Jane Austen's Bookshelf Collection Coming to New York Antiquarian Book Fair

With this year marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, Type Punch Matrix will be display the collection of books built by co-founder Rebecca Romney for her latest book Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend at the 65th Annual New York International Antiquarian Book Fair next month.

Jane Austen's Bookshelf chronicles Romney's efforts to build a book collection of Austen's favorite women authors, and investigates the disappearance of Austen's heroes, women writers who were erased from the Western canon, to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten.

"JAB recounts my experience reading and locating rare copies of books by these women," said Romney, "as well as drawing on connections between their words and Austen's. By gathering the works of these once-famed writers, the collection physically recreates Austen's bookshelf."

Just as in the book, the exhibition will feature dozens of important editions by the writers who influenced Austen including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth.

"I am thrilled to show the actual volumes that are described in the book," Romney added. "Book collecting is about appreciating books as individual historical objects. I can't wait for these copies that inspired my book to begin to find their way into the hands of collectors and institutions."

The collection will be on display - and books available for purchase - in Type Punch Matrix's booth (A3) at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, opening at the Park Avenue Armory on April 3.