Terry Belanger
Encyclopedia
Terry Belanger is the founding director of Rare Book School
(RBS), an institute concerned with education for the history of books and printing, and with rare books and special collections librarianship. He is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia
(UVa), where RBS has its home base. Between 1972 and 1992, he devised and ran a master's program for the training of rare book librarians and antiquarian booksellers at the Columbia University
School of Library Service. He is a 2005 MacArthur Fellow.
. He has degrees from Haverford College
(A.B., 1963) and from Columbia University
(M.A., 1964; Ph.D., 1970), where he studied under James L. Clifford, Allen T. Hazen, and John H. Middendorf. Between 1966 and 1971, while working on his dissertation on aspects of the 18th-century London
book trade, he taught advanced prose
composition courses at the Columbia University School of General Studies
, an activity leading to the 1972 publication of The Art of Persuasion, a writing manual co-authored with J. Steward LaCasce. While in England
on a Columbia traveling fellowship in 1968–69, he revised the book production sections of the 18th-century volume of the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL), working with Graham Pollard
, who had compiled the original sections for the first edition of CBEL, published in 1940. With Jane Marla Robbins, he co-authored and co-directed a one-character play starring Robbins called Dear Nobody, based on the life of the 18th-century diarist and novelist, Fanny Burney
. The play ran Off-Off-Broadway
in 1968; it later had a five-months' Off-Broadway
run at the Cherry Lane Theatre
in 1974.
and print
the result on a hand press
; make relief cuts, drypoint
s, and etching
s; and otherwise get their hands dirty in the interest of their bibliographical educations. The program, the first of its kind, put a heavy emphasis on books as physical objects, and it stimulated the development of rare book librarianship as a profession; graduates of the Columbia rare book program currently occupy many of the senior positions in the field. In 1983, Belanger founded Rare Book School
, a collection of five-day non-credit courses on subjects relating to the history of the book and rare book librarianship, expanding the educational opportunities he had developed within the Columbia master's program and making them available both to working professionals—teaching academics, rare book librarians, archivist
s, antiquarian booksellers, conservators and binders—and to those with an avocational interest in the subjects treated. In 1989, he began to compile an address book
listing the names of the Friends of the Book Arts Press, RBS participants, and others with rare book connections or interests (the 10th, 352-page edition of the Book Arts Press Address Book was published in 2008).
(UVa) in 1992, where he accepted an appointment as University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections. At UVa, Belanger taught undergraduate courses on the history of the book
in the history, English, and art departments and in the School of Engineering and Applied Science
. In 1996, he established a program in which UVa undergraduates came up with the idea for a book exhibition, researched the subject, wrote captions, and mounted the result in the Dome Room of the Rotunda
, the principal room of the University. Student had considerable independence in how they constructed their exhibitions, whose subjects ranged from Armed Services Editions
to Thomas Jefferson
and Monticello
ephemera. Belanger continued to organize and host a series of public lectures begun at Columbia on bookish subjects, including an annual lecture honoring Sol. M. and Mary Ann O'Brian Malkin
; the 500th lecture in the series was given at UVa in 2007.
Belanger retired in 2009; he was succeeded as director of RBS by Michael F. Suarez, S.J.
He continues to teach courses in the identification of book illustration processes 1450–1900 at RBS, and he remains on the faculty of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, where he teaches descriptive bibliography and basic conservation/preservation techniques.
(1986) and he has given the Graham Pollard Lecture of the Bibliographical Society of London (1988), the Hanes Lecture at the University of North Carolina
(1991), the Malkin Lecture at Columbia University
(1991), the Brownell Lecture at the University of Iowa
(1994), the Adler Lecture at Skidmore College
(1996), the Mayo Lecture at Texas A & M University (2003), the inaugural lecture in the Fondren Library Distinguished Lecture Series at Rice University
(2004), the Swartzburg Lecture at Wells College
(2007), the McCusker Lecture at Dominican University
(2008), the inaugural Joan Friedman Lecture in Book History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
(2010), and about two hundred other formal presentations on bibliographical and bibliophilic subjects over the past 40 years. In 2009, he gave the annual addresses of the Bibliographical Society of America
in January, and of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia in March.
Rare Book School
Rare Book School is an independent non-profit organization based at the University of Virginia supporting the study of the history of books, manuscripts, and related objects. Each year, RBS offers about 30 five-day courses on these subjects...
(RBS), an institute concerned with education for the history of books and printing, and with rare books and special collections librarianship. He is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
(UVa), where RBS has its home base. Between 1972 and 1992, he devised and ran a master's program for the training of rare book librarians and antiquarian booksellers at the Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
School of Library Service. He is a 2005 MacArthur Fellow.
