Antiquarian book trade in the United States

The antiquarian book trade in the United States is an aspect of book collecting and publishing. The term antiquarian, in general, refers to antiquities and collectible items usually considered old and rare, usually in reference to books, but is not limited to books. The word antiquarian could also be used to describe a person who collects rare books or other antique items.

Two key figures who have written largely on the U.S. antiquarian book trade specificically are Leona Rostenberg (1908–2005) and Madeleine B. Stern (1912–2007), both of whom were also in the business of collecting and selling rare books. Other histories having covered the topic include Isaiah Thomas, writing in 1810 his History of printing in America; Henry Walcott Boynton’s Annals of American Bookselling, 1638-1850, first published in 1932; Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt’s The Book in America: A History of the Making, the Selling, and the Collecting of Books in the United States (1939).

The antiquarian book trade has roots in Colonial America, and may be considered in the study of American history and literature, print culture, and book history. Antiquarian book fairs have long been an important aspect of the trade. Today, the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA) is the primary organization of the trade in the United States. Other organizations include the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP). The Rare Book School at the University of Virginia is the premier institution for those seeking an advanced education in the field.


 History

The beginnings of the antiquarian book trade can be traced to British North America, specifically Boston of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There is no established date of when this business of book collecting actually begins, however Stern attributes the beginnings to John Dunton’s visit to Boston in 1686, in which he brought along numerous books from his native England. Printed materials and books however were already available in Boston, the first book shop having been opened in 1647 by Hezekiah Usher. The act of collecting and selling books as a form of business increases later in seventeenth century, with 1693 being the date of the earliest printed catalogue of books in the American colonies.

Events in Boston during the eighteenth century proved both difficult and prosperous for the antiquarian book trade. For instance a fire broke out in 1711 which consumed nearly every bookshop. The next two decades antiquarian booksellers rebuild and gradually thrive. Harvard College and the rest of the literary and educational milieu of Boston allows the development of the antiquarian book trade.

The early history of the trade shifts geographically in the later eighteenth century to the cities of Philadelphia and New York City, furthering the progression of the movement of books and knowledge, growing with an increasingly educated public and independence from Britain. With the movement of people westward into the frontiers came too the movement of books, and soon, small cities like Cincinnati become known in the book trade. It reaches south, to Richmond and New Orleans, and to Texas, antiquarian dealers in St. Louis, Chicago, and eventually the antiquarian book trade joins the gold rush to California.