among naturalists for the profound role it has played over the millennia in, among other things, nesting and migration for scores of bird species, including bald eagles and sandhill cranes. If the drainage is not reversed soon, the consequences will be permanent.
Yet, simple and practical solutions exist that would mitigate or reverse the destruction.
For ages, the marsh sprung to life every April with vibrant sound and color, but this year it is quiet and nothing but husks, mud, and sticks. If it can still be saved, we believe it's only the national press and elected representatives who can make it happen, and we want to present whoever we can with a robust petition showing the support of Northeast Ohioans and other concerned people worldwide. Please consider signing the petition in bio and sharing this post with your friends.

Wishing goodness in the new Year of the Rabbit to all! With a detail from the front cover of the posthumous 1975 edition...
01/22/2023

Wishing goodness in the new Year of the Rabbit to all!
With a detail from the front cover of the posthumous 1975 edition of THE MADISON COLLAGES, by d. a. levy (Cleveland: An Offense Fund reprint). Screenprint of rabbit and levy and by t. l. kryss.
䷿
#1975 #2023

Baker Books is Boston-bound! We will be exhibiting in-person for the first time since 2020 this Saturday, November 12, a...
11/10/2022

Baker Books is Boston-bound! We will be exhibiting in-person for the first time since 2020 this Saturday, November 12, at the Boston Rare Book and Ephemera Fair (the "satellite fair" of the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair taking place the same weekend). The event takes place from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Back Bay Events Center, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116. We will be exhibiting the items above and many more like them. We hope to see you there!
Images: William Gresham, NIGHTMARE ALLEY (first edition in very good dust jacket); Edward Gorey, [Somnambulist] (original art); Michael Krafft, THE AMERICAN DISTILLER (first book on distilling printed in the United States); Paul Bowles, et al., NEXT TO NOTHING (printed in Kathmandu); Robert Bloch, THE OPENER OF THE WAY (signed first edition); William Beaumont, EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE GASTRIC JUICE, AND THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION (pioneering American medical work); LES POÈMES DE T’AO TS’IEN (translated by Liang Tsong Tai, with etchings by Sanyu).

W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera is pleased to announce our first Art & Illustration List with ten original drawings an...
11/07/2022

W. C. Baker Rare Books & Ephemera is pleased to announce our first Art & Illustration List with ten original drawings and watercolors by Edward Gorey, spanning the five decades of his professional career. We are offering the works on behalf of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust () and its mission of supporting animal welfare organizations and and maintaining Edward Gorey’s creative legacy. To view the list, please visit wcbaker.com/catalogs.html.

(Image: "The Doubtful Guest," detail from Item 5, Album Cover and Liner Notes of
THE HAPLESS CHILD AND OTHER INSCRUTABLE STORIES.)

I remember the first time I read Joe Brainard I was eating in bed. Caramel apple.Image: Front cover of the first edition...
10/09/2022

I remember the first time I read Joe Brainard I was eating in bed. Caramel apple.
Image: Front cover of the first edition of Joe Brainard's I REMEMBER (Angel Hair Press, 1970).

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