Paper trail

How famous is Jane Austen? Let us assess the evidence: the screen adaptations, the TikTok mentions, the T-shirts and fridge magnets and tote bags.

Or we could take a trip to the Grolier Club in New York City, a private club dedicated to books and the book arts, where a free exhibit titled “Paper Jane: 250 Years of Austen” is opening today.

The exhibit, which runs through Valentine’s Day, includes “a kaleidoscopic mix of 110 objects, including rare first editions, manuscripts, popular reprintings, movie posters, illustrations, theater playbills, and other paper ephemera,” the club’s website explains. The objects are used to gauge Austen’s fame at fifty-year intervals, starting in 1825 and continuing until today.

The works in the exhibit come from the collections of Austen scholar Janine Barchas, a professor at the University of Texas-Austin, who has written extensively about the history of editions of Austen's books; Sandra Clark, a Texan who has been acquiring Austen editions since the 1970s (see details here and here, on page 5); and a Grolier Club board member, book collector, and retired financial services professional with the appropriately Austenian name of Mary Crawford.

Needless to say, I'll be trekking into New York to see the rare and fascinating objects in the "Paper Jane" exhibit. But if an in-person visit isn't possible for you, the catalog is available for purchase.