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The ratio of the number of people that the Society has served, both within the organization and beyond, to the number of those working at its core may be one of the highest for any scholarly institution. The size of the official membership has, quite naturally, fluctuated over the years, but a number of trends are evident. The Society grew with unusual quickness from the 130 charter members (itself a surprisingly high number) listed in the attachment to the first Secretary's News Sheet in 1947. By 1952 membership had grown to nearly 500, and a 1958 news story on the occasion of the Grolier visit reported (probably with an exaggeration in the count by 10%) that the Society "has 1000 members scattered all over the earth" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 19 October 1958). The definition of "members" is complicated and an exact count therefore difficult because many institutions have chosen to order their copies of Studies directly from the University Press, but the highest enrollment appears to have come in the early 1970s; around the time of the Society's twenty-fifth anniversary, about 950 members were on Society rolls and another 200 or 300 institutions held standing orders with the Press (these in addition to customers who purchased volumes of SB ad hoc). Since then the number has gradually declined to about 550 formal memberships and 150 standing orders. (Individual sales also continue; the 1000 copies for 1995 sold out.) The greater part of that reduction has been the result of institutional cancellations as library budgets have been trimmed; recently personal memberships have actually increased slightly.
The geographical distribution of members also changed over time. This data is hard to reconstruct with precision, but the years for which reasonably thorough evidence is available (the earliest, the fifth, and the latest) show early strength in Charlottesville followed by a rapid expansion beyond and an increasing acceptance by institutions. Because some early addresses cannot be determined, the annual totals in the following chart (which do not include the Press's standing orders) do not quite add up to the figures cited above. For reference, one might note that the high water mark occurred in 1972, when the Society held 468 individual memberships, 496 institutional ones, and about 200 standing orders through the Press.
| 1947 | 1952 | 1996 | |||
| Personal | Personal | Institutional | Personal | Institutional | |
| Charlottesville | 68 | 80 | 0 | 34 | 2 |
| Other Virginia | 45 | 69 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| Other U.S. | 11 | 173 | 109 | 129 | 160 |
| Foreign | 1 | 21 | 15 | 68 | 150 |
The lone foreign subscription in 1947 belonged to a member at the American Embassy in Iceland; by 1952 twenty-six countries were represented. Today memberships come from thirty-one countries--mostly from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom (76), Germany (30, all but 3 institutional), Canada (24), Japan (15, all but 2 personal), and Australia (14). To ease problems of currency exchange and to establish bibliographical ambassadors, the Society early on appointed Honorary Secretary-Treasurers in foreign countries. These began in 1952 with the British Isles (Mrs. Douglas Wyllie), Chile (Ricardo Donoso), Finland (Lauri O. Th. Tudeer; later Jorma Vallinkoski), France (Henry A. Talon), and India (S. R. Ranganathan), followed a couple years later by Germany (Richard Mummendey), the Netherlands (Johan Gerritsen), and Venezuela (Pedro Grases) and then in 1964 by Sweden (Rolf du Rietz). Most of these people served continuously until 1969, when the Society abolished all posts in this increasingly complex system except for the British Isles. When in 1991 the Council finally acceded to Mrs. Wyllie's wish to retire, it found her successor in R. J. Goulden. At about that time it also added Honorary Secretary- Treasurers for Australia and New Zealand (Ross Harvey; later Brian N. Gerrard) and Japan (Hiroshi Yamashita). Establishing these positions was a recognition of actual and potential interest in those countries; by the same token, it is a tribute
The categories of membership available at any one time have reflected the changing circumstances of the Society. It quickly became apparent that the original $2.00 membership fee was inadequate to provide for an annual volume of papers, and in preparation for the second volume (1949-50) the basic dues were raised to $4.50. Not all members were necessarily interested in that scholarly direction, however, and accordingly at the 28 September 1949 annual meeting a range of membership categories was established. Regular or "Subscribing Members" received the new annual as well as "all other bibliographical material" issued by the Society; "Resident or Associate Members," at $2.50, had the privilege of attending Society meetings and received the News Sheet and selected pamphlet publications but not Studies--benefits apparently shared by "Student Members" (at $1.50), except for the pamphlets; and "Contributing Members," like "Subscribing Members," received all publications but by their benefactions of $15 or more assisted specially "in furthering the work of the Society." The "Associate" class was dropped in 1952, though the informality of the organization meant that policies could be improvised. To a man in the Air Force who objected to having to pay dues while abroad, Wyllie wrote: "Gosh man, we will make a rule. Members on active service in enlisted grades will be carried as in full standing without payment of dues during the period of their active service. At least we will do this now in your case, and if we get into a general war, we will reconsider the whole problem." The constitutionally mandated student category--for UVa students only--was never widely publicized and in 1970 was deleted both as a required division and as a current possibility. The category itself was formally reinstituted in 1990; students anywhere were now eligible, and they received all the benefits of Subscribing Members, but at half the price. By choosing in effect to offer students a copy of Studies at less than the cost of production, the Council sought both to serve an audience not commonly known for its financial resources and to entice members at a formative stage in their intellectual development.
