Joseph Laurence Black History of the Book Collection
A scholar of early modern British literature, Joe Black received his BA and PhD from the University of Toronto and taught for several years at the University of Tennessee Knoxville before joining the English faculty at UMass Amherst in 1994. Rooted in the history of the book, his research on seventeenth-century literature has examined the intersection between writing and the material and social context of production as well as the dialogue between print and manuscript culture.
The Black collection is an eclectic assemblage of American imprints designed to assist study and instruction in the history of the book. The collection includes two long runs of pulp novels, Beadle’s Frontier Series and the American Revolution-inspired Liberty Boys of ’76, examples of almanacs, prompt books, and works form the early national period in publishers’ bindings.
View the full Black collection in the library’s catalog.
Background on Joe Black
A scholar of early modern British literature, Joe Black received his BA and PhD from the University of Toronto and taught for several years at the University of Tennessee Knoxville before joining the English faculty at UMass Amherst in 1994. Rooted in the history of the book, Black’s research has examined the intersection between writing and the material and social context of production in seventeenth-century literature as well as the dialogue between print and manuscript culture.
In addition to his numerous contributions to academic journals, Black has edited and co-edited a number of significant works, including two volumes in the Broadview series, The Broadview Anthology of British Literature, vol. 2: The Renaissance and Early Seventeenth Century (Broadview, 2006), with Anne Lake Prescott, and The Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century English Verse and Prose (Broadview, 2000), with Alan Rudrum and Holly Nelson, The Martin Marprelate Tracts (Cambridge University Press, 2008), The Library of the Sidneys of Penshurst Place (University of Toronto Press, 2013), with Germaine Warkentin and William Bowen, and two volumes in the Private Libraries of Renaissance England, vol. 7 (MRTS, 2009) and vol. 8 (MRTS, 2013), both with R. J. Fehrenbach. Black is also engaged with the Digital Humanities Initiative at UMass Amherst, developing an online database of private Renaissance libraries with the Folger Shakespeare Library, among other projects.
The Black collection is an eclectic assemblage of American imprints designed to assist study and instruction in the history of the book. The collection includes two long runs of popular dime novels of the turn of the twentieth century, Beadle’s Frontier Series and the American Revolution-inspired Liberty Boys of ’76, examples of almanacs, prompt books, and works form the early national period in publishers’ bindings. Black has also contributed two scrapbooks: an ambitious late Victorian autograph album and a scrapbook kept by an agent with Massachusetts Orchestras Associated booking musical acts in ca.1931.
Gift of Joe Black, July 2013.
The Barbara Parker History of the Book Collection covers a broader span of time and printing technologies.
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Aug. 2014.
)Cite as: Joseph Laurence Black History of the Book Collection (RB 023). Special Collections and University Archives, UMass Amherst Libraries.