News, Events, Publications, and Awards

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Previous articleNext article FreeSociety InformationNews, Events, Publications, and AwardsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreNewsDr. Jesse R. Erickson & Dr. Sarah Werner Appointed Editors of PBSAWe are delighted to announce that the new editors of Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America will be Dr. Jesse R. Erickson and Dr. Sarah Werner.Both have strong editorial experience: Werner was a guest editor at Shakespeare Quarterly, textual editor of Norton Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and founding editor of The Collation; Erickson serves on the editorial board of the University of Delaware Press and Publishing History. The pair offers an unparalleled breadth of expertise, from incunables and early modern print and manuscript (Werner) to 19th and 20th Century American print (Erickson) to digital media (Werner). In addition, they bring a wide diversity of professional backgrounds—Werner is an independent scholar with long experience in the library world and academia, as well as a successful author of the widely-adopted Studying Early Printed Books 1450–1800: A Practical Guide; Erickson is both an Assistant Professor in English and a Special Collections librarian at the University of Delaware. Both have established outstanding reputations as engaging speakers in the world of bibliography and beyond. In addition to this broad subject and professional identity coverage, they bring exciting areas of research expertise: Werner’s work on feminist bibliography is newly available in a California Rare Book School course; Erickson’s extensive collaborative experience in curating exhibitions at Delaware and elsewhere, as well as his ethnobibliographical research on Ouida and Black bibliography has generated a large following.We are impressed by the team’s commitment to diversifying the field of bibliography, not just through their combined networks and research expertise but also by engaging with high-level disciplinary questions in order to reaffirm PBSA’s position as the flagship journal in bibliographical studies. The Society’s Equity Action Plan is central to their team vision, and they propose to diversify all aspects of PBSA’s coverage, with attention not only to neglected geographical and chronological areas but also material forms, proposing special issues on subjects such as ephemera and the non-codex. They had clearly given a lot of thought to the journal’s future role within the larger publishing environment and expressed commitment to building on the journal’s existing strengths while also broadening its coverage and potential readership.Erickson and Werner received the unanimous support of the Search Committee, with unanimous confirmation by the Executive Committee. They begin collaborating with Editor David Gants and Managing Editor Meaghan J. Brown this July, with their transition to full editorship taking place in January 2022 following Dr. Gants’s stepping down from the role as Editor. Dr. Gants and Dr. Brown are excited by what Erickson and Werner bring to the journal as the next chapter in its long history is set to unfold and look forward to working with them on a smooth transition.On behalf of the Publications Committee, the BSA recognizes and applauds Dr. Gants after nine years of service as Editor. His dedication and leadership have safely guided our journal to a productive and happy relationship with the University of Chicago Press and maintained the Society’s long tradition of rigorous bibliographical scholarship in PBSA. We also thank Dr. Meaghan J. Brown for her strong support of the journal as Managing and Book Reviews Editor, and for continuing her work through summer 2022.A Message from Drs. Erickson and WernerWe are honored to be asked to lead PBSA and excited about the possibilities ahead of us. We believe that the field of bibliography is strengthened by a broad attention to different textual objects and theoretical frameworks even as it builds on its intellectual heritage: codices alongside ephemera, tablets, and websites; Western print and manuscript traditions as well as the wide range of African, Asian, and indigenous textual traditions; analytical bibliographic work together with ethnobibliography, feminist, queer, and ecocritical theorizations. Likewise, inclusive scholarship is at the core of our approach, and we are committed to expanding the range of voices represented in the journal. The BSA has long been a space for expanding our knowledge of bibliographical work, and we are eager to build on that tradition and to make PBSA a home for conversations about the nature of and futures for bibliography. We applaud the Society’s Equity Action Plan, and we are committed to its implementation in our work.Welcome, Eighty New Members to BSA!We are thrilled to report that the Bibliographical Society of America’s first-ever membership drive