A pair of lovers, from The Great Heidelberg Book of Songs or Codex Manesse, ca. 1340. Source: Biblioteca Palatina

Joie du Livre arrives late this month because our website went down. Thanks to our skilled webmaster, Sam Lemley, for restoring it to health!

Save the Date! The 40th Akron Antiquarian Book and Paper Show will be held April 3 & 4, 2026. Join the Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society at the Akron Antiquarian Book and Paper Show at the John S. Knight Center in downtown Akron, Ohio. The Friday preview will be a ticketed event, while the main show--free for NOBS members--will be held on Saturday.

The Grolier Club’s Photography Special Interest Group, co-chaired by Grolierites Richard Grosbard, Jeremy Rowe and Patrick Montgomery, recently sent out the group’s December 2025 newsletter, describing their winter activities past and upcoming (including a January 13, 2026 private guided tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition, “Man Ray: When Objects Dream”), as well as lists of exhibitions, auctions, conferences and fairs of interest to photography aficionados and others. If interested in joining the group, getting on their email list, and/or presenting your ideas to them for events PSIG members might enjoy, contact them at grolierclubphotographygroup@gmail.com.

February Blogging: Michael Richards of the Book Collectors' Society of Australia offers advice on what to do if you find yourself with a large number of books to rehome. (It's a good kind of problem to have!)

Many thanks to Tamara Belts of the Book Club of Washington for entering FABS member society events in our calendar! The FABS e-news needs additional volunteers to ensure that this publication thrives even after your friendly Editor steps down mid-year in 2026. If you would like to help, contact Jennifer at info@fabsocieties.org.

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

FABS Member Society events for February. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. 

February 9: FABS Handpress Era Group. This month our guest speaker is Martha Driver Ph.D., who will share a brief bio of Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus and show items from her Erasmus collection. To receive a link contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org.

February 9: Manuscript Mondays. Josh Levy will discuss the Library of Congress's manuscript holdings in science and technology. (The Manuscript Society)

February 11: RGME Symposium at the Grolier Club. Friends of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, a Princeton-based 501(c)(3) educational organization, will visit the Grolier Club to discuss a curated selection of books, manuscripts, and prints on the RGME’s 2026 organizational theme of “Transformations and Renewals.” 

February 11: Book artist and letterpress printer Jessica Spring will share strange-but-true tales of her journey from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest, guided by wise mentors – and some villains – who continue to inspire another climb into the press bed. (The Caxton Club)

February 19: Join the FABS 19^th Century group on Zoom for congenial discussion of all things bibliophilic and 19^th century. Contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org.

February 23: In 1870 at age 33, Sara Plummer Lemmon left the East Coast and moved west to Santa Barbara, where she taught herself botany and established the town’s first library. Ten years later she married botanist John Gill Lemmon, and together the two discovered hundreds of new plant species, many of them illustrated by Sara. Author Wynne Brown will present the remarkable story of Sara Plummer Lemmon and provide an update on the preservation of Sara’s remarkable artwork. (The Book Club of California)

February 23: FABS Bindings Group. Contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org

February 24: FABS Living With Books Group. Join us and host Reid Byers to discuss the delights and challenges of the private library. Topics of the month: 1. Mentoring in Book Collecting - How We Bring Along the Next Generation(s); 2. The Bingo Moment - That Great Find, that Great Connection, or that Time It All Came TogetherContact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org

February 26: Illustrator Kristy Caldwell will share the process of creating Catenary Books, a series of six narratively connected bookplates developed during her 2025 William H. Helfand Fellowship at the Grolier Club Library. (The Grolier Club)

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

Contact: Jennifer Larson, info@fabsocieties.org