Center for the Book Publications List

Bibliography and Language

A Description of Descriptive Bibliography (1992)
Author: G. Thomas Tanselle
Description: 37 p. Viewpoint No. 30. An explanation of the scholarly value of descriptive bibliography.
Links: LC catalog entry | Full text through HathiTrust

Federal Copyright Records, 1790-1800 (1987)
Author: Edited by James Gilreath; compiled by Elizabeth Carter Wills
Description: 149 p. Records from the 11 states and two federal agencies that received copyright deposits during the first decade of the U.S. federal copyright law.
Links: LC catalog entry | Full text through LC website | Full text through HathiTrust | LCIB coverage (issue 46.20)

The National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints: A Celebration of Its Completion (1981)
Author: Edited by John Y. Cole
Description: 49 p. A report on a symposium at the Library of Congress on Jan. 27-28, 1981 marking the completion of “National Union Catalog: Pre-1956 Imprints,” a 754-volume bibliographic reference work. Includes five papers by scholars, bibliographers, and librarians.
Links: LC catalog entry | Full text through LC website (text only) | Full text through HathiTrust (includes photographs) | LCIB coverage (issue 40.8)

The Oxford English Dictionary and the State of the Language (1988)
Author: Robert W. Burchfield, Hans Aarsleff
Description: 56 p. Talks at a symposium on May 29, 1986 co-sponsored with the Oxford University Press, marking the publication of the fourth and final volume of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Links: LC catalog entry | LC catalog entry for audio recording | LCIB coverage (issue 45.28)

Points at Issue: A Bookseller Looks at Bibliography (1984)
Author: Anthony Rota
Description: 22 p. Viewpoint No. 12. A lecture presented on April 24, 1984 examining the contributions of both booksellers and bibliographers to literary scholarship.
Links: LC catalog entry | Full text through HathiTrust

A Portrait of the Author as a Bibliography (1983)
Author: Dan H. Laurence
Description: 19 p. Viewpoint No. 9. A paper presented on November 3, 1982 discussing scholarly contributions to the field of bibliography.
Links: LC catalog entry | Full text through HathiTrust

The Rivers of America: A Descriptive Bibliography (2001)
Author: Carol Fitzgerald; edited by Jean Fitzgerald
Description: 899 p. Two volumes published by Oak Knoll Press in association with the Center for the Book. Includes complete bibliographic descriptions of the 65 titles in the “Rivers of America” series and biographies of its 60 authors, 53 illustrators, and eight principal editors. The Fitzgerald “Rivers of America” collection was donated to the Library of Congress in 2004 and is available, with related research materials, in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
Links: LC catalog entry | News release (July 23, 2001) | LCIB coverage (issue 56.10) | LCIB coverage (issue 60.9)

Series Americana: Post Depression-Era Regional Literature, 1938-1980: A Descriptive Bibliography (2009)
Author: Carol Fitzgerald; edited by Jean Fitzgerald
Description: 978 p. A two-volume reference work of American regional writing published by Oak Knoll Press in association with the Center for the Book. The collection is now available in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
Links: LC catalog entry | News release (January 21, 2010)

Where Angels Fear to Tread: Descriptive Bibliography and Alexander Pope (1988)
Author: David L. Vander Meulen
Description: 29 p. Viewpoint No. 19. An explanation of the field of descriptive bibliography and its literary value, informed by Vander Meulen’s own study of 800 copies of Alexander Pope’s “The Dunciad.”
Links: LC catalog entry | Full text through HathiTrust | LCIB coverage (issue 47.40)