A Tea Party with Alice, the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, by John Tenniel (1865, public domain)

'Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.
Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. `I don't see any wine,' she remarked.
`There isn't any,' said the March Hare.

-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll

Here is the news from FABS for March.

Enjoy two excellent new FABS blog posts this month:

Joshua Shelly's “Alte Bücher in Haifa: (Re)building a German Jewish Library in the 21st Century"describes his collection of German Jewish books from the late 19th and 20th centuries through the experience of writer Arnold Zweig to rebuild his personal German-language library after its seizure by the Nazis. Dr. Shelly was a prizewinner in the 2023 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest.

Grolier Club Bookplates, Past and Present is the subject of a post by Alex Ames and Mark Samuels Lasner, describing the publication of the catalogue from the 2017 Grolier exhibition on ex-libris. In this post you can see the bookplates of J. P. Morgan, Paul Mellon, Philip Hofer, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Harry Elkins Widener. 

On March 1, The Ticknor Society will begin accepting entries for its annual George and Anna Eliot Ticknor Collecting Prize. The purpose of this competition is to encourage book collectors to understand more deeply what their collection means to them, what they have collected, how it might be helpful to other collectors and researchers, and how they want their collection to develop in the future. The award currently carries a prize of $1,000. Application instructions and winners from past years can be found on the Ticknor Society website.

The FABS Special Interest Groups are thriving! Join us for an hour's informal discussion of your favorite topic. All groups meet at 4:30pm Pacific, 6:30pm Central and 7:30pm Eastern. To get on the list for one of these groups, contact Jennifer Larson at info@fabsocieties.org

March 11: Handpress Era (second Monday of the month). Printed materials before 1800

March 21: 19th Century Group (third Thursday of the month). All things 19th-century and bookish

March 18: Bindings Group (third Monday of the month). Bindings and the bookbinding arts of all periods

March 26: Living With Books (fourth Tuesday of the month) All the pleasures and paraphernalia of home libraries

This month, we spotlight recorded programs from FABS member societies and beyond:

In the online exhibition Judging a Book By Its Cover: Bookbindings from the Collections of the Grolier Club 1470-2020 you can see an embroidered binding on a miniature psalter from the 17th century, a magnificent 18th-century Roger Payne binding, a Rivière binding on a 15th century Book of Hours, and an array of brilliant examples of the binder's craft from the 20th century.

Bibliographical Society of America recorded webinars include “Black Bibliography: Dorothy Porter’s Early American Negro Writings at 75,” “Contemporary Collecting: DIY Publishing,” “Placing Papers: The Literary Archives Market,” “Manuscript mise-en-page” (about medieval manuscript fragments), and much more!

The Book Club of Washington has made available its recording of Allie Alvis's presentation on "The Wonderful and Weird Wintherthur Library"--an "eclectic yet cohesive" collection especially strong in American decorative arts.

The Manuscript Society's 2023 recorded "Manuscript Mondays" include "Rare Book Collecting With Ken Gloss," "Darwin's Life in Autographs and Letters," "John Law, the Mississippi Bubble and the Settling of New Orleans," "History in Your Hands" (a magnificent autograph collection) and more!

FABS Member Society Online/Virtual Events for March: Free and Open to the Public

Dating from 1853, the Washington State Library is the state's oldest cultural institution, preserving for decades items not duplicated elsewhere that hold the answers to so many questions about the past. Come along on our virtual guided tour of this research playground! (The Book Club of Washington, March 3)

Mehdi El Hajoui presents "Bibliophiles Beware: The Situationist International and the Art & Politics of Cultural Hijacking," on the alliance of artists, intellectuals, political theorists and architects that has been called "the last avant garde of the 20th century" (The Book Club of California, March 4)

Megan Friedel will speak on photography collections that bring history to life in her presentation on "Lorenzo Lorain and Images of the Oregon Coast, 1857-1861" (The Caxton Club, March 8)

In "Empress San Francisco," Abigail M. Markwyn offers a fresh perspective on the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco and the roles played by women, Asians, Asian-Americans and labor unions (March 11, The Book Club of California)

To round out a trio of California-themed talks for March, Jason S. Sexton will discuss historian Kevin Starr and his works including the eight-volume California Dream series, connecting Starr's vision to his devout Catholicism. (March 18, The Book Club of California)

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

Contact: Jennifer Larson, info@fabsocieties.org