For Book Collectors:

Book Collecting Contest— The No. 44 Society—Book Valuations

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Book Collecting Contests:

The Harris Fletcher Book Collecting Award

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T.W. Baldwin Prize for Book Collecting

To foster the love of books and introduce students to the pleasures of book collecting, The Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has established annual book collecting contests. The competition, co-sponsored by the University Library and The No. 44 Society, includes separate judging and prizes for undergraduate (Fletcher Award) and graduate student collections (Baldwin Prize).

The prize for undergraduate collectors is named for Harris Francis Fletcher (1892-1971), professor of English (1926-62), who collected books and manuscripts that form the John Milton collection at the University of Illinois. It is considered the most comprehensive Milton collection in the country. The graduate prize honors T.W. Baldwin, who put together a remarkable collection of imprints from the age of Shakespeare, with strengths in Elizabethan drama, pedagogy, religion, and social history.

First prize for each category is $1000 to enable the student to travel to New York for Bibliography Week (to be held next in late January 2009), the annual meetings of principal national organizations devoted to book history; and an invitation to a special reception at the country's premier book collecting organization, The Grolier Club. Second prize is a one year subscription to Fine Books & Collections. All contestants receive a student membership in the Friends of the University of Illinois Library.

Rules for Entry:

The annual competition takes place during the spring semester and is open to all registered University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign undergraduates and graduate students. To enter each contestant must submit the following:

1. A brief statement (500 words or less) describing the background and development of their collection. (Please include name, student status, and department affiliation.)
2. A brief annotated bibliographic list of the collection.
3. A list of ten titles the contestant would like to add to the collection, with a statement of the reason for adding each item.

Entrants’ names will be withheld from jurors in their first round of judging. Finalists may be asked to give a presentation to the judges and to show five examples from their collections. Deadline for submission is usually the first Friday in April. Prizes are awarded during the May meeting of The No. 44 Society, the book collectors’ club of Urbana-Champaign, based in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

The collection must be owned by the student. It should be based on some unifying principle, such as subject, a single author or group of authors, or place or genre of publication, type of book/binding, etc. It may be on any subject and may include manuscripts and graphics. Evaluation is based on motivation, discrimination and judgment, coherence of the collection, originality, accomplishment, and condition of the works entered. Monetary value is not a determining factor.

A previous winner may enter again only if a different collection is submitted. A previous non-winning entry may be submitted again, although the collection must show growth since the first entry.

Entries should be submitted to The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Room 346 Main Library, or emailed to Dennis Sears (dsears at uiuc dot edu). Any questions about the competition may be addressed to the staff of The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, (217) 333-3777.

• Winners may be asked to lend selected books for display.


• The prize for winning a contest is $1000 to cover a trip to Bibliography Week in New York City. Both prizes also include a copy of John Carter's ABC for Book Collectors.


• Prize winners will be eligible to compete in the Fine Books & Collections Collegiate Book Collecting Championship. For more information, please see http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/contest/index.phtml

A Brief Bibliography on Book-Collecting

Adelman, Seymour. The Moving Pageant: A Selection of Essays. Lititz, Pennsylvania : Sutter House, 1977.

Bernard, Phillipa, with Leo Bernard and Angus O'Neill. Antiquarian Books: A Companion for Booksellers, Librarians, and Collectors. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.

Carter, John. ABC for Book Collectors. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Press, 1995.

de Hamel, Christopher and Richard A. Linenthal, eds. Fine Books and Book Collecting.

Dickinson, Donald C. Dictionary of American Book Collectors. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1986.

Dunbar, Maurice. Hooked on Books : Everybody's Guide to Book Collecting. James Whitaker & Associates, 1997.

Franklin, Colin. Book Collecting As One of the Fine Arts: And Other Essays. Scolar Press, 1996.

Iacone, Salvatore J. The Pleasures of Book Collecting. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

Lewis, Wilmarth. Collector's Progress. London: Constable & Co., 1952.

Michaels, Carolyn Clugston. Children's Book Collecting. HamdenConn. : Library Professional Publications, 1993.

Newton, A. Edward. The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1918.

Peters, Jean, editor. Book Collecting: A Modern Guide. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1977.

Quayle, Eric. The Collector's Book of Books. New York: C. N. Potter, 1971.

The Collector's Book of Children's Books. New York: C. N. Potter, 1971.

Wilson, Robert A. Modern Book Collecting. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980.

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