Nominated for the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography – D. J. Bromer’s Aldous Huxley Bibliography

The World’s Best Books about Books

During the 41st ILAB Congress, preceded by ILAB’s International Antiquarian Book Fair, both in Paris in April 2014, the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography of 10.000 USD will be awarded. Since 1967, when Jean Peeters-Fontainas received the first Prize for his outstanding “Bibliographie des impressions Espagnoles aux Pays-Bas méridionaux”, famous scholars have submitted the best books about books. Many of them have become standard works both in scientific research and in the antiquarian book trade.

Seventy books about books have been submitted to the Prize, which has become one of the most prestigious international awards. Among them many bio-bibliographical studies of the life and works of famous authors such as John Gilbert’s highly praised Ian Fleming bibliography or C. E. Grissom’s, D. C. Smith’s and D. A. Richards’ excellent works on Ernest Hemingway, H. G. Wells and Rudyard Kipling. Another brilliant book is devoted to an author who gave us the image of a “Brave New World”: Aldous Huxley.

David J. Bromer has been collecting Huxley’s works for almost fifty years, ever since he attended Huxley's series of lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961. Bromer received a Sc.D. from MIT and pursued a career in scientific research for fifteen years before joining his wife, Anne, in antiquarian bookselling. Today, Bromer Booksellers, located in Boston, is one of the worldwide leading antiquarian bookshops. In 2011 David J. Bromer published a book about his life-long passion as collector, bookseller, and scholar:

Aun Aprendo: A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Writings of Aldous Leonard Huxley

Although remembered primarily for his “Brave New World”, Aldous Huxley was one of the most prolific 20th century British writers who wrote on almost everything from philosophy to psychology to history and drug literature where he was a predecessor of Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg. Huxley published more than two thousand short stories, poems, dramas, screenplays, and essays, worked as an editor, journalist, reviewer, and translator. This huge amount of creative work has now been put into one bibliography by David J. Bromer.

“Aun Aprendo” is thereby the culmination of over twenty years of research, fact-finding, and detective work. "Aun Aprendo," which means "Still Learning" in Spanish, was the title of a commencement speech that Huxley gave at the progressive Happy Valley School in California in 1951. With over 2,000 entries, Bromer’s impressive study is the most current and comprehensive descriptive bibliography of Aldous Huxley's works ever produced. It describes the first appearances of Huxley's works in the English language and identifies many previously unrecorded contributions to books, pamphlets, and periodicals. As a result, Aun Aprendo is an essential tool for librarians, scholars, book collectors, and all interested Huxleyans, offering insight into the mind of one of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century.

Moreover, the book is a beauty: bound in the manner of the British deluxe edition of “Brave New World”, with bright yellow cloth and a gilt-titled blue leather spine label.

“All the more admirable is that the compiler accomplished all of this in such a handsome form. Designed by Roderick D. Stinehour, set in type by Avanda Peters, and bound by Acme Bookbinding of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Aun Aprendo was obviously assembled with ease of use in mind. Pages are uncrowded and crisply presented, with generous spacing and margins. The paper (Rolland Opaque) is bright, smooth, and substantive; the binding, durable and attractive. A list of references and a detailed index are present. … Each major section is precisely titled (e.g. "Contributions to periodicals which constitute the work's first appearance in print"), largely obviating the need to search the book's preliminary materials in order to remind one of its scope. In short, where most bibliographies are too often merely utilitarian, Aun Aprendo gives as much consideration to its readership as it does its scholarship.” (Brian Cassidy)

D. J. Bromer: Aun Aprendo. A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Writings of Aldous Leonard Huxley.

Compiled by David J. Bromer in collaboration with Shannon Struble. Boston, Bromer Booksellers, 2011.

>>> Bromer Booksellers

16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography

>>> Click here to view the full list of submitted books

Read also

>>> Nominated for the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography – R. J. Howgego’s Encyclopedia of Exploration

>>> Nominated for the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography - Ernst Fischer: Antiquarian Booksellers in Exile

>>> Nominated for the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography - Michael Suarez & H. R. Woudhuysen: Oxford Companion to the Book

To be continued …