Antiquarianation

Introducing what I hope will be the first of many installments of "Lost & Found, Bought & Sold" where I will highlight newly lost or discovered manuscripts, works of art, artifacts, etc. as well as notable sales of the same. Today's column includes a literary treasure hunt and the sale of a macabre manuscript from Salem. The biographer of enigmatic author John Kennedy Toole discusses tracking a lost manuscript of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Confederacy of Dunces , and finding a valuable source of oral history instead. The biography, entitled Butterfly in the Typewriter by Cory MacLauchlin is being released today and looks to be the book for which fans of A Confederacy of Dunces have long been waiting. Earlier this month, a Salem witch trial manuscript was sold at Swann Auction Galleries in New York City for $26,000. The 1682 indictment is rare and puts on paper the many crimes with which Margaret Scott, a septuagenarian widow, was charged and for