The Book Peddlers of France

Nowadays many of us take for granted how easy it is to get a book -- we head to the local library, hop on the subway to go to our favorite store, open up a browser to order something online, and in a matter of hours or a few days we have a new book …

American Trust for the British Library (ATBL) Archive Established at the Grolier Club

The Archives Committee of the American Trust for the British Library and the Grolier Club Library are pleased to announce the completion of the processing of the records of the American Trust for the British Library. The archive consists of 6 boxes of materials (6 linear feet) of the business records of the ATBL, and …

One dynasty, three names

For one hundred years, a modest dynasty of imprimeur-libraires printed, published, and sold books in Paris with three generations of women at its core. The story of this family shows, first, how women often played hidden roles in the print and book trade, occasionally revealed when a widow inherited the firm, a son-in-law took over, …

Aristocratic Identity Erasure in the Private Library Catalogue of Madame la duchesse de La Vallière, ca. 1787

The private manuscript library catalogue of Anne-Julie-Françoise de Crussol d’Uzès, duchesse de La Vallière (1713-1797?) documents a fairly typical eighteenth-century French aristocratic library, composed of mainly contemporary literature in small formats on a wide range of topics (history, travel, novels, etc.). The catalogue does, however, bear one curious feature that has interested me since I …

Avery’s Gang: the Seamy Side of Bookselling

Books have power – they can convey information and experience readers would otherwise not have access to. Inevitably, then, booksellers sometimes run afoul of the law when they attempt to sell to the general public works the government deems dangerous (the subject of a later post) or obscene. In some cases, the defiance of local …

From the archivist’s table: John F. Fleming, Incorporated Records, 1952-1987

John F. Fleming, Inc. sales receipt letter head. From John F. Fleming Records, 1952-1987, box 45: Rosenbach Records Sales Record Book, 1954-1956 The Grolier Club Library counts itself fortunate to act not only as steward of our memorable rare book collection but also of our manuscript and archive collections.  Along with our own institutional records …

Grolier Club Library Receives Large Gift of Antiquarian Bookseller Catalogues from UVA

Between January 2017 and October 2018, the Grolier Club received a generous gift of several hundred antiquarian bookseller catalogues, dating to the late 19th and 20th centuries, from the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia. The gift was facilitated by fellow Club member, David Whitesell, Curator in the Albert …