"20th Century Propaganda" Wins Nt'l Collegiate Book Collecting Contest

Cover to comic book, Is This Tomorrow.
Catechetical Guild, 1947.

Andrew Fink, a student at the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA), has won First Prize in the 2010 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest for An Interdisciplinary Survey of 20th Century Propaganda.

After a two year hiatus, the contest was reinstated under the joint leadership of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, the Center for the Book, and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, with major support from the Jay I. Kislak Foundation.

ABAA Executive Director Susan Benne noted that there were twenty-nine applications to the contest this year. “We look ahead toward increasing awareness of the contest next year and encouraging a new generation of collectors.”

Judge Stuart Bennett noted that in awarding the prizes, “The judges agreed that the primary purpose of the contest was to reward students for being infected with the book-collector's bug.” 

 

United States Office of War Information
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943

With that in mind, the judges went on to consider the depth and range of the student's interests, the zeal with which the student acquired material for the collection, the enthusiasm and expertise shown in describing the collection, and the inherent possibilities for further expansion.

Second Prize went to Ryan Julian, of the University of Chicago, for The History of Mathematics.

Third Prize was awarded to Philipp S. Penka, Harvard University, for “Temporary Spiritual Sustenance”: The Print Culture of Russian Displaced Persons in Post-War Germany (1945-1951)
 

Bailey N. Pike, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, won the Essay Prize for The Mythology of Mozart.
 

Prizes will be awarded to both the winning students and the libraries of the institutions from which they hail. The awards ceremony will take place on October 15, 2010 at 5:30pm at the Library of Congress, Mumford Room, Madison Building, sixth floor and will include a lecture by Carol Fitzgerald, a noted collector, bibliophile and author. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

__________

__________