>> John Van Oudenaren: Good evening and thank you for attending our annual awards ceremony for the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. I'm John Van Oudenaren, the director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. And I'm here to welcome you. A word about the Center for the Book. The Center for the Book was established in 1977 with the mission to promote books, reading, libraries, and literacy nationwide. We do that through a network of affiliates in every state, the District of Columbia, and the US Virgin Islands. And we're also working on an affiliate in Puerto Rico. Hopefully we'll hear about that soon. The center also plays a major role in the library's national book festival and administers the Library of Congress Literacy Awards. The Poetry and Literature Center, home of the US Poet Laureate is also part of the Center for the Book. The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest was established in 2005 by Fine Books and Collections Magazine to recognize outstanding book collecting efforts by college and university students. The program aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles. Of course, you're going to hear more about the latest generation of these -- group of these bibliophiles and their accomplishments. But before we can do that, I want to acknowledge and thank our institutional partners. The Antiquarian Book Seller Association of America, The Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, The Grolier Club, and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. I'd also like to say a word of thanks to Guy Lamolinara from the Center for the Book. He's the doer who makes all these events happen in the Center for the Book. And last but not least, I'd like to make special mention of the Jay I. Kislak Foundation. The foundation has generously supported many activities and exhibitions at the Library of Congress including this program. Unfortunately, as many of you may know, Jay Kislak passed away earlier this month. One needs only to visit the great hall in this building to see the Kislak on permanent display to witness the extent of Mr. Kislak's generosity and also the degree to which he himself was a great collector. So please join me in thanking the Kislak Foundation and all our partners. [ Applause ] And we have back here, Arthur Dunckleman from the Kislak Foundation, and I just wanted to acknowledge Arthur. On behalf of the Library of Congress I congratulate the winners and their accomplishments as bibliophiles. Speaking of bibliophiles, we will soon hear from renowned book collector Glen S. Miranker. Thank you, Glen, for joining us. I'm now supposed to turn the program over to John Cole as you see in your program. John Cole was the Director of the Center for the Book for 39 years. I'm not going to be in this job for 39 years. I just started in March and I don't think -- I don't think I'll make 39 years, but John was the moving force behind the Center for the Book for all that time. Unfortunately, he has been called away and wasn't able to make it this evening. So, we'll skip John and go right to Mark Dimunation, the Chief of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, who will introduce our speaker. Mark. >> Susan Benne: Spoiler alert, I'm not Mark. Oh, the mic? Oh okay. The other mic. Let's see, does this work? Okay. So, spoiler alert, I am not Mark. I'm Susan. And I work for the Antiquarian Book Sellers Association of America. Every year we try to find a speaker who has a collection that has a connection to their collection that will speak to the winners of this contest. And this year we have Glen Miranker. Glen has had a storied career in the tech sector in addition to being a bibliophile. Glen has a Bachelor in Computer Science from Yale, as well as a Masters and Doctorate from MIT. He grew up in New York, but after completing his studies he moved to California and held several positions in Silicon Valley startups. He was recruited by Steve Jobs to join NEXT computer in 1990 and Apple in 1996. He was active in hardware development and retired as -- excuse me -- was Apple's Chief Technology Officer prior to retiring. Glen is a long-time bibliophile. He has a collecting focus on Sherlock Holmes. He is also an expert on cryptology and is the Director of the National Cyrptological Foundation. Thank you so much Glen for being here. [ Applause ] >> Glen Miranker: Just Glen. Not very impressive for a high-tech guy huh [laughter]? Can't even more a microphone. So, just want to let you folks know, a personal note, that when I did retire, I retired with the idea -- I had a vague notion, god knows I won't call it a plan, that I would spend the balance of my life indulging the two things that I really enjoyed other than building computers. And that was collecting, studying, being around books -- particularly Sherlockian. And the history of cryptography. And I gave it a try for about a year and I found it completely absorbing and satisfying and worthwhile, so I haven't gone back to work. And I don't have any intent of going back to work. But what I would like to say is that you know, when collectors talk about the thrill of the chase, we usually mean the pleasures of pursuit, the satisfactions of ownership. We mean things like scrutinizing auction listings, pouring over catalogue after catalogue, visiting book stores, antiquarian book shops, all in the hope of tracking a