Book Collecting Clubs and Associations
- By Bruce McKinney
Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies
By Bruce McKinney
Look out upon the fields of book, manuscript and ephemera collecting and from a distance you can see generations of amber waves of grain, a seamless continuum extending in memory from Gutenberg out into a never-ending future of collectors yet unborn that one day will bid and buy, accumulate and organize, material that matters to them. The history of collecting is clear and the future of collecting should be but changes in what we know and how we know are so quickly engulfing the field that today's more senior collectors find it difficult to relate and explain the world of collecting they inhabit to the next generation that sees that world in very different terms.
They both hold important pieces of the collecting equation and no doubt suffer from declining access to each other. The clubs and associations of the books, manuscripts and ephemera fields have long provided access for collectors, book craft artisans, historians, librarians and dealers to meet in an environment of shared interest but increasingly the clubs are graying, the next generation too often a no show, the very futures of some clubs less certain.
Recently I spoke with an interesting cross section of representatives of many of the leading book collecting clubs in the United States and Canada as I sought to understand the future of collecting in the field of works on paper. The clubs are one of the seven communities that comprise the works on paper universe. Listing sites, auctions and eBay, online databases, dealers, libraries and preservationists are the others.
The good news is that such clubs are found in every sizable place and that these clubs are determined to bridge the divide to the next generation. Their love of the field and their abiding interest in the material convinces them that the next generation, if reached and encouraged, will join them and in time help their clubs to further evolve as they have always evolved to remain relevant to the changing methods, styles and parameters of collecting. Every generation has faced challenges but perhaps the challenge for the current generation of club leadership is the greatest in memory simply because the internet increases possibilities for collecting while lowering clubs' visibility. Only a generation ago clubs could distribute information to shops and expect a flow of interested parties to move in their direction. Today such shops are far less common as the business has inexorably shifted to the net, to catalogues, and to conversation by phone and email. Face to face meetings are less common and decline has weakened club access to new members. Collecting, ever an iconoclastic enterprise, in the age of the internet, encourages monk-like focus that further reduces in-person contact.
For the clubs this has generally translated into declining membership that has in turn caused the majority of clubs to broaden their definition of eligibility. Book clubs were once primarily the province of book collectors. Today many clubs struggle to keep collectors in the majority even as membership, has declined. Binders, dealers, printers, and craftsmen now comprise the majority in many clubs. And to the extent that collectors are a significant presence the dominant characteristic of club members is hair color - gray to white.
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Book Collecting Clubs and Associations
- By Bruce McKinney
The Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society
Tom Whitehead of the Philobiblon Club in Philadelphia speaks of declining membership as a settled fact. We have perhaps 150 members where once we had 200. Larry Rakow, of NOBS, the Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society speaks of 300 members where a decade ago it was 400. They aren't the exceptions, they are simply representative. One person, in an unguarded moment spoke of their club's average age having increased by 14 years over the past 15 years. In most clubs membership is down and Lois Shumaker, a long time member of the Sacramento Book Collector's Club explains it this way. "The number of collectors is declining, the use of books is declining, the community is aging." Valerie Hotchkiss of the 44 Society in Urbana, Illinois sees a struggle but not a loss. "We work to stay relevant." George Beelen of the Ottawa Book Collectors [of Canada] speaks of small meetings and expresses concern for the club in the decade ahead. Hayward Blake of the Caxton Club is more upbeat but speaks of the loss of their home at the Newberry. "It was a budget issue and we are now moving our meetings."
Larry Rakow of NOBS, the Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society speaks of a membership that has declined but is stable. We meet at different locations each month. We sponsor a book fair. We are figuring it out.
The membership ages but their leadership, across the country, is determined that their clubs survive and in time prosper.
An element in the decline is the increasing specialization that libraries and collectors are able to bring to their subjects. As focus intensifies the more general approach that clubs instinctively support seems less relevant. Only a generation ago collecting was conducted in broad brush form simply because there weren't enough data points for those hoping/wishing to more intensively focus. Most older club members grew accustomed to this and have been slow to adapt to new approaches. Today the emerging standard of collecting, regardless of age, is more intensive, the collector often "an" if not "the" expert in their subject within a few years of taking up the challenge. Such collecting is so different it can be difficult to relate to club participation.
The challenge then for clubs is to embrace the new methodologies and in periodic discussions speak with the wisdom of experience blended with the knowledge of how to collect in the ways that were until a few years ago beyond the reach and even the comprehension of most collectors.
In other words, the challenge for the clubs is to turn the enormous rate of recent change into an opportunity to explain it. The next generation, if they find aid in understanding the new tools, will participate. In that way the new collector will become part of the club tradition and in time shape it to their next generation.
To aid in this process AE is organizing a series of links and pages so that club locations, meeting schedules and topics of lectures and discussions will be easily accessible. Clubs that encourage new and outside participation will have links for the interested to contact them and in many cases to attend.
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Book Collecting Clubs and Associations
- By Bruce McKinney
The Philobiblon Club
To the extent that texts of talks become available, with the permission of the speaker, we'll provide electronic access and links to the speaker and or club as they wish. Thirty people may hear a talk in San Francisco and in time another 150 read it on line. As collecting becomes more specialized such talks will become important tools for the new collector and an enduring accomplishment for the person giving the talk.
And while this approach to open access is forward looking it also envisions that past discussions that are available in text will also be linked as the opportunity arises. Each year there are almost three hundred such talks across North America, almost all of which represent significant preparation in concert with decades of experience that too often is heard by only a few. In this way we hope to capture these efforts and to make them accessible to the interested as they become aware of their availability. The internet may be strengthening individual collecting. The clubs can turn it into their advantage. In truth most such lectures and discussions are unique, even timeless. They should not be lost.
