Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA): Records, 1949-

 

RLIN ID No.

NYGG02-A3

 

Main Entry

Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, Inc. (ABBA)

 

Title

Records and Papers, 1949- (bulk, 1949-1959; 1978-1980; 1990- )

 

Physical Description

69 document boxes

4 audiocassette boxes (ca. 100 audiocassettes)

29 linear feet

 

Organization and Arrangement

Organized into series: I. Constitution and Bylaws; II. Minutes of Annual General Meetings and Board of Governors Meetings; III. Antiquarian Booksellers Benevolent Fund; IV. Membership Applications; V. Financial Records; VI. Regional Chapters; VII. Book Fairs; VIII. Antiquarian Booksellers Center; IX. Legal Counsel; X. Correspondence Files; XI. Presidential Files; XII. Committees; XIII. International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB); XIV. Publications; XV. Miscellanea.

 

Restrictions on Access

Use of collection restricted to current president of the ABBA and his or her designees. Applications to consult the collection must be made to: President, Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, 20 West 44th Street, New York, N.Y. 10036. The Ethics Committee and Membership files are sealed until 2052 and specific permission to examine these files must be obtained from the current ABAA president, in consultation with ABAA counsel.

 

Scope and Contents

Founding documents, minutes, correspondence, financial records, publications, legal materials and miscellaneous memos and notes documenting operation of the ABBA from its founding in 1949. Correspondence files include an exchange between the association president and broadcaster Alistair Cooke in 1957 regarding the latter’s description of dealer behavior at a book auction. Records include papers of some presidents, particularly those of Leona Rostenberg, Warren Howell, Lawrence J. Witten and Robert D. Fleck. Also some records for the Antiquarian Booksellers Benevolent Fund (ABBF) and the Antiquarian Booksellers Center (ABC), as well as material documenting activities of and relationship with the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. Audiocassettes of minutes 1990-1997 and of some programs and meeting are present as specified.

 

Historical Note

In the years immediately following the conclusion of World War II, a number of countries formed national associations of antiquarian booksellers, and in 1947 these came together to found the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers. In this spirit of cooperation, some fifty members of the antiquarian book trade met on 24 February 1949 at the Grolier Club in New York City and founded the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (ABAA) as a non-profit organization to “further friendly relations and a cooperative spirit among the members” (Article I of the Constitution) as well as to work for the benefit of the trade and to explain its work to the public. Laurence J. Gomme, head of the Rare Book and Binding Department of Brentanos and a man with decades of experience in the antiquarian book trade, was unanimously elected president at the first annual meeting held on 31 March 1949. The organization was incorporated on 25 May 1949, and its first headquarters were at 3 West 46th Street, where the firms of Baker and Brooks and The Levere Gables were located. By the time of the first meeting in September 1949, the ABAA already had nearly 200 members, a figure which would grow to over 600 by the late 1990s. In 1951 member dealers created the Antiquarian Booksellers Benevolent Fund (ABBF), which is supported by the generosity of the membership and makes grants of temporary assistance to booksellers.

 

There were six regional chapters in 1949. Since the 1960s many of these have sponsored book fairs, with the first ABBA sponsored book fair opening in New York on 4 April 1960. In 1963 the Antiquarian Book Center, founded by dealers Elisabeth Woodburn, Bernard M. Rosenthal and Madeleine B. Stern, opened under the sponsorship of the Middle Atlantic Chapter on the concourse of Rockefeller Center. For over two decades the Antiquarian Book Center sponsored cooperative catalogs, exhibitions of members’ stock, and lecture programs as well as served the trade through referrals. The by-law revision of April 1984 made clear that membership in the ABAA resides in an individual actively engaged as a controlling owner in an antiquarian bookselling business.

 

The association publishes a membership directory and a Newsletter for members. Over the years they have also issued individual publications and journals, including The Professional Rare Bookseller (1979-1987). During 1995-1996 the ABAA planned and mounted its Internet site <www.abaa.org>, which features historical material and its code of ethics.

 

Preferred Citation

Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, Inc. (ABBA) records and papers, 1949-

 

Immediate Source of Acquisition

David Margolis, ABBA Archivist: c/o Margolis and Moss, P.O. Box 2042, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-2042.

 

Location of Associated Materials

Ongoing records of the association at ABBA headquarters, 50 West 44th Street, 4th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10036.


Provenance

Records, ca. 1949-1959, 1960-1976 housed originally at ABBA headquarters; later records housed there and also some in possession of ABBA presidents. Material from 1990s apparently retained by elected officers. All transferred to ABBA archivist ca. 1997-1999, who in turn transferred it to the Grolier Club.

 

Names

Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America.

Cooke, Alastair, 1908-

Gomme, Laurence J. (Laurence James), b. 1882.

Fleck, Robert D.

Howell, Warren.

Rostenberg, Leona.

Witten, Lawrence.

Antiquarian Booksellers Benevolent Fund.

International League of Antiquarian Booksellers.

 

Subjects

Antiquarian booksellers.  Publications.

Antiquarian booksellers. United States.

Antiquarian booksellers. Trade Associations. United States.

Booksellers and bookselling. United States.

Out-of-print books.


Location

Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022-1068.