By Ryann Swift on January 22, 2026
For San Franciscans, literature is an important part of the local inheritance.
Revolutionary Moments in America: The Antiquarian Book Fair Returns to
San Francisco
It’s visible in the steady traffic through independent bookstores and sidewalk tables, neighborhood anchors where books pass from hand to hand in an ongoing ritual of exchange.
In this town, books don’t gather dust on shelves; they circulate through the city’s identity.
This tradition expands to the waterfront at the 57th California International Antiquarian Book Fair, at Pier 27 from February 27 through March 1, 2026. Sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the three-day fair fills two floors with rare material—books, maps, ephemera, drawings, manuscripts, autographs, and more—organized around this year’s theme, “Revolutionary Moments in America.”
The Antiquarian Book Fair has a reputation as a “society event,” but the atmosphere is notably relaxed. Attire runs the gamut, from businesswear to denim, and the tone follows suit: lively, curious, and pleasantly unforced.
Friday evening is the kickoff: that first-night electricity when collectors, curators, and first-time attendees all share the same wide-eyed instinct to wander. It’s the closest a book fair gets to a film premiere—only the stars are first editions, broadsides, and beautiful oddities.
With more than 100 exhibitors expected, the fair is built for both deep dives and open-ended browsing: museum-grade pieces beside attainable finds, scholarly specialties sharing table space with irresistible curiosities, and dealers who can place a piece in its cultural moment.
With 2026 marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this year’s fair offers a concentrated look at how printed materials have carried ideas through American politics, art, and social movements, sometimes carefully preserved, sometimes meant to circulate quickly and leave a mark.
For bibliophiles and newcomers alike, the theme gives browsing a detective’s charge: to trace the ideas that changed minds. “Revolutionary” might mean a pamphlet that sparked public debate, a poster from a labor movement, a community newspaper that recorded lives the mainstream ignored, or a novel that rewired what a reader thought was possible. It’s a framing that makes room for counterculture and social movements alongside canonical history, visible in the items on display and in the weekend’s programming.
Ideas That Moved the Country
The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, founded in 1949, exists to promote ethical practices and professional expertise in the rare book trade, and to encourage collecting, preservation, scholarship, and collegial ties. The association connects booksellers with collectors and curators, scholars and institutions, and sets expectations for accurate descriptions and responsible dealing.
In other words, the ABAA acts as matchmaker, guardian, and quality-control mechanism, helping keep the rare-book world legible. In a field where authenticity, condition, and provenance can change both meaning and value, the standards the association upholds help visitors navigate the rare-book world with confidence.
Introducing the ABAA
"...the ABAA acts as matchmaker, guardian, and quality-control mechanism, helping keep the rare-book world legible. "
The 57th California International Antiquarian Book Fair runs February 27-March 1, 2026 at Pier 27 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero. Fair hours are Friday (4-8 p.m.), Saturday (11 a.m.-7 p.m.), and Sunday (11 a.m.-4 p.m.).
Tickets are $25 for Friday VIP (includes readmission all weekend), $15 for Saturday (includes readmission Sunday), and $10 for Sunday. Students with valid student ID are free; children 12 and under are free; and librarians/curators/non-profit cultural workers can register in advance for free tickets with promo code LIBRARY57.
Free parking is available for attendees at Pier 27 during fair hours on a first-come, first-served basis.
For tickets and event updates, visit www.abaa.org/cabookfair.
Plan Your Visit
SPONSORED BY Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America
sponsored by client name
Revolutionary Moments in America: The Antiquarian Book Fair Returns to
San Francisco
sponsored by
Saturday, February 28, brings four sessions that connect the fair’s theme to the lived record of print, from community archives and social movements to art publishing and the visual language of data.
Saturday’s Speakers and Panels
Two Floors of Browsing and Buying
One of the best misconceptions to lose at the book fair is that it’s all behind glass and reserved for specialists. Many items are meant to be handled—carefully, respectfully, with clean hands—because paper history is still history you can learn from up close. The most fragile or high-value pieces won’t be passed around, but the overall experience is hands-on. The ABAA reminds visitors that they need not be experts to attend. Curiosity is enough, and questions are welcome.