has been a resounding success. This membership drive was part of the Society’s efforts to bring our vision of a broader, more inclusive, and exciting bibliographical community to life.Our buy-one-give-one membership drive was designed to bring new and lapsed members into the community, and we are pleased to report that both new and lapsed members have gifted sixty BSA memberships to newcomers through their own membership purchases. We extend a hearty welcome (back!) to each and every one of you and offer our sincere thanks to the existing members who renewed their memberships early or purchased gift memberships for others.We want to extend a special thanks to Council members for their promotion of and participation in our membership drive. President Barbara A. Shailor, María Victoria Fernández (Council Class of 2024), Nick Wilding (Council Class of 2024), Douglas Pfeiffer (Council Class of 2023), and Jackie Vossler (Council Class of 2022) all renewed their memberships early and promoted the program to friends and colleagues, gifting a total of fifteen memberships.The Society is grateful for the work of the Council and the Membership Working Group, whose many and varied contributions of time and talent help bring so much to BSA. All of us extend our sincere thanks to new and returning members whose membership purchases this year helped to make this program such a success.The 2022 Annual Meeting and New Scholars ProgramThe 2022 Annual Meeting will be held virtually on 28 January 2022 starting with the New Scholars Program at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. The keynote lecture will be by Dr. Elizaveta Strakhov, entitled “What Makes Bibliography Critical? A Medievalist’s Response.”What makes bibliography critical for a Western manuscripts scholar? Medievalists have, after all, enshrined bibliography to the point of developing the specialized subdisciplines of paleography and codicology. How does a Western medievalist breathe new life into bibliography, that bread-and-butter of their scholarly pursuits? This talk offers a case study of two manuscripts of bilingual Anglo-French poet Charles d’Orléans’ work: not the two collections notoriously supervised by him but two later fifteenth-century, largely neglected manuscripts of his work, one made for European humanist circles and the other circulating with English Tudor royal audiences. These collections’ scribal layout, textual organization, and codicological arrangement can help us glean contemporary attitudes regarding authorship and authorial collaboration; the distinction between authors and translators; bilingualism and multilingualism; and the relationship between the agency of the compiler and the exigencies of material and textual form. In the process, these manuscripts further problematize our sense of the scope of early humanism and its relationship to fifteenth-century England; the reading tastes of Tudor circles; and our understanding of late-medieval England’s relationship to Europe.An in-person reception will be held at the Century Association, 7 West 43rd Street, New York City at 5:30 p.m. for all who wish to attend. As always, the BSA Annual Meeting and New Scholars Program are open and free to all who wish to attend. For more details on the program and schedule, please visit the Annual Meeting page on the BSA website (https://bibsocamer.org/programs/annual-meetings/).The Equity Action Plan Quarterly UpdateThe Policy and Procedures Manual Working Group and the Council achieved our goal of devising equitable and transparent procedures by which appointments to all BSA Committees and Working Groups will be made. This policy was passed by Council at the April 2021 meeting, and is now posted to the Society’s website. In August of this year the Society published its first call for Committee and Working Group Volunteers. New appointments will begin in January 2022 following the annual meeting. The Society made improvements to its website to include more information about Committee and Working Groups, volunteering, and service requirements (https://bibsocamer.org/join-bsa/how-to-volunteer/).As noted in the above announcement and message from Sarah Werner and Jesse Erickson, work toward goals set for PBSA in the Equity Action Plan is ongoing. The Publications and Executive Committees look forward to working with Drs. Werner and Erickson in 2022 and beyond to make appointments to the PBSA Advisory Board and support their plans work toward achieving the Society’s additional EAP-driven goals for the journal.To pursue our goal of developing collaborative partnerships with cognate organizations that represent any and all time periods, geographic regions, and methodologies in the study of material texts, the Society bifurcated the Events Committee. In the past, all liaisons to external organizations served as members of this Committee. The Liaisons Subcommittee, chaired by Catherine Parisian, now exists as its own body in pursuit of its own