particular volume, finding a surprise gem, and adding it to our library. There are lots of reasons to collection books and as many kinds of collections as -- ten times as many collections as there are people in this room. Among my favorite examples, is I know a collector who collects books on kissing. And one member of the Book Club of California has a wonderful collection on medical quackery. I even know a collector who has assembled the definitive collection of Duncan Hines recipes [laughter]. Collectors as opposed to accumulators, assemble collections of books and ephemera that they love. Subjects that transfix them, topical areas that they want to know more about. I collection Sherlock Holmes. I love the stories, the atmospherics, being transported back to 19th Century London. Conan Doyle's brisk storytelling and his dazzling deductions, but it's not why I collect. The reason I collect is I have no choice. I have a disease. I suffer from the malady Nick Basbanes captures perfect in his book A Gentle Madness . But questing and acquiring are only part of my bibliomania. Many books have a tale to tell beyond what's printed between their covers. And tracking down the backstory for a book is another thrill of the chase for me. And it's a good deal less costly than acquiring the books. My becoming one of the gently mad happened in 1976 when my wife Cathy gave me a gift. My collection at that point was absolutely nonexistent. I had shown an unhealthy, unnatural interest in Sherlock Holmes. I belonged to a couple of societies where we met and ate and drank and discussed the cannon and other things. But my entire Sherlock Holmes library consisted of the two volume complete stories, Doubleday -- 1950, whatever, Doubleday edition. That was it. And as Cathy handed me this copy of the American Case book, I started at it and I remarked, you mean, you don't have to be J.P. Morgan to collection books? This was a new idea for me. Well, since that moment I found more attractive copies than that 1976 gift. Yet it remains one of my favorite books. It's not the words on the page that interest me as a collector. I'm after things that you can't see at first glance. I seek out books that are more than books. Books that are fascinating and remarkable because of a backstory. Many books have a tale to tell beyond that -- what's between their covers. Tracking down the backstory for my books is the principle thrill of the chase for me, and it's a good deal less than acquiring them. Each book in a different way is a portal into times past. An interest for conjuring up glimpse of the thoughts, the sensibilities, emaciations, even the crimes of previous owners or readers. A book can be a variable time capsule of the year and the place it was written, published and distributed. The discovery of the back stories for these and other books in my library is a work in progress. Certainly, a quest without end. just the way I like it. Let me show just a couple of examples. I think my compulsion will start to make sense to you. Let's consider the second Sherlock Holmes story The Sign of Four . If we overlook the printing errors, the text in the seven-dollar Penguin or the free eBook edition, it's no different than the text in the story's first appearance in Lippincott's Magazine . But the backstories are what make the editions of the The Sign of Four , particularly fascinating. First is the story about how it even came to be written. Any of you familiar with it by any chance? Besides Mike [laughter]. Lippincott's Magazine had decided in 1890 that they wanted to -- that they needed to expand their business, and so decided they were going to off -- going to start offering an English version of -- British version of their publication. And they were also looking for new fresh authors. And so, they decided to send an agent, Mr. J.M. Stoddard to Great Britain to seek out some new young authors and commission some new work. And so, Mr. Stoddard took two young authors out to dinner. This was the summer of 1890. One of those authors was Author Conan Doyle. They struck a deal and some six, seven weeks later, Author Conan Doyle delivered the manuscript for For the Sign of Dorian Gray . The second author also struck a deal with Mr. Stoddard at that dinner. A fellow named Oscar Wilde. And a year later he delivered the manuscript for The Picture of Dorian Gray . Conan Doyle's story was only a modest success in the UK. It sold fewer than 1000 copies in its first year. But it was wildly popular in the United States thanks to its illegal publication by a myriad of American pirate publishers. These sales were very brisk and although they brought ACD no income in the US, it did cement his popularity. This is a fascinating area in US publication history, endlessly fascinating to me. Opacious, brazen, unregulated, phenomenal profits for some pirateers, and bankruptcies for most of them though. The backstory of pirate publishing is well represented in my collection. I have more than 1200 distinct pirated editions from more than 45 different American publishers. Of the word -- of the Sherlockian works of Arthur Conan Doyle. The first authorized American edition of The Sign did not appear until two years after its magazine publication in Lippincott's . But in the meantime, the pirates were churning out books; paperback, hardcover books. In fact, the champion of them all was an expat Canadian by birth named