The field of book history has never been more vibrant, nor has the importance of interrogating the material dimensions of text, its creation and circulation and consumption, been more clear, as digital media upend traditional modes of publishing, reading, and even academic librarianship. “What is a book?” is a question whose stakes have never been higher, and book historians and bibliographers have risen to the challenge, producing work that examines not just how books exist as physical objects, but how those physical existences have been conditioned by historical circumstances, and how they in turn condition cultures and practices and reading and interpretation. The University Seminar in Material Texts proposes an event that will bring together scholars in this vibrant field, including several Columbia faculty members, to discuss new and ongoing work.

Summer 2019 sees the publication by Oxford University Press of Book Parts, edited by Dr. Dennis Duncan (writer and translator) and Prof. Adam Smyth (Balliol College, Oxford), a bold and imaginative intervention in the fast-growing field of book history that “pulls the book apart.” In twenty-two chapters, it tells the story of every component of the book, from title pages to endleaves, dustjackets to indices, and everything in between. It shows how these parts of the book that we know, love, or take for granted emerged over time, make meaning for book makers and users, and hide in plain sight. The volume covers the pre-print era to the digital age, and each chapter is written by an exciting scholar working in the field of book history today. The book’s editors are based in the UK, as are many of its contributors, but a number are based in the United States, including three faculty members from Columbia alone.

To showcase the exciting and innovative work being done in the fields of book history and bibliography at Columbia and across the Atlantic seaboard, the Columbia University Seminar in Material Texts will host a one-day “Book Parts” event on Friday, October 11, 2019. Eight speakers from among the volume’s contributors will speak about their “book part,” and an invited keynote speaker will respond to the day’s papers and the volume as a whole. We will also work with Columbia’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library to include a pop-up exhibit session in Butler Library, for which conference speakers will select items from Columbia’s rich Special Collections holdings that illustrate or speak to the phenomena in their presentations.

PROGRAM:
12:45 – 1:00pm Arrival, coffee