Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian's Legacy
2025-02-02 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by The Book Club of Washington
Philip S. Palmer on left; Belle da Costa Greene, right.
Unable to travel to New York to see the current exhibition at the Morgan Library on Belle da Costa Greene? We’ve got you covered with an online presentation by the show’s curatorial lead, Philip S. Palmer.
Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was one of the most prominent librarians in American history. She ran the Morgan Library for forty-three years, building one of the most important collections of rare books and manuscripts in the United States. The Morgan Library & Museum is currently holding a major retrospective exhibition on Belle Greene, which opened in the fall of 2024. The show’s curatorial lead, Philip S. Palmer, will speak about Greene’s storied life and career, from her roots in a predominantly Black community in Washington, D.C., to her distinguished career at the helm of one of the world’s great research libraries. The exhibition catalog may be ordered here.
Philip S. Palmer is the Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan Library & Museum. He holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and worked for five years at UCLA’s Clark Library before coming to the Morgan in 2019. His interests are wide ranging and he has curated exhibitions at the Morgan on Woody Guthrie, James Joyce, Beatrix Potter, and The Little Prince, and is co-curator of the Morgan’s current exhibition on Belle da Costa Greene, as well as co-editor of Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy (DelMonico Books, 2024).
RSVP here: https://www.bookclubofwashington.org/events-1/belle-da-costa-greene-a-librarians-legacy/form

Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts: Designing the Book
2025-02-03 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by The Book Club of California

Before the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century, books were designed, written, and illustrated by hand. Today these handmade manuscripts are highly valued, and greatly sought after by collectors and institutions around the world.
This presentation addresses two aspects of illustration in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts before the dominance of the printed book. First, it defines the components and principles of decoration that are featured in many manuscripts, ranging from full-page miniatures to the minor decoration of small painted initials and line-fillers. Second, it focuses on several types and genres of manuscripts, including illuminations in Bibles, liturgical books, legal texts, classical works, and the extremely popular Books of Hours. The overall theme of the presentation is how manuscript illustrations help the reader navigate through a text, whether it is written in Latin or in a vernacular language.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Barbara A. Shailor, PhD FSA, author, researcher, professor of paleography and codicology, and President, The American Trust for the British Library
** The Windle-Loker Lecture Series on the History of the Illustrated Book
** Co-presented & co-hosted by The American Trust for The British Library
To register for the Virtual event: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hYrD7q2ySEGz45gQoHmKUQ#/registration

Manuscript Mondays: Dr. Jason Silverman on Researching Manuscripts
2025-02-03 20:00 (America/New_York)
The Manuscript Society
Manuscript Mondays
Can You Teach an Old Dog to Learn New Tricks?
Monday, February 3, 2025
8:00 PM Eastern
Guest Presenter: Dr. Jason Silverman
Moderator: Jay Gaidmore
Presentation Description:
Dr. Jason Silverman will reflect on a half century of research, writing, and publishing. He will discuss his experiences, humorous and otherwise, from researching his master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation to his fifteen books. In the process he will talk about how he has found that the definition of researching has changed and how a manuscript is not a manuscript anymore in some cases.

Guest Presenter: Dr. Jason Silverman, Ellison Capers Palmer, Jr. Professor of History (ret.), Winthrop University; Manuscript Society Executive Director

Dr. Jason Silverman received a BA with Distinction from the University of Virginia, an MA from Colorado State University, and a PhD from the University of Kentucky. His teaching career spanned over 40 years at both Yale University and Winthrop University. He was the inaugural Ellison Capers Palmer, Jr. Professor of History at Winthrop University and was the first Winthrop faculty member to be named South Carolina Professor of the Year.
During his tenure at Winthrop, he was awarded the Outstanding Junior Professor Award and several years later was named Distinguished Professor. Upon retirement, the Governor of South Carolina awarded him The Order of the Silver Crescent, which is the state’s highest civilian award for significant contributions, leadership, volunteerism, and lifelong influence within a region or community. For those who love football and movies, Dr. Silverman was one of the Captains of the T.C. Williams High School football team immortalized in the movie “Remember the Titans.”
To Register for this Webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Zomi1iLkTlGSZnUz9M7-_w
[you will receive an email confirming your registration]
For More Webinars check out the Archives

