American Booksellers Association records, 1902-2023

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Creator:

Abstract:

American Booksellers' Association (ABA) is a not-for-profit organization devoted to meeting the needs of its core members–independently owned bookstores with retail storefront locations–through advocacy, education, research, and information dissemination. This collection documents the administrative functions and operations attesting to the mission of the American Booksellers Association and the evolution of the organization since its establishment in 1900. The collection comprises administrative and financial records, membership files, legal materials, director files, correspondence, event and campaign files, programs, photographs, posters, memorabilia, printed materials, and sound and video recordings, dating from 1902 to 2023, with its bulk dating from 1930s to 2000s.

Extent:

95.24 Linear Feet (178 manuscript boxes, 8 record cartons, 5 flat boxes, 2 photo boxes, 1 index card boxes, 2 audiocassette boxes, 1 CD box, 2 mapcase folders)

Language:

English, French, German, Spanish; Castilian

Scope and content:

This collection documents the activities of the American Booksellers Association, a trade association for booksellers in the United States since its founding in 1900, including related organizations such as the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), the Association of Booksellers for Children (ABC), and some of its regional units and specialty sections. The records contain administrative and financial documents, meeting minutes, legal materials, correspondence, clippings, marketing materials, event and campaign files, posters, photographs, publications, printed materials, and audiovisual material that reflect the ABA's and its many activities, from annual conferences and training events, to specific marketing campaigns and initiatives such as White House Library, National Book Awards, Book Sense, and IndieBound. Some of the significant topics represented in these files are annual conventions, book fairs, fair trade, trade practice and education, book clubs, book of the month, codes of ethics, war efforts and campaigns, clearing house, postal codes and book rates, gift certificates, bookstore displays and designs, antitrust, free expression, reader privacy, reading campaigns, state sales tax, trade shows, independent bookstores, etc. Other formats include photographs, negatives, slides, sound and video recordings, born-digital materials, artifacts such as plaques, and other ephemera. The ABA also published many different publications relating to the booksellers and the bookselling industry over the past century. The collection includes runs of the ABA Bulletin, Book Buyers Handbook, Basic Book List, ABA Newswire, American Bookseller, ABA Sidelines Directory, Bookselling This Week, among other publications that the association produced over the years.

Biographical / historical:

The American Booksellers Association (ABA) was founded on November 15, 1900 by an organizing committee of six booksellers that sent out a letter to the trade. The First ABA Convention was held at Hotel Earlington in NYC on July 24, 1901, establishing a national forum for booksellers as its membership grew. In 1904, membership reached 850 booksellers.

Since its founding, the ABA has provided a platform for booksellers to advocate for issues they encountered in the book trade, including net pricing and reforms, circulating libraries, booksellers and staff trainings, rental libraries, sidelines, second-hand books, clearing house, postage rates for books, book clubs, war efforts, Give-a-Book certificates, book tokens, price maintenance, fair trade, antitrust, sales tax laws, and free expression. ABA also launched national campaigns and programs to promote bookselling and reading including the White House Library (established in 1929, ended in 2016), National Book Award (established in 1936), Book and Author Luncheon program (created in 1938, hosted by Irita Bradford Van Doren), while working closely with publishers, authors, libraries, and other associations within the book trade. ABA's annual conventions also invited many influential authors and guests of the literary world to present over the years, such as Mark Twain, Isaac Asimov, Chief Red Fox, Flo Kennedy, Kurt Vonnegut, Martin Luther King Jr, Muhammad Ali, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Allen Ginsberg, Maya Angelou, and Stephen King among others.

From the 1980s to 1990s, ABA focused on the chain-independent conflict. ABA's regional associations advocated for independent booksellers and ABA brought lawsuits against large publishers. In 1997, Penguin agreed to pay the ABA and its members $25 million, becoming the largest settlement in the history of U.S. antitrust discrimination law. The following year, Barnes and Noble announced a merger with Ingram, the biggest book distributor in the U.S., and ABA campaigned against it. Another campaign on sales tax was held against Amazon.

In 1999, ABA launched the Book Sense marketing campaign when the Board of Directors decided that some portion of the endowment should invest in the survival of independent booksellers. In June 2008, the marketing campaign was replaced with IndieBound. IndieCommerce/eCommerce, an online book shopping platform, also began in 2008, while IndieFirst launched in 2011 and Indie Introduce launched in 2013.

Additionally, in support of its mission to advocate for free expression and fight against censorship, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) was founded in 1990. The foundation's mission is to promote and protect free expression, particularly expression within books and in literary culture, through legal advocacy, education, and collaboration with other groups with an interest in free speech.

In 1994, the ABA established its headquarters in the historic Moller house in Tarrytown after purchasing the property from Kraft in 1992. The headquarters remained on the property until 2004, when the ABA moved its offices to White Plains. Subsequently, the ABA became a permanently remote organization in February 2024. To this day, the ABA continues to provide its members with education, promotion, advocacy, and operational support from the basics of running a book business to marketing for national campaigns.

Also see: Laura J. Miller. (2006). Reluctant Capitalists : Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption. University of Chicago Press. Gemini, LibreChat AI tools, and a timeline created by ABA's Lanora Jennings contributed to the drafting of this historical note. The extensive timeline and the ABA Officers and Directors List are available upon request, please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Catalog record:

View in CLIO

Local call number:

MS#2164

Processing information:

Processed by Yingwen Huang, 2025-2026.

Basic minimum rehousing of folders and boxes were done during processing. The forms books and materials originally in binders were also rehoused in folders. Excessive duplicates of press coverage and promotional materials such as Publishers Weekly, bookmarks, and pamphlets were removed. Record keeping practice of the organization varied over the years and the series arrangements reflect that. While files were more centralized and compiled in binders and scrapbooks in the first half century, later records from the 1950s to 1980s were more subject file based, and then most of the record keeping shifted to the executive director files from the 1990s to the 2020s.

Acquisition information:

Gift of the American Booksellers Association, 2024.

Arrangement:

Collection is in 11 series.

Related material:

Lyle Stuart papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.

American Booksellers Association Collection, 1990. MS-00317. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Book and Author Luncheon Series on WNYC, 1948 to 1970s, Digitized from audiotapes held at the New York City Municipal Archives: https://www.wnyc.org/series/book-and-author-luncheon/listen

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Preferred citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); American Booksellers Association Records; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection has restrictions. Restrictions for boxes and folders are noted in the series descriptions and may also be found within the contents list. Board minutes and financial records are restricted for 25 years.

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

Terms of access:

Single reproductions may be made for research purposes. It is the responsibility of the user to secure permission for publication or use from the appropriate copyright holder.

Location of this collection:: Rare Book & Manuscript Library

RBML Home Page
6th Floor East Butler Library
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027, USA
Before you visit:: Researchers interested in viewing materials in the RBML reading room must book an appointment at least 7 days in advance. To make the most of your visit, be sure to request your desired materials before booking your appointment, as researchers are limited to 5 items per day.

Contact:: rbml@library.columbia.edu

Collection