ABA Past Presidents 1907-1918
Henry Newton Stevens (1855-1930), who became the first president of the ABA in 1907, was born in Camden Town, London, on 7th June 1855. He was the only son of the celebrated, indeed legendary, bookseller Henry Stevens of Vermont (1819-1886) and his wife Mary Kuczynski, née Newton (1819-1891), who had married at St. Pancras the previous year ... Read more
Benjamin Dawson Maggs (1908)
Benjamin Dawson Maggs (1862-1935) of Maggs Brothers in London was the second ABA president in 1908.
Walter James Leighton (1850-1917), who became president of the ABA in 1909, was born into the very heart of the London book-trade – certainly the third and quite probably the fourth generation of a family of London bookbinders. He was first cousin to the celebrated John Leighton (1822-1912), artist and designer, and the wider family almost certainly included Jane and Robert Leighton of Leighton, Son & Hodge ... Read more
James Tregaskis (1850-1926) became the fourth ABA president in 1910 – but was the first president not born in London and the first not to have been born into the trade. In fact, he did not become a bookseller until he was almost forty. From there, he rose to become one of the leading booksellers in the world and to reach the very pinnacle of the trade ... Read more
Walter Vernon Daniell (1858-1928) was born in London in 1858, seemingly the youngest of the dozen or so children of the bookseller, printseller and publisher Edward Daniell (1807-1892) and his wife Elizabeth Bowring (1815-1894), who had married at St. Marylebone in 1835. Edward Daniell initially had premises in Wigmore Street but from the mid 1830s worked from 53 Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square ... Read more
Benjamin Henry Blackwell (1912)
Benjamin Henry Blackwell (1849-1924) opened the Oxford bookshop that still bears his name in 1879. He was ABA president in 1912
Henry Douglas Vincent (1913)
Originally from Staffordshire, H. Douglas Vincent (1858-1934) was ABA president in 1913.
Robert Bowes (1835-1919), who became ABA president in 1914, was born near Stewarton in rural Ayrshire on the 22nd August 1835, the son of another Robert Bowes, a man described on the 1841 Census as an agricultural labourer (although elsewhere as a gardener). Not perhaps the most advantageous start in life ... Read more
George Edward Gregory (1852-1930) of Bath was president of what was then known as the International Association of Antiquarian Booksellers through the difficult years of the Great War between 1915 and 1918. He was born at Bath in 1852 ... Read more