FABS Handpress Zoom Group
2025-02-10 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
Join us for convivial discussion of books and other materials printed before 1800. This month’s topic is “My favorite acquisition of 2024”! No presentation required; just hold it up and talk for up to 5 minutes.
To join this group contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org

Virtual Exhibition Lecture: Reid Byers on "Collecting the Imaginary"
2025-02-11 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by The Grolier Club

Curator Reid Byers gives a livestreamed talk called “Collecting the Imaginary (in which all will be revealed)” related to his Grolier Club member’s exhibition: Imaginary Books: Lost, Unwritten, and Fictive Books Found Only in Other Books . The show runs in the Grolier Club’s second-floor Gallery through February 15, 2025.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-exhibition-lecture-reid-beyers-on-collecting-the-imaginary-tickets-1027823195847?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Note: This is a live webcast. If you wish to register instead for the in-person event, please visit this page.
Part bibliophilic entertainment and part conceptual art installation, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unwritten, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books features a collection of books that do not really exist. Curated by Grolier Club member Reid Byers, the exhibition includes approximately 100 books and associated arealia from his collection—all simulacra created with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers—of lost books that have no surviving example, unwritten books that were planned but left unfinished, and fictive works that exist only in fiction. Highlights of the exhibition include William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Won, the lost sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost; Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, stolen from his wife’s bag on a French train in 1922; and the Necronomicon, John Dee’s copy of the eldritch grimoire that has been kept sealed in a Wells Fargo strongbox, as a precaution, since the Krickle accident of 1967. An accompanying book will be published by Oak Knoll and Club Fortsas.

Virtual Exhibition Tour and Curator Q&A: "Imaginary Books"
2025-02-12 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by The Grolier Club

Curator Reid Byers gives a pre-recorded video walkthrough tour of his Grolier Club member’s exhibition: Imaginary Books: Lost, Unwritten, and Fictive Books Found Only in Other Books followed by a live online Q&A. The show runs in the Grolier Club’s second-floor Gallery through February 15, 2025.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-exhibition-tour-and-curator-qa-imaginary-books-tickets-1027819314237?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Part bibliophilic entertainment and part conceptual art installation, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unwritten, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books features a collection of books that do not really exist. Curated by Grolier Club member Reid Byers, the exhibition includes approximately 100 books and associated arealia from his collection—all simulacra created with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers—of lost books that have no surviving example, unwritten books that were planned but left unfinished, and fictive works that exist only in fiction. Highlights of the exhibition include William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Won, the lost sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost; Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, stolen from his wife’s bag on a French train in 1922; and the Necronomicon, John Dee’s copy of the eldritch grimoire that has been kept sealed in a Wells Fargo strongbox, as a precaution, since the Krickle accident of 1967. An accompanying book will be published by Oak Knoll and Club Fortsas.

Jonathan Senchyne on The Salisbury Club: Buffalo Bibliophiles
2025-02-14 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago)
Sponsored by the Caxton Club.
February Midday Program
Jonathan Senchyne, Associate Professor & Director, Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Oh we’re gonna shuffle-uffle-uffle off to Buffalo.
You won’t have to navigate the crowds at Grand Central Station to shuffle off to Buffalo. Just click a Zoom link and you’ll be transported to the Nickel City during what designers now call the mid-Century modern era.
As you arrive, you’ll be swept along to meet the Salisbury Club, a bibliophilic society that grew out of a friends group of the rare books branch of the Buffalo Public Library. During their time together, the members promoted public collections at the Buffalo library, the local historical society, and the University of Buffalo.
They also published a handful of private fine press editions (with stunning wood-cut illustrations) that highlighted little known documents as well as national figures with upstate New York connections. (For instance, it’s an easy drive from Buffalo to Elmira … if there was any well-known author who took up a Conklin fountain pen there.)
If you’ll be eating lunch as you watch, and Buffalo wings are too spicy, then put some brats, cheese soup, and maybe a bottle of Spotted Cow on the menu. We’ll be in the company of Jonathan Senchyne, Associate Professor of Book History and Print Culture in the Information School and Director of the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Go Badgers!
So avoid a kerfuffle as off you shuffle and book into Buffalo today!
Preregistration required via website. Zoom presentation is free and open to all. Please forward this notice to anyone who may find it of interest.
Even if you can’t attend at the scheduled time, if you’re interested, please register. After the program, we’ll send anemail to all registrants, asking if you’d like a link to the complete recording. That way you can see the program even if you couldn’t attend live, ran into technical issues, or simply wanted to watch it again.
For more information, and to register, click here: https://caxtonclub.org/event-6029995/Registration
Register today!

