B & B Rare Books, Ltd.

B & B Rare Books, Ltd. Buying & Selling First Editions, Rare and Signed Books: English & American Literature, Modern First We buy individual books, collections, and libraries.

Joshua Mann & Sunday Steinkirchner founded B & B when they moved to New York City after college. They have diverse academic backgrounds and a shared love of rare books and literature. Whether you're collecting within a specific genre, theme, time period, author or decorating your home with fine leather-bound books, we offer specialized library services to build your library. If you'd like to have your book(s) appraised, we're glad to evaluate single items or entire libraries.

10/08/2026

“You don’t have to agree with every idea in every book. But a free society depends upon our freedom to encounter ideas, question them, discuss them, and decide for ourselves what we think.” - Ashley Rae Lowry, Vice President of the Boston Free Library (and my sister!) 📚 Shout out to The New York Public Library & Brooklyn Public Library whose collections are available to anyone anywhere through digital lending. Also ALL your local indies and public libraries! American Library Association

10/04/2026

Vampire lit, erotica, and bible fiction is a tricky trio of genres. Happy Birthday to Anne Rice, the woman who did all three with relish! This year is the 50th anniversary of her screaming success of a debut novel, Interview with the Vampire, but we’re also celebrating the steamy, anonymous trio that followed it. The Sleeping Beauty novels take the PG-13 themes of Rice’s Vampire Chronicles to a shocking extreme. Curious? Check our website for the trilogy, along with signed first editions of lots of Rice’s other works. But...we warn you...do so at your own risk 🫣

At long last, Halloween is within sight! We’re always keen on books about vampires and demons, but it’s October, and it’...
10/03/2026

At long last, Halloween is within sight! We’re always keen on books about vampires and demons, but it’s October, and it’s time for our horror and occult books to shine. 
This is Demon Possession and Allied Themes by Reverend John L. Nevius, a book of case studies and explanatory theories regarding supernatural phenomena. Originally published in 1894 in America, this British first edition was published in 1897, the same year as Dracula🧛‍♂️ This copy belonged to Alan Gauld, a British parapsychologist and psychologist who wrote several influential works on the paranormal, like The Founders of Psychical Research (1968), Poltergeists (1979), and A History of Hypnotism (1992). 

10/01/2026

Some of our favorites from the 2026 Empire State Rare Book Fair! Ava likes this first edition of A Book of Common Prayer, which is inscribed to Steve, who she thinks is her birthday twin. Sunday likes this first edition of Rebecca, partially for Sleep No More reasons, partially because it’s just so cool. She also likes early Yankees history, hence these 1921 and 1923 World Series programs. It was a pleasure seeing/meeting some of you at Empire, here’s to the next book fair 👋

This team + Coach Jesse! Jesse Paris Smith 📚 Visit us at the Empire State Rare Book Fair today and tomorrow! Fine Book F...
09/18/2026

This team + Coach Jesse! Jesse Paris Smith 📚 Visit us at the Empire State Rare Book Fair today and tomorrow! Fine Book Fairs

09/09/2026

Behold, our collection of items from the Harvard Strike of 1969 🪧 Featuring 3 original posters from the strike, plus other books, magazines, and papers, we love this material and all of the amazing conversations it has sparked with customers and colleagues. And we will always specialize in items that are really REALLY COOL. Email, DM, or comment STRIKE and we’ll send you a copy of our list! ✊

Happy birthday to Mary Shelley! We’ve been lucky enough in our careers to have sold the first illustrated edition of Fra...
08/31/2026

Happy birthday to Mary Shelley! We’ve been lucky enough in our careers to have sold the first illustrated edition of Frankenstein (1831, 3rd edition overall) twice (once in boards!), early American editions (1869), and the first edition with Lynd Ward illustrations (1934). Today in the gallery we have a limited edition (1983, one of 500 copies) signed by illustrator Bernie Wrightson and master of horror, Stephen King, who wrote the introduction. Wrightson worked on the illustrations, based directly on the 1831 edition, on and off for seven years. He wasn’t paid for the project, saying “I’ve always had a thing for Frankenstein, and it was a labor of love. It was not an assignment, it was not a job.”

BBC podcast about the Keats letters is out! “Raiders of the lost art.” Give it a listen, you might recognize some people...
08/28/2026

BBC podcast about the Keats letters is out! “Raiders of the lost art.” Give it a listen, you might recognize some people in there 😉 A huge thank you to Sandra Kanthal for telling our story! Link in bio and in story. 📜🖋️ BBC Podcasts

08/27/2026

We’ve got 5 new Peanuts books in the shop! Happiness is a Warm Puppy (1962) is the first in a series of small and charming books written by Peanuts comic strip creator Charles Schulz. Other books in the series include I Need All the Friends I Can Get (1964), Love is Walking Hand in Hand (1965), and Happiness is a Sad Song (1967). Happiness is a Warm Puppy spent 45 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller list.

NOW WE ARE SIX 🐻 Well, at least for summer 2026! A huge thank you to our summer intern Alessia Alessia Cutaia and warm w...
08/26/2026

NOW WE ARE SIX 🐻 Well, at least for summer 2026! A huge thank you to our summer intern Alessia Alessia Cutaia and warm welcome to our newest hire Laurel 🙌 📚 ⚾️ and apologies to Wyatt McLean who we photoshopped in here because we are never actually all in the gallery at the same time (busy booksellers… as it should be!)

Address

165 Madison Avenue
New York, NY
10016

Opening Hours

Monday 12pm - 7pm
Tuesday 12pm - 7pm
Wednesday 12pm - 7pm
Thursday 12pm - 7pm
Friday 12pm - 7pm

Telephone

+16466526766

Website

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