Private Libraries Association

Calling all bibliophiles – anyone who loves books – to join

Founded in 1956, the Private Libraries Association is an international society of book collectors – collectors of rare books, fine books, single authors, special subjects, and, above all collectors of books for the simple pleasures of reading and ownership. ¹

The Private Libraries Association publishes the quarterly journal, The Private Library

The Private Library, is the Association’s quarterly journal. Some issues are available on the website; others may be purchased. ²

Some articles:

• Printing on Iona

• A Collector’s Guide to The Stanbrook Abbey Press

• Bernard Middleton’s Bindery

• the Morte Darthur & Aubrey Beardsley

The Private Libraries Association Publishes Monographs

• A comprehensive general history of publishers’ dust jackets from the earliest known in 1819 until the Edwardian period. The appendices list all known jackets issued until 1870. 

Zaehnsdorf binding

• The Zaehnsdorfs (1842-1947), Craft Bookbinders

• Early Lithographed Books.

  An extensive treatise on lithography in the first half of the C19th in Europe complete with an extensive catalogue of lithographically produced books and bibliography.

• An annual bibliography of private Press Books.³

1. Private Libraries Association

2. The Private Library. Back issues are available, and “Tables of Contents” may be viewed online at the website,

3. Private Press Books: An Annual Bibliography.