charge, which was written with the Equity Action Plan in mind.The Executive Director, in collaboration with her assistant and Committee and Working Group chairs, is developing and evaluating a list of outlets for sharing calls for proposals to ensure that opportunities are publicized to a wide range of relevant organizations and interested individuals. This list will be available to all Committee and Working Group Chairs internally, and used to advertise BSA programs on a regular basis.The BSA Events Committee Calls for ProposalsIn accordance with our identity as an international, interdisciplinary scholarly organization that fosters the study of books and other textual artifacts in traditional and emerging formats, the Bibliographical Society of America pursues its mission by hosting public programs and collaborating with related organizations to do so. The Events Committee calls for proposals to invite collaborations between the Events Committee, BSA members, and a broader bibliographical public. The BSA aims to sponsor a calendar of varied programs each year, which can include but are not limited to lectures, workshops, conference sessions, and receptions following events that are bibliographical in nature.The Event Committee issues triannual calls in January, April, and October that are similar to open calls for conference proposals; from time to time, the Committee may call for proposals around a specific theme. We request a general overview of the content of sessions and presenters as well as information about the budget, promotion, and general organization of the event. This allows us to compensate presenters and organizers with honoraria for their intellectual and organizational labor and to cover other necessary costs.In all BSA events, the material text—that is, the handwritten, printed, or other textual artifact, broadly conceived—as historical evidence, and/or the theory and practice of descriptive, historical, textual, and/or critical bibliography, should be a central concern to participants and organizers.Proposals for events taking place between March and October of 2022 are due 4 January 2022. Please visit the Events Committee page on the BSA website to review application guidelines and the application form (https://bibsocamer.org/programs/propose-an-event/).❧EventsSociety EventsIn light of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the Events Committee has continued to coordinate virtual sessions offered to members and the general public. Most events are recorded and posted to the Society’s YouTube channel at (http://www.youtube.com/c/TheBibliographicalSocietyofAmerica).The following events were held in the summer of 2021:¶ “500 Years of Mexican Books / 500 Años de Libros Mexicanos” was a series of events held between 1 June and 12 August 2021. On the occasion of the anniversary of the so-called “conquest” of Mexico, this series of presentations addressed the relationship between bibliography, the history of the New Hispanic book, and the production of Indigenous-language books in Mexico. The series included two roundtable discussions and five lectures by Marina Garone Gravier on the print production of New World languages, publishing criteria of Indigenous languages in New Spain, the uses of books in the teaching of Indigenous languages at the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, the collaboration of Indigenous calligraphers, typographers in the elaboration of books in New Spain, and the participation of printers as agents of the colonial edition in native languages. Co-sponsored by the Newberry Library and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Chicago Campus, recordings of this event are available on the UNAM Chicago YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkkv8TG6zzQ&list=PLTAqRJcnp4e3cftZexmMNDK9RFaC1UFzb).Virtual sessions will be scheduled into the future, with in-person events taking place as it is safe to do so. Registration is required. A full schedule of upcoming events is available on the BSA website (https://bibsocamer.org/programs/upcoming-events/).❧ProgramsNew Scholars ProgramThe Bibliographical Society of America each year invites three scholars in the early stages of their careers to present twenty-minute papers on their current, unpublished research in the field of bibliography as members of a panel at the annual meeting of the Society, which normally takes place in New York City in late January. Per the announcement above, the 2021 meeting was held virtually, and this includes New Scholars’ presentations. The New Scholars Program seeks to promote the work of scholars who are new to the field of bibliography, broadly defined to include any research that deals with the creation, production, publication, distribution, reception, transmission, and subsequent history of textual artifacts (manuscript, print, or digital). Papers presented by the BSA New Scholars are submitted to the editor of the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (PBSA) for publication, subject to peer review, and are published in the December issue as part of the proceedings of the annual meeting. The 2021 BSA New Scholars are Mathieu D. S. Bouchard (Pantzer New Scholar), Dr. Sophia Brown (Malkin New Scholar), and Ryan Low (BSA New Scholar). Applications to the 2022 New Scholars Program will open in late summer of 2021. Please visit the New Scholars page on the BSA website for further information (https://bibsocamer.org/awards/new-scholars-program/).