The number of Contributing Members, whose names have appeared as a roll call of honor in each volume of Studies, serves as a rough index of the size and activity of the Society. Similar to the fortunes of regular memberships, these rose quickly, reaching a plateau after the first decade but then inching upward to a peak of 66 (19 institutional, 47 personal) in 1968. With a dues rate of $25 for this class of members, who received the results of the stepped-up publications program, the arrangement was less and less to the benefit of the Society; a subsequent doubling of the rate resulted in the loss of 2 institutional and 15 personal members.
This appeal for additional funds arose at a time when the Society's cash reserves had nearly vanished. A graph of such monies across the life of the Society shows the accumulation of a few thousand dollars in the first decade but then their dwindling; a gentle rise to about $10,000 in the mid 1960s; and then a skyrocketing as the Society began marketing through the University Press while also producing more substantial books--to nearly $50,000 in 1980 and almost twice that by 1995. Yet when measured against similar societies, the Virginia one has been relatively poor. The sudden fall-off in 1996 is actually a sign of the Society's good health, however, for the money went into a revitalized publications program (too recent for any proceeds to have returned) and into making the back issues of SB available in electronic form. (In his Executive Committee Budget for 1971, Massey had noted that the cash balance had been increasing partly because the Society had not published anything recently but was resting on the laurels and profits of books in the warehouse.) Although the Society acknowledged that it would never recoup directly the money spent on the electronic project, it undertook the expense cheerfully, believing that the increased availability would be of service to scholarship and that the project might serve as a model and encouragement for others.
Traditionally the Society's funds have come from three sources: dues, which approximately pay for Studies; publications, which on the whole have generated a profit; and gifts, which have financed sundry other undertakings but which have also enabled the primary ones to stay afloat at crucial times. For three years, from 1966 through 1968, the Society administered an anonymous grant (Paul Mellon has now given permission to be identified as the donor) to Allan Stevenson "for the development of new techniques in the dating of undated English books, with special reference to the early period." Before this Stevenson had published four revolutionary articles on paper study in Studies; a
Though the Society's application to the NEH was unsuccessful, Bowers's own editing projects for authors from five centuries sometimes did receive such funds. These undertakings were not formally connected with the Bibliographical Society, but they are a reminder of how the Society represented an ongoing corporate presence for bibliography at the University and how it created a climate for such work to thrive. The same could be said for other local accomplishments--the library's publication of Joan Crane's bibliographical catalogue of the Robert Frost collection, for instance, or her and Anne Freudenberg's catalog of a Faulkner exhibition in honor of Massey. Nor does the Society have a formal relationship with Terry Belanger's Book Arts Press, despite the many connections that exist. It was, however, the bibliographical tradition created by the Society at the University that made Charlottesville appealing when the Columbia Library School closed in the early 1990s, and it was that same tradition that made University administrators eager to welcome this additional linking of books and the University.
