Detail of a marginal roundel with Februa and flowers, from the calendar page for February, Add MS 18850, f. 2r (the Bedford Hours)

It’s then I hear a voice,

a crystal shining icicle clear voice,

cold water but made of sound,

tells me, keep my connection to the spirits strong

-from Jimmy Santiago Baca, Winter Poems Along the Rio Grande, Poem 2

Here is the news from FABS for February:

Interested in photography of any period? Check out The Grolier Club’s Photography Group newsletter, with news about exhibitions, fairs, auctions and blogs.

Scholarship Opportunity

The Maass Research Grant, currently set at $5,000, is awarded by The Manuscript Society to an individual student via the academic institution where the winner is enrolled. Applicants must be pursuing a graduate degree at an accredited College or University that holds institutional membership in The Manuscript Society. The Grant is to be used for expenses related directly to research using original manuscripts. Deadline to apply is February 14, 2025.

OPEN•SET International Bookbinding Competition & Exhibition Announces Shows

Open•Set is a prestigious triennial exhibition and competition celebrating the art of finely crafted design bookbindings. The 2025 Open•Set exhibition opens January 21-25 in conjunction with San Francisco Art Week at two locations, the AmericanBookbinders Museum and San Francisco Center for the Book. Nearly 100 handbound books were submitted from national and international bookbinders, with 70 being selected by jury for the exhibition. The “Open” category has textblocks chosen by binders, while in the “Set” category, participants bind the same textblock.

San Francisco Center for the Book - Open Category Books 2025 Exhibition

January 18 – March 24, 2025

American Bookbinders Museum - Set Category Books 2025 Exhibition

January 11 – March 29, 2025

New Lewis Carroll Bibliography Published

If you are a Carroll fan, check out Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: A Bibliography of Works Published in his Lifetime, by Charlie Lovett. Some of you may know Charlie from his novels including The Bookman’s Tale, which your friendly FABS editor highly recommends to counteract the winter doldrums. Shakespeare, antiquarian bookselling, a Victorian watercolor, a love story and plenty of action. Perfect for a cup of tea by the fire in February.

Does your club have news to share, or are you a club member with big news? Would you like to blog about your collection? Please contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org

Here's our list of February bookish events from FABS member societies:

Feb 2: Unable to travel to NYC to see the Morgan exhibition on Belle da Costa Greene? The Book Club of Washington has you covered. The show’s curatorial lead, Philip S. Palmer, will speak about Greene’s storied life and career. (The Book Club of Washington)

Feb 3: “Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts: Designing the Book” is a talk by Barbara A. Shailor, co-presented and co-hosted by the American Trust for the British Library. Dr. Shailor will discuss principles of decoration as well as the genres of manuscripts and how illustrations are used in them. Not to be missed! (The Book Club of California, part of the Windle-Loker lecture series on The History of the Book)

Feb 3: It's Manuscript Monday! Dr. Jason Silverman, new Manuscript Society ED and Ellison Capers Palmer Jr. Professor of History (ret.) at Winthrop University, will discuss his career in research, focusing on American history of the Civil War period. His presentation is entitled “Can You Teach an Old Dog to Learn New Tricks?” (The Manuscript Society)

Feb 10: FABS Handpress Zoom Group, 4:30pm PST, 7:30 EST. Join us for discussion of books and other materials printed before 1800. This month's topic is "My favorite acquisition of 2024." No presentation needed; just show the book and tell us about it for up to 5 minutes. Contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

Feb 11: Reid Byers, curator of an extraordinarily popular Grolier Club exhibition on imaginary books, will speak on “Collecting the Imaginary.” Among his treasures are Shakespeare’s Love’s Labors Won, Hemingway’s lost first novel, and Lovecraft’s Necronomicon (the John Dee copy). This thought-provoking exhibition has been profiled in The Guardian, Forbes, the WSJ, NYT, WaPo and many more (The Grolier Club)

Feb 12: The virtual exhibition tour for Reid Byers’s extraordinary Imaginary Books: Lost, Unwritten, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books. Followed by live Q&A. (The Grolier Club)

Feb 14: Check out a midcentury modern bibliophilic society with Prof. Jonathan Senchyne’s talk “The Salisbury Club: Buffalo Bibliophiles.” This club 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 such as Mark Twain. (The Caxton Club)

Feb 20: FABS 19th Century Zoom Group. Stop in (4:30pm PST; 7:30pm EST) for friendly discussion of all things bookish and 19th century. Contact Jennifer Larson (info@fabsocieties.org)

Feb 24: 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. Bonnie Portnoy will discuss his work and life in this exciting presentation. (The Book Club of California)

Northern California garden scene by Tilden Daken

Feb 25: FABS Living With Books Zoom Group, hosted by Reid Byers. 4:00pm PST; 7:00pm EST. Join us for lively conversation about the pleasures and challenges of home libraries. (Contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org)

Stay tuned to the FABS Calendar, as more events are sure to be posted soon.

Contact: Jennifer Larson, info@fabsocieties.org