❧FellowshipsAnnual FellowshipsEvery year the Society offers a variety of fellowship in support of bibliographical inquiry and research in the history of the book trades and in publishing history: The Katharine Pantzer Senior Fellowship in Bibliography and the British Book Trades ($6,000) supports research in topics relating to book production and distribution in Britain during the hand-press period as well as studies of authorship, reading, and collecting based on the examination of British books published in that period, with a special emphasis on descriptive bibliography. 2021 Winner: Sandro Jung, “Eighteenth-Century British Regional Book Illustrations of Literature: Models, Production, and Commercial Use in the North of England.” The BSA-ASECS Fellowship for Bibliographical Studies in the Eighteenth Century ($3,000). Recipients must be a member of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the time of the award. 2021 Winner: Julie Park, “Writing’s Maker: Inscribing the Self in the Eighteenth Century.” The BSA-Harry Ransom Center Pforzheimer Fellowship in Bibliography (two awards at $3,000 each) supports the bibliographical study of early modern books and manuscripts, 1455–1700, held in the Ransom Center’s Pforzheimer Library and in related collections of early printed books and manuscripts, including the Pforzheimer Gutenberg Bible. 2021: No winners. The BSA-Mercantile Library Fellowship in North American Bibliography ($3,000) supports scholarship in North American bibliography, including studies in the North American book trade, production and distribution of North American books, North American book illustration and design, North American collecting and connoisseurship, and North American bibliographical history in general. 2021 Winner: Mark Mattes, “Archival Apocrypha: Indigenous Writing and the Figure of Logan in Colonial and Native American History.” The BSA Peck-Stacpoole Fellowship for Early Career Collections Professionals ($3,000) supports bibliographical research by conservators, curators, librarians, and others who are responsible for institutional collections of textual artifacts, at early stages of their careers. 2021 Winners: Ostap Kin, “Poet’s Choice: Bohdan Boychuk’s Lost Anthology of Ukrainian Modernist Poetry”; and Lucy Mookerjee, “The Itinerary of a Cookbook: Mapping the Cultural Routes of Morgan MS B.36 (An edition and analysis).” The BSA-Pine Tree Foundation Fellowship in Culinary Bibliography ($3,000) supports the bibliographical study of printed and manuscript cookbooks (once commonly known as receipt books), medical recipe books that also contain culinary recipes, other types of books, manuscript, and printed material that include a substantial body of culinary recipes, treatises on and studies of gastronomy, or memoirs, diary accounts, or descriptions of food and cooking. Projects may cover any period or country. 2010 Winner: Ellen Barth, “Women as Producers of American Community Cookbooks, 1950s to 1990s: Motivations and Materials.” The BSA-Pine Tree Foundation Fellowship in Hispanic Bibliography ($3,000) supports the bibliographical study of printed and manuscript items: 1) in the Spanish language produced during any period and in any country; 2) in any language provided they were produced in Spain or in its overseas dominions during the time of Spanish sovereignty; 3) the bibliographical study of book and manuscript collections in Spain or in its overseas dominions during the time of Spanish sovereignty; 4) the bibliographical study of Spanish-language book and manuscript collections during any period and in any country. 2021 Winner: Carlos Diego Arenas Pacheco, “Indigenous Latinists: 16th-century Books from Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco at the Sutro Library, San Francisco.” The Caxton Club Fellowship for Midwestern Bibliographers ($2,500 and one-year memberships in both the Caxton Club and the BSA) supports bibliographical research that focuses on the physical aspects of books or manuscripts as historical evidence. Books and manuscripts in any field and of any period are eligible for consideration. Projects may include studying the history of book or manuscript production, publication, distribution, collecting, or reading. Projects to establish a text are also eligible. Studies of enumerative bibliographies and enumerative bibliographies are also eligible as long as they meet the requirements described above. Applicants must live in one of the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, or Wisconsin. 