Sidney E. Berger

Last updated

Sidney E. Berger is an American educator, librarian, and scholar who has worked and published extensively in literature, librarianship, and bibliography and the book arts, with a primary focus on papermaking, paper history, watermarks, and paper decoration. [1]

Contents

Education

Born in Brooklyn, NY, and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Berger received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965, his M.A. and PhD from the University of Iowa in 1971, and his M.S. / L.I.S. at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1987. [1]

Career

Since 2003 he has been adjunct professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University and adjunct professor in the iSchool / School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In both schools he teaches courses in rare books, special collections, and bibliography. At Simmons, he also teaches a course in editing in the Department of Communications. [2]

As an English professor he taught at the University of California, Davis, and as an adjunct at the University of California, Riverside. From 1987 to 1990, Berger was Head of Printed Books and Head of Manuscripts at the American Antiquarian Society. He was Head of Special Collections and University Archivist at the University of California, Riverside from 1990 until 2000. [3] From 2000 to 2003, he was the Head of the California Center for the Book, based at UCLA, where he was adjunct professor in their Library School.

Berger was the Ann C. Pingree Director of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum from 2007 to 2014, and is now Director Emeritus of that library. [4]

Publications

His notable books are: [5]

Since 2003, Berger has published about 100 scholarly articles, and he has been the “Decorated Paper” columnist for Hand Papermaking Newsletter for which publication he has written over 60 articles.

With his wife Michèle V. Cloonan he is the proprietor of the Doe Press, which has published fine-press books including: Thom Gunn. Lament. 1985; Ernest Kroll. Six Letters to An Apprentice. 1994; Donald Justice. Banjo Dog. 1995, and Michele V. Cloonan, The Invisible Presence of Gertrude Stiles, 2010. [12]

Also with Michèle V. Cloonan, he amassed a collection of over 22,000 pieces of paper, now the Berger-Cloonan Collection of Decorated Paper at the Cushing Library, Texas A&M University. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Serriffe</span> Typography-themed April Fools Day hoax

San Serriffe is a fictional island nation invented for April Fools' Day 1977 by Britain's The Guardian newspaper. It was featured in a seven-page hoax supplement, published in the style of contemporary reviews of foreign countries. It commemorated the tenth anniversary of the island's independence, complete with themed advertisements from major companies. The supplement provided an elaborate description of the nation as a tourist destination and developing economy, but most of its place names and characters were puns and plays on words relating to printing. The original idea was to place the island in the Atlantic Ocean near Tenerife, but because of the ground collision of two Boeing 747s there, a few days before publication it was moved to the Indian Ocean, near the Seychelles islands. Because of this, the authors made San Serriffe a moving island – a combination of coastal erosion on its west side and deposition on the east cause it to move towards Sri Lanka, with which it will eventually collide.

Private press publishing, with respect to books, is an endeavor performed by craft-based expert or aspiring artisans, either amateur or professional, who, among other things, print and build books, typically by hand, with emphasis on design, graphics, layout, fine printing, binding, covers, paper, stitching, and the like.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonard Baskin</span> American artist (1922–2000)

Leonard Baskin was an American sculptor, draughtsman and graphic artist, as well as founder of the Gehenna Press (1942–2000). One of America's first fine arts presses, it went on to become "one of the most important and comprehensive art presses of the world", often featuring the work of celebrated poets, such as Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Anthony Hecht, and James Baldwin side by side with Baskin's bold, stark, energetic and often dramatic black-and-white prints. Called a "Sculptor of Stark Memorials" by the New York Times, Baskin is also known for his wood, limestone, bronze, and large-scale woodblock prints, which ranged from naturalistic to fanciful, and were frequently grotesque, featuring bloated figures or humans merging with animals. "His monumental bronze sculpture, The Funeral Cortege, graces the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. S. W. Rosenbach</span> American collector (1876–1952)

Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach was an American collector, scholar, and dealer in rare books and manuscripts. In London, where he frequently attended the auctions at Sotheby's, he was known as "The Terror of the Auction Room." In Paris, he was called "Le Napoléon des Livres". Many others referred to him as "Dr. R.", a "Robber Baron" and "the Greatest Bookdealer in the World".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dard Hunter</span> American authority on printing, paper and papermaking (1883–1966)

William Joseph "Dard" Hunter was an American authority on printing, paper, and papermaking, especially by hand, using sixteenth century tools and techniques. He is known for, among other things, the production of two hundred copies of his book Old Papermaking, for which he prepared all aspects: Hunter wrote the text, designed and cast the type, did the typesetting, handmade the paper, and printed and bound the book. A display at the Smithsonian Institution that appeared with his work read, "In the entire history of printing, these are the first books to have been made in their entirety by the labors of one man." He also wrote Papermarking by Hand in America (1950), a similar but even larger undertaking.

James William Parkes was an Anglican clergyman, historian, and social activist. With the publication of The Jew and His Neighbour in 1929, he created the foundations of a Christian re-evaluation of Judaism. He also published under the pseudonym John Hadham.

William Reeves was an Irish antiquarian and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore from 1886 until his death. He was the last private keeper of the Book of Armagh and at the time of his death was President of the Royal Irish Academy.

Colin Ellis Franklin, FSA was an English writer, bibliographer, book-collector and antiquarian bookseller.

The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is a North American organization that fosters the study of books and manuscripts. It was constituted from the earlier Bibliographical Society of Chicago as the national membership began to exceed local membership. The organization publishes the scholarly journal, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, as well as books on topics of bibliographic interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Seelye Bixler</span>

Julius Seelye Bixler was the 16th President of Colby College, Maine, United States, from 1942–1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Proctor (bibliographer)</span> English bibliographer

Robert George Collier Proctor, often published as R. G. C. Proctor, was an English bibliographer, librarian, book collector, and expert on incunabula and early typography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents, and ephemera</span> Activity to extend the life of historical materials

The conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents, and ephemera is an activity dedicated to extending the life of items of historical and personal value made primarily from paper, parchment, and leather. When applied to cultural heritage, conservation activities are generally undertaken by a conservator. The primary goal of conservation is to extend the lifespan of the object as well as maintaining its integrity by keeping all additions reversible. Conservation of books and paper involves techniques of bookbinding, restoration, paper chemistry, and other material technologies including preservation and archival techniques.

George Thomas Tanselle is an American textual critic, bibliographer, and book collector, especially known for his work on Herman Melville. He was Vice President of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation from 1978 to 2006.

Oak Knoll is a bookseller and publisher based in New Castle, Delaware, United States. Oak Knoll includes Oak Knoll Books which specializes in the sale of rare and antiquarian books and Oak Knoll Press which is a publisher and distributor of in-print titles. Both divisions specialize in "books about books" on topics such as printing history, bibliography, and book arts. Oak Knoll has also been the sponsor of the book arts festival Oak Knoll Fest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Books in the United Kingdom</span>

Books in the United Kingdom have been studied from a variety of cultural, economic, political, and social angles since the formation of the Bibliographical Society in 1892 and since the History of books became an acknowledged academic discipline in the 1980s. Books are understood as "written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers".

The Gehenna Press was one of the earliest limited edition fine arts presses in the United States. Established in 1942 by sculptor and graphic artist Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) while still a student at Yale, the award-winning press went on to publish approximately 200 books in nearly 60 years, finally ceasing operation shortly after Baskin's death in 2000, which also makes it one of the longest-lived small presses in the U.S. The Press is known for its imaginative printing, use of type, binding and book illustration, as well as its collaborative work with several key 20th-century poets, including the United Kingdom's Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and, posthumously, James Baldwin. Over the years, the Gehenna's work was widely exhibited in both museums and library collections, and its books are in public collections both in the U.S. and abroad. In 1995, Baskin and his work with the Press were recognized by the Library of Congress with a solo retrospective, the first for a living artist in its history."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Schmoller</span> German-born British graphic designer

Hans Peter Schmoller was a German and British graphic designer who worked as Head of Typography and Design at Penguin Books from 1949 to 1976. During his Penguin years he played a crucial role in postwar British typography, and has been described as one of the most influential typographers of the last century.

