March 31, 1995

Dear Fellow Members,

It is time, once again, to report to you on the plans for our annual meeting. The 1995 meeting will take place on Friday, April 21, at 4:00 p.m. in the McGregor Room of Alderman Library. After a brief business meeting, the program will consist of a report on work in progress by Gary Anderson of the Department of Religious Studies; a reception will follow in the Book Arts Press rooms.

Last year, as you know, the program consisted of papers by graduate students, and we have decided that such programs should alternate with programs in which faculty members comment on their own work. In this way we hope to demonstrate the wide range and high caliber of bibliographical and textual work being done at Virginia, by students and faculty alike, and in a variety of academic departments. We are therefore delighted that Professor Anderson has agreed to speak this year; his topic will be the life of Adam and Eve in text and iconography. We owe thanks to Karin Wittenborg and Kendon Stubbs for arranging this program.

In the business part of the Society's meeting on the 21st, we shall vote on the re-election of Kathryn Morgan to the Council. Her term expires this year, and the Nominating Committee proposes that she be re-elected for another seven-year term. As Curator of Rare Books at Alderman Library, she is well known to many members of the Society, and the Council has benefited greatly from her advice.

You will have noticed, in this year's volume of Studies in Bibliography, the announcement of the death of Irby B. Cauthen, Jr., and I want to say a word about him here. He was president of this Society for fourteen years, from 1978 to 1992, during which time he devotedly and effectively guided its fortunes. His activity on behalf of the Society was only one of his significant contributions to the University of Virginia: as a member of the English department (from 1954), he taught celebrated courses on Shakespeare and Milton; and as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for sixteen years (1962-78), he played an important role in opening the College to African-American and women students. For his many services, he was given the University's highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award, in 1977. All of us in this Society owe him a special debt.

Another sad event of the past year, on November 20, was the death of Franklin Gilliam, a major figure in the antiquarian book world for the past thirty years. He had been a resident of Charlottesville since 1983 and was not only a prominent participant in the local book scene but a loyal member of this Society.

The Society's primary activity is scholarly publishing, and I want to repeat my annual thanks to Ruthe Battestin, chair of the Publications Committee, and David L. Vander Meulen, the Society's editor, for their role in helping the Society to maintain its tradition of a strong publication program. Ruthe deals with monographic proposals and David with submissions of articles for Studies in Bibliography and with the new series of Occasional Publications.

The latest volume of Studies, which appeared about two months ago, is likely to receive even more attention than these volumes regularly do, because the bulk of it consists of a series of articles in honor of J. D. Fleeman, the Johnson bibliographer who died on July 20, 1994, and the lineup of contributors is impressive indeed. The first three Occasional Publications, published in 1993, are still available: my biography of Fredson Bowers (with a checklist of his writings by Martin Battestin); Donald D. Eddy and J. D. Fleeman's handlist of books to which Samuel Johnson subscribed; and a facsimile and transcription of the surviving portion of Johnson's translation of Sallust, here published for the first time and edited by David Vander Meulen and me. Further information about these publications is enclosed; many others are still in print and are listed at the back of the 1995 Studies. Whether other publications besides Studies will appear this year is still uncertain, but a large number of publication projects are nearing completion.

I want to thank Penelope Weiss, our exemplary Secretary-Treasurer, for all her work on behalf of the Society during the past year. Thanks are also due to Ruthe Battestin and Kathy Morgan for judging the entries in our biennial book-collecting contest last fall and to the Market Street Booksellers for holding a reception for the entrants. (The winners are reported in the 1995 Studies.) We should also note with appreciation Terry Belanger's willingness to coordinate efforts for increasing membership. The number of Contributing Members (listed in Studies) continues to grow, and I take this opportunity of thanking them publicly for their support. I hope all of you will encourage persons interested in bibliographical matters to join the Society. On behalf of the Council, 1 send you all good wishes.