The Man Beneath the Paint: California Impressionist Tilden Daken
2025-02-24 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by The Book Club of California
The untold, multifaceted story of one of the most adventurous and prolific landscape painters of the American West. California Impressionist Tilden Daken (1876–1935), famous in his day, painted in every California state park and national park in the West—from the redwood forests to the High Sierra—and beneath the Pacific Ocean in a custom-built diving bell. In The Man Beneath the Paint, Bonnie Portnoy, Daken’s granddaughter, has deftly defined his indomitable spirit, audacious exploits, insatiable curiosity, and endlessly colorful life during the era of California Impressionism—from the early 1900s to the onset of the Great Depression. A close friend of writer Jack London, Daken lost his home and studio in San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, got caught up in the Mexican Revolution, and participated in the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. A portrait of perpetual motion, he ventured on art expeditions to Mexico, Baja, Hawaii, and the South Seas; spoke out against the oncoming forces of modern art; socialized with many famous personalities of his era; and demonstrated his sensory synesthesia to the Hollywood crowd, painting to music in the “key of red.” Notwithstanding his wanderings, frequent relocations, and persistent self-promotion, he painted constantly and with passion. His legacy lives on, thanks to the thousands of canvases he painted of California’s stunning scenery more than a century ago.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Bonnie Portnoy, author
To register for the online event, follow this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ulQ1JwWQQVi_-uknYvdbTg#/registration

FABS Living With Books Zoom Group
2025-02-25 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
Hosted by The Private Library author Reid Byers, this group meets on Zoom, on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Discussions will cover acquisition, cataloging and photographing collections, home libraries, book furniture, conservation and storage, and much more. All are welcome to participate.
THIS MONTH’S TOPICS: starting a library from scratch; book collecting contests
To receive links and announcements, contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

Mothers and Fathers of the Digital Archive: The Endangered Archives Programme in Iquitos, Peru
2025-03-10 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by The Book Club of California
Across North American and European imaginaries, the Amazon River Basin has figured as both a region rich in “natural resources” ready for the taking, and, consequently, a geography of lands and peoples in need of saving. Both Amazonian exploration and salvation have been characterized by a hyper-masculine discourse of evangelists, explorers, and entrepreneurs seeking both riches and redemption in the jungle. But Amazonian cultures have long generated their own counter-narratives, documented in oral histories, visual cultures, and through spaces such as the Biblioteca Amazónica, a library located in Iquitos, Peru, which houses the second-largest collection of Amazonian maps, images, and texts in the world. This talk describes an alternate set of exploration and saving practices, framed through the lens of a feminist ethics of care.
Since 2020, Dr. Smith and Dr. Silverstein have worked to secure funding for and supervise a project to create an open access digital archive of materials housed in the Biblioteca Amazónica. They describe how this process was enacted alongside practices of mothering their own children, nurturing an inexperienced research team to develop skills in digital archiving, and negotiating with the “fathers”—Augustinian priests—who controlled access to the archive. In describing this process, they engage with a series of questions: What are the complexities of digitally preserving endangered cultural objects as foreigners in a region where endangerment has been produced by patriarchal ideals? How can mothering serve as a metaphor and a practice for programs like the EAP? What does one gain by bringing mothering into the discussion of archival preservation? The speakers will touch on their work with the Biblioteca Amazónica, their relationship with the Spanish priests—the fathers of the archive—who are its de facto custodians, the mothers on their team whom they accommodated through birthing and child rearing, and what it takes to manage a project from thousands of miles away.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Amanda Smith, Associate Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz and Sydney Silverstein, Assistant Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Ohio
**Co-presented & co-hosted by The American Trust for The British Library
To register for the online event, click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aBv1gTPITqWzZ3v–8-VCw#/registration