Education and early work
Born in 1941, Belanger attended public schools in Bristol, ConnecticutBristol, Connecticut
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States southwest of Hartford. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 61,353. Bristol is primarily known as the home of ESPN, whose central studios are in the city. Bristol is also home to...
. He has degrees from Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
(A.B., 1963) and from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(M.A., 1964; Ph.D., 1970), where he studied under James L. Clifford, Allen T. Hazen, and John H. Middendorf. Between 1966 and 1971, while working on his dissertation on aspects of the 18th-century London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
book trade, he taught advanced prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
composition courses at the Columbia University School of General Studies
Columbia University School of General Studies
The School of General Studies, commonly known as General Studies or simply GS, is one of the three official undergraduate colleges at Columbia University. It is a highly selective Ivy League undergraduate liberal arts college designed for non-traditional students and confers Bachelor of Art and...
, an activity leading to the 1972 publication of The Art of Persuasion, a writing manual co-authored with J. Steward LaCasce. While in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
on a Columbia traveling fellowship in 1968–69, he revised the book production sections of the 18th-century volume of the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL), working with Graham Pollard
Graham Pollard
Henry Graham Pollard was a British bookseller and bibliographer.Pollard was the son of the historian Albert Pollard and was born in Putney, London on 7 March 1903...
, who had compiled the original sections for the first edition of CBEL, published in 1940. With Jane Marla Robbins, he co-authored and co-directed a one-character play starring Robbins called Dear Nobody, based on the life of the 18th-century diarist and novelist, Fanny Burney
Fanny Burney
Frances Burney , also known as Fanny Burney and, after her marriage, as Madame d’Arblay, was an English novelist, diarist and playwright. She was born in Lynn Regis, now King’s Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to musical historian Dr Charles Burney and Mrs Esther Sleepe Burney...
. The play ran Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
in 1968; it later had a five-months' Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
run at the Cherry Lane Theatre
Cherry Lane Theatre
The Cherry Lane Theatre , located at 38 Commerce Street in the borough of Manhattan, was New York City's oldest, continuously running off-Broadway theater...
in 1974.
The rare book program at Columbia
In 1972, Richard L. Darling, the dean of Columbia's School of Library Service (SLS), invited Belanger to develop a master's program for the training of rare book and special collections librarians, a brief soon expanded to include the antiquarian book trade. The program's laboratory, the Book Arts Press, provided a space where students could set typeTypesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
and print
Letterpress printing
Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a "type-high bed" printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image...
the result on a hand press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
; make relief cuts, drypoint
Drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used...
s, and etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s; and otherwise get their hands dirty in the interest of their bibliographical educations. The program, the first of its kind, put a heavy emphasis on books as physical objects, and it stimulated the development of rare book librarianship as a profession; graduates of the Columbia rare book program currently occupy many of the senior positions in the field. In 1983, Belanger founded Rare Book School
Rare Book School
Rare Book School is an independent non-profit organization based at the University of Virginia supporting the study of the history of books, manuscripts, and related objects. Each year, RBS offers about 30 five-day courses on these subjects...
, a collection of five-day non-credit courses on subjects relating to the history of the book and rare book librarianship, expanding the educational opportunities he had developed within the Columbia master's program and making them available both to working professionals—teaching academics, rare book librarians, archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...
s, antiquarian booksellers, conservators and binders—and to those with an avocational interest in the subjects treated. In 1989, he began to compile an address book
Address book
An address book or a name and address book is a book or a database used for storing entries called contacts. Each contact entry usually consists of a few standard fields...
listing the names of the Friends of the Book Arts Press, RBS participants, and others with rare book connections or interests (the 10th, 352-page edition of the Book Arts Press Address Book was published in 2008).
The move to UVa
Belanger moved both the Book Arts Press and RBS to the University of VirginiaUniversity of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
(UVa) in 1992, where he accepted an appointment as University Professor and Honorary Curator of Special Collections. At UVa, Belanger taught undergraduate courses on the history of the book
History of the book
The history of books follows a suite of technological innovations for books. These improved the quality of text conservation, the access to information, portability, and the cost of production...
in the history, English, and art departments and in the School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science
The University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science , established in 1836, is the oldest engineering school in the United States associated with a university.-The school:...
