ABAA's Annual Meeting Honors Past Presidents
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The ABN E WSLETTEA AR VOLUME SEVENTEEN, NUMBER 3 ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA SUMMER 2006 INSIDE: ABAA & Alibris offer Scholarships .............................................................PAGE 7 Bromsen ABAA's Annual Meeting Honors Bequeaths Past Presidents $4 Million to The following address was given by John Grolier Club has been the home to many Crichton at the Annual Meeting and ABAA functions, including its very first Brown Library Dinner at the Grolier Club on April 22, meeting in February 1949. At each place 2006. you will find a printed keepsake for the The distinguished Boston collector and Good evening and welcome to the 56th occasion which I had prepared as a gift antiquarian bookdealer, Maury A. Brom- annual meeting of the Antiquarian Book- from me, your soon-to-be recent-past sen, who died on October 11, 2005, has sellersʼ Association of America, which is president. On it is a quotation from the bequeathed $4 million to the John Carter being held this year in honor of the past first president of the Association, Lau- Brown Library for the support of pro- presidents of the Association, many of rence Gomme. [Laurence Gomme was grams in Latin American studies. whom are present. born in 1882 in London, and he began The gift will make possible the creation I thank you for attending; we thank his long, distinguished career in the book at the Library of the new position of Cu- our honored guests for being here; and trade at the age of 15 when his father rator of Latin American Books and will we once again thank the Grolier Club for apprenticed him to the firm of Truslate & also endow an annual Maury A. Bromsen providing us with this fine venue. The Hanson.] He moved to Canada in 1906 lecture; a research fellowship; an annual concert to be named after Mr. Bromsenʼs continued on page 4 sister, Freda Bromsen Bolster; and acqui- sitions, cataloguing, and conservation. In addition to the gift of endowment funds, Mr. Bromsen has also left to the John Carter Brown Library thousands of valuable books and manuscripts. Some of this legacy will be sold at auction because it falls outside of the Libraryʼs defined fields for acquisitions. Other works will be retained by the Library and added to its holdings. According to the Library Director, Nor- man Fiering, the Bromsen bequest is the largest single donation made to the John Carter Brown Library since 1901. Mr. Bromsenʼs particular passion as a collector was material relating to colo- nial Spanish America, from the time of Columbus to that of the nineteenth-cen- The ABAA's Annual Dinner at the Grolier Club honored past presidents of the tury “Liberator,” Simón Bolívar, who led Association. Pictured, back row from left: Rob Rulon-Miller, Mike Ginsberg, John the independence movement in northern Crichton, Priscilla Juvelis, Tom Congalton, Ken Lopez. Front row: Ed Glaser, Peter Howard, Lou Weinstein, Barney Rosenthal, Bob Fleck. continued on page 4 Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair ILAB Book Fairs November 17-19, 2006 2006 September 15-17 New York, NY (ILAB) Javits Center November 3 & 4 London, UK (ABA) Old Chelsea Town Hall November 17-19 Boston, MA (ILAB) Hynes Convention Center The 2006 Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, one of the oldest and most respected antiquarian book shows in the country, 2007 celebrates thirty years, from November 17-19, 2006 at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center. Rare booksellers and dealers will gath- January 26-28 er to exhibit and sell rare, collectible, and antiquarian books, mod- Stuttgart, Germany (VDA) ern first editions, manuscripts, autographs, maps, and a plethora of other literary ephemera. Dealers of fine and decorative prints Haus des Württemergischen will feature fine prints and drawings. Kunstverein Bibliophiles, memorabilia and ephemera enthusiasts, sports fans, February 16-18 beginning collectors and aficionados alike, will delight in the vast San Francisco, CA (ILAB) selection of the written word in all its intriguing forms and facets. Whether a browser, buyer, or poker, there will be something won- Concourse Exhibition Center derful for every taste and budget. The International Antiquarian Book Fair is the ideal marketplace for that one-of-a-kind holiday March 23 & 24 gift. Edinburgh, Scotland (ABA) The Ballroom, Assembly Rooms Hours Friday 5pm-9pm April 19-22 Saturday noon-7pm New York, NY (ILAB) Sunday noon-5pm Park Avenue Armory Tickets Friday: $15 (good for three days) Saturday, Sunday: $8 each day For a calendar including non-ILAB book For more info, visit bostonbookfair.com or call (617) 266-6540. fairs, visit www.abaa.org 2 Annals of Beatlemania: The New Norman Conquest by Victoria Dailey chitecturally, had built