Fine Books announces 2008 Collegiate Book Collecting Champions

Among the things I have not had time to properly blog about is this year's slate of winners of the Fine Books and Collections Collegiate Book Collecting Championship. There was a great turnout this year and, as I understand it, the strongest field they've seen. After much deliberation, the winners are:

1st Prize goes to Rhae Lynn Barnes, who is beginning her senior year at UC Berkeley, for her extensive and well-annotated collection of blackface minstrel plays.

2nd Prize goes to Basie Bales Gitlin, who is beginning his junior year at Yale, for his collection of publisher's canvassing books.

3rd Prize goes to Jacob Brunkard, a recent graduate from Swarthmore College, for his collection of Black Sparrow Press.

Fine Books will also make a donation to the libraries of the winners, in addition to the winners' awards.

Much praise is due the competition judges: Claudia Skelton, from the Book Club of Washington; bookseller Joachim Koch, of Books Tell You Why; and Richard Ring, the special collections librarian at the Providence Public Library.

We (Lux Mentis, et al) are very pleased to be sponsors of the competition and look forward to supporting it for years to come. As I have said before, the burden is on us...all "younger" dealers...to do all that we can to bring along the next generation(s) of book collectors. This competition and all those at the college level are a great starting point.

Congradulations to all the winners. We look forward to meeting all the winners at the awards dinner during the Seattle Book Fair.