John Lovell. He was by far the biggest in terms of number of volumes actually shoved out into the public. Now, this was certainly not his motivation, but these pirateers actually did a great public service. They made literature widely affordable. Before the pirateers, a book cost five, six, seven dollars, which at the time would be equivalent to 100 glasses of beer. So, it was a lot of money. And they were churning out these books at a quarter, a dime. If you subscribed to a whole bunch of them, even as inexpensive as a nickel. In 1895 I believe it was, John Lovell published nearly half of the hard-bound books in the United States of America. His nickname by the way, was Book a Day Lovell. By his competitors. There's a particular book I'd like to share with you. This copy of The Sign of Four was pirated by The United States Book Company. This was one of Book a Day Lovell's imprints. You can see that it's warmly inscribed by Conan Doyle. Yet I promise you, Conan Doyle with authors like Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and other contemporaries despised the American Pirateers. So, why did Conan Doyle sign the pirate? Where? When? Whose book was it? This signature, surprising and inappropriate as finding a pickled caslet in your cornflakes. This is the second backstory around The Sign I would like to talk about. I've only been able to locate about six pirated books that Conan Doyle inscribed. Curiously, they were all signed when Conan Doyle was in Chicago. He made a grand tour of American in late-1894. They're all United States Book Company Publications. This particular edition -- this particular book is inscribed to one Harlow N. Higinbotham. Now, who the heck is Harlow N. Higinbotham? Well, it turns out, he was a very important figure in Chicago. He was a leading businessman, civic leader, philanthropist. He was a senior partner in the Marshall Field department store. He was the founder of the Field Museum. And he was President of the World's Columbian Exposition. The World Fair that was held in Chicago in 1893. This fair by the way, brought us words like midway, and also brought us an attraction which we now call the Ferris wheel. So, how did the Higinbotham's and Conan Doyle Meet? Well, here's the story I pieced together with help from Frederick Kiddel's monograph, Arthur Conan Doyle Visits Chicago . And from contemporary Chicago newspapers that I found in the Newbury Library, where Fred's collection now resides. And I have to credit the enthusiastic help of librarians and curators Autumn Naylor, Katie McMann, and Jenny Swartzburg, without which I'm not sure I would have managed to do the research on this book. Conan Doyle first toured America in 1894 and he stopped in Chicago three times between October 2nd and December 8th. His name by the way, was incorrectly reported in Chicago newspapers as Arthur Canon Doyle, as a consequence of which people started referring to him with the honorific reverend for the balance of his trip. His first official undertaking in the Windy City was a talk on October 12th for Chicago -- at Chicago 20th Century Club entitled, Facts and Fiction About Great English Novelists. The club met in a little bijou theater on the third floor of Higinbotham's Michigan Avenue mansion. It was there that the author inscribed three books for Higinbotham; Study in Scarlet , The Sign of Four , and Micha Clarke . All pirated editions. New York bookseller James Cummins who was the source of my inscribed copy sold the three in 1991. Cummins got the books from an elderly Chicago elector who had relocated to New York some years before and asked that his identity be kept confidential. So there the trail of provenance ends. The two gentlemen were again together at dinner in Conan Doyle's honor after Conan Doyle's lecture. I surmise that Higinbotham purchased the books especially for the occasion. Why? When we take a close look at the ownership signature, we find it's dated October 12, 1894, the very day of Conan Doyle's lecture. So, conjecture, Higinbotham ran out, quick got a couple Conan Doyle books and brought them back home to get them signature -- signed. Now we're left with a problem though. How do we know that the ownership signature is correct? Well, Higinbotham was the president of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and as the president he had his signature on every admission ticket. And a search on eBay readily turned one up. So, I had the admission ticket to compare to the book. As we discussed earlier, the novel of study which sold for a mere 50 pounds, and The Sign of Four , which is only a modest success in the UK, the stories that changed Conan Doyle's fortunes were the Sherlock Holmes short stories. The first dozen appeared in the Strand Magazine , 1891 to 1892. And they were collected into a book in late-1892, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes . Let's have a look at a particularly interesting copy of the adventures. The first edition of the adventures sold some 10,000 copies in its first year. And the success also ignited the sales of Conan Doyle's earlier titles. For example, within one week of the appearance of the adventures, 3000 copies of The Sign of Four were sold in the UK. That's three times as many copies as the entire run of the first edition just two years earlier. If we open this book, we see that this copy has been inscribed by the author. With Arthur Conan