Dictionary of American Antiquarian Bookdealers

by Donald C. Dickinson

Overview

The first published reference source to bring together biographical information on American antiquarian bookdealers, this book provides librarians, dealers, and collectors with useful information on those dealers who were prominent in securing and distributing used and rare books, manuscripts, maps, autographs, documents, and ephemera. The book covers 205 notable dealers who died before August 1, 1997. Prominent dealers are identified as those who carried quality stock, issued carefully documented sales catalogs, participated in professional organizations, and helped develop important private and institutional collections.

The book considers such well-known figures as Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach, Charles Sessler, and Hans Peter Kraus. Each profile describes the dealer's subject specialities, the style of catalogs and sales lists issued, the dealer's impact on private and institutional collecting, professional activity, and, when relevant, the final disposition of the dealer's stock. Entries conclude with a selected bibliography of sources. The information, drawn from both primary and secondary sources, will be useful to library reference workers, bookdealers, collectors, and anyone interested in the history of the American antiquarian book trade.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313266751
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/23/1998
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

DONALD C. DICKINSON is retired Professor Emeritus at the School of Information Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona, Tucson. His teaching specialities included reference services and bibliography, and he is the author of Dictionary of American Book Collectors (Greenwood, 1986) and Henry E. Huntington's Library of Libraries (1995). He has a longstanding interest in the antiquarian book trade, particularly in the background and achievements of members of that trade.

Table of Contents

Preface
Abbreviations for Works Cited Frequently
Dictionary
Appendix I: Geographical Locations
Appendix II: Subject Specializations
Index

Editorial Reviews

Entries discuss the accomplishments of 205 notable American bookdealers who died before August 1, 1997. The author's criteria for inclusion are quality stock as judged by other members of the trade, subject specialization, officeholding in professional booksellers' organizations, quality sales catalogs, and impacts on private and/or institutional collections. Appends indexes of subject specializations and geographic locations. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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