First edition, The Enchanted April. Doubleday, Page and Co, Garden City, New York (1923)

“... Why, it would really be being unselfish to go away and be happy for a little, because we would come back so much nicer.” 

This month we celebrate Elizabeth Von Arnim's beloved tale of four Englishwomen spending a month in a fifteenth-century Italian castle in Portofino. If you have never read it, you're in for a treat.

Link for this edition of Joie du Livre:

https://www.fabsocieties.org/?na=view&id=66

Here is the news from FABS for April:

In Spring, a bibliomaniac’s thoughts turn to book fairs! You are invited to join the Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society at the historic 40th Akron Antiquarian Book and Paper Show (April 3 and 4) 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.

April Blogging: FABS Secretary and NOBS Trustee Paul Heyde shares the history of the Akron Antiquarian Book Fair, which is inextricably tied to NOBS (Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society). The upcoming fair is a milestone for the Society. Congratulations to NOBS on its members' dedication and hard work in keeping this tradition alive!

Submissions are open for the tenth year of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize, a cash award of $1000 for an outstanding book collection built by a young woman. 

Founded in 2017 by American booksellers Heather O’Donnell of Honey & Wax Booksellers and Rebecca Romney of Type Punch Matrix, the Honey & Wax Prize was designed to encourage a new generation of collectors, and to expand our collective sense of what material merits attention and preservation. The contest is open to women book collectors in the United States, aged 30 or younger. The deadline for this year’s submissions is July 1, 2026. Please share with the young collectors in your life!

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 April. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

April 8: After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal. Merlin Holland charts the extraordinary afterlife of the legendary writer and thinker, tracing the dramatic fluctuations in Oscar Wilde’s posthumous reputation. (The Grolier Club)

April 13: The California Camera Club: Collective Visions in the Making of the American West. With some 400 members, the San Francisco-based California Camera Club was the largest photography network in the United States in the early twentieth century. In her book The California Camera Club, Carolin Görgen recaptures the lost history of this community. (Book Club of California)

April 13, 7:30pm Eastern: FABS Handpress Era Group. “Images in natural philosophy books: From manuscripts to printing.” The FABS Handpress Era Zoom Group meets the second Monday of the month for presentations and discussion of printed materials before 1800. This month noted optics collector David DiLaura will speak on the transition from manuscript to print of illustrations dealing with geometry and natural philosophy, using examples from his collection. All are welcome. To receive a link contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org.

April 16, 7:30pm Eastern: 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.

April 20, 4:30pm Pacific: FABS Bindings Zoom Group: "Singing Bindings." Join Lilla Vekerdy, Head of Special Collections at the Dibner Library of Science and Technology at the Smithsonian Institution, to view selections from the "Singing Bindings" exhibition. These unique bindings use music manuscripts as "binder's waste" beneath the final covers of the books. Many fascinating discoveries have been made regarding both the bindings and the music. For a link contact Jennifer Larson, info@fabsocieties.org.

April 20: Digital Literary Redlining: African American Anthologies, Digital Humanities, and the Canon. Though canon concerns seem to be a relic of 1990s academia, we are, once again, at a historical moment when there is resistance to teaching texts by writers of color and texts that deal with race, ethnicity and gender. At the same time, algorithmic bias scholars are locating systemic bias encoded into systems from policing software to housing software. Bringing these divergent areas together, Amy E. Earhart examines how technological and institutional infrastructures construct and deconstruct race, ethnicity and gender identities. (Book Club of California)

April 26: Ranger of the Lost Art: Rediscovering the WPA Poster Art of our National Parks. Doug Leen is a retired dentist and seasonal park ranger. He started his company, Ranger Doug's Enterprises in 1993, with a goal of bringing back into print the striking posters created by the WPA in the 1930s and 40s. Join us to learn more! (Book Club of Washington)

April 27, 7:00pm Eastern: FABS Living With Books Group. Join this congenial group hosted by Reid Byers for conversation about the joys and challenges of home libraries. This month's topics: 1. Book Cartoons and Jokes 2. What Advice might you offer to younger bibliophiles from your experience as a book collector? 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