Name: Lecture: Rebecca Romney on Jane Austen's Bookshelf
Start: 2025-05-05T18:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-05-05T20:00:00-04:00
Location: The Grolier Club

Lecture: Rebecca Romney on Jane Austen's Bookshelf

This lecture will chronicle the germination of Rebecca Romney's Jane Austen Bookshelf collection.
About this Event

"Jane Austen's Bookshelf: Collecting As Investigation." Club member and rare book dealer Rebecca Romney is the author of a new book, Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend (Simon & Schuster). This lecture will chronicle the germination of her Jane Austen Bookshelf collection. It began during a house call, when she acquired a Victorian edition of Frances Burney's Evelina. While cataloguing the book, Rebecca researched the life of Burney, who was one of Austen's favorite writers. Rebecca's deep dive into this volume uncovered gaps in her own reading that she didn't know she had. It became the start of a project to learn about Austen's now-underappreciated female inspirations, using book collecting as a path to discovery. Rebecca's book will be available for sale and signing at the lecture.

Registration

If you are a Grolier Club member, please register yourself and your guests via the Club website. Do not register via Eventbrite.

Support

We appreciate your interest in the Grolier Club’s programming on the art and history of the book. For over 130 years we have offered our exhibitions and lectures to the public, free of charge. If you have enjoyed these offerings, and would like to support that tradition, and help ensure that it continues, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Grolier Club.

Accessibility

An ADA-compliant lift from street level to the lobby is available to anyone with mobility issues. All desk staff should be ready and able to assist you in operating the lift, with or without advance notice.

A “T-Coil” assisted listening system is available to anyone attending a lecture in the Exhibition Hall. Visitors with hearing aids should turn their devices to the “T” setting in order to access the system; visitors without hearing aids may request a “loop receiver” with earphones.

Environment

The temperature and humidity in the exhibition hall are tightly controlled for the sake of the valuable items on display, and this may cause the room to feel chilly, particularly in warmer weather, to those coming in from outside. Members and visitors are advised to bring a light wrap when visiting an exhibition, or attending an event in the hall.