The Delaware Bibliophiles

The Delaware Bibliophiles ended the year with a meeting at the University of Delaware Library to view the exhibition of "Henry Morris, Printer: The Life and Times of the Bird & Bull Press." The Library holds the archives of this press and filled the Special Collections gallery with books, ephemera, and other material they have in their collection. We were fortunate to have the curator of this exhibit, Alex Johnston, give us a tour and he made an outstanding presentation and provided an excellent over view of Henry’s life work. Henry's scholarship as well as his sense of humor was evident throughout the exhibit. We had hoped that Henry Morris, who is one of two honorary members, John DePol being the other, might be able to attend but it wasn’t to be. Both Henry and John were very generous in assisting the Club with various projects that we have done over our 36 years.

In August we returned for our summer picnic to "The Church," the former Catholic Church of the small village of Landenberg, PA. It is now the home of one of our members. We had the usual picnic fare provided by the members and the Club. Many members took advantage of the book sale she had in the small barn.

A Collector's Showcase occurred at the Brandywine Hundred Library in October. It was an especially interesting meeting with a wide variety of books and ephemera shown and an equally diverse number of stories told. Included in the Show & Tell were a "Bombardiers Information File" from WWII; an 18^th century law book from the West Indies printed in Madrid in 1784 which included laws for the Inquisition; an admission ticket for a program of art sketches that Will Bradley gave along with readings by his friend, the author and poet, Nixon Waterman; books by native Prince Edward Island author Basil Ring; the most recent book by Alan Gurganus entitled Local Souls that had been inscribed to our member; a catalog from the Met for a recent photographic exhibit entitled “Faking It” along with a work by a friend who had taken a vintage cabinet card and manipulated it to show a “Dog Child;” and a broadside dated during the Civil War of the First Delaware Battery. The above shows the diversity of our members’ interests.

November again saw our annual auction and dinner at the Ed Oliver Golf Course. Members, including some from out of town, provided an abundance of material for both the live auction of 67 lots and the two raffle tables. Total proceeds amounted to approximately $900 which permits us to do Club projects as well as keep dues low.

We welcome visitors and would like you to join us if you are in our area. For additional Club information, please contact our president, Tom Doherty at tsquare1787@aol.com.