February 27, 2004

Dear Fellow Members,

I am writing to notify you of the Society's annual meeting and to report on some of the Society's activities during the past year. The meeting will take place on Friday, March 26, at 4:00 p.m. in the McGregor Room of Alderman Library. Following a brief business session, we will hear a paper by David Vander Meulen on the great American book designer and illustrator Warren Chappell ("The Illustrated Illustrious Life of Warren Chappell"). David, as you know, is Vice President of our Society, editor of Studies in Bibliography, and a professor in the English department at Virginia. Although he teaches and publishes primarily in the fields of analytical bibliography, scholarly editing, and eighteenth-century English literature, he has also been a long-time admirer and student of Chappell's work, and he has put together (among other collections) an important assemblage of books designed and illustrated by Chappell, along with related materials. His own collection and the University Library's extensive archive will form the basis for his heavily illustrated talk, which is designed to commemorate the centenary of Chappell's birth. Following the talk, there will be a reception in the Rare Book School rooms in Alderman Library.

David's talk will have not only a broad general appeal but also a special interest to residents of Charlottesville, where Chappell lived during the last part of his life. The talk is therefore a perfect contribution for the Society to make to the Virginia Festival of the Book. As usual, we have timed our meeting to fall during the Festival, and we hope that its listing in the Festival's official roster will cause interested nonmembers to attend our meeting. We also hope that our out-of-town members will find more reasons to come to Charlottesville at that time, since there will be many events in addition to the Society's meeting to attract them. One such event has been planned by Johanna Drucker (a faculty member at UVa and a former speaker at one of our meetings) : she has arranged for Festival attendees to be able to print a keepsake of a quotation by Warren Chappell (set in his Lydian type) at the Virginia Art of the Book Center at the McGuffey Art Center in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday, the 27th, between noon and 4:00 p.m. For a full program of the Festival, visit the Festival's website at <www.vabook.org>.

In the business part of the Society's meeting, preceding the talk, the prizes in the Society's biennial student book-collecting contest will be awarded. This year's contest, soon to be concluded, is the forty-fifth that the Society has sponsored. Besides cash prizes and gift certificates from local booksellers, winners will receive graduation honors. For the first time this year, the first-place winner will also receive the BSUVA Fellowship for Rare Book School, providing a tuition-free opportunity to take one of RBS's renowned courses. In addition, all contestants will be invited to attend a talk on book collecting by Kathy Morgan, head of Collections Services in the Special Collections Department of the University of Virginia Library. Selections from the winning collections will be on display in Memorial Hall of Alderman Library during the Festival of the Book. I wish to express the Society's gratitude to Ruthe Battestin for chairing the contest committee and overseeing all the details that the contest involves; to Kathryn Morgan and Fred Ribble, the other two contest judges; to Kathryn again for her willingness to give a talk to the contestants; to the contributing booksellers; and to Terry Belanger for his generosity in providing the contest poster and the Rare Book School Fellowship.

Also in the business part of the meeting, we shall vote on the election of one member of the Council, for a term ending in 2011. This year, it is my term that is ending. I have asked David Vander Meulen, as Vice President, to form a nominating committee, and he has reported that the committee wishes me to stand for re-election. I am happy to do so.

During the past year, another outstanding volume of Studies in Bibliography (volume 54) was published. A great many people in the bibliographical world have long regarded the annual arrival of Studies as a major event of the bibliographical year, and under David Vander Meulen's editorship this tradition flourishes, for he not only finds contributions that are interesting and important but also sees to it that they meet the most rigorous standards of scholarship. We in the Society, as well as the rest of the bibliographical world, are greatly indebted to him and to his dedicated assistant Elizabeth Lynch for the demanding work involved in producing this feat year after year. Also on the publication front, I am delighted to report that the Society has reprinted three of its earlier publications that have been out of print for some time: Fredson Bowers's Essays in Bibliography, Text, and Editing (which has been almost unobtainable on the second-hand market for many years) and my Textual Criticism and Scholarly Editing and The Life and Work of Fredson Bowers. During 2004 two new volumes are expected to appear: Gordon N. Ray's The Art Deco Book in France (his 1985 Lyell Lectures, which have never been published) and my Textual Criticism since Greq: A Chronicle, 1950-2000 (a collection of six essays first published in Studies).

Each year's new volume of Studies is distributed by the University of Virginia Press, and the Society's Secretary has a limited supply of most earlier volumes. All the Society's other publications in print (including the three recently published reprints) are available from Oak Knoll Books. Let me remind you that members of the Society who identify themselves will be given a 10% discount. If you don't receive Oak Knoll catalogues and would like to, just write to 310 Delaware Street, New Castle, Delaware 19720; or phone 302-328-7232 or 1-800-996-2556; or fax 302-328-7274; or email <oakknoll@oakknoll.com>. Oak Knoll's complete catalogue can also be browsed at <www.oakknoll.com>.

I have already mentioned most of the members of the Council, but I want to thank them all as a group for their loyal service to the Society: Ruthe Battestin, Terry Belanger, Kathryn Morgan, David Seaman, David Vander Meulen, and Karin Wittenborg. I also want to give particular thanks to our Secretary-Treasurer, Anne Ribble, who efficiently handles all the details involved in the daily running of the Society; it is a joy for your president to have a person of Anne's ability and good humor to work with.

As you will have noticed, the Society has been forced to increase membership dues: subscribing membership is now $55. This amount is still in line with the dues of other bibliographical societies; and I should add that receiving Studies as a benefit of membership is the best way to obtain it (a fact that I hope you will publicize), for the price is $70 for copies ordered from the University Press . Let me remind you that there are several levels of membership above the basic one: Contributing Members ($150-$249), Patrons ($250-$499), and Benefactors ($500 or more). The next time you receive a dues notice, I hope you will consider increasing the amount you give, as a way of showing your endorsement of the Society's role in furthering bibliographical scholarship and making it available electronically. (The Society has taken a lead in making the entire run of its journal available free of charge on its website and as a downloadable ebook and in publishing other scholarly works in electronic form; in this endeavor we have had the invaluable advice and assistance of David Seaman and Matthew Gibson.) Whenever you talk to interested students, let them know that there is also a special student rate of $27.50. The Society (like all scholarly organizations) needs membership support, and I urge each of you during the coming year to recommend the Society to potential new members.

With thanks and best wishes to all of you.