Doyle's kindest regards. What's particularly fascinating is the date of the inscription. October 6th is the -- is eight days before the book's official publication date. So, likely this volume is what you and I would call an author's sample copy. As an author sample copy presented to some relative of friend. I have other copies of the adventures with interesting backstories, but there's one that I give the prize for being the most dramatic. Because of its bibliographic importance, and because of the human drama that surrounds the man who owned it just before me. This is the third backstory I'd like to explore. I'm rushing because I have not been given the usual three hours for my presentation [laughter]. What you see here is the only known copy of the true first edition, first state of the adventures in a dust jacket. Since Sherlock Holmes first inspired the birth of Sherlockians and we students of Sherlock, and Watson, and the cannons call ourselves, it's been unclear whether this edition was issued with a dust jacket. Sherlockian's, collectors, book sellers have searched and debated the question for decades and decades. But when this book finally came to light in the Spring of 1984, the dust jackets existence was indisputable. This bibliographic discovery emerged as part of another story; the story of a man named Mark Hoffman. He was the owner before me. I hear from the chuckles that some of you are familiar with Mark Hoffman. Mark Hoffman again, shortage of time, was the Mormon Forger. He was -- he would -- oh got ahead of myself, so sorry. Yes, the FBI called him the best forger that's ever been caught. He forged all kinds of materials. And I won't go through the list, it's staggering. The Daniel Boone letters, Emily Dickinson poems, et cetera, which all passed extremely detailed expert examination. But his most steady customer, his most easy mark was the Mormon church. He would miraculously produce letters, documents, bibles with handwritten family records on the end paper, [inaudible] paper, with great regularity and of course the Mormon church was very eager to gather up any materials related to their history. But he was even cleverer than that. He would always put one little fact in it that was embarrassing to the church orthodoxy [laughter]. So, he was absolutely certain that the church would buy it and send it into the basement where nobody could see it. Well, things caught up with him. He had accepted a very large advance from the Mormon church in order to find this rumored very large cache of early Mormon letters. As the months went by and he did not come up with the goods, finally the church ran out of patience and asked for their money back. Now, nobody knows for sure, but the speculation is in order to take the eyes off of himself, Mark Hoffman decided what he should do is blow up a few people. And he built a couple of bombs and two people were actually killed. And he had a third bomb, we don't know for sure who it was intended, but he evidently had an accident and he blew himself up. Not fatally, grievously injured. At any rate, to jump to the punch line, this is his new home. It's the -- he was recently moved to this Draper, Utah penitentiary. Slightly less austere than his original home which was the Orem state pen Given that he defrauded the Mormon church, that he murdered a couple of devout Mormons, and he's in Utah State Penn, I don't think he's going to get out on parole. And to make reparations, Hoffman who had his own book collection, it was sold off and the proceeds were used to reimburse the Mormon church. I was fortunate enough to acquire what's known as "the blue book". But, you know, my time is up. So, as you might suspect, I am happy to talk further about any of these stories and of course answer any other questions you might have about my collection, collecting, or any of the other bizarre books that are in it. Thank you. [ Applause ] Six minutes under my allocation. Six seconds under my allocation. Any questions? Yes, ma'am? >> Tell us [inaudible]. >> Glen Miranker: Oh, that's the blue book. >> Oh, it's the one that you showed? >> Glen Miranker: Yes, because of the jacket. >> Is the jacket a forgery? >> Glen Miranker: Great question. We've looked very, very carefully and as best we can tell no. But -- and it seems -- it seems unlikely he would have a forgery in his own collection. But it's possible. The book actually has been -- I have traced its provenance. It actually -- somewhat back in time. It actually -- which is not say this isn't a copy of the real thing. But the book first turned up in a bookstore in Chicago. The book dealer is long gone. It may be familiar by name to some of you, Larry Kinetka. And, but he never spilled the beans about where he got it. And I've even been in touch with a couple of folks that worked in the bookstore at the time in the early 70s, and neither of them has any recollection of the book. >> Did you put a dust jacket protector on that book? >> Glen Miranker: No. I am -- I'm sorry? >> How do you feel about it? >> Glen Miranker: Oh, I have dust jacket protectors on almost all my books, but that dust jacket is so tender. It's in a nice clamshell -- no, no, it's in a clamshell and all by itself. I don't have the courage to put it into a dust jacket protector. Well, thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mark Dimunation: Can I close your computer? >> Glen Miranker: Oh