FABS Handpress Era Zoom: "Mandeville in the 21st Century"
2025-03-10 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
March 10, 2025 4:30pm Pacific/6:30 Central/7:30pm EST
The next meeting of the FABS Handpress Era Zoom group features Dr. Martha Driver’s talk “Mandeville in the 21st Century.” Prof. Driver will discuss The Travels of Sir John Mandeville with illustrations from Medieval manuscripts, handpress-era printed works, and a 21st century fine press example.
Martha Westcott Driver, PhD, FSA, is Distinguished Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies (emerita) at Pace University in New York City. A co-founder of the Early Book Society for the study of manuscripts and printing history, she writes about illustration from manuscript to print and manuscript and book production. In addition to publishing some 90 articles in these areas, she has edited thirty journals, including the Journal of the Early Book Society. Her books include The Image in Print: Book Illustration in Late Medieval England (2001), An Index of Images in English MSS, with Michael Orr (2007), Preaching the Word in Manuscript and Print in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Susan Powell, with Veronica O’Mara (2013), and John Gower in Manuscript and Early Printed Books, edited with Derek Pearsall and Robert F. Yeager (2020), among others. She serves on the executive boards of the American Trust for the British Library and the Patrons of the National Library and Galleries of Scotland and is a member of the Visiting Committee to the Morgan’s Department of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, the Society of Antiquaries (UK), the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie (AIB), the Bibliographical Society of America, the Bibliographical Society, UK, and the Grolier Club.

Reid Byers on Imaginary Books
2025-03-11 19:00 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by The Baltimore Bibliophiles
Join The Baltimore Bibs and curator Reid Byers for a discussion of his Grolier Club exhibition “Imaginary Books:Lost, Unfinished and Fictive Works from the Collection Of Reid Byers.”
For a link contact Binnie Syril Braunstein, bsbgc@aol.com

Paul F. Gehl on Bob Middleton, The Designer-Craftsman Par Excellence
2025-03-12 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago)
Sponsored by The Caxton Club
March Midday Program

Robert Hunter Middleton (1898-1985) was a Caxton Club stalwart for half a century. He is now remembered primarily as a pioneer in the revival of the great engraver on wood, Thomas Bewick. In his own day, however, Middleton was best known as the prolific designer of types for the Ludlow Typograph Company of Chicago. In 1985, the Caxton Club published a retrospective of Middleton’s career as RHM: The Man and His Letters, still the standard reference. In this talk, Paul Gehl will illustrate how Middleton embodied (and wrote about) the relationship of fine press printing and other craft practices to design for mass-market, industrial scale printing.
Paul is Curator Emeritus at the Newberry Library. At the Newberry, he processed the Middleton archive, and after retirement he authored a book on Middleton’s early career as type designer. Just this year he edited a volume with the title, The Designer-Craftsman Speaks: Writings of Robert Hunter Middleton.
Both of Paul’s books and the Caxton Club’s memorial volume will be available for purchase upon registering for the program. See details below. Prices include tax and shipping.
Register today.
For more information and to register, follow the link: https://caxtonclub.org/event-6090568/Registration
Even if you can’t attend at the scheduled time, if you’re interested, please register. After the program, we’ll send an email to all registrants, asking if you’d like a link to the complete recording. That way you can see the program even if you couldn’t attend live, ran into technical issues, or simply wanted to watch it again.

