Nowadays, it is not difficult to find reproductions of books online, even when it comes to less common editions, such as the works of Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon. There are blogs, such as this one, and there are vast online databases such as the Internet Archive and HathiTrust, there are antiquarian platforms where one can search for descriptions, complete with illustrations, of second-hand copies on offer, there are national digitisation programmes in many European countries, and there are enthusiasts or scholars who, for various reasons, compile collections of images on the internet – to name but a few examples.
One such collection was started in December 2023 by the American scholar Dan Williford (Daniel Patrick Williford) – see here for his profile page. He introduces himself as
a librarian and instructor at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, where he works in the Alfred R. Goldstein Library supporting research and teaching information literacy and writing for students in art and design disciplines. His work bridges librarianship, book history, and literary scholarship, with particular emphasis on the material and bibliographic afterlives of Oscar Wilde.
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| Dan Williford, 'Ricketts Bindings' [accessed 5 July 2026] |
His collection of images of the books and magazines of Ricketts and Shannon serves a particular purpose. His focus is on 'queer bibliography', that, in his words, 'examines how acts of collecting, listing, cataloging, and enumerating texts shape the historical record of queer literature'. More information can be found on his blog pages. [See for example: 'Queer Bibliography. An emerging critical field'.]
In 2015, his dissertation The Aesthetic Book of Decadent Literature, 1870-1914 (University of California, 2015) contained a chapter on the Vale Press as a producer of aesthetic books. (I mentioned this in blog 379. Scholarly Attention for Charles Ricketts (4).)
The pages contain copies of antiquarian descriptions, previously published catalogues and bibliographies, and provide quick access to digitised editions. The emphasis is not on new information, but on accessibility. See, for some of his pages on Ricketts: www.danielpwilliford.com and, especially, the page on Resources which provides a thematic index to his website.
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| Dan Williford, 'Ricketts and Vale Press Bibliography' [accessed 5 July 2026] |