yes, actually -- >> Mark Dimunation: Thanks very much. Hi everyone, I'm Mark Dimunation. I'm Chief of Rare Books. For those of you who weren't in the division, we just had a bit of a frolic over in Rare Book and Special Collections division where we were looking at collections that had been given to the Library of Congress by previous collectors. I like to frame it that way, because there's always a -- what is it picking up? My phone? It's picking up -- [ Multiple Speakers ] My personality [laughter]. Okay. So, we're going to flip the order of the awards. Mostly because Samuel said he really liked a lot of drama and really wanted to wait till the very end. Where are you Samuel? There you are. So, to appease the first prize winner, we're going to have him come up last. Which means we're going to start off with our essayist. If you'd like to come up. It's picking up something. You're going to -- I'm going to talk about you. Don't be so -- I'm not going to hurt you. There good. >> Ena Selimovic: Maybe I could read with you. >> Mark Dimunation: You wrote it though, so it [laughter] -- I just want to talk a little bit about the nature of the competition this year, which was really interesting. We seem to have struck a moment in a generation of collectors in which book collections have become very personal to their experience. Every single one of the award winners today collect collections that in some very direct way, speak either to their ancestry or their identity, their current identity. Whether it be relatives from Sicily, whether it be growing up as a hyphenated American, or something in between. Each of these collections has a very personal connection, and as a result, when Ena's essay came up we thought that it really reflected directly the experience of many of the collectors and as a result, we don't always give essay prizes, so congratulations on that. I want to give you just a taste of it and then I'm going to ask her really extremely difficult questions. her essay goes into a bit of a discussion of what it's like to live in a culture in which you don't initially have a fluency and how you go about obtaining that fluency. Whether it be through language or ultimately through literature. And there's a paragraph that I was really struck by in this essay, and I'm just going to read it and then the rest is your show. I hope I do justice to it. I discover hospitality in migrant exile and war literatures. Especially the tragic comic in each. The convergence of these literary traditions and the many languages in which they materialize reflect not only my own experience of the divided self, but also my life within a pluralist conception of home. In my collection are books that showcase how contemporary US literatures travel beyond two nation states and among many nodes of a network, the multiple vibrations within a single text. It's a lovely essay that introduces a collection that's very personal. Come up to the mic. So, I would like you just to, if you would, give us a little bit of a description of what your collection entails and what your essay covers so they can share that experience. >> Ena Selimovic: So, it started out as a collection about colonialism of Africa and Caribbean, and then now because of my dissertation project I'm trying to re-evaluate what colonialism means globally. So, I'm looking at different forms of colonialism on a global scale, being sensitive to historicizing them in depth. So now I'm looking at the Balkans through a post-colonial lens by involving the Ottoman Empire, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and these empires that don't usually get talked about when we talk about post-colonialism. So, that's the new obsession. >> Mark Dimunation: Yes, and the essay will give you -- >> Ena Selimovic: And Kafka. Always Kafka. >> Mark Dimunation: The essay will give you a taste of the fact that this comes from among other things a very personal experience of growing up in a situation in which languages and identity have fluidity and meaning at the same time. And is a really profound I think coverage of the collecting impulse that we've seen throughout the program today. So, could you please have a round of applause for her? [ Applause ] Thank you very much. [ Applause ] Third place. Hanaa. Fire from the eyes. Fire from the heart. My life as a Syrian-American Muslim. As I mentioned -- congratulations. >> Hanaa J. Masalmeh: Thank you. >> Mark Dimunation: As I mentioned, each of the collections that won awards were tried directly to the experience of an individual collector and speaking out of a certain kind of identity. In many cases, trying to reconcile that identity with citizenship in America as well. And as a hyphenated American myself, I had a great deal of sympathy which much of the time was being expressed. Hanaa's essay introduces a collection that's very personal in terms of her ongoing experience with the literature of her childhood. And it tells the story of growing up in Portland, but being taken back to Syria I guess as a way of saying it, first under objection and then ultimately under an effort to make sure that she was both fluent and literate. So, the collection includes stages of her life and books that have meaning in each of those. So, fairy tales that were translated by her mother into Arabic so she would have Arabic text to read as a child. Then going on to books that were collected while in Syria, then