Preserving Book Culture, Promoting Book Collecting
Met yesterday afternoon with Terry Belanger, founding [and outgoing] director of The Rare Book School (Michael Suarez will be taking over in September) in Charlottesville , VA. He gave me a tour of the place. Highlights included demonstration of how a Linotype machine works (magically) and a tour of the underground stacks where books and newspapers that instructors use to illustrate facets of the book-making process are stored. Although condition is a concern, illustrative utility is the primary acquisition criteria here. Terry has himself, over the past quarter century, had the pleasure of buying a lot of these books, many for a pittance: $10-$40.
This
for example, Prose Fancies by Richard le Gallienne, with illustrations and cover design by C.S. Ricketts, cost $35. So did an original copy of the front page of The Times (London ) newspaper from the 1860s printed for the first time ever with steam cylinder press technology.
After the dungeon tour we enjoyed lunch together – sitting at a genuine long-lasting library-donated wooden table – during which I heard about the hundreds of experts – many of them former Belanger students – who have lectured at the school over the years on every imaginable aspect of book history, construction, design, illustration, printing, binding, typesetting, paper-making…
What Terry has done with the School resonated with me. He has fashioned a comprehensive program of five day courses that preserve tradition, provide valuable, practical training, and convey and stimulate book knowledge and culture to and among professionals and ‘amateurs’ alike.
After food and a brief history of the School, Terry gave me a copy of a directory that contains the names and contact information for every instructor, attendee and ABAA member ever to have participated in the program. Given my mission statement, you can imagine the value of this book to me.
Speaking of missions, one of my ambitions in launching this site was to share a love of books with like-minded enthusiasts…and to encourage others to join the affair, notably by writing about content which interests me, and the joys of book collecting: because the more collectors there are, the less likely it is that used and antiquarian bookstores will disappear completely from our city and townscapes.
Terry’s RBS collection should then hopefully provide some inspiration. By focusing on aspects of the book other than plain authorship, you too can amass an extraordinary collection without draining the tank.
I’ve in fact been doing something similar during the past year or two with Iris Murdoch. Not because of what she wrote, although I’m looking forward to reading The Bell, but because of the beautifully illustrated dust jackets that wrap around what she has written. Most have been acquired for under that magical $35 mark. Only three or four to go now out of about twenty. From here I may well focus on one
or two of the designers who I like the most, and go after their extra-Murdoch oeuvre.
Maybe there’s such a thing as a collecting gene…maybe some acquire the habit early and cultivate it – or simply crave the hunt in ways others don’t; regardless of the origin of this species, most book collectors have a lot of fun, encounter many fascinating people along the way and get major satisfaction from chasing down, capturing, preserving and presenting their quarry to others. Why not join the party? A good place to start would be at The Rare Book School housed on the campus of Virginia University.