The Country Book-club 1788

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Illustrated titlepage:
Shillito, Charles.
The country book-club. A poem.
London, 1788.
Illustration on t.-p. etched by Thomas Rowlandson.
Call number: (GA) Rowlandson 1788
Call number: (RCPXR) 3930.12.327
Excerpt: “The rural bookseller of aspect pale, And bent with age, comes
tott’ring down the vale… Who but has heard his tale, so often told, Of famous men,
whose names he once enroll’d. How those illustrious members spoke and thought,
What ale they tippled, and what books they bought.”

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About Stephen Ferguson

Stephen Ferguson is Librarian Emeritus, Princeton University Library. He came to Princeton in 1975 to be Curator of Rare Books, after several years of professional work at the John Carter Brown Library (Brown University) and the National Heritage Museum (Lexington, Mass.). Between 2014 and 2026, he held various posts as an Associate University Librarian at Princeton. He has degrees from Bowdoin (A.B.) and Rutgers (M.L.S.). His scholarly interests include book history, provenance research, and the history of collecting. He has taught at Drew University on the latter topic.