coming back and reading more classical poetry in Arabic, and on to I would almost say a kind of comic sense of identity that appears throughout. I just wanted to share one aspect of this, which I related to entirely. And it comes out early on in which she says, growing up in Portland she was surrounded in essence by those things that you would expect to find in Portland. And that there was some fear that she would drift away from her Syrian heritage. If you just replace Syrian for Ukrainian you would know my upbringing. At the same time, I was embarrassed by my Syrian heritage. I would watch Disney Channel and wish for a grandmother that would wear pastel cardigans and bake chocolate chip cookies. Instead, I got a grandmother who made couscous while telling stories of the Six Days War. I wonder Hanaa if you can give us a bit of an understanding of what's in the collection and how you ultimately accumulated some of these materials. There's some great stories in these collections. >> Hanaa J. Masalmeh: Amazing. >> Mark Dimunation: I'm going to -- not out of rudeness, I have to sit every once in a while. I will pay attention, but I give you the podium. >> Hanaa J. Masalmeh: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me here Mark. Thank you to the Antiquarian Book Sellers Association. I really love the process of putting this collection together and putting this essay together. And it's funny, the first thing that came to my mind when I was writing this essay is the fact that my parents despite being Muslim, worshiped the Holy Trinity; doctor, lawyer, engineer. And I think so much of the immigrant narrative gets caught up in that sense of working hard, becoming successful, in a new country. But I really wanted to illuminate the common aspects of it to give this really colorful, three-dimensional idea of what that heritage looks like beyond what you might see on the 6 o'clock news or in history textbooks, or often times in library collections that are really representative of the Middle East and also of the Arab-American experience. And so, as Mark mentioned, my collection starts off with these picture books that my mom would bring back from Syria as well as these Arabic textbooks that she'd use to teach me and my siblings Arabic when we were in the United States. You know, I was born and raised here, but my mom was insistent that, you know, we would learn how to speak Arabic. And we did. But, you know, I did by, you know, the skin of my teeth kicking and screaming because I didn't see that value in that heritage. And I think that, you know, because my mom, because my dad made such an effort to keep bringing these books back for me, eventually I caught that bug. I became one of the gently mad. And I started collecting books on my own. And of course, the irony is that by that time my family could no longer go back to Syria because of the civil war going on there. So, it really became a test of my commitment to my identity, but also a test to my creativity in finding these materials and selecting these materials. And this is a period in my collection where I actually start to go a little bit more bilingual. Because I'm sharing these books with my friends. I want them to see what my heritage is as well. And so, this collection is really a reflection of that inner process of coming to terms with my identity and eventually learning to value it. And I am so honored to be here today. And I'm also, you know, so happy that there are also these incredible young book collectors around me whose stories are fascinating and incredible. And just really speak to, you know, how personal experiences can be so well embodied in books. Which even though they're not alive, really come to have a life of their own. Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Mark Dimunation: So, this of course is a collegiate book collecting competition, so Ena comes from Washington University St. Louis, and Hanaa comes from Harvard University. We're going to turn our attention to the middle of the country only by adopting a university. He has locations elsewhere. But we're turning to KU, not UK. Kansas University. Paul Schwennesen. I told him I'd been practicing German all day and then I find out it's Americanized like everything else -- came in as a second award winner for his book collection which was entitled Borderlands: A Manifesto on Overlap. You want to come up? And give him a round of applause please. [ Applause ] This is a different kind of identity that Paul is searching of. In this case, he's rooted in the land, but he's trying to understand about the generations of family that preceded him and those that came before him have in connection to the land. So, it's a book collection that documents the borderlands. A family cattle ranch along the region of Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico. Correct? Which are divided as Paul refers to by artificial lines. And then goes on to build a book collection that documents in essence, the various layers of populations and impacts on this land starting with Aztecs all the way up to the lost Estadon who wanders from Florida to Mexico in late-16th Century. Has materials about the first domestic livestock that are brought onto this vast land. And ultimately goes into exploration around indigenous backgrounds of Spanish Colonialism, current conservation issues, and others. It's an impressive and broad collection. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the impetuous behind it for you personally. >> Paul T. Schwennesen: Sure. I should know better than to try to bring out a literary aphorism in front of a group of bibliophiles. But Samuel Johnson once said something to the effect of, "nothing so concentrates the mind as the certain knowledge that one will be hanged in a fortnight." And there's a little bit of that here too that -- slightly less dramatically, but it's hard to quite understand your homeland, where you're really from until you leave it. We've probably all experienced that to one degree or another. And this is certainly my personal case. I came to the University of Kansas through some complicated personal machinations that led me there and this book collection -- I supposed I shouldn't reveal this, but this book collection was not actually a collection in the traditional sense. I only realized that I had a collection by putting together this essay. I realized that I had been collecting in a non-linear fashion. That this collection was sort of building in the background, right. So, this wasn't a laser focused ambition of mine to generate a collection that spans the borderlands of the American southwest. But it runs out in sort of after thought that it actually was. That there was a surreptitious subliminal act going on here of this book collecting. And it was a joy to realize what I had and what it meant to me. And what my home meant to me. And that it only meant that much to me by being separated from it. So, I appreciate the opportunity to sort of reveal to the wider reading audience and it's been an absolute joy. And thank you for making this happen. [ Applause ] >> Mark Dimunation: And now for our first-place winner, Samuel Vincent Lemley of the University of Virginia. Congratulations. Let's give him a hand. [ Applause ] Whose essay and collection is surrounded around the concept of collecting Sicilian printing, Biblioteca Genealogica: Sicilian Printing, 1704-1893. In this Sam -- is it Sam or Samuel? >> Samuel Vincent Lemley: Sam. >> Mark Dimunation: Sam. Sam discusses a bit of the impetuous behind this collection, which in fact is to represent his heritage, all the members of his historical genealogy by a book that's published in Sicily in their year. Which is a rather unique approach to a book collection, but it's fascinating in what he manages to pull together. So, over the span of time from 1704 to 1893, 1704 being the earliest family that can be traced, he began the process of tracking down publications printed in Sicily. And he has a gathering that covers everything from devotional literature to constitutional history, from the study of astronomy all the way up to the study of river mollusks. I think that's my favorite. And discovers many things about local printing. Sicily in fact, being very much a region of local printing in which materials really aren't intended to go out into the larger world. And as a result, have a very kind of local and in some ways ephemeral feeling to them. But I just want to read a little from his essay and then we'll let him chatter even longer than me. In assembling this collection I've sought to represent my ancestral past by gathering material products of my ancient culture. Invariably, book bear traces of their human makers, sometimes literally but always figuratively. Books are hieroglyphs of an absent human presence. Evidence that cultures far off or forgotten wrote, read, thumbed, and discarded books and we do. In this vein, I have sought to follow G. Thomas Tinsels primary rationale for collecting, albeit in a narrower genealogical sense. Each title listed here tells something about a human being who lived in a particular time and place. In this case, the human beings happen to be my forbearers. So, I wonder if you could tell us Sam, a little bit about this process. It's a very interesting gathering. It's a great catalogue put together. If you could talk a little bit about your experience of hunting down Sicily if you would. >> Samuel Vincent Lemley: Yeah. So, I should say that my collection was inspired a continuous to be guided by grandfather's genealogical research he's been working on for decades, and actually just published in book form three years back. So that's -- that sort of underwrites everything that I've managed to do. In terms of gathering and collection, most of it actually I bought from Italian dealers online. A lot of the materials are still in Sicily. As you'd imagined, the Sicilian books aren't typically as collectable, and desirable. Because of that, I've been able to acquire a lot of things fair inexpensively, which is great. Yeah, I think just the idea being that the motivation behind the collection being this sort of desire to find a material link with my ancestral past that, you know, is my own. Is, you know, innately mine, but also inaccessible in a way. So, trying to find some link to my ancestors, my family. [ Applause ] >> Mark Dimunation: Congratulations to all our award winners and thank you very much to our sponsors. Those of us who live in the world of books in any variety of profession, whether it be curator, book dealer or collector, understand the sentimental nature of this for all of us. The fact that book collecting can speak to another generation with passion and personality is very reassuring. So, thank you all very much for the evening. [ Applause ]