Here's some exciting bibliographic news to start the day! The Bibliographic Society of America has awarded member Joseph J. Felcone (Joseph J. Felcone Inc.) the 2014 St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize for outstanding scholarship in the bibliography of American history and literature for his book Printing in New Jersey 1754-1800: A Descriptive Bibliography (American Antiquarian Society, 2012). The prize, established in 2008 and awarded every three years, includes a cash prize and a year's membership in the BSA.
From the BSA press release:
Printing in New Jersey 1754-1800: A Descriptive Bibliography is a detailed catalogue of 1,265 books, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, and broadsides – all of the known products of every eighteenth-century New Jersey press. About of quarter of the imprints described are recorded here for the first time and the extensive annotations are full of new information gleaned from archival sources. The book also includes items that may have been printed in New Jersey, works which had been incorrectly attributed to New Jersey presses, and rich back-matter including three appendixes, an extensive list of sources, and three indexes. Thanks to the design by Jerry Kelly, this bibliography is both beautiful and easy to use.
Joseph J. Felcone has spent a lifetime collecting, studying, and writing about New Jersey books and the early New Jersey book trade. To compile this comprehensive work, he visited and fully surveyed 115 libraries, from the major repositories in the United States and England to county and local historical societies in New Jersey, and physically examined and recorded every eighteenth-century New Jersey imprint.
Printing in New Jersey was published in 2012 by the American Antiquarian Society (americanantiquarian.org) and is available through Oak Knoll Press (oakknoll.com).
Congratulations, Joe!
This week ABAA members are certainly center stage for accomplishments in scholarship.
Visit the link for further information on the St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize and other prizes and fellowships awarded by the Bibliographical Society of America.