Books in Hard Times Draws a Crowd

by Susan Benne

The hotly anticipated Books in Hard Times conference held at the Grolier Club on September 22, 2009 drew 150 collectors, booksellers, and librarians. The usual suspects were in attendance along with a few new and young faces.  One might have expected the mood to be dark and somber, but even before the opening remarks, the tenor of conversation in the audience was optimistic.

The day was divided into three panels: The Antiquarian Book Trade, Libraries, and Collectors, moderated by David Redden, Mark Dimunation, and William Helfand respectively. Grolier Club Director Eric Holzenberg opened the event with an overview of the club’s 125 year history and reaffirmed that we all have a “role to play in challenging attempts to marginalize the artistic and historical value of the book as object.”  With that, collector and FABS President Robert H. Jackson began the keynote.  He acknowledged the troublesome effect digital media has had on printed matter, but ultimately concluded, “The book is the repository of time—and cannot be digitized.”

ABAA Members Tom Congalton, William Reese, and Priscilla Juvelis represented the trade’s portion of the program.  All are well-established and respected specialist dealers who have weathered the ebb and flow of the economy, changing tastes in collecting, and evolution of bookselling via the Internet.  While they all admit to having to work harder—and certainly they have trenchant business models—each indicated that their businesses had not been adversely affected by the slowing economy.  The overall sentiment reflected by Mr. Jackson in his keynote was that although the sale of common rare books might have waned a bit, truly good material moves quickly and not for any less.  The panel might have been better served if the Grolier had included a bookseller whose business operates on a smaller scale, i.e. perhaps a generalist with an open shop, in order to garner a different perspective.

Breon Mitchell of the Lilly Library, Katherine Reagan of Cornell University Library, and Nadina Gardner of the National Endowment for the Humanities had a slightly different perspective.  With the exception of Ms. Gardner, all had seen their budgets decreased due to falling endowments.  Instead of dwelling on this, Ms. Reagan detailed some efforts she’s made to draw in a new audience, citing the Hip Hop Collection she brought to the Library as new Americana.  In addition, she cited that most institutions do still have endowments and that their acquisition allotments are to be spent in order to fulfill their mission.

Nadina Gardner reported that her budget is healthy and that the Obama administration had requested an increase for 2010 that includes ten million dollars for grants.  Very welcome, I’m sure, as she noted an increase in applications for them.  Additionally, she expressed that even with twitter, social networking, and other digital media, libraries have always served as a place not just for gathering knowledge, but for gathering people as well.  Hard to make that go away.

The final panel included distinguished collectors David Alan Richards (a Kipling collector), William Buice (a collector of English Romantic literature), and Mark Samuels Lasner (collector and bibliographer).  Mr. Lasner admitted that while his own habits have changed as he eschews more expensive books and now collects ephemera and photographic material, true bibliophiles only stop collecting when credit or money runs out.  Still, he opined that there are many overpriced books on the market and urged sellers to discount them.  This was abruptly met with polite retorts from the booksellers that they did not wish to get rid of their best material for fear of never acquiring it again. Mr. Richards, an attorney specializing in real estate law, drew analogies between the housing and rare book market.  He pondered whether modern firsts like the Harry Potter series are part of a bubble that will burst.

As an estate attorney, Mr. Buice focused time addressing the benefits of gifting assets, i.e. books, to family members. Hearkening back to the subliminal theme which was present in all of the presentations, he was very positive about new, young collectors and sellers coming onto the scene. Mr. Buice and his wife had recently hosted an event at their apartment for young collectors which had continued hours after the appointed end time due to the enthusiasm of the group.

In his closing remarks, Terry Belanger called it the best one-day conference he ever attended. Proceedings of the Grolier Club conference "Books in Hard Times" are now available online here.

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