Dr. David Wolf on Pioneers of 20th Century Hematology
2025-03-12 19:15 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by the Bay Area History of Medicine Society with The Grolier Club
The Bay Area History of Medicine Society and the Grolier Club of New York will hold their annual joint lecture and dinner meeting at the UCSF Library, Wednesday March 12, 2025.
“Pioneers in 20th-Century Hematology featuring Drs. Janet Vaughan and George Minot.”
Dr David Wolf will address us on the rise of organized hematology in the US and Great Britain. This includes biographies of the Nobel laureate George Minot and and the relatively obscure but extraordinary British hematologist Janet Vaughan. She organized the emergency blood transfusion service during the London Blitz, and then travelled to Belsen concentration camp after the WWII to refeed the surviving internees. She was appointed Principal of Somerville College,Cambridge, was a life-long social activist, and one of six women featured in the1984 BBC’s series Women of our Century. The presentation also features appearances by Lady Osler, Virginia Woolf, and Margaret Thatcher!
Dr David Wolf is clinical professor of medicine at Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyternian hospital. He is a clinical hematologist oncologist whose long career has involved patient care, teaching and research, with a special interest in immune thrombocytopenic purpura. He is a governor of the American Osler Society, and is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. In 2021, he established the David J. Wolf, M.D. Medical Archives Endowment which sponsors a Visiting Research Scholar Program at Weill-Cornell Medicine in New York.He has been a member of the Grolier Club since 2010 and has formed a large collection of medical books, especially early works on anatomy, pathology and hematology. He recently bought three more incunables!
This is the seventh in the current series of joint meetings beginning in 2017, annually except 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic. The speakers have all been Grolier Club members who have distinguished themselves as librarians, book collectors, or historians of medicine. The previous lecturers were Christopher Lyons of the Osler Library at McGill, Paul Kligfield, M.D., Zlatko Pozeg, M.D., Brian Morrison, M.D., Jeremy Norman, the publisher and antiquarian bookseller, and Steven Lomazow, M.D.
The lecture will be streamed live, and archived by UCSF for later viewing. To receive a link contact Dr. Andrew Nadell: caius@caius.com
The lecture will begin at 7:15 pm Pacific and last for about 45 minutes, plus question time from the audience and online viewers.
IN PERSON ATTENDANCE:
The meeting will be held Wednesday March 12, 2025 in the Lang Room, at the Kalmanovitz Library, 530 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, California.
Reception and drinks at 5:30 pm, dinner at 6:15 pm.
The lecture will begin at 7:15 pm, and last for about 45 minutes, plus question time from the audience and online viewers.
$100 per ticket in person includes dinner buffet, wine, and other beverages.
Please send checks drawn to BAHMS to: J.Gordon Frierson, M.D., 140 Melville Ave, Palo Alto, 94301.
To reserve and pay by credit card, text or phone Sally Kaufmann Cowan, M.D., at 415-567-3535.

Oren Margolis on Aldus Manutius
2025-03-14 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago)
Sponsored by the Caxton Club.
March Midday Program
Dr. Oren Margolis, associate professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich

“So, are you going out with that Aldus guy again?”
“I don’t know. Not sure I like that type.”
Aldus. Aldine Press. Italics. Octavo. All immensely influential in the history of printing innovations. So let’s Zoom to Venice in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to meet that fascinating and exacting printer, publisher, and nurturer of writing talent: Aldus Manutius.
Our guide on this journey will be Dr. Oren Margolis, associate professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, a UNESCO City of Literature. Much published, Margolis created an exhibition called Aldus Manutius: The Struggle and the Dream at Oxford’s Bodleian Library and is the author of Aldus Manutius: The Invention of the Publisher (Reaktion Books, 2023).
Even though he was awarded his PhD from Oxford and his MA in Medieval History from King’s College London, Oren speaks passable American, having earned his BA from that traditional Big Ten school the University of Southern California.
Aldus printed incunabula, was instrumental in publishing and printing works of Desiderius Erasmus, and in a remarkable feat that outshone anything Nostradamus forecast, once predicted that he would be the subject of a well-attended Caxton Club meeting. Don’t let Aldus down.
Even if you can’t attend at the scheduled time, if you’re interested, please register. After the program, we’ll send an email to all registrants, asking if you’d like a link to the complete recording. That way you can see the program even if you couldn’t attend live, ran into technical issues, or simply wanted to watch it again.
For more information and to register, click here: https://caxtonclub.org/event-5903263/Registration
Register today!

Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books
2025-03-17 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by The Book Club of California
A cross between a book exhibition and a conceptual art installation, this exhibition consists of a collection of books that do not really exist. Curated by Reid Byers, the exhibition includes approximately 100 books and associated arealia from his collection—all simulacra created with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers—of lost books that have no surviving example, unwritten books that were planned but left unfinished, and fictive works that exist only in fiction. Highlights of the exhibition include William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Won, the lost sequel to Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, stolen in his wife’s valise at the Gare de Lyon in 1922 and never recovered.
Exhibition opening with remarks by Reid Byers, author, collector, curator, and president of the Baxter Society
**An in-person event at the Book Club in San Francisco and streamed on Zoom. The exhibition will be on view through July 14, 2025.
To register for the online event, click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lsk2NMfRR0G632KHo2IOXg#/registration

FABS Bindings Group: Lang Ingalls on Design Bindings From Across the Pond
2025-03-17 19:30 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
FABS Bindings Zoom Group: Join us for a presentation and discussion by Lang Ingalls on design bindings from European makers. Lang will show several bindings with visually engaging elements. Attendees are invited to share interesting bindings of their own.
To receive a link and join the mailing list for this group, contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org

FABS 19th Century Zoom Group
2025-03-20 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
Join us for convivial conversation about all things bookish and 19th century! We meet on the third Thursday of the month, 4:30-5:30pm Pacific/7:30-8:30pm Eastern. To receive announcements and links, contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org).

FABS Living With Books Zoom Group
2025-03-25 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
Hosted by The Private Library author Reid Byers, this group meets on Zoom, on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Discussions will cover acquisition, cataloging and photographing collections, home libraries, book furniture, conservation and storage, and much more. All are welcome to participate.
This month’s topics:
Real and Dream Libraries Redux
– a continuation of last month’s discussion of what we have and what we’d like
Library Seating
– chairs for work, chairs for reading, sofas, daybeds, window-seats, etc
To receive links and announcements, contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

Kevin Mac Donnell on the History of Collecting Mark Twain
2025-03-26 18:00 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by The Grolier Club
In connection with the public exhibition: A First-Class Fool: Mark Twain and Humor, from the collection of Susan Jaffe Tane, which runs in the ground-floor Exhibition Hall from January 15 – April 5, 2025, Kevin Mac Donnell will speak on the history of Mark Twain collecting, beginning in the 1880s down to the present day. He will highlight the major collectors, including two who communicated directly with Twain himself, and talk about how various books, letters, and manuscripts entered the market (or did not). He will also discuss how Twain collecting trends have evolved, and speculate on where Twain collecting might be headed.
This is a Virtual Lecture available on YouTube. Register to receive a link here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/virtual-lecture-kevin-mac-donnell-on-mark-twain-collecting-tickets-1259663430229?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
About the Exhibition
A First-Class Fool: Mark Twain and Humor examines the humorist Samuel Clemens, who crafted the great “Mark Twain” persona. Twain identified as a “first-class fool,” capturing his dual literary role as a simple, folksy author and speaker on the one hand, and an intelligent, cultured, and nuanced literary craftsman on the other. Twain worked carefully to construct his public persona, and his legacy continues to influence humorists to the present day. With more than 120 works drawn from the private collection of Susan Jaffe Tane, A First-Class Fool presents first and rare editions of Twain’s published works, including presentation copies, first periodical appearances, and uncommon variants; books from Twain’s library and other personal effects; autograph letters and manuscripts; photographs; and a wide variety of ephemera. Many of these items are displayed for the first time in this exhibition. An accompanying book, published by the Grolier Club, features scholarly essays edited by Kevin MacDonnell.

