author
Joseph Sabin
1821–1881
A pioneering bibliographer and rare-book dealer, he devoted his career to mapping the printed record of the Americas. His vast reference works became lasting tools for collectors, librarians, and historians.
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About the author
Born in Braunston, England, in 1821, Joseph Sabin trained in the book trade before building a career in Oxford, Philadelphia, and New York. He became known as a bookseller, auctioneer, and bibliographer with a deep interest in rare books and Americana.
He is best remembered for compiling Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, an ambitious multivolume bibliography that remained unfinished at his death in 1881 but continued afterward. Sabin also published The American Bibliopolist, a trade magazine for book lovers and dealers, and wrote A Bibliography of Bibliography, a guide to books about books.
Sabin's work helped shape the study and collecting of early American printing and literature. Even now, his name is closely tied to the careful cataloging of the written history of the Americas.