Book Launch: Contemporary Issues in Rare Book and Manuscript Collecting by Spencer W. Stuart

Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum invites you to celebrate the launch of author Spencer W. Stuart's new publication Contemporary Issues, with an introduction by Gary Ackerman, Board President, Book Club of Washington. . Join us for a lecture followed by a Q&A and wine reception.

Contemporary Issues provides collectors and those in the Trade with detailed examinations of the economics of the structural transformations currently taking place in the world-wide market for rare books, manuscripts, prints and photographs. It examines the specific cultural transformations within the collecting ecosystem and discusses the broader social impacts of collecting in society as a whole.

Especially for Collectors, Contemporary Issues examines many topics not historically discussed or directly addressed. Historically collecting was a cultural practice reserved for a select few with considerable financial resources. The emerging Networked collecting ecosystem challenges this portrait as well as redefines the fundamental motivations that compel one to collect.

About the Author

Spencer W. Stuart is an experienced Collections Advisor. He works with new, expanding, mature and deaccessioning collections throughout the world both in private and institutional contexts. Spencer’s work is focused on aiding to facilitate collection development, cataloguing and deacquisition strategies.

In tandem with his advisory work, Spencer has delivered 20+ sessions on collecting management to more than 500 collectors from 12 collecting organizations. His articles have appeared through Rare Book Hub, The Book Collector, Amphora and Manuscripts. He has appeared on CBC Radio to present segments on Book History.

Spencer holds a master’s degree in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute in London, England (recipient of the Director’s Award). Upon graduation he took a position with Bonhams Auctioneers where he worked closely with the North American Rare Books and Manuscripts department in Toronto and New York.

He is an alumnus of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminars and has completed course work through the Rare Book School (University of Virginia).