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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'> </span></p><p class=MsoBodyText align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'>On Monday, November 18, the American Antiquarian Society will present a regional academic seminar given by Sean Moore, Associate Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, titled “<b><i>The Redwood Receipt Books and Newport Slavers: A Bio-Bibliographical Inquiry into the Borrowing Records of Early America's Premier Slave-Trading Port</i></b>.” This seminar series is co-sponsored by the history departments of Brown University, Clark University, and the University of Connecticut.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Professor Moore has offered the following précis of his paper: <span style='color:black'>Rarely do scholars find evidence of the reception of works, but the Redwood Library’s receipt books from eighteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island present the opportunity to do a bio-bibliographical analysis of some of the Redwood’s readers and perhaps move us towards an understanding of readers’ tastes. The surviving receipt books are records of what books were borrowed from the library during a five year period from 1756-1761, and were kept by Ezra Stiles, the librarian of the Redwood and future president of Yale University. These printed forms list three blanks per page, and are filled in cursive handwriting with the title of the book, the cash deposit to borrow it, the name of the borrower, and the librarian’s signature. Most of the names have been torn out of them, the custom at the time being to tear out the name of the borrower after the book was returned. Whether this was done to protect the privacy of readers is an open question, but the important thing for my research is that many of the names were not torn out, or at least not completely. This evidence of who was reading what books is not only of interest to book history, however, but also provides the chance to do what D.F. McKenzie and Jerome McGann described as a “sociology” of the text that considers the possible motives of the readers who were wealthy enough to pay the deposit on a book within what some historians have called early America’s premier slave shipping port. This paper, accordingly, will explore the role of the philanthropy of slave traders and owners in financing the library’s collection and argue that the receipt books give us insight into the financial interests of readers and the possible reasons why they might have been borrowing particular books. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>The seminar will take place at 5:00 PM on Monday, Nov. 18, at the Society’s Goddard-Daniels House, located at 190 Salisbury Street, Worcester, MA, 01609. For directions, please visit the AAS website at <a href="http://www.americanantiquarian.org">www.americanantiquarian.org</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoBodyText3 align=left style='text-align:left'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Refreshments will be provided after the paper. If you plan to attend, please notify Ann-Cathrine Rapp at AAS (at <a href="mailto:arapp@mwa.org">arapp@mwa.org</a>) no later than Friday, November 15. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Baskerville Old Face","serif"'>Paul J. Erickson<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Baskerville Old Face","serif"'>Director of Academic Programs<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Baskerville Old Face","serif"'>American Antiquarian Society<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Baskerville Old Face","serif"'>185 Salisbury St.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Baskerville Old Face","serif"'>Worcester, MA 01609<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Baskerville Old Face","serif"'>508-471-2158<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>