For those clubs and organizations that have or someday will have the capability to film presentations we will provide video links.
Here is a list of some, certainly not all, of the clubs whose focus is the book as object. These are the book Collecting Societies that are members of or affiliated with FABS, the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies:
The Alcuin Society
John King
604 538-7092
antbook@dccnet.com
The Aldus Society
Ronald L. Ravneberg
614 457-1153
aldussociety@aol.com
The Ampersand Club
Robert Rulon-Miller
800 441-0076
rulon@rulon.com
The Baltimore Bibliophiles
Binnie Syril Braunstein
410 486-6178
bsbgc@aol.com
The John Russell Bartlett Society
Pamela A. Rakowski
64 Cathedral Avenue
Providence, RI 02908
401 751-5581
prakowski@provlib.org
The Bixby Club
John Neal Hoover
University of Missouri
Jefferson Memorial Library
St. Louis Mercantile Library
Room 265
8001 Natural Bridge Road
St. Louis, MO 63121
314 516-7245
jhoover@umsl.edu
The Manuscript Society
An international organization of persons & institutions
Anthony J. Mourek
mourek_manuscript@msn.com
Miniature Book Society
Mark Palkovic, President
Editor, Music Library Association Index and Bibliography Series
417 Blegen Library, P.O. Box 210152
2602 McMicken Circle
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0152
513 556-1964 palkovma@ucmail.uc.edu
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Book Collecting Clubs and Associations
- By Bruce McKinney
The Ampersand Club
Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society
Larry Rakow
1824 Wilton Road
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
216 932-3084 lrakow@earthlink.net
The Ottawa Book Collectors
George C. Beelen
35 Florizel Avenue
Ottawa, ON K2H 9R2
Canada
613-829-3617
gcbeelen@magma.ca
The Bolton Society, An Organization of Chemical Bibliophiles
Elsa B. Atson, Director of Library Services
Bolton Society Secretary
Othmer Library of Chemical History
Chemical Heritage Foundation
315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-2702
215 873-8205
elsaa@chemheritage.org
The Book Club of California
Lucy R. Cohen, Executive Director
312 Sutter Street, Suite 510
San Francisco, CA 94108-4320
415 781-7532 (voice) 415 781-7537 (fax)
lucycohen@bccbooks.org
The Caxton Club
Hayward R. Blake
60 West Walton
Chicago, IL 60610-3305
847 864-9800
hrblake@earthlink.net
The Colophon Club
Barbara Jane Land
770 El Camino Del Mar
San Francisco, CA 94121
415 221-7707
The Philobiblon Club
Thomas M. Whitehead
Special Collections
Temple University Libraries
Philadelphia, PA 19122-6088
215 204-8230
thomas.whitehead@temple.edu
Bibliophile Society of Rochester
J. Raymond Edinger, Jr.
295 Burley Road
Rochester, NY 14612
585 663-1339
redinger@rochester.rr.com
The Rowfant Club
George A. Weimer, IV
1370 Sloan Ave. #910
Lakewood, OH 44107
216 566-7019
weimerg4@yahoo.com
The Roxburghe Club of San Francisco
Peter Rutledge Koch
312 Sutter Street, Suite 510
San Francisco, CA 94108
510 849-0673 pkoch@library.berkeley.edu
Sacramento Book Collectors Club
Lois Shumaker
9043 Barnhill Way
Fair Oaks, CA 95628
916 990-9158
lshumake@quicknet.com
lshumake@quicknet.com
The Delaware Bibliophiles
Thomas E. Dougherty
2422 Brookshire Drive
Wilmington, DE 19803-4512
302 478-3384
tdoherty@bookbarn.com
The Book Club of Detroit
Joan Knoertzer
The Library B & B
808 Mary Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734 668-6815
Fine Press Book Association
Robert McCamant, Sherwin Beach Press
119 West Hubbard Street, No. 2W
Chicago, IL 60610
312 329-1414 Ext. 11
bob@sherwinbeach.com
Florida Bibliophile Society
George Spiero
4753 Crestknoll Lane
New Port Richey, FL 34653
727 376-4914
gspiero@earthlink.net
Fontaneda Society
Carol Fitzgerald
2100 South Ocean Lane #706
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
954 463-3875
riversgal@aol.com
The Book Club of Texas
Russell L. Martin, III
DeGolyer Library SMU
Box 750396
Dallas, TX 75275-0396
214 768-3234
rlmartin@mail.smu.edu
The Ticknor Society
Roberta Zonghi
Boston Public Library
700 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
617 495-2509
info@ticknor.org
Book Club of Washington
Louis Collins
1211 East Denny Way
Seattle, WA 98122
206 323-3999
louis@collinsbooks.com
Washington Rare Book Group
Melanie Gardner
2014 Hermitage Avenue
Silver Spring, MD 20902
301 506-6207
magardner01@verizon.net
The Zamorano Club
John C. Carson, MD
Historical Society of Southern California
1703 Soledad Avenue
La Jolla, CA 92037-3819
jcarsonmd@earthlink.net
International Affiliates:
Aberystwyth Bibliographical Group, Aberystwyth, Wales
Berliner Bibliophilen Abend E. V.,, Berlin
Société Royale des Bibliophiles et Iconophiles de Belgique, Brussels
Maxmilian-Gesellschaft e.V. fur alte und neue Buchkunst, Stuttgart
Moscow Club of Bibliophiles, Moscow
Nederlands Genootschap van Bibliofielen, Amsterdam
Les Amis Du Livre Contemporain, Paris
Organization of Russian Bibliophiles, Moscow
Russian Section of Books and Graphics, St. Petersburg
The Society of Bibliophiles in Capetown
Associació de Bibliòfils de Barcelona
The Private Libraries Association, Pinner, Middlesex, England
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