Michèle V. Cloonan is an American library and information science educator. She is a professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University, in Boston, Massachusetts, and Dean Emerita of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons. She is an advocate for the preservation of cultural heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paste paper</span>

Paste paper is a type of surface design in which a colored, viscous media is applied directly to the surface of a paper sheet and modified with various tools and techniques to render an array of patterns and effects. It is sometimes confused with paper marbling, in which colored designs are created on a bath and then transferred to the paper surface. The term "paste paper" is used to refer to both the articles created using the technique and the technique itself, which has also been used to decorate wooden furniture. Paste papers are used as endpapers and covering papers in bookbinding, furniture linings, and wallpaper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Lawrence Foster</span> American paper marbler (1944–2020)

Louise Lawrence "Larry Lou" Foster was an American paper marbler, book artist, book binder, and educator. She was born on January 16, 1944, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Foster attended Auburn University, George Washington University, and University of Alabama.

References

  1. 1 2 "Get to know Sidney Berger (MS '87)". School of Information Sciences. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  2. ↑ "Sidney Berger | Simmons University". www.simmons.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  3. ↑ "Sidney E. Berger - W. W. Norton & Company". books.wwnorton.com.
  4. ↑ "Sidney E. Berger | ALA Store". www.alastore.ala.org. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  5. ↑ "WorldCat Identities: Berger, Sidney E." WorldCat. 2020-11-18.
  6. ↑ Baskin, Leonard; Berger, Sidney E; Kuch, Michael; Larson, Arthur; Gehenna Press (1996). Flevronologia: Divers etchings formed from flevrons by Leonard Baskin ; with an historical essay by Sidney E. Berger ; The Gehenna Press, MCMXCVI. Rockport, Me.: Gehenna Press. OCLC   38487349.
  7. ↑ Carle, Eric; Berger, Sidney E; Gehenna Press; Press Collection (Library of Congress) (1997). The magical painted papers of Eric Carle: being actual examples of the tissues : with a note by the artist on how he makes & uses the papers & a critical essay by Sidney E. Berger, special collections librarian University of California, on their historical imperatives. Rockport, Me: Gehenna Press. OCLC   38043280.
  8. ↑ Berger, Sidney E; Tindale, Harriett Ramsey; Bixler, Michael; Bixler, Winifred; Tindale, Thomas Keith; Bird & Bull Press; Papierfabrik Zerkall Renker & Söhne; Campbell-Logan Bindery (2001). The handmade papers of Japan: a biographical sketch of its author and an account of the genesis and production of the book. Newtown, Pa.: Bird & Bull Press. OCLC   48246511.
  9. ↑ Berger, Sidney E; Morris, Henry; Bird & Bull Press (2002). Forty-four years of Bird & Bull: a bibliography, 1958-2002. Newtown [Pa.: Bird and Bull Press. OCLC   50621023.
  10. ↑ Berger, Sidney E (2004). Karli Frigge's life in marbling. Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press. OCLC   66657503.
  11. ↑ Berger, Sidney E; Bixler, Michael; Bixler, Winifred; Satō, Shōzō; Bird & Bull Press; Campbell-Logan Bindery; ArjoWiggins (Firm) (2011). Chiyogami papers = 千代紙. Newtown, Pa.: Bird & Bull Press. OCLC   708395884.
  12. ↑ "Chatting with Sidney Berger". Simmons SLIS Infolink. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  13. ↑ Libraries (2018-07-02). "Texas A&M Acquires Impressive Collection of Decorated Papers". library.tamu.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.