Sam Bailey
@18thcenturysam.bsky.social
PhD in 18thc erotica / Antiquarian bookseller at The Keel Row Bookshop // she/they
Surely one of the great ODNB epithets?
!['Wilson, Edward [called Beau Wilson] (d. 1694), murder victim and subject of alleged sexual scandal'](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vfhmsfpymjc5oa47h3fpauju/bafkreidnse4fvb2krlihniky56ymhv2sekskt2wsw3ke3knmmplqnku46q@jpeg)
October 13, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Surely one of the great ODNB epithets?
On my desk today: victorian Frankenstein x Dickens x Zola fan fiction; and a sammelband of pamphlets about ghosts, adult circumcision, and slavery.
September 27, 2025 at 4:47 PM
On my desk today: victorian Frankenstein x Dickens x Zola fan fiction; and a sammelband of pamphlets about ghosts, adult circumcision, and slavery.
Today's task: a love poem in cipher at the back of an otherwise quotidian local woman's memorandum book.
September 19, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Today's task: a love poem in cipher at the back of an otherwise quotidian local woman's memorandum book.
I'm really delighted to say that following submission of my thesis in December, I'll be starting as a full-time cataloguer and bookseller at the Keel Row Bookshop, supported by a traineeship from the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association. Expect to see many more books here!
September 15, 2025 at 7:37 AM
I'm really delighted to say that following submission of my thesis in December, I'll be starting as a full-time cataloguer and bookseller at the Keel Row Bookshop, supported by a traineeship from the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association. Expect to see many more books here!
I have rarely seen a work of art that speaks to me so specifically.
July 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
I have rarely seen a work of art that speaks to me so specifically.
Today I am a bibliographer of erotica, reading a letter between two other bibliographers of erotica, which was mounted into a a bibliographer of erotica's copy of the Erotika Biblion.
June 23, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Today I am a bibliographer of erotica, reading a letter between two other bibliographers of erotica, which was mounted into a a bibliographer of erotica's copy of the Erotika Biblion.
My ambition for a bookshop is to have a floor dedicated to 'specialist publications' that consists of scarce but unsaleable books.
June 15, 2025 at 11:54 AM
My ambition for a bookshop is to have a floor dedicated to 'specialist publications' that consists of scarce but unsaleable books.
I don't think I've ever encountered a bibliography that announces so clearly up front that it is going to be wrong.
April 22, 2025 at 11:37 AM
I don't think I've ever encountered a bibliography that announces so clearly up front that it is going to be wrong.
Proud that my local is the sort of pub where patrons quote modernist epics in toilet graffiti
April 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Proud that my local is the sort of pub where patrons quote modernist epics in toilet graffiti
I've been working on 18thc puzzle-pictures recently. This 1786 ad in the Rambler shows the only way that I want to list books for sale.
January 28, 2025 at 1:37 PM
I've been working on 18thc puzzle-pictures recently. This 1786 ad in the Rambler shows the only way that I want to list books for sale.
I am #BSECS2025 bound today. I'll be talking in the last session on Friday about queer bibliography and images of boys in the margins of printed books.
January 7, 2025 at 12:53 PM
I am #BSECS2025 bound today. I'll be talking in the last session on Friday about queer bibliography and images of boys in the margins of printed books.
Reposting the cfp for the 3rd Annual Queer Bibliography Conference, to be held at Newcastle University, and online 11-13 June 2025.
Full cfp ➡️ bit.ly/QueerBiblio2...
Submission form ➡️ bit.ly/QB2025Propos...
Questions? ➡️ [email protected]
Call closes 31 January. Please share widely!
Full cfp ➡️ bit.ly/QueerBiblio2...
Submission form ➡️ bit.ly/QB2025Propos...
Questions? ➡️ [email protected]
Call closes 31 January. Please share widely!
January 6, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposting the cfp for the 3rd Annual Queer Bibliography Conference, to be held at Newcastle University, and online 11-13 June 2025.
Full cfp ➡️ bit.ly/QueerBiblio2...
Submission form ➡️ bit.ly/QB2025Propos...
Questions? ➡️ [email protected]
Call closes 31 January. Please share widely!
Full cfp ➡️ bit.ly/QueerBiblio2...
Submission form ➡️ bit.ly/QB2025Propos...
Questions? ➡️ [email protected]
Call closes 31 January. Please share widely!
Starting off the new year right
January 1, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Starting off the new year right
The tree is up. Couldn't find a topper so made our own this year.
December 7, 2024 at 6:47 PM
The tree is up. Couldn't find a topper so made our own this year.
Cataloguing the manuscript catalogue of a previously unknown 18thc book owner and I have arrived, following the single-sheet publications, at the 'Good Books'.
This man may be the only person who thinks Robert Dodsley is the greatest among poets.
This man may be the only person who thinks Robert Dodsley is the greatest among poets.
November 29, 2024 at 5:35 PM
Cataloguing the manuscript catalogue of a previously unknown 18thc book owner and I have arrived, following the single-sheet publications, at the 'Good Books'.
This man may be the only person who thinks Robert Dodsley is the greatest among poets.
This man may be the only person who thinks Robert Dodsley is the greatest among poets.
I spent too long today chasing up a quotation that I thought was from an Angela Carter interview which was, in fact, from the frontmatter of this book.
November 25, 2024 at 2:10 PM
I spent too long today chasing up a quotation that I thought was from an Angela Carter interview which was, in fact, from the frontmatter of this book.
am delighted to announce the cfp for Queer Bibliography: In the Making is now open. Please see the attached full cfp: bit.ly/QueerBib2025 and the submission form: bit.ly/QB2025Propos.... I look forward to seeing many of you next year!
November 6, 2024 at 4:16 PM
am delighted to announce the cfp for Queer Bibliography: In the Making is now open. Please see the attached full cfp: bit.ly/QueerBib2025 and the submission form: bit.ly/QB2025Propos.... I look forward to seeing many of you next year!
As a Christmas gift to myself, I couldn't resist picking this up from Keel Row for the annotations and quaint take on a Cambridge binding. First time I've seen 'not his book' on an endleaf and tracings of watermarks with added smoking pipes.
![Title page of an eighteenth century book entitled 'The Complete Proceedings of Parliament [...] Against Henry Sachervell'.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vfhmsfpymjc5oa47h3fpauju/bafkreibneam77kg55uumweuj3qlczbqfgxxhwlfqzoexk5kohe45b26v2i@jpeg)
December 16, 2023 at 1:39 PM
As a Christmas gift to myself, I couldn't resist picking this up from Keel Row for the annotations and quaint take on a Cambridge binding. First time I've seen 'not his book' on an endleaf and tracings of watermarks with added smoking pipes.
I've started cataloguing a bequest of 'miscellaneous 18th-century ephemera'. This may be the first bequest we've received that came in a crocodile skin archive box.
October 24, 2023 at 12:14 PM
I've started cataloguing a bequest of 'miscellaneous 18th-century ephemera'. This may be the first bequest we've received that came in a crocodile skin archive box.
Encountered a good boy in the library today
October 12, 2023 at 2:45 PM
Encountered a good boy in the library today
It's a modest contribution, but it feels good to have a print copy of my first publication. Producing descriptions for a collection of rare children's books was certainly out of my wheelhouse but was a lot of fun
October 9, 2023 at 2:16 PM
It's a modest contribution, but it feels good to have a print copy of my first publication. Producing descriptions for a collection of rare children's books was certainly out of my wheelhouse but was a lot of fun
I always find the density of false information on this one very pleasing
September 29, 2023 at 9:08 AM
I always find the density of false information on this one very pleasing