The Society's most consistent financial hope was for permanent funding by the University. Aspirations were highest in the early years as the Society sought a way of guaranteeing the existence of Studies, but they also rose, unrequitedly, when at the death of Wyllie the Society sought ongoing support for a secretary. That need, however, pointed to what the University had already provided. Apart from the small grants the Society had received from the University's Research Committee, it had from the start utilized the services of the secretaries of Wyllie and of his successor as Rare Books Curator, Bill Runge. Beginning in 1950 some of this assistance was reflected in the Society's budget as a $100 subsidy from the library in the form of mimeograph supplies, postage and stationery, and Addressograph plates. On Wyllie's death the library provided the Society with a business office, which it still maintains. In various intangible ways the departments whose members serve on the Council have supported that work; most significantly, the English Department now considers
The broader membership of the Bibliographical Society has found its representatives in the thirty-three members who have served on the Council, some of them as officers. (The fluctuating combinations of these overseers can be traced in the annual lists in Studies.) Those of the first decade have already been noted: Joseph M. Carrière, Mrs. Randolph Catlin, Miss Lucy T. Clark, Jack Dalton, Chalmers L. Gemmill, Atcheson L. Hench, Sears R. Jayne, William B. O'Neal, Mrs. Vincent Shea, Willis A. Shell, Jr., Charles W. Smith, Hugh M. Spencer, Arthur F. Stocker, and Philip Williams--in addition to Bowers, Massey, and Wyllie. Because of the impact that the latter three had on the organization, it is reasonable to view their departures as demarcating major phases in the Society's history, with Wyllie's death in 1968 marking the end of the first stage. Many of the early Councilors remained through the two decades of Wyllie's presence, and a number of additional ones joined during that time (the years of their doing so are given in parentheses): William Runge (1962), a former graduate student in History who had become Curator of Rare Books Irby Cauthen (1960), a faculty member in the English Department who had previously been a graduate student there; and Anne Ehrenpreis (1966), a literary scholar in her own right and wife of Swift biographer Irvin Ehrenpreis in the English Department.
The second period of the Society extended from 1968 to approximately the time of Bowers's death in 1991. Massey himself died in 1974, relatively soon after Wyllie, but the changes instituted in those half dozen years characterized the Society for its second pair of decades. (At the Council meeting where Kendon Stubbs was elected President a month after Massey's death, "Mr. Cowen suggested that Mr. Stubbs continue managing the Society as it has been going in the past until it is decided how the work should be distributed.") New Council members reflected new circumstances in the Society's life, but most of these people had already been connected with the Society and represented interests that the Council had traditionally encompassed. Fresh Councilors in this era included: Kendon Stubbs (1966), a graduate student in the English Department in the early 1960s who subsequently was appointed to various posts in the University library, including that of Associate Librarian; Ray Frantz (1968), University Librarian; Walker Cowen (1971), Director of the University Press; Julius Barclay (1974), Rare Book Curator;
The demise of Bowers coincided with an unusual number of changes in the Council's make-up--as well as the last meeting at Kinloch. A number of the added members were recent arrivals at the University: Nancy Essig (1990), the new University Press Director; Kathryn Morgan (1991), the new Rare Book Curator; Terry Belanger (1993), the Director of the Book Arts Press; and Karin Wittenborg (1994), the new University Librarian. On the other hand, Penelope F. Weiss (1993) had been the Society's Executive Secretary since 1986. Furthermore, two of the most symbolic changes, in the editorship of Studies and the presidency, involved other people who already had a significant connection with the Society. I had begun working with Bowers on the journal soon after joining the English Department in 1984 (I was elected to the Council in 1986), and the new role as editor was an extension of earlier ones. G. Thomas Tanselle, elected a Council member and President in 1993, had published in Studies annually since 1963 and had become a friend of Bowers; the world of bibliography and textual criticism had in fact sometimes linked their names, often with that of Greg, as a hyphenated adjective. Tanselle succeeded Irby Cauthen, who not only had provided stability as President since 1978 but also was a charter member. What was striking about Tanselle's appointment was that it marked the first time (except in the case of Willis Shell, of Richmond) that a Council member came from outside Charlottesville. His selection was nonetheless very much in keeping with the national and international character that the Society had assumed very early, an expansion presaged by Massey's own involvement from beyond the University Grounds.
