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The Justin G. Schiller Prize for Bibliographical Work on Pre-20th-Century Children's Books

Submissions for the Schiller Prize may concentrate on any children’s books printed before the year 1901 in any country or any language. They should involve research into bibliography and printing history broadly conceived and should focus on the book (the physical object) as historical evidence for studying topics such as the history of book production, publication, distribution, collecting, or reading. Studies of the printing, publishing, and allied trades, as these relate to children’s books, are also welcome.

Eligible scholarship may take the form of a published book or article, a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation defended and approved, or research results distributed in another manner, such as on a World-Wide-Web site or a CD-ROM. Eligible scholarship must have been published or, if a dissertation or thesis, approved during the year of the deadline or the three previous calendar years. However, for the first award, the nominating period will be extended back two more years (covering the period 1 January 2001 to 1 September 2006). If a publication has an incorrect nominal date disqualifying it for submission but an actual date of publication within the prize period, it may be nominated with a letter by the publisher or editor testifying to the actual date of publication. Unpublished dissertations and theses must be accompanied by a letter from the director attesting their approval.

All scholars are eligible to apply for the Schiller Prize without regard to membership in the Bibliographical Society of America or any other society, and without regard to citizenship or academic affiliation, degree, or rank. The Prize will be awarded to the author of a particular work of scholarship without regard to the author’s prolonged or repeated contributions to the field. Since the Prize is designed to promote research on the bibliography of children’s books, applications are encouraged from young or junior scholars who have not as yet published extensively. Applicants may nominate themselves or be nominated by others, including publishers, journal editors, and dissertation or thesis directors.

Applications must contain the following items: a letter of intent addressed to the "Schiller Prize Committee," three copies of the work placed in nomination, a one-page curriculum vitae, and, if required, any documentation regarding the approval of a thesis or a dissertation or confirming the date of a publication. Web-based nominations do not require the submission of three copies, but free access to the web-site and instructions regarding its use must be offered, along with a statement regarding plans for maintaining and/or archiving the web-site. Applications should be addressed to:

The Schiller Prize Committee
c/o the Executive Secretary
Bibliographical Society of America
P.O. Box 1537
Lenox Hill Station
New York, NY 10021
E-mail: bsa@bibsocamer.org

Questions regarding the award should be addressed to the Schiller Prize Coordinator:

Andrea Immel
Curator, Cotsen Children's Library
Princeton University Library
1 Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544
e-mail: aimmel@princeton.edu
Phone: 609-258-1148
FAX 609-258-2324

Lawrence Darton, 2007

The Bibliographical Society of America is pleased to announce that the winner of the first Justin G. Schiller Prize for Bibliographical Work in Pre-20^th Century Children’s Books is

Lawrence Darton’s The Dartons: An Annotated Check-list of Children’s Books Issued by Two Publishing Houses 1787-1876 (London/New Castle, Delaware: British Library/ Oak Knoll Press, 2004).  It was selected from a very competitive group of candidates, which included monographs, articles, dissertations, exhibition catalogues, and web sites.

The award committee judged Mr. Darton’s bibliography a major scholarly milestone that surpassed previous standards in the field, which were set by Sydney Roscoe, Marjorie Moon, and Christina Duff Stewart.  Over twenty-five years in the making, the illustrated 729-page monograph describes and indexes in scrupulous detail the output of two of the most influential children’s book publishing firms during a key period in the genre’s development.  The Dartons thus builds upon and extends our knowledge about the origins of modern children’s book publishing in England during the long eighteenth century and well into the Victorian period.  Children’s book historians, collectors, and historians of the book and of nineteenth-century print culture will find The Dartons an invaluable guide.

Mr. Darton, an independent scholar, is the great-great-great-grandson of the first William Darton, founder of the house of Darton.   His bibliography was also the recipient of the Children’s Books History Society’s 2004 F. J. Harvey Darton Prize.

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