2021 Winner: William Little, “The Latin Poetry of Nallio Rainaldi of Tagliacozzo.” The Charles J. Tanenbaum Fellowship in Cartographical Bibliography ($3000) supports projects dealing with all aspects of the history, presentation, printing, design, distribution, and reception of cartographical documents from Renaissance times to the present, with a special emphasis on eighteenth-century cartography. Funded by the Pine Tree Foundation of New York. 2021 Winner: Anne Garner, “Recovering Feminine Cartographies: Women Wayfinders and ‘Vanishing Monuments’ in the Canadian Territories, 1795–1990.” The Dorothy Porter Wesley Fellowship ($3,000) supports bibliographical study conducted by an individual who identifies as Black. Building on the Society’s commitment to expanding representation of scholars of all backgrounds and identities, this short-term fellowship may be used to pursue bibliographical research in any field and of any period. Projects may include studying the history of book or manuscript production, publication, distribution, collecting, or reading. Projects to establish a text are also eligible. The fellowship honors the life and work of Dorothy Porter Wesley (1905–1995), an accomplished Black bibliographer and librarian, an active member of the Society, and author of the influential 1945 PBSA article “Early American Negro Writings.” Funded by Bruce and Mary Crawford and Barbara A. Shailor in memory of Dorothy Porter Wesley. 2021 Winner: Jacinta Saffold, “Independent Hip Hop Production as Freedom Dreaming.” The Katharine Pantzer Junior Fellowship in the British Book Trades ($3,000) supports bibliographical inquiry as well as research in the history of the book trades and publishing history in Britain. 2021 Winner: Yelda Nasifoglu, “Mathematics in Circulation in Late Seventeenth-Century London: Evidence from Hammer Copies of Auction Catalogues.” The Reese Fellowship for American Bibliography and the History of the Book in the Americas ($3,000). The fellowship may be awarded to any scholar, whether academic or independent, whose project explores the history of print culture in the Western Hemisphere. 2021 Winner: Fabián Vega, “Books from the Guaraní Missions. Jesuit Libraries and Circulation of Knowledge in the South American Borderlands (18th Century).” The BSA-Rare Book School Fellowship. 2020 Winner: Tielke Uvin (Ghent University) BSA Short-term Fellowships ($3,000). The Society also offers a number of unnamed, short-term fellowships supporting bibliographical research as described above. 2021 Winners: James P. Ascher, “Seventeenth-Century Printer’s Copy and Records at the Royal Society”; Amanda Arceneaux, “To Know an Herbe: Vernacular Herbal Manuscripts, 1570–1750”; Paulina Banas, “Visualizing Egypt: European Travel, Book Illustration, and the Marketing of the East in the 19th Century”; Patricia Andrea Dosio, “Sketching Connections: Reconstruction of the Rioplatense Cultural Scene through the Editions of Aquilino Fernández (1880–1930)”; Cecilia Sideri, “Reconstructing the Library and Reading Habits of the Renaissance Manuscript Collector and Calligraphist Marco Antonio Altieri (1450–1532)”; Jessica Terekhov, “The Life Cycle of the Part-Issued Victorian Novel”; and Laura Viaut, “Production and Circulation of Educational Manuscripts of Roman-Barbarian Law in the Early Middle Ages.”Details of the program are located at http://bibsocamer.org/awards/fellowships/, or can be had by contacting Hope Mayo, Chair of the Fellowship Committee, [email protected]. The application for the 2022 cycle of Fellowships will open in summer 2021.❧The Margaret B. Stillwell Legacy SocietyOrganized in 1904 and incorporated in 1927, the Bibliographical Society of America is the oldest scholarly society in North America dedicated to the study of books and manuscripts as physical objects. Member gifts have played an important role in advancing BSA’s scholarly mission over the past century. Contributions and legacy gifts from BSA members have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote the study of books and manuscripts as textual artifacts and have furnished important financial support to early-career bibliographers and scholars.The Bibliographical Society of America has established a Legacy Society named after distinguished bibliographer Margaret Bingham Stillwell (1887–1984). BSA’s intent in founding the Margaret B. Stillwell Legacy Society was to recognize the long tradition of giving at BSA and to ensure a vibrant future for tomorrow’s bibliographical scholars.The Society welcomes new members to the Stillwell Legacy Society, and invites you to join this growing cohort of bibliophiles. Please let us know by letter or email that you have remembered the Bibliographical Society of America in your estate plan, and we will be honored to recognize you as a member of the Margaret B. Stillwell Legacy Society. Your membership can be acknowledged