EH: Certainly. The internet is definitely a factor. The impact of the internet for book collecting in the past ten years has been enormous. For instance, here I’ll refer to my own collecting. I am in the process of creating a bibliography of Augustus Charles Pugin, a fairly well known but not well documented English architect/draftsman. I was able to put together most of the material I needed for this bibliography in less than three years with the help of the internet. The internet has simply brought an enormous amount of material out of hiding and matched objects to collectors.
AT: Any summary words about the exhibit itself, before we go on to some other questions about the process of putting it together?
EH: Yes. I would say that in this exhibit we focus slightly less on the splendor of the object and slightly more on what it is that inspires the collector. This is the club in a sort of way letting down our hair and letting people know what we’re passionate about collecting.
AT: I’d like to discuss the process of co-curating in more detail. How exactly did that work? Did you divide tasks or do everything together?
EH: Mostly, my role had to do with supervising the process, making sure everything we had to do happened at the rate we needed, vetting submissions, etc. Peter Kraus is a brilliant bookman who happens to be involved in the retail bookman side. He brought the retail perspective, and I brought more of the institutional perspective. We got together periodically to work on the exhibit and of course we both co-wrote the introduction to the catalogue.
AT: How much time did it take to bring this exhibit from an idea through its fruition?
EH: It was really a very speedy process to get the show together. A little over a year, I’d say. It was a show that we were talking about for some years previously, and then a gap opened up in our schedule and that made it possible.
AT: Any final words on the exhibit to those of our readers who haven’t seen it?
EH: It’s one of the more colorful and diverse and accessible shows that we’ve done for a long time. Partly, perhaps mainly, that has to do with the member-collector’s voices coming through.
“The Grolier Club Collects: Books, Manuscripts & Works On Paper From The Collections Of Grolier Club Members” will be on view at the Grolier Club until 1 February 2003, with the exception of Dec. 24-26 and Dec. 31-Jan. 1, when the Grolier Club will close in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Location: 47 East 60th Street (between Madison and Park Avenues), New York City. Hours: Monday-Saturday 10 AM – 5 PM. Open to the public free of charge. You can reach the Grolier Club by calling (212) 838-6690 or by visiting their website, www.grolierclub.org.
[Editor’s Note: All quotes from the catalogue (including Grolier Club member-collector statements) and all images used to accompany this article are used and/or quoted courtesy of The Grolier Club.]
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2002 Issue
The Grolier Club Collects by Abby Tallmer
Collector: J. Thomas Touchton
