BIBLIOMANIA AT U.VA.

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Jan. 18 -- "I cannot live without
books," wrote Thomas Jefferson to his friend John Adams in 1815.  By
his own count, Mr. Jefferson noted that he had 2,640 volumes in his
collection in the spring of 1783.  His life-long passion for book
collecting is still alive today at the University of Virginia. 
	Three students have been selected as winners in this year's
U.Va. Student Book Collecting Contest. Four students received
honorable mention.  Since 1949, the Bibliographical Society of the
University of Virginia has held the biennial contest to enhance an
awareness and appreciation for the study of books, their production,
and role in culture.  The contest is open to any full-time graduate
or undergraduate student and winners are chosen on the creativity
with which they select books in their areas of interest.
	Emphasis is placed on coherence and focus of the student
collections and not their monetary value.  "Rarity may be a factor,
but a single rare book would not constitute a winner," said David
Vander Meulen, editor of Studies in Bibliography.  "A collection of
paperbacks with a strong focus has as good a chance of winning."   
	This year a collection of books on High Church architecture
took first place. Denis McNamara, a doctoral candidate in the
Department of Architectural History has spent years putting it
together.  "Generally speaking, they are not valuable monetarily,
but very precious historically,"  he said. 
	McNamara's passion began in 1958. Upon finding his mother's
missal, he was "amazed at the beauty of the language of the Mass,
the sense of reverence and awe with which it addressed God."  Over
the years, McNamara has scoured used book stores to build his
collection. Word of mouth has also been an important vehicle for
collecting.  "Many people have aunts or grandmothers who die and
leave behind a missal or prayer book or statue.  Several people have
given them to me," said McNamara.  "I had a sense that someone might
need them some day." Clerics, nuns and fellow students often borrow
books from his collection to "enhance their liturgies, design their
chapels, or just learn the precious history of the Mass and
appreciate it more."
	"Generation X," the collection of Melissa Kennedy, a
graduate student studying Colonial American literature, took second
place.  Her interest grew out of the "media blaming many of
society's ills on my generation, the generation following the Baby
Boom," said Kennedy.  "I began collecting Generation X works to
track how the public perception of this generation (youth of the
1980s and 90s) developed and evolved.  " A subset of her collection
is first editions of Douglas Copeland, an author often described as
the "voice of his generation."
	When David Gants realized he needed his own copies of
certain works of Ben Jonson for his dissertation, he began
collecting 17th-century editions first and then soon began acquiring
works by Jonson from all periods.  "I think the most interesting
thing about old books is the contact they give you with the past. In
one of my copies...there is a page with very clear tracks of a cat,
made I'm pretty sure at the time the volume was printed.  I've seen
numerous other instances of this same cat in other books printed by
Stanby, the publisher.  I think it was a long-haired cat, because in
one book it has dragged its inky tail across a page, and the streaks
look like those left by a shaggy tail."
	Gants began collecting as a teenager.  He received a small
turn-of-the-century complete works of E.A. Poe that had belonged to
his great aunt.  He also collects baseball yearbooks and annuals.
His prized possession isn't a book but a hand-carved chess box made
by his great great grandfather during the "War Between the States."
Gants defended his dissertation in October and will be awarded his
degree in January.  He is currently teaching in the English
department at the University of Georgia.
	Honorable mention was awarded to Kimberly Horne, Fred E.
Lybrand and Thomas A. Scott for their general collections and to
Andrew Tickle for his collection in religious history. 
	Cash prizes of $100 for the first-place winner and $50 each
for the second- and third-place winners were awarded as well as
membership for a year to the Bibliographical Society of the
University of Virginia and the journal of the society, Studies in
Bibliography, and gift certificates from local booksellers.  
	The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia
will celebrate its 50th anniversary in March.  The first book
contest winner, in 1948, Arthur Parsons Bean, donated his Sitwell
collection to the University of Virginia Library. Another early
winner was Irby B. Cauthen Jr., who was professor of English and
dean of the College at U. Va. for a number of years.  Over the
years, winners have included Robert Turner, George Walton Williams,
Richard Dillard, and Matthew Bruccoli, all respected English
scholars and professors.  Matthew Bruccoli has been a major donor to
the University of Virginia Library with his collection of "The Great
War," in memory of his father.
###
January 17, 1997

	For additional information please contact: David Vander
Meulen (804) 924-6624/924-7105, Denis McNamara (804) 243-0977,
Melissa Kennedy (804) 984-2840, David L. Gants (706) 542 1261.