itself a swell high polo team was pretty good too. I never The following is the first installment in a school in a fancy French style. Perched cared for any of the sports because I was series of articles about her life. atop rolling hillocks of grass, the school in the intellectual group, the avant-garde Nine hundred years after the Norman boasted a gymnasium with a basketball of Beverly Hills, and we hated what we Conquest, I graduated from high school. court, the floor of which could be opened perceived as trivial pursuits. I was part of As amazing as it seems, it took only 900 to reveal a full-size swimming pool the generation that would soon become years to get from the Battle of Hastings below. Thus with the flip of a lever, the known as hippies, and we thoroughly to the Beverly Hills High School Class gymnasium could become a natatorium. despised examples of the mass culture of 1966. And ironically enough, our high Very French. We also had four tennis we found so idiotic. I hated fraternities, school was known by the moniker of courts, and golf lessons were available sororities (later, in college, during the war “The Normans.” This was because the at the small course across the street from in Viet Nam, I said my sorority was Me- school was built in the Norman style of the school. There was a parking lot for kong Delta), sports, dating as it was then architecture (although for a time I thought the exclusive use of the students, most of practiced, what were then called “civics” we were called “Normans” because we whom had automobiles, many of which classes, school government, rules about were so nerdy and a typical nerd name were impressively expensive: a smat- dress or hair, the SAT tests–all these were was Norman). Other schools had animal, tering of Corvettes, a few T-Birds, one manifestations of a society I resented and fierce sounding names: Lions, Tigers, Morgan, and one Lotus, plus there were felt would be better swept aside in the Bears, Sultans, but we were lowly Nor- several woodies, numbers of Volkswa- coming age of brotherhood, equality and mans. And after 900 years, hardly anyone gens, and after 1965, some Mustangs. intelligence. Although Beverly High did knew what Norman meant, especially We Normans always had the worst poorly in sports, in academics it ex- in Beverly Hills, where cultural ante- football team in the league. Hardly celled, and was one of the highest ranked cedents ran more to the eastern parts of anyone in the school cared about foot- schools in the country. I could speak Europe than to France, moi included. It ball, but we were obliged to have a team French, was studying Latin, literature, just seemed funny to be named after an and play in what were called intramural psychology and European films. I was architectural style. I didnʼt know of any tournaments. The football players were headed for big thoughts. The restricted Neo-Classicals, Greek Revivals or Queen mainly recruited from the non-Jewish stu- outlook of some of my peers and their Annes, but there we were, the Normans dents, and as there were so few of them, parents unnerved me, made me angry and of Beverly Hills High School. (Lately, I our team never had much of a chance kept me feeling frustrated. The fifties and have wondered: what if we were named against such formidable opponents as the sixties were about to collide. for another French province, Brittany for Lawndale, a school near the airport, or For me, the actual collision occurred example, would our team have been the Dorsey, a school in the central part of the first time I heard the Beatles. It was Brittany Spears?) Los Angeles. But we did have the best the summer of 1963, and I was mak- Beverly Hills, taking itself seriously ar- tennis team in the state, and our water continued on page 11 Samuel Johnson Tercentenary Symposium set for Harvard 2009 The year 2009 marks the 300th anni- Considered one of the worldʼs most Houghton Library, the Hyde Collection is versary of the birth of Samuel Johnson. important collections of eighteenth-cen- also rich in materials that document the To commemorate the event, Harvard tury literature, the Hyde Collection was lives of Johnsonʼs friends and contem- Universityʼs Houghton Library will host assembled over a 60-year period. With poraries, such as James Boswell, Hester an international symposium to celebrate Johnson at its center, it encompasses Thrale Piozzi, Tobias Smollett, Sir Joshua Johnsonʼs manifold contributions to letters, manuscripts, first editions, and Reynolds, and David Garrick. intellectual and creative cultures. The works of art relating to Johnson and his Details will be announced over the next symposium, which will be held Thursday, circle. The collection includes half of six months, so please check the website August 27, through Saturday, August 29, Johnsonʼs surviving letters and several periodically.