[3] The magazine began as a column in Publishers Weekly called "Antiquarian Bookseller"; in 1948, it spun off as a separate publication, at a time when there was a flourishing mail-order business in out-of-print and second-hand books.

Malkin sold the magazine to Jacob L. Chernofsky, AB Bookman's Weekly had a subscription list of more than 10,000 subscribers.

[7] In 1992, the Malkin Lecture site moved with Rare Book School to the University of Virginia, where it continues as the annual Sol.

In December 1977, Chernofsky and Margaret Knox Goggin, dean of the University of Denver's School of Librarianship, organized a seminar on used and antiquarian books, aimed at booksellers and librarians.

[8] Under Chernofsky's direction, AB Bookman's Weekly flourished into the early 1990s, but it began to falter because of competition from online listings of used and rare books.