NOBS Akron Antiquarian Book Fair March 28 and 29
2025-03-28 17:00 - 2025-03-29 16:00 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by NOBS
Akron Antiquarian Book & Paper Show
March 28th, Preview 5 – 8pm, $25.00
March 29th, 10 -4pm, $5.00

The 39th Akron Antiquarian Book and Paper Show will be held March 28-29, 2025
Preview: Friday, March 28, 2025, 5:00 – 8:00 PM
Tickets: $25, includes two drink tickets, hors d’oeuvres, and entertainment.
Purchase tickets here. You may also purchase tickets at the door.
***
Saturday, March 29, 2025, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Admission: $5.00 at the door/free for NOBS members.
Join NOBS
Venue:
The John S. Knight Center, 77 E Mill St, Akron, OH 44308
Dealer Information:
Letter
Contract
Questions?
Email Wendy: wwwasman@yahoo.com
Call Ellie: (216) 231-0001

FABS Handpress Zoom: Douglas Brown on Isaiah Thomas
2025-04-14 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
In the Cover of Darkness: Three Works from the Press of Isaiah Thomas.
This year represents the 250th Anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. While our nation celebrates that momentous event, few will be celebrating another significant event that happened three days earlier. On April 16, 1775, Revolutionary patriot and printer Isaiah Thomas snuck his printing press out of Boston and into Worcester in the middle of the night to avoid British confiscation. It remains there to this day. Thomas would later go on to found the American Antiquarian Society, which remains in Worcester today, and is one of our nation’s most cherished treasures. Early Americana Collector (and AAS Councillor) Doug Brown will share three fascinating items from his collection, all relating to Thomas, as a way to tell this important story. These items include an issue of Thomas’s Massachusetts Spy from 1774, a first edition of his book, The History of Printing in America,inscribed to a co-founder of AAS, and Thomas’s book plate, which was designed by Paul Revere. These items will also be part of a new member Grolier Club exhibit later this Spring.
Douglas S. Brown is a seasoned executive with over thirty-five years of senior leadership experience in law, medicine and government. He currently is a partner at Manatt Health, a multidisciplinary, integrated professional services firm. Doug collects antiquarian books and manuscripts of early America, and his entry Fighting for The Crown Jewel: America, 1735-1775, was selected as the winner of the 2024 Ticknor Society Book Collecting Prize. He is a member of the Grolier Club and the American Antiquarian Society, and currently serves on the AAS Council.
To receive links and announcements from the FABS Handpress Group, contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

April Oettinger on Goucher's Art & Artifacts Collection, Women's College of Baltimore Museum
2025-04-15 19:00 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by The Baltimore Bibliophiles
Join April Oettinger and the Baltimore Bibs for a presentation entitled “Goucher’s Art & Artifacts collection and the Woman’s College of Baltimore Museum.”
For a link, contact Binnie Syril Braunstein, bsbgc@aol.com

FABS 19th Century Zoom Group
2025-04-17 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
Join us for convivial conversation about all things bookish and 19th century! We meet the third Thursday of the month.
For links and announcements, contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors
2025-04-21 18:00 - 19:15 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by The Book Club of California
Wildness beats in the heart of California’s urban areas. In Los Angeles, residents are rallying to build one of the largest wildlife crossings in the world because of the plight of one lonely mountain lion named P-22. Porpoises cavort in San Francisco Bay again because of a grassroots effort to clean up a waterway that was once a toxic mess. And on the Facebook campus in Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg and his staff have provided a home for an endearing family of wild gray foxes. Through actions as sweeping as citizen science initiatives and as instantaneous as social media posts, a movement of diverse individuals and communities is taking action to recast nature as an integral part of our everyday lives. When Mountain Lions Are Neighbors explores this evolving dynamic between humans and animals, including remarkable stories like the journey of the wolf OR-7 and how Californians are welcoming wolves back to the state after a ninety-year absence, how park staff and millions of visitors rallied to keep Yosemite’s famed bears wild, and many more tales from across the state. Written by Beth Pratt-Bergstrom of the National Wildlife Federation, these inspiring stories celebrate a new paradigm for wildlife conservation: coexistence.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Beth Pratt, wildlife advocate, author, and California Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation.
To register, click here.

