Joseph Sabin

Born in Braunston, England, on December 9, 1821, he was apprenticed to a bookseller in Oxford and built his early career in the book trade before moving to the United States. He worked in Philadelphia and New York, where he became known as a bookseller, auctioneer, and expert in rare books.

He is best remembered for compiling Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, an ambitious multivolume bibliography of works connected with the Americas. He also published The American Bibliopolist, a magazine for the book trade, and wrote A Bibliography of Bibliography, a reference work for readers and collectors interested in books about books.

Though he died in Brooklyn on June 5, 1881, his reputation lasted well beyond his lifetime. For anyone interested in Americana, libraries, or the history of collecting, his work remains a window into the world of 19th-century scholarship and rare books.