. In 1996, he established a program in which UVa undergraduates came up with the idea for a book exhibition, researched the subject, wrote captions, and mounted the result in the Dome Room of the Rotunda
The Rotunda (University of Virginia)
The Rotunda is a building located on The Lawn in the original grounds of the University of Virginia. It was designed by Thomas Jefferson to represent the "authority of nature and power of reason" and was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. Construction began in 1822 and was completed in 1826, after...
, the principal room of the University. Student had considerable independence in how they constructed their exhibitions, whose subjects ranged from Armed Services Editions
Armed Services Editions
Armed Services Editions were small, compact, paperback books printed by the Council on Books in Wartime for distribution within the American military during World War II. This program was in effect from 1943 to 1946. The ASEs were designed to provide entertainment to soldiers serving overseas,...
to Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
and Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
ephemera. Belanger continued to organize and host a series of public lectures begun at Columbia on bookish subjects, including an annual lecture honoring Sol. M. and Mary Ann O'Brian Malkin
Mary Ann O'Brian Malkin
Mary Ann O'Brian Malkin, editor and collector of books on dance notation.Mary Ann O'Brian Malkin collected books on dance notation, the shorthand used by choreographers to make detailed records of their work...
; the 500th lecture in the series was given at UVa in 2007.
Belanger retired in 2009; he was succeeded as director of RBS by Michael F. Suarez, S.J.
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
He continues to teach courses in the identification of book illustration processes 1450–1900 at RBS, and he remains on the faculty of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar, where he teaches descriptive bibliography and basic conservation/preservation techniques.
Lectures
Belanger was Rosenbach Lecturer at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
(1986) and he has given the Graham Pollard Lecture of the Bibliographical Society of London (1988), the Hanes Lecture at the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
(1991), the Malkin Lecture at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(1991), the Brownell Lecture at the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
(1994), the Adler Lecture at Skidmore College
Skidmore College
Skidmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,500 students. The college is located in the town of Saratoga Springs, New York State....
(1996), the Mayo Lecture at Texas A & M University (2003), the inaugural lecture in the Fondren Library Distinguished Lecture Series at Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
(2004), the Swartzburg Lecture at Wells College
Wells College
Wells College is a private coeducational liberal arts college located in Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake. Initially an all-women's institution, Wells became a co-ed college in Fall 2005....
(2007), the McCusker Lecture at Dominican University
Dominican University
Dominican University may refer to:* Dominican University of California, an independent university of Catholic heritage located 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, California...
(2008), the inaugural Joan Friedman Lecture in Book History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
(2010), and about two hundred other formal presentations on bibliographical and bibliophilic subjects over the past 40 years. In 2009, he gave the annual addresses of the Bibliographical Society of America
Bibliographical Society of America
The Bibliographical Society of America is the oldest learned society in North America that studies books and manuscripts as physical objects. Established in 1904, the society promotes bibliographical research and issues bibliographical publications...
in January, and of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia in March.
Awards
- 1994 – American Printing History Association Individual Award
- 2005 – MacArthur Fellow
Works
- J. Steward LaCasce and Terry Belanger, The Art of Persuasion: How to Write Effectively about Almost Anything. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972.
- "Descriptive Bibliography", BookCollecting: A Modern Guide Jean Peters, ed. (New York and London: R. R. Bowker, 1977), 97-101.
- Richard L. Darling and Terry Belanger. Extended Library Education Programs: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the School of Library Service, Columbia University, 13–14 March 1980. New York: Columbia University School of Library Service, 1980.
- The ALA glossary of library and information science, Editors Heartsill Young, Terry Belanger, Ediciones Díaz de Santos, 1983, ISBN 9780838903711.
- Terry Belanger, ed. Proceedings of the Fine Printing Conference at Columbia University Held May 19–22, 1982. New York: Columbia University School of Library Service, 1983.
- Lunacy & the Arrangement of books, New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll Books, 1983; 3rd ptg 2003, ISBN 9781584560999.
- Editor/compiler of the Book Arts Press Address Book: published by the Book Arts Press at Columbia UniversityColumbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(1989–91) and at the University of VirginiaUniversity of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
(1993–2008). - Editor/compiler of the Rare Book School Yearbook (1989–99).
- The Anatomy of a Book: I: Format in the Hand-Press Period (30-minute videotape). Author and co-producer (with Peter Herdrich). New York: Viking Productions, Inc. 1991. Reformatted and released by RBS as a DVD, 2003.
- Dancing by the Book: a Catalogue of Books 1531-1804 in the Collection of Mary Ann O’Brian Malkin. With Mary Ann O’Brian Malkin, Moira Goff, Richard Noble, and Jennifer Thorp. New York City: Privately Printed, 2003.