By JOHN Y. COLE
Encouraging the historical study of the role of books and print culture in society is an important Center for the Book mission. Approximately two-thirds of the Center for the Book's 107 publications in the past 25 years (54 books and 53 pamphlets) concern historical topics. For a complete list of the center's publications, see www.loc.gov/cfbook/.
![Perspectives on American Book History](images/cfb_2.jpg)
Two recent historically-oriented volumes are "Perspectives on American Book History: Artifacts and Commentary" (University of Massachusetts Press, 2002), published in association with the Center for the Book and the American Antiquarian Society; and "Collectors & Special Collections: Three Talks" (Library of Congress, 2002), published in association with the Center for the Book and the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division. The center sponsored a symposium in connection with each volume and made a financial contribution to their publication.
Editors and contributors to "Perspectives on American Book History," a major new text for university-level courses in American print culture, gathered at the Library of Congress on Oct. 21 to discuss the book, its potential classroom uses, and book history as a field of study. The half-day symposium, open to the public, was sponsored by the Center for the Book in cooperation with the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass., and the Washington Area Print Studies Group, which meets monthly at the Library of Congress in cooperation with the Library's Office of Scholarly Programs and the Center for the Book.
The editors of "Perspectives on American Book History" are Scott E. Casper, University of Nevada, Reno; Joanne D. Chaison, American Antiquarian Society; and Jeffrey D. Groves, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, Calif. Each participated in the symposium, along with contributors Nancy Cook, University of Rhode Island; Patricia Crain, University of Minnesota; Glenn Wallach, Horace Mann School, New York City; and Robert A. Gross, professor of history and American studies at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., and former chair of the program in the history of the book at the American Antiquarian Society, who wrote the introductory essay.
The volume is part of the University of Massachusetts Press series, Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book. Paul M. Wright, editor, University of Massachusetts Press, also spoke at the symposium.
The 14 principal chapters in "Perspectives on American Book History" trace topics in American print culture from Puritan New England to the future of newspapers in the digital age. The artifacts and documents, most of which have never before appeared in an anthology, include excerpts from readers' diaries, accounts of the printing and publishing trades, materials from the alternative press, commentaries on authorship and reading, and illustrations. The essays place these primary source materials in their historical, literary, and political contexts and model the ways that students might approach them. The volume concludes with "Resources for Studying American Book History: A Selective, Annotated Bibliography," by Joanne D. Chaison. The enclosed CD-ROM includes nearly 200 digital images, captioned and keyed to different chapters.
The paperbound edition of "Perspectives on American Book History: Artifacts and Commentary" (ISBN 1-55849-317-4) is available for $24.95 from the University of Massachusetts Press (www.umass.edu/umpress); the library cloth edition (ISBN 1-55849-316-6) is available for $70. Both editions are also available in the Library of Congress Sales Shop.
![Collectors & Special Collections: Three Talks](images/cfb_1.jpg)
The papers in "Collectors & Special Collections: Three Talks" were presented on April 4, 2001, at the first Library of Congress Rare Book Forum, which was sponsored by the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division and the Center for the Book. The titles of the papers are "Elective Affinities: Private Collectors and Special Collections in Libraries," by Alice D. Schreyer, director of special collections, University of Chicago Library; "What Have You Done for Me Lately? Collectors and Institutions in Modern Times," by book dealer William S. Reese, president, William Reese Company, New Haven, Conn.; and "Will the Book Collector of Today Be the Donor of Tomorrow?," by collector Robert H. Jackson of Cleveland.
In his introduction, forum organizer Dan De Simone, curator of the Library's Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, observes that the three talks get to the heart of contemporary relationships among librarians, private collectors, booksellers and scholars. Key questions addressed by all three writers are: "How does the library reach the modern collector? How can philanthropy, collection development, and preservation—traditional values associated with special collections—be presented to contemporary collectors in such a way as to offset the market dynamics that have dominated the rare book trade during the past 20 years? How can the trust between collector and librarian, which was so evident in the 1950s and 1960s, be reestablished? How will the special collections librarian of tomorrow be prepared for dealing with today's young collectors, who often form their libraries primarily through purchases on the Internet?
"Collector & Special Collections: Three Talks," is available for $10 from Oak Knoll Press, 310 Delaware St., New Castle, DE 19720; telephone (302) 328-7232; toll-free (800) 996-2556 (ISBN 1-0844410166, Oak Knoll order no. 71687). It can be ordered online at www.oakknoll.com.