[NB – Possibly the first award ever given for excellence in the description of things that don’t actually exist.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exhibition, having completed a three-month run in Portland, Maine, has been returned to its imaginary home at the Club Fortsas in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Part bibliophilic entertainment and part conceptual art installation, Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books <\/em>is a collection of books that do not really exist. Curated by bibliophile Reid Byers, the exhibition includes approximately 100 books from his collection\u2014all simulacra created with a team of printers, bookbinders, artists, and calligraphers\u2014of lost books that have no surviving example, unwritten books that were planned but left unfinished, and fictive works that exist only in fiction. Highlights of the exhibition include William Shakespeare\u2019s Love\u2019s Labour\u2019s Won<\/em>, the lost sequel to Love\u2019s Labour’s Lost<\/em>; Ernest Hemingway\u2019s first novel, stolen from his wife\u2019s bag on a French train in 1922; and the Necronomicon<\/em>, John Dee\u2019s copy of the eldritch grimoire that has been kept sealed in a strongbox, as a precaution, since the Krickle accident of 1967. An accompanying catalog (above right) is published by Oak Knoll and Club Fortsas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Talk of the Town<\/a>\u201d<\/a>– Zach Helfand, in The New Yorker -2\/3\/25<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…the most wonderful exhibition of the decade.\u201d<\/a> \u2013 Hannes Stein, Die Welt<\/em>, Berlin, 2\/20\/25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…a courageous act of poetic imagination<\/a>.\u201d \u2013Alberto Manguel, La Repubblica<\/em>, Rome, 12\/25\/24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cImaginary Books\u201d is as learnedly entertaining as Byers\u2019s earlier study<\/a>, \u201cThe Private Library<\/a>,\u201d was exhaustive and magisterial.<\/a> -Michael Dirda, The Washington Post, 1-3-25<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…a very elaborate and whimsical bit taken to its most creative extremes….<\/a>” -Adrian Horton, The Guardian, 12-11-24<\/p>\n\n\n\n an “…irresistible conceptual-art installation…<\/a>” – Will Heinrich, The New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…a thrilling combination of craftmanship and imagination.<\/a>\u201d \u2013 Jonathon Keats, Forbes<\/em>, 12\/30\/24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Information on the collection in Paris can be found at the Club Fortsas.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The History of the Architecture and Furnishing of the Domestic Bookroom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The third printing is currently available from Oak Knoll Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Private Library<\/em> was published by Oak Knoll in 2021 and was listed by the Washington Post among the best non-fiction books of the year. Now in its third printing, it is Oak Knoll Press’ all-time best-selling<\/strong> publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Praise for the book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “. . . a major work . . . witty and wise . . . .” “After a page or two . . . you are hanging on his every word and enjoying all the asides and the joky tone. The shaggy dog has got into the library. . . .” “. . . a profusely illustrated, detail-crammed, Latin-strewn and yet remarkably unstuffy book . . . goes to the heart of why physical books continue to beguile us.” \u201cThis year\u2019s best nonfiction illuminated complicated subjects, deepened our understanding of history and pulled back the curtain on fascinating lives…. Beautifully designed, Byers\u2019s 500-page masterwork lays out how cultures from antiquity to the present created welcoming, comfortable spaces to house books.” <\/strong> “Reid Byers\u2019 opus magnum <\/em>on private libraries is everything it says in the title, but above all it is about the ways people contrive to have their books about them…. Byers wears his considerable scholarship lightly… So sprightly and charming is his style that I might call this light reading, were it not that the physical book weighs in at nearly four pounds.” “The Private Library<\/em> is one of those books that, when you turn the last of its 540 pages, makes you sigh with pleasure. This densely informative, thought-provoking and entertaining volume proves as stimulating an experience as the room it studies and celebrates.” \u201cFor the bibliophile there is on practically every page something to learn, something to delight and something to amuse.” “Highly recommended.” “Excavating deeply into design history, and the ways the past is continuously reinterpreted, can suggest paths to fresh ideas\u2026writer and bibliophile Reid Byers has poured through centuries of evolving concepts\u2026.” “. . . fascinating as well as extremely useful . . . .” ***** – Goodreads<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The exhibition catalog for Imaginary Books was the winner of the 2026 Leab Award for Excellence in Description in a Print Catalog. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), announced on August 13th the recipients of the 2026 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American … Continue reading “Imaginary Books”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reidbyers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reidbyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Baxter.jpg?fit=709%2C476&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Private Library<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
–Michael Dirda, Washington Post, 9\/29\/2021 <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
–A. N. Wilson, <\/strong>T<\/strong><\/em>imes<\/strong> Literary Supplement,<\/em> 7\/23\/2021 <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Julie Lazly, The New York Times, 12\/24\/2021<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
– 50 notable works of non-fiction, The Washington Post, 11\/18\/2021<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Jennifer Larson, FABS Journal, Spring, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
-William Butts – Manuscripts, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Fall)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Charles Spicer, The Book Collector<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Nicholas A. Basbanes<\/strong>, author of A Gentle Madness<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Eve Kahn, New York Times, 10\/28\/2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
–Konstantinos Sp. Staikos<\/strong>, author of The History of the Library in Western Civilization<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n