Sponsored by FABS All the pleasures and challenges of the private library: book furniture, bookmarks, catalogues, conservation, and much more. Join us for congenial discussion each month. Hosted by Reid Byers. For links and announcements write Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org
Sponsored by The Grolier Club This talk by David Alan Richards, Grolier Club member (and former Council member), will cover centuries of Shakespeare's First Folios arriving in America. The first made its way to Boston in 1791, and the first offered by an American book dealer was at Astor House on Broadway in 1847. By […]
Sponsored by The Book Club of California. The lecturers have studied about 120 books that are entirely or partially encrypted. In this talk, they introduce the most fascinating ones. This includes the famous Voynich Manuscript, a 15th century tome that has never been deciphered, and the Rohonc Codex, a 17th century creation that was recently […]
Sponsored by The Manuscript Society The Special Collections and University Archives at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is home to more than 20,000 volumes of rare books and incunabula, dating from the 12th to the 21st centuries. The Spanish Illuminated Manuscript is a bound vellum manuscript of approximately 200 pages that are each handwritten by […]
Sponsored by the Caxton Club. October Midday Program Caxtonians do love to go searching after a first. A first edition. A first printing. A first of its kind. Especially when the prize is a one-and-only. Now here’s a chance to realize that quest. We’ll be taking you to New York’s Hispanic Society of America Library, which […]
Sponsored by The Grolier Club Through an examination of Illustrated 18th century Hebrew manuscripts and decorated Scrolls of Esther we will explore the fascinating evolution of artistic Hebrew manuscript following the invention of the printing press. This lecture explores the fascinating evolution of decorated Hebrew manuscript following the invention of the printing press. Despite the […]
Sponsored by FABS The FABS Bindings Zoom Group welcomes Benjamin Albritton for a talk on California Bindings. Stanford University Special Collections has many exceptional items in its care and Benjamin Albritton, Rare Books Curator, has selected a group of volumes related to the development of fine binding practice in California in the first half of […]
Sponsored by The Book Club of California. Building on themes from his book, Dreaming on the Edge: Poets & Book Artists in California, Alastair Johnston explores overlooked figures in the history of printing in the Golden State. Johnston’s work was the first in 80 years to assess the impact of small and fine presses on the […]
Sponsored by The Grolier Club Based on her new book Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Literature, Yiddish scholar Miriam Udel will reflect on her efforts to reclaim and revivify the corpus of secular Yiddish children’s literature published in Eastern Europe and the Americas during the 20th century. She will consider the relationship between the texts, […]
Sponsored by The Miniature Book Society Miniature Book Society Conclave The Miniature Book Society will hold a two day Virtual Conclave on Saturday and Sunday October 25 and 26, 2025. The two days will feature zoom presentations by miniature book artists and publishers, guest speakers, a Collector’s Showcase, and a timed online auction of miniature […]
Sponsored by the Book Club of California. Come along on a collector’s journey as Claudia Smukler takes you through the fascinating world of bookplates, also known as ex-libris. The term ex-libris refers to all marks of provenance in a book, including stamps, labels, and names written on the inside cover. Book owners have been doing this […]
Sponsored by The Grolier Club The debut of a new English translation of Yiddish novels starring the fictional Viennese detective Max Spitzkopf. In early 1900s pulp fiction, the Viennese detective Max Spitzkopf was an undefeated foe of villains and passionate defender of the Jewish people. When he is summoned, no matter how dangerous or seemingly […]