in your name. You can also join the Stillwell Legacy Society in honor of—or in memory of—someone close to you. Should you wish, you may choose that your membership remain anonymous. There are no minimum financial requirements for joining—you may pledge any amount that inspires your philanthropy and brings you personal reward. All gifts help to further our mission.Members of the Margaret B. Stillwell Legacy Society will be acknowledged in this journal and on the BSA website, with their permission. Legacy Society members will also be invited to our annual donor recognition event, held each year during Bibliography Week.For more information about the Stillwell Legacy Society and remembering BSA in your estate plan, please contact President Barbara A. Shailor ([email protected]) or Executive Director Erin McGuirl ([email protected]; 212-452-2710). Information is also available on the Support BSA page on the Society’s website (https://bibsocamer.org/support-bsa/). You may also write to the BSA at 67 West Street, Suite 401, Unit C17, Brooklyn, NY 11222.Members of the Margaret B. Stillwell Society are: Anonymous (1) Martin Antonetti R. Dyke Benjamin in honor of Dr. Barbara A. Shailor John Bidwell G. Scott Clemons Bruce & Mary Crawford Elizabeth Denlinger in honor of Erin McGuirl Joan M. Friedman Thomas A. Goldwasser John Neal Hoover Wallace Kirsop Mark Samuels Lasner Jennifer Lowe and Gregory Pass Andrew and Eleanore Ramsey Nadell Justin G. Schiller Caroline F. Schimmel in honor of Miss Stillwell Erin McGuirl in honor of Joan Cullen Palattella John T. McQuillen Barbara A. Shailor in memory of Marjorie G. Wynne Daniel J. Slive Kenneth Soehner Peter Stallybrass in honor of James N. Green William P. Stoneman David J. Supino Jacqueline M. VosslerThe Society celebrates the Stillwell Society’s Founding Members for their generosity, and hopes their leadership inspires others to join them in making a similar legacy gift to BSA. These unrestricted gifts fortify the long-term stability and financial security of BSA, and allow the Society to continue the intergenerational promotion of bibliographical study and the expansion of our scholarly community.❧Triennial AwardsWilliam L. Mitchell PrizeThe Bibliographical Society of America invited submissions for its seventh William L. Mitchell Prize for Bibliography or Documentary Work on Early British Periodicals or Newspapers. The deadline for the 2021 competition was 15 October 2020, and considered works published after 31 December 2017. The winner of the William L. Mitchell Prize will receive a cash award of $1,000 and a year’s membership in the Society.The Mitchell Prize for research on British serials was endowed to honor William L. Mitchell, former librarian at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, where he was curator of the Richmond P. and Marjorie N. Bond Collection of 18th-Century British Newspapers and Periodicals and of the Edmund Curll Collection. It was conceived and mainly endowed by Mitchell’s colleague at the Kenneth Spencer Library, Alexandra Mason. The Prize serves as an encouragement to scholars engaged in bibliographical scholarship on eighteenth-century periodicals published in English or in any language but within the British Isles and its colonies and former colonies.Submissions for the Mitchell Prize may concentrate on any periodicals or newspapers printed before 1800 in English-speaking countries, but should involve research into primary sources of historical evidence, such as the analysis of the physical objects, whether for establishing a text or understanding the history of the production, distribution, collecting, or reading of serial publications.Eligible scholarship may take the form of a book or article, a Master’s thesis or PhD dissertation defended and approved, or research results distributed in another manner, such as on a website or a CD-ROM. Eligible scholarship must have been published or, if a dissertation or thesis, approved during the year of the deadline or the three previous calendar years. If a publication has an incorrect nominal date disqualifying it for submission but an actual date of publication within the prize period, it may be nominated with a letter by the publisher or editor testifying to the actual date of publication. Unpublished dissertations and theses must be accompanied by a letter from their authors’ directors attesting to their having been approved.For further information on the Mitchell Prize and to learn how to apply, see the Society website at http://bibsocamer.org/awards/william-l-mitchell-prize/.Justin G. Schiller PrizeEndowed by Justin G. Schiller, a dealer in antiquarian children’s books and past member of the BSA Council, the Schiller Prize for Bibliographical Work on Pre-20th-Century Children’s Books is intended to encourage scholarship in the bibliography of historical children’s books. It brings a cash award of $3,000 and a year’s membership in the Society.Works put into nomination, whic