The ABA National Book Collecting Prize 2024: Howard Kordansky

We are delighted to announce that the 2024 ABA National Book Collecting Prize has been awarded to Howard Kordansky, the winner of the Anthony Davis Student Book Collecting Prize at University College London, with his entry The Jewish Experience in the First World War. The prize is in two parts: £500 for the winner to spend with an ABA dealer and £500 towards a rare book purchase for their Institutional library, also from an ABA member.

The quality of all of the entrants was once again high, but this year the decision was unanimous. Howard has built a thought-provoking collection of prayer books and ephemera highlighting the military contribution and experience of Jewish soldiers during the First World War that really resonated with the panel. In Howard’s own words

“Many of the soldiers whose lives are reflected here died fighting on the front lines, or, worse yet, were swept away by the brutal tide of Nazism and its collaborators scarcely three decades later. Jewish scripture teaches us that whoever destroys a single life, it is as if they have destroyed an entire world, and I hope that this collection helps to illuminate those worlds beyond merely a name and a date.”

The panel got a strong sense that Howard is a discerning and enthusiastic collector, who captured well the inspiration that drives all collectors. A true book hunter, Howard has been able to find treasures from a variety of sources, and the dedication to provenance and the tracing of names written in the books which might not always be mentioned in descriptions. The panel got a real sense of Howard’s dedication in piecing together the soldier’s untold stories and were impressed that he is already sharing these stories with his own congregation. Congratulations from us all!

As ever, the panel was impressed with the diverse nature of collections on display, and were introduced to a number of new authors and genres unfamiliar to us! Other entries received came from students at Aberdeen on “Great God! This is an awful place...”: Polar Exploration in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries; Cambridge on Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) and the Invention of the Regency.; Edinburgh on The Left Book Club 1936-1948; and from St Andrews, a collection of Penguin Crime Classics, humorously titled March of the Grenguins. All the entries displayed great enthusiasm, erudition, and passion, with an appreciation of the various angles from which the books and collections can be viewed and enjoyed, be it textually, physically, politically, or visually. As ever it was very inspiring to see the upcoming generation of young collectors creating unusual collections with limited means, yet revelling from the thrill of finding hidden treasures.

An award ceremony took place at Chelsea Rare Books Fair, in November, 2024. The Judges are: Lisa Baskin, (collector), Deborah Coltham, Brian Lake, Clare Marshall (booksellers) and Ed Potten (independent researcher formerly of Cambridge University Library).

— Deborah Coltham, ABA President