Bibliophiles at Oxford
A Celebration of 50 Years

The Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles was established in 1950 as a club for Oxford students with an interest in collecting books and manuscripts. Its first meetings were held in Hilary Term 1951 and thereafter a programme of talks and visits was held every year until Trinity Term 2000. The list of the Society’s speakers over fifty years includes the names of almost every well-known British bibliographer, typographer, bookseller, book-artist, or collector, from John Carter, Herbert Davis, and Basil Blackwell in 1951 through to Colin Franklin, Christopher de Hamel, and Mirjam Foot in the 1990s. Throughout most of its life the Society’s activities took place under the benevolent eye of John Sparrow, Warden of All Souls. Regrettably, since 2001, the Bibliophiles has been dormant, due chiefly to the difficulty of maintaining a committee of student officers. A group of former members and senior officers has recently come together, however, to commemorate fifty years of the Society’s activities with a celebratory book and a members’ dinner.

The book has been provisionally entitled Bibliophiles at Oxford. Compiled by Paul W. Nash and the late Justin Howes, it will be uniform in format with The Warden’s Meeting (published by the Society in 1977) and will provide a record of the Society’s meetings between 1951 and 2000, with lists of officers and bibliographical notes on the term cards. These cards were printed by a range of private and fine presses, including Rampant Lions, Alembic, Perpetua, Whittington, Stamperia Valdonega and Stanbrook Abbey. There will be monochrome and colour reproductions of some of the more interesting cards, and the introduction will include contributions from Dr B. E. Juel-Jensen, Giles Barber, Paul Morgan and other senior members of the Society. There will be three indices, the first of speakers, talks and visits, the second of officers, and the third of printers and designers of the term cards. The book will run to about 200 pages and will be bound in cloth, with (we hope) a dust-jacket hand-printed in two colours.

Publication will rely on our receiving sufficient advance orders to make the book viable. Please order copies now at the pre-publication price of $64 or £28 (inclusive of U.S. postage, packing, and bank charges) from the Treasurer, Paul W. Nash, 8 Fairfield Drive, Witney, Oxon OX28 5LB, England (paul.w.nash@virgin.net).

The members’ dinner will be held on Friday 17 March 2006 in the Founder’s Library at New College, Oxford. The cost will be $90 or £45, to include three courses and wine. Places are limited to sixty and will be filled on a first-come first-served basis. Payments in Sterling for the book or dinner can be made by PayPal to the Treasurer’s e-mail address. If sending payment by this method please remember to include your full name and mailing address. Cheques should be made payable to the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles, and sent to the Treasurer, who will also be pleased to answer any further enquiries. The book is due to be published on the day of the dinner and you can save the postal charges ($10 or £6) if you are attending the dinner and would like to receive your copy on that occasion.