An Invitation to Look Closely
12:00 PM | Collecting Queer & Trans: An Inside Look at the World of LGBTQ+ Rare Books, Archives & Ephemera
(Co-sponsored by the GLBT Historical Society)
Historian and book dealer Gerard Koskovich joins Ms. Bob Davis (Founder and Director of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archives) and historian-collector Joey Cain for a conversation about LGBTQ+ books, periodicals, posters, and ephemera, and why the material record matters. Expect stories of notable finds, examples from personal holdings, and grounded guidance for anyone building or deepening a collection.
1:30 PM | The Creative Vision of Alice Millard (1873–1938), Innovative Antiquarian Bookseller
(Co-sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of America)
Michèle Cloonan, dean and professor emeritus at Simmons University and a leading voice on cultural heritage preservation, takes a fresh look at Alice Millard’s influence as a bookseller and tastemaker. The talk traces Millard’s advocacy for figures like William Morris and T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, her links to women reformers, and the broader cultural footprint she left behind.
3:00 PM | Student Paper: Legacies of Artistic Experimentation and Social Change from the San Francisco Art Institute Archives
(Co-sponsored by SFMOMA)
David Senior, Director of Library at SFMOMA, and Becky Alexander, librarian and archivist at the SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive, explore experiments in art publishing through materials connected to People Make This Place: SFAI Stories (on view at SFMOMA through June 2026). Student newspapers, artists’ books, magazines, and other printed matter become the thread, revealing how San Francisco Art Institute communities documented upheaval, tested ideas, and helped shape the city’s cultural landscape.
4:30 PM | Data-Graphic Masterpieces
Data storyteller RJ Andrews presents a high-energy show-and-tell drawn from his Andrews Collection of Information Graphics, moving from Enlightenment-era experiments to monumental statistical atlases. The session puts craft front and center—charts, maps, lettering, color, and visual metaphor—and makes the case for data graphics as objects with both human stories and real artistic ambition.
It’s visible in the steady traffic through independent bookstores and sidewalk tables, neighborhood anchors where books pass from hand to hand in an ongoing ritual of exchange.
In this town, books don’t gather dust on shelves; they circulate through the city’s identity.
This tradition expands to the waterfront at the 57th California International Antiquarian Book Fair, at Pier 27 from February 27 through March 1, 2026. Sponsored by the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the three-day fair fills two floors with rare material—books, maps, ephemera, drawings, manuscripts, autographs, and more—organized around this year’s theme, “Revolutionary Moments in America.”
Saturday, February 28, brings four sessions that connect the fair’s theme to the lived record of print, from community archives and social movements to art publishing and the visual language of data.
Saturday’s Speakers and Panels
Two Floors of Browsing and Buying
The Antiquarian Book Fair has a reputation as a “society event,” but the atmosphere is notably relaxed. Attire runs the gamut, from businesswear to denim, and the tone follows suit: lively, curious, and pleasantly unforced.
Friday evening is the kickoff: that first-night electricity when collectors, curators, and first-time attendees all share the same wide-eyed instinct to wander. It’s the closest a book fair gets to a film premiere—only the stars are first editions, broadsides, and beautiful oddities.
With more than 100 exhibitors expected, the fair is built for both deep dives and open-ended browsing: museum-grade pieces beside attainable finds, scholarly specialties sharing table space with irresistible curiosities, and dealers who can place a piece in its cultural moment.
An Invitation to Look Closely
One of the best misconceptions to lose at the book fair is that it’s all behind glass and reserved for specialists. Many items are meant to be handled—carefully, respectfully, with clean hands—because paper history is still history you can learn from up close. The most fragile or high-value pieces won’t be passed around, but the overall experience is hands-on. The ABAA reminds visitors that they need not be experts to attend. Curiosity is enough, and questions are welcome.
Introducing the ABAA
Plan Your Visit
The 57th California International Antiquarian Book Fair runs February 27-March 1, 2026 at Pier 27 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero. Fair hours are Friday (4-8 p.m.), Saturday (11 a.m.-7 p.m.), and Sunday (11 a.m.-4 p.m.).
Tickets are $25 for Friday VIP (includes readmission all weekend), $15 for Saturday (includes readmission Sunday), and $10 for Sunday. Students with valid student ID are free; children 12 and under are free; and librarians/curators/non-profit cultural workers can register in advance for free tickets with promo code LIBRARY57.
Free parking is available for attendees at Pier 27 during fair hours on a first-come, first-served basis.
For tickets and event updates, visit www.abaa.org/cabookfair.