Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies


The Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies is an association of American book clubs whose members seek interaction with book collectors across the country and around the world. At The Rowfant Club's 100th anniversary celebration in 1992, local members and their guests from book clubs in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco discovered common interests of bibliophilic book clubs. The new association's first meeting was November 5, 1993, in New York, at The Grolier Club. In 1994, the group drew up articles of association outlining their goals to promote and develop common interests of the member societies.
Founding member book clubs were : The Grolier Club of New York City ; The Club of Odd Volumes, Boston ; The Rowfant Club, Cleveland ; The Philobiblon Club, Philadelphia ; The Caxton Club, Chicago ; The Book Club of California ; The Roxburghe Club, San Francisco ; and The Baxter Society, Portland, Maine.

Select Member Clubs

Member clubs include The Aldus Society, Columbus, Ohio; The Ampersand Club, Minneapolis, Minnesota; The Baltimore Bibliophiles, Baltimore, Maryland; The Baxter Society; The Book Club of California, San Francisco, California; The Caxton Club, Chicago, Illinois; The Book Club of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan; The Grolier Club, New York, New York; The Manuscript Society; Movable Book Society; The Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society, Cleveland, Ohio; The Philobiblon Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Rowfant Club, Cleveland, Ohio; The Roxburghe Club of San Francisco; The Ticknor Society, Boston, Massachusetts; The Book Club of Washington, Seattle, Washington; and The Zamorano Club, Los Angeles, California.

Select International Affiliates

International affiliates include Aberystwyth Bibliographical Group, Aberystwyth, Wales;, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Associació de Bibliòfiles de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain; National Union of Bibliophiles, Moscow, Russia; The Society of Bibliophiles in Capetown, Capetown, South Africa; Les Amis Du Livre Contemporain, Paris, France; The Private Libraries Association, Pinner, Middlesex, Endland;, Berlin, Germany.

Activities

The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, founded in 2005 by Fine Books & Collections Magazine, was led starting in 2010 by a partnership of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies, the Grolier Club, and the Center for the Book and the Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress, with support by the Jay I. Kislak Foundation.
The contest encourages young book collectors. Similar contests have been held at colleges and universities across the United States, such as the Swarthmore College A. E. Newton Award Book Collecting Contest dating from the 1930s. Students from all schools, regardless of whether their school has a similar contest, and regardless of whether they've won similar contests, are encouraged to participate. The awards ceremony is held at the Library of Congress.