A Guide to the Publications of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1947-1997 Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia Publications. Z 1008 .V54

A Guide to the Publications of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1947-1997

A Collection in the
Special Collections Department
Accession number Z 1008 .V54


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© 1997 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. All rights reserved.

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Processed by: Special Collections Department Staff

Repository
University of Virginia. Library. Special Collections Dept. Alderman Library University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 22903 USA
Collection Number
Z 1008 .V54
Title
Publications of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1947-1997 1947-1997
Extent
ca. 200 items
Collector
Location
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Publications of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1947-1997, Accession Z 1008 .V54, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

In at least one sense bibliography did not begin at home for the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia , for the Society has never maintained a complete list of its own publications. The fullest record of what in fact has been the Society's chief activity in its first half-century can be found in the annual listings published in Studies in Bibliography , beginning with its initial volume. A number of other sources help to amplify that history. In 1979, stimulated by a gift of Society publications from William B. O'Neal, a former councilor of the Society, the Rare Book Department of the University of Virginia Library attempted to gather all such books and pamphlets and thereby establish a formal record of them; this collection is important as a focused attempt to provide a comprehensive account, but it falls short of completeness even for the first thirty years of the Society, and it was never developed for subsequent ones. For at least half of its life the Society has maintained a card file listing its productions, while the volumes the Society has accumulated in its office have over the years assumed the status of a reference collection and sometimes provide the sole evidence of an item's existence. The collections of individuals likewise prove to be important resources for piecing together the Society's work as a publisher; these in turn are indebted to booksellers particularly those in Charlottesville, who are foremost in recycling the accumulations of early Society members. Some documentary materials about the publications also exist: sporadic holdings of invoices and correspondence in Society files, references in the Secretary's News Sheet or in irregular runs of Society minutes, and the papers of the Society's chief founders. Linton Massey's records were conveyed to the Society on his demise; the Society materials that John Cook Wyllie and Fredson Bowers had in their possession at the time of their deaths passed with other papers to the Special Collections Department of the University Library (thus accounting for the presence of one of the Society's ledger books there instead of with the others in the Society office). It is appropriate that a record of a bibliographical society's publications therefore depends on representatives of its chief constituencies: private and institutional collectors, individual scholars and scholarly organizations, archivists, and booksellers.

In the following list, two major series, the Secretary's News Sheet and Studies in Bibliography , are listed separately from the Society's other publications. Because the News Sheet is not widely known and has not been covered by indexes, I have noted those contents that have general bibliographical interest. The News Sheets that were devoted to a single topic were sometimes sold separately (and frequently appear in book dealers' catalogs without identification as part of the series); I have listed these both with the News Sheets , where the fuller information appears, and with the general publications. Especially during its first decade the Society made available to members various items which technically were not its own productions. Some of these bear such a close connection to the Society, however, that they merit inclusion; accordingly, they have been alphabetized with the other entries for the appropriate years (1947, 1949, 1952, and 1965), but they have been enclosed by braces. Unless otherwise indicated, the publications are hardbound, without dust jackets. Paperbound publications are described as in "covers" (that is, separate pieces of paper, usually thick) or in "wrappers" (a single piece of paper, occasionally thick, continuous around the spine).

In its first fifty years the Society has produced 53 issues of its Secretary's News Sheet , 50 volumes of Studies in Bibliography (and reprints of 20 of them), and about 175 other publications. Though the amount of information available about the items varies, what is recoverable from archives and from the publications themselves makes clear the way in which the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia has contributed to intellectual life in the second half of the twentieth century and why during that time the name Virginia became an international codeword for bibliographical study.

List

Secretary's News Sheet
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Studies in Bibliography
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Separate Publications
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