William P. Barlow, Jr.—A Friend Indeed
“I am an accountant and a bibliophile.” This is how William P. Barlow, Jr. described himself in his farewell address as President of the Bibliographical Society of America a few years ago. This succinct formulation reveals two essential elements of his involvement with The Bancroft Library, but it cries out for amplification.
The accountant part is relatively simple: Bill Barlow received his AB in Economics at Berkeley in 1956 and has been practicing his profession in the Bay Area ever since, currently as partner in the firm of Barlow & Hughan in his native Oakland. A glance at the list of professional organizations to which he belongs and the committees on which he serves is evidence of his prestige and of the respect accorded him by his peers.
The bibliophile part is more complex. Bill Barlow the book collector was born in 1953 when the 19-year-old freshman at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena walked into a bookstore and bought a copy of Milton’s Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained printed by John Baskerville in Birmingham in 1758.
Being by nature both inquisitive and very thorough, Bill went to the Pasadena Public Library to find out more about this English printer who had produced such a handsome book, and he decided to acquire other works from this press. Today, the Barlow Collection of Baskerville is the largest and most significant collection of its kind in private hands.
William Barlow, left, was interviewed by Bancroft Friend and Council member Bernard Rosenthal. |
Fond of facts, Barlow decided to make a survey of all the Baskerville imprints on the market and, undaunted by the magnitude of the undertaking (probably also unaware of it), he systematically collected past and current antiquarian booksellers’ and auction catalogs. Soon this accumulation of catalogs acquired a life of its own and grew into a collection of catalogs quite independent of its Baskerville connection. It is now so large that it constitutes a superb resource for research in the history of the book trade from the 17th century onward, particularly in America.
The study of early book trade catalogs almost inevitably led to collecting books in the history of bibliography — the history of the reference works which illustrate the ever-changing, ever-painful, never fully adequate processes human beings devise to stay abreast of published knowledge. In turn, the history of bibliography is closely tied to the history of bibliophily, as it is recorded in the catalogs of collectors’ libraries.
Such catalogs are notoriously rare (they were generally published in small editions), yet an astonishing number line the Barlow shelves. Years of research led him to publish, in 1986, a revised edition of Archer Taylor’s Book Catalogues and Their Uses, a pioneering reference work dear to all specialists, first published in 1957.
Barlow has lectured widely and with verve, and several of his lectures on book collecting and bibliography are available in published form. His style is distinguished by a refreshing absence of the pretentiousness so often associated with things antiquarian and his wideranging scholarship is expressed in clear and witty prose. (Humor is a rare commodity in the world of bibliography, where things tend to be on the grim side.)
“I have always been interested in writing, not reading, mind you, just writing. In fact, my guiding principle has been that reading is destructive of one’s personal style of writing,” Barlow said (tongue in cheek?) in 1984. This love manifested itself early, when he published his first newspaper at age 11. The press run was a single hand-written copy. Then came a mimeograph machine and newspapers for a larger audience. With the acquisition of a five-by-eight Kelsey printing press at age 16, Barlow the printer and owner of Nova Press was born.
There are other Bill Barlows as well: the world-class water skier recently inducted into the American Water Ski Hall of Fame; the collector of stamps and post office seals and president of the East Bay Stamp Collectors Club; the supporter of the arts, currently chairman of the board of directors of the Oakland Ballet; the gourmet chef (the only person I have ever known to bake a perfect brioche).
Barlow’s involvement with The Bancroft Library began over 40 years ago when, as a senior at Berkeley, he often visited the Rare Book Room, which was then quite separate from the Bancroft Collection and had its own librarian, Kenneth Carpenter. Carpenter asked this eager student to put together a Baskerville exhibition for display in Doe Library. When the wonderful collection donated to the University by James K. Moffitt began arriving in 1956, Barlow was on hand to help with shelving and distribution.
When James D. Hart became director of a newly reorganized and vastly expanded Bancroft Library in 1969, Barlow became treasurer of The Friends of The Bancroft Library and, with the exception of a few intervals required by the by-laws, he has held that post ever since.
Barlow’s involvement with the University takes many forms. One is professional advice in financial matters, such as his recent finding that, contrary to commonly held opinion, the Internal Revenue Service does not prohibit institutions from paying for the appraisal of gifts they receive — a finding which made possible several donations from owners unwilling to bear the expense of an appraisal.
Equally significant are the contributions of Bill Barlow the teacher, who places his collections at the disposal of students and researchers. The staff of the Mark Twain Project, for instance, has been able to trace hundreds of previously unknown Mark Twain letters by systematically looking through Barlow’s 30,000-plus catalogs— a staggering undertaking! The Mark Twain editors have also made much use of a somewhat mysterious contraption called the Hinman Collator, which ferrets out subtle typographical variants to distinguish between different issues of a text. Barlow is the proud owner of the prototype of this machine, which he got from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington and now keeps in his living room. It has been used for over a quarter of a century by students and researchers in analytical bibliography and textual editing.
Bill Barlow, an inveterate joiner, freely shares his time and knowledge with the numerous organizations to which he belongs. He is the treasurer of practically every book-related organization in our part of the world, including the Book Club of California (of which he is president emeritus). He accepted a post on the Council of the Grolier Club, even though this meant half a dozen trips to New York every year. As honorary consultant to the American Antiquarian Society, he has developed methods for using 19th-century business records as tools for bibliographical research. For several years he has taught at Terry Belanger’s Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.
It was no surprise when the University of San Francisco awarded him the Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting in 1989. The highest accolade came in1992, when he was elected President of the Bibliographical Society of America. There could be no better measure of the esteem in which he is held.
We needn’t be jealous or worried, though. Barlow’s primary loyalty is firmly anchored here in California. After all, his ancestors came west on a covered wagon and there’s a Barlow Trail near Mt. Hood in Oregon to prove it.
“Barney” Rosenthal is an antiquarian bookseller
in Berkeley. He serves on the Council of
The Friends of The Bancroft Library.
Volume 113
Fall 1998
Table of Contents
"Sinners & Pilgrims" Colonel Denny’s Journal and Photo Album
From the Director: Students in Bancroft?
Ovid’s Metamorphoses Metamorphosed
Bonnie Hardwick Follows Her Passions
Rube Goldberg: An American Genius
William P. Barlow, Jr.—A Friend Indeed
Plumbing the Depths of the Spring Valley Water Company
Basketball? At Bancroft? The Oral History of Pete Newell
Jean Stone Honored at Annual Meeting
New Prize for Undergraduate Book Collecting
