"a scholarly milestone in the history of English-language children's literature"

The Dartons: An Annotated Check-list of Children's Books Issued by Two Publishing Houses, 1787-1876 by Lawrence Darton has been awarded the first Justin G. Schiller Prize for Bibliographical Work on Pre-20th-Century Children's Books by the Bibliographical Society of America. The award was announced Friday, January 26, 2007 in New York City at the Society's annual meeting. According to Society president John Bidwell, "The competition was stiff for the first Schiller prize, partly because it has started off by admitting publications appearing within the past five years instead of the usual three-year cycle." In his letter informing the author, he noted three other Oak Knoll titles that were in contention for the prize—Nigel Tatersfield's John Bewick, Jane Pomeroy's Alexander Anderson, and Alderson's & Oyen's Be Merry and Wise—but said that Darton's work stood out. "Not only does it describe and index in scrupulous detail the output of two of the most influential firms during a key period of the genre's development, but it also compliments the work of Sydney Roscoe, Marjorie Moon, and Christina Duff Steward in ways that will allow future historians of the book and of children's books to study the trade in unprecedented depth."

Besides this award and the selection of Harold Pinter: A Bibliographical History as an Outstanding Academic Title by CHOICE magazine (January 2007), another Oak Knoll bibliography was recently recognized for excellence. David Griffiths' Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer was "Specially Commended" (i.e., runner-up) for the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers' most recent (2006) Bibliography Prize, awarded once every four years. The announcer of the prize remarked "It offers 450 years of publishing history, from Cranmer's famous text of 1549 to date, some 5000 different editions (including 1200 different translations), all meticulously differentiated and described, with collations, as you would expect. In the trade we sometimes complain that academic bibliography is all about books we never see. Nobody will say that about the Book of Common Prayer. This excellent work will take its place alongside Darlow & Moule's great Catalogue of Bibles."

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With or without the accolades, you can depend on Oak Knoll for the best in bibliographies and other "books about books."