A Tribute to Eric Holzenberg: The Librarian, Scholar & Collector, Clubhouse Curator, and Grolierite

~ Grolier Club

The following post comes from the Grolier Club Library’s current exhibit, “A Tribute to Eric Holzenberg,” which opened on January 24, 2024, curated by Library staff in honor of his retirement after 30 years at the Grolier Club.

Eric Holzenberg, Rare Book Cataloger, Loyola University of Chicago, Cudahy Library, 1992

IN HONOR of Eric Holzenberg’s 30-year career at the Grolier Club, this exhibition commemorates his achievements and impact at our beloved institution. Eric first came to the Club to manage the Library as Cataloguer in 1994, quickly rising to assume the Club’s directorial role as Librarian in 1997. In 2004 the Club Council changed his title to Director in order to better reflect his instrumental role in every aspect of Club life, as well as his forward-thinking approach to the Club’s place in the broader book world.1

Many Grolierites recognize the names of the other two longest-serving Librarian/Directors of the Club’s last century, Ruth Shepard Granniss (Librarian 1906-1944) and Robert Nikirk (Librarian 1970-1990). They shaped the Club as an internationally recognized society of bibliophiles through their scholarship, librarianship, and commitment to members, and each left an enduring legacy. Eric’s tenure at the Grolier Club is commensurate with theirs, and he has left an equally lasting impression. Under his leadership, the Grolier Club membership has grown and gained a greater balance in age and gender; the publication, exhibition, and events programs have increased their scope, quality, and reach; and the institution has established a digital foundation that connects members beyond the physical Clubhouse.

Presented here is just a small selection of work from Eric’s career, as a historian of the book, a private collector, a librarian, and a curator. The items in these cases celebrate his role as faithful keeper of Clubhouse and institutional memory, and as primary steward of the Club’s membership and its ties to international bibliophily. This exhibition displays a bright chapter in the Club’s history, a testament to Eric’s career.

Eric in his office at the Grolier Club, June 9, 2015

LIBRARIAN

By the time Eric became Director of the Grolier Club in 1997, he had been a rare book librarian for almost a decade. Eric started as cataloger of rare books and Jesuitica at Loyola University Chicago in 1988 where he honed his skills and his passion for rare books. Eric’s understanding of the book as object is evident in his catalog of Middle Hill Press publications at the Grolier Club, an outstanding piece of scholarship which continues to provide access to one of the Club’s most important collections. As Eric moved from the Grolier Club’s chief librarian position to that of its executive director, he oversaw the implementation of the Library’s online catalog, and helped to grow the library’s reputation (and usefulness) as a resource for visiting researchers. As co-curator of Lasting Impressions and its sequel Further Impressions, Eric penned a love letter to the Club and its collections; with For Jean Grolier and His Friends, he leaves another bibliographical achievement, a record of the Club’s printed output.

  1. Holzenberg, Eric. Edifying and Curious Letters: Jesuit Accounts of the Americas, 1565-1896: Catalog of an Exhibition of Books from the Cudahy Collection of Jesuitica, Loyola University Chicago. Chicago: Loyola University Chicago, 1992.
  2. Holzenberg, Eric. A Checklist of Works Concerning Jesuits and the New World in the Collection of Rare Jesuitica at Loyola University Chicago. Chicago: Loyola University Chicago, 1992.
  3. Exhibition invitation, Tuesday, December 9, 2008, For Jean Grolier & His Friends, curated by George Ong and Eric Holzenberg, The Grolier Club of New York.
  4. Holzenberg, Eric and George Ong. For Jean Grolier & His Friends: 125 Years of Grolier Club Exhibitions and Publications, 1884-2009. New York: The Grolier Club, 2009.
  5. Publication prospectus for Lasting Impressions, The Grolier Club, 2004.
  6. Holzenberg, Eric and José Fernando Peña. Lasting Impressions: The Grolier Club Library. New York: The Grolier Club, 2004.
  7. Holzenberg, Eric. The Middle Hill Press: A Checklist of the Horblit Collection of Books, Tracts, Leaflets, and Broadsides Printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps at his Press at Middle Hill, or Elsewhere to His Order, Now in the Library of the Grolier Club. New York: The Grolier Club, 1997.
  8. Publication prospectus for The Middle Hill Press, The Grolier Club, 1997.

SCHOLAR & COLLECTOR

Eric showing his personal collection on the Aesthetic Movement to a class from Lehman College, March 16, 2018

Eric’s personal scholarly and collecting interests closely mirror the Club’s own. As collector of late 19th century decorative and book arts, with exceptional knowledge in the Aesthetic movement, design connections linking books to broader arts, and the technologies of book-making, he has been uniquely at home in our venerable Gilded Age institution. His expertise in the history of collecting and the book trade is one area of book history that ties together all others. Eric’s publications on book collecting, including the entry for the Encyclopedia Britannica since 2002, and his special perspective in teaching the history of books has demonstrated our Club Library’s importance for this unique space of the rare book world.