Over the years the Council has nominally supervised the work of the Society, reflecting on the Society's initiatives and direction at its semi-annual meetings and providing assistance and organization for activities ranging from teas and book collecting contests to the publishing program. What that means in practice is that the Society has run chiefly under the guidance of its officers. In the report Stubbs prepared for the Society in 1974, he observed that "In the somewhat false terms of business management the Society can be described as having two productive functions [the production of Studies and of monographs], carried out essentially by about six personnel." It is also the case that the organizational structures of the Society became largely those that were dictated by the publishing program (as described above). During the long stint of Massey's executorship, coordination of all functions was chiefly his.
The others Stubbs may have had in mind can be gleaned largely from a record of Society officers. Arthur Stocker was the first with a significantly long tenure; he was Vice-President from 1951 to 1957, and then in 1959 answered the call to be in charge of the important board that supervised publications. When Wyllie's role of Secretary-Treasurer was split into two offices in 1962, Bill Runge took on communication with the wider world as Secretary, meanwhile also serving as a chief organizer of the Typogs. Three others assumed official positions in the reorganization that followed Wyllie's death. Walker Cowen took the new post of Second Vice-President; his occupation as Press Director made him vitally involved with all Society publications for the next twenty years. The roles of Secretary and Treasurer were recombined and assigned to Ray Frantz, who distinguished himself by tending with notable success for twenty-five years to the finances and legalities of the Society in its days of greatest prosperity. During the final years of Linton Massey's presidency Kendon Stubbs had been Assistant Secretary; his effectiveness there and his keen insight into Society operations made him a natural choice to succeed Massey as President. When Irby Cauthen began as President in 1978, Stubbs took over the vice-presidency, the role in which he continues to serve the Society in which he has been an official for nearly thirty years.
Gradually another role also came into prominence in the Society, that of Executive Secretary. Historically, much of the clerical work of the Society, including the processing of memberships, had been carried out by secretaries in the Rare Book Room--among them, Miss Evelyn Dollens (who in 1949 became Mrs. John Cook Wyllie), who kept the first membership list on cards; Miss Jean McCauley, also in the early days; and Susan Gunter in the mid 1960s. In the summer of 1968, following Wyllie's death, the Society moved its files and stock from the Rare Book Room and hired its own Secretary, Maxine Greenberg, to work twenty
In his comments in SB 20 celebrating two decades of the Society's development, F. C. Francis noted that although "Persistence is not an unfamiliar characteristic of officials of bibliographical societies," yet "the University of Virginia has in the record of service excelled all its brethren." Amazingly, what Francis saw was only part of what was yet to be. The story of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia in its first half century has been that of three great leaders and the people who devotedly worked with them. The Society has passed through stages of development, as any healthy body must: early exuberance and attempts to be all things to all members while it sought its special identity; then solvency, and its orientation as a successful publishing society; and next a fresh vigor under a new president as it has sought to build on its past with an active publishing program (including in electronic forms), public meetings, student participation, and even a reincarnation of the Secretary's News Sheet in the form of an annual presidential letter.
A common theme throughout that progress and accomplishment has been the selflessness that has distinguished both the Society and its leaders. Although the achievements of Linton R. Massey and John Cook Wyllie are immediately recognized and appreciated in the book world when they are raised, the men and their work are not as widely known as they might be, for they intentionally minimized their own visibility and placed wider interests above their own. In that regard their spirits were commensurate with the particularly sweet temper of the University Library and the University of Virginia Press at mid century-- a perception of those institutions so widespread and uniform that it seems
Not surprisingly, these attitudes have also characterized the Society itself. Although it is true that the Society would not have prospered without the astute management and attentiveness of Massey, the energy and academic entrepreneurship of Wyllie, and the wisdom and intellect of Bowers, it simply could not have survived without the loyalty of its members-- "scattered all over the earth"--and with their faithful contribution of dues and gifts that have transcended hopes of personal advantage. Institutionally, the Society has been willing to combine for meetings, exhibitions, and publications with whatever groups seemed appropriate in order to achieve the widest good. From its inception to the present the Society has also been willing to place itself in financial jeopardy for the sake of bringing important scholarship to wider audiences--as the initiation of Studies in Bibliography in the first place and now its presentation on the World Wide Web both show.
Massey ended his tenth-year account of the Society's journey "from early insolvency to a present impecuniousness" with what, in its double negatives, is a typically modest remark from him:
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