FABS Bindings Zoom Group:
2025-04-21 19:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
FABS Special Interest Group: Binding
April 21, 2025
7:30pm eastern / 6:30pm midwest / 5:30pm mountain / 4:30pm pacific
BRENDA GALLAGHER :: THE USE OF TYPOGRAPHY IN BESPOKE BINDINGS
Join FABS members interested in Bindings for a Presentation and Discussion
with Brenda Gallagher on using typography as design in fine bindings.
Brenda’s presentation will start the meeting,
with time afterwards for discussion and questions.
This program is on Zoom; it will not be recorded.
~ The FABS Special Interest Group: Binding meets every third Monday of the month ~
To receive links and announcements, contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org

FABS Bindings Zoom Group
2025-04-21 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
Bindings: The Bindings Interest Group hosts discussions and presentations that share collections and information on bookbindings of all periods. Topics include, but are not limited to, history, design and aesthetics, innovation, materials and craft techniques.
To receive announcements and links, contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

Living With Books FABS Zoom Group
2025-04-22 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Sponsored by FABS
Join us and host Reid Byers (author of The Private Library) for convivial conversation on the pleasures and challenges of home libraries: acquisition; cataloging and photographing of collection materials; home libraries; book furniture; conservation and storage, etc.
THIS MONTH’s TOPICS: Books we have kept for sentimental reasons, and how to choose art for your library
To receive links and announcements for this group contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

Death of a Bookman: The Publishing Misadventures of Charles Rideal
2025-04-27 14:00 - 15:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by the Book Club of Washington
The Annual Meeting encompasses a brief business meeting followed by a special presentation. A keepsake created for the occasion will also be featured and light refreshments served. The business portion includes electing officers, approving new board members, and presenting the Monroe Award and student book collecting awards.
This year’s speaker is Dr. Solveig C. Robinson, who will be presenting “Death of a Bookman: The Publishing Misadventures of Charles Rideal”.
In January 1900, the New York Times reported that Charles Rideal, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a “[man] of ideas and enterprise,” had established the Abbey Press to publish “fine and high-class works.” Not quite 30 years later, the paper reported Rideal was dead in federal custody. What had happened?
This talk will trace the publishing misadventures of Rideal (1858–1929), an author and publisher on both sides of the Atlantic. Active in London in the 1890s, he conducted two small publishing houses and served as editor of a range of periodicals, from a leading nursing journal to magazines dedicated to palm-reading and lady bicyclists. And then, under shadowy circumstances, he abandoned London and decamped to New York, where he began to recreate the literary world he had left behind. Initially successful, Rideal’s new life also took a terrible turn, leading to arson, assault, fraud, and ultimately death in prison.
Dr. Solveig C. Robinson is an Associate Professor of English at Pacific Lutheran University and has been the Director of the Publishing & Printing Arts Program at PLU since 2001. She is the author of The Book in Society: An Introduction to Print Culture (2014) and A Serious Occupation: Literary Criticism by Victorian Women Writers (2003) and numerous peer-reviewed and invited articles.
For more information and to register, follow this link: https://www.bookclubofwashington.org/events-1/annual-meeting-with-presentation-by-solveig-c-robinson

Background Artist: The Life and Work of Tyrus Wong
2025-04-28 18:00 - 19:15 (America/Los_Angeles)
Sponsored by The Book Club of California
You might not know the name Tyrus Wong, but you probably know some of the images he created, including scenes from the beloved Disney classic Bambi. Yet when he came to this country as a child, Tyrus was an illegal immigrant locked up in an offshore detention center. How did he go on to a long and prosperous career drawing animation cels, storyboards, and greeting cards that shaped the American imagination?
Background Artist shares the inspiring story of Tyrus Wong’s remarkable 106-year life and showcases his wide array of creative work, from the paintings and fine art prints he made working for Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration to the unique handmade kites he designed and flew on the Santa Monica beach. It tells how he came to the United States as a ten-year-old boy in 1920, at a time when the Chinese Exclusion Act barred him from legal citizenship. Yet it also shows how Wong found American communities that welcomed him and nurtured his artistic talent. Covering everything from his work as a studio sketch artist for Warner Bros. to the best-selling Christmas cards he designed for Hallmark and other greeting card companies, this book celebrates a multi-talented Asian American artist and pioneer.
An in-person and virtual presentation by Karen Fang, film scholar, cultural critic, author, and professor, Department of English, University of Houston.
To register, click here.