  1. Holzenberg, Eric. For Art’s Sake: The Aesthetic Movement in Print & Beyond, 1870-1890. From the Collection of Eric Holzenberg. New York: The Grolier Club, 2017.
  2. Gilder, Richard Watson. The New Day: A Poem in Songs and Sonnets. New York: Scribner, Armstrong, and Co., 1876.
    • Eric secured this acquisition for the Grolier Club’s bindings collection at auction last year, as the earliest known publisher’s binding designed by a woman, Helena de Kay Gilder. Eric has a copy in his personal collection, and it provided the cover for his exhibition catalogue.
  3. Holzenberg, Eric J. “Book Collecting.” In A Companion to the History of the Book, edited by Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell, 2020.
  4. “Book Catalogues, Today and Tomorrow, Reports and Presentations From the 1995 BSA Conference.” A special issue of The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 89:4 (December 1995).
  5. “Book Catalogues, Tomorrow and Beyond: Proceedings of the 2008 Conference Sponsored by the Grolier Club and Bibliographical Society of America.” A supplement, guest edited by Eric Holzenberg, in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 102:4 (December 2008).
    • Eric participated in the 1995 Book Catalogues conference organized by Roger Stoddard, and he guest edited these reports for the follow-up conference in 2008, convened at the Grolier Club specifically to account for the growth of digital and internet media in the book trade.
  6. Holzenberg, Eric. “Hard Times at the Grolier Club.” Gazette of the Grolier Club NS 61 (2010).
    • The Gazette published the proceedings of the Grolier Club’s one-day conference, “Books in Hard Times: The Impact of the Recession on Collectors, Librarians, and the Antiquarian Book Trade,” September 22, 2009.
  7. Holzenberg, Eric. “New York Bibliophily.” An offprint of Association internationale de bibliophilie, actes et communications, XXVth Congress New York City & Post-Congress Chicago 2007.

CLUBHOUSE CURATOR

Eric’s admiration for aesthetics bleeds from his collecting and scholarship into his work as the de facto Clubhouse Curator. His knowledge of the Club’s physical transformations runs as deep as his care for its all-important details. Nearly every space of the Grolier Club has been renovated in Eric’s 30 years, beginning with the Phillipps Room in 1997 and ending with the Exhibition Hall in 2018. He has approached every renovation as a renewal that preserves the past. Those who remember the Clubhouse of the past can still read its traces in every room like a palimpsest that preserves its own history. Eric’s essays and catalogues trace each phase and change, and his librarianship has organized and augmented the archive of our own iconographic history for future generations.

  1. 136th Grolier Club Season invitation (Fall 2019), announcing the opening of the renovated Grolier Club Exhibition Hall.
  2. Gazette of the Grolier Club NS 67 (2016).
    • Includes Eric’s article: “The Grolier Club: A Brief History in Bricks and Mortar,” (5-26).
  3. [Hozenberg, Eric]. Books & Book People at Home: The Grolier Club Exhibition Hall, 1890-2018. New York: The Grolier Club, 2018.
  4. Holzenberg, Eric. Notes on a Renovation: Being a Brief Account of the Origins, Progress, and (Mostly) Happy Conclusion of The Grolier Club ‘Second Century’ Project. New York: The Grolier Club, 2020.
    • A second edition of the article first published in Gazette NS 68/69 (2018/2019): 6-43. Privately printed edition of 5 copies. One of four copies bound in quarter red morocco over tan paper boards by Alanna Simenson, Mad Hatter Bookbindery.
  5. Holzenberg, Eric. Three Gold Bezants, Three Silver Stars: The Arms of the Grolier Club, 1884-1984. New York: The Grolier Club, 1999.
  6. Publication prospectus, Three Gold Bezants, Three Silver Stars, The Grolier Club, 1999.

GROLIERITE

Eric has positioned the Club as a kind of Camp David for bibliophiles, a communal summit uniting the professional and social communities who find their identities reflected in the intellectual and imaginative pursuits of book collecting and the book arts. Under his tenure, the tradition of international bibliophilic Iters re-emerged after a decades-long hibernation, with 9 major foreign trips and many additional domestic mini-Iters. Eric also inaugurated and co-curated the Grolier Club Collects group exhibitions, which spotlight the membership’s diverse interests, common excitement for rare books, and “the objects that inspired and shaped them as collectors.” These grand orchestrations of communal bibliophily echo the every-day efforts Eric has made to cultivate Club spirit in his 30 years here. His revival of the News Sheet evolved into the News Flash, and Grolier Club Collects sees itself reflected in monthly Zoom Show-and-Tells that began during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep members connected.

  1. Holzenberg, Eric, Carolyn L. Smith, and Carol Z. Rothkopf, editors. Iter Britannicum: May 29-June 10, 2001. New York: The Grolier Club, 2003.
  2. Iter Ungaricum: Sunday, 25 May – Saturday, 31 May 2014. New York: The Grolier Club, 2019.
  3. Hanes, Susan R.; Holzenberg, Eric, foreword. The Grolier Club Iter Siniticum: A Bibliophilic Tour of China, April 16-29, 2017. New York: The Grolier Club, 2018.
  4. Holzenberg, Eric and T. Peter Kraus, compilers; Rothkopf, Carol Z., editor. The Grolier Club Collects: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Collections of Grolier Club Members. New York: The Grolier Club, 2002.
  5. Exhibition Invitation, Tuesday, December 2, 2002, The Grolier Club Collects, curated by T. Peter Kraus and Eric Holzenberg, The Grolier Club of New York.
  6. Exhibition invitation, Tuesday, December 8, 2015, The Grolier Club Collects II, curated by Eric Holzenberg and Arthur L. Schwarz, The Grolier Club of New York. (2 copies).
  7. Holzenberg, Eric and Arthur L. Schwarz, curators; Ong, George, editor. The Grolier Club Collects II : Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Collections of Grolier Club Members. New York: The Grolier Club, 2015.

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