The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA) is delighted to announce the winners of the 2025 National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest:
First Prize
Tyler Davidian (Stanford University) for "The Futurist Archive Collection". Davidian, in pursuit of becoming a historian of Futurism, created The Futurist Archive—a free, online, encyclopedic catalogue raisonné of Italian Futurism, featuring entries on the movement’s artistic, literary, culinary, and political output. The project is designed for both scholars and casual readers, aiming to remove barriers to accessing Futurist works.
Second Prize
Peter de Guzman (Duke University) for "What is his identity?: Building a Filipino American Library". De Guzman's collection on Filipino and Filipino-American literature is more than just an interest; it is a journey of collecting books on the Filipino and Filipino-American experience, as a way to explore questions of identity and belonging. The goal for the collection is that it will one day evolve into a more profound effort to preserve stories, foster community, and pass on knowledge to future generations of Filipino-Americans.
Third Prize
Wilson (Alex) Fisher (Princeton University) for "Shadows on the shelf: Art and printed matter from Eastern Europe." Fisher collects original artworks and printed materials by Eastern European artists who worked during the collapse of state socialism and the subsequent period of nation-building. He seeks to fill in the gaps in his collection while aiming to explore and highlight the strong connections among artists grappling with the complex legacies of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The awards celebration will be held at the Library of Congress’s Whittall Pavilion on September 19th at 5pm.
The National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest is jointly administered by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS), and the Grolier Club and is supported by the Rare Books and Special Collections Division (the Library of Congress). Noted collector, bibliophile, and philanthropist Susan Jaffe Tane funds the prizes for the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest. The prize is known as The Susan Tane Prize for Student Book Collectors.
Established in 2005 by Fine Books & Collections Magazine to recognize outstanding book collecting efforts by college and university students, the program aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles. The magazine conducted the annual competition program for three years before turning over leadership to the new collaboration of institutional partners.
Competitions are held at more than three dozen colleges and universities across the United States. Some contests have been conducted for decades, dating back to Swarthmore College's first competition in the 1920s. All college or university prizewinners are encouraged to enter. Student collectors whose institutions do not offer a book collecting contest may also enter.
The Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America promotes ethical standards and professionalism in the antiquarian book trade, encourages the collecting and preservation of rare books, and supports education and research. The Fellowship of American Bibliographic Societies was formed in 1993 as a national organization of member book collecting groups.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, films and video, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office.