Sidney E. Berger is an American educator, librarian, and scholar who has worked and published extensively in literature, librarianship, and bibliography and the book arts, with a primary focus on papermaking, paper history, watermarks, and paper decoration.

Education

Born in Brooklyn, NY, and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Berger received his B.A. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1965, his M.A. and PhD from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

in 1971, and his M.S. / L.I.S. at the

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the fou ...

in 1987.

Career

Since 2003 he has been adjunct professor in the School of Library and Information Science at

Simmons University Simmons University (previously Simmons College) is a private university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1899 by clothing manufacturer John Simmons. In 2018, it reorganized its structure and changed its name to a ...

and adjunct professor in the iSchool / School of Library and Information Science at the

. In both schools he teaches courses in rare books, special collections, and

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

. At Simmons, he also teaches a course in editing in the Department of Communications. As an English professor he taught at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, and as an adjunct at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

. From 1987 to 1990, Berger was Head of Printed Books and Head of Manuscripts at the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...

. He was Head of Special Collections and University Archivist at the

from 1990 until 2000. From 2000 to 2003, he was the Head of the California Center for the Book, based at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, where he was adjunct professor in their Library School. Berger was the Ann C. Pingree Director of the Phillips Library at the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and th ...

from 2007 to 2014, and is now Director Emeritus of that library.

Publications

His notable books are: * ''A Norton Critical Edition of Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins (New York: Norton, 1980; 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2004) ('') * ''Medieval English Drama: A Bibliography of Recent Criticism. New York: Garland Publishers, 1990; second issue in the series Routledge Library Editions: The Medieval World; Volume 4. London and New York: Routledge, 2018 ('') * ''The Design of Bibliographies: Observations, References, and Examples. London: Mansell Publishers; Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1991 ('') * ''Paper Terms: A Thesaurus for Use in Rare Book and Special Collections Cataloguing. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association, 1990; author/compiler; thesaurus issued by the Bibliographical Standards Committee ('') * ''The Anatomy of a Literary Hoax. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Books, 1994 ('') * ''Fleuronologia. Northampton, Massachusetts: Gehenna Press, 1996 '' * ''Printing and the Mind of Merker: A Bibliographical Study. New York: The Grolier Club, 1997 ('') * ''The Magical Painted Papers of Eric Carle. Northampton, Massachusetts: Gehenna Press, 1997 '' * ''The Hand Made Papers of Japan. North Hills, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 2001 '' * ''Forty-Four Years of Bird & Bull: A Bibliography, 1958-2002. Compiled by Sidney E. Berger. North Hills, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 2002 '' * ''Karli Frigge’s Life in Marbling. North Hills, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 2004 '' * ''Edward Seymour and the Fancy Paper Company. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2006 ('') * '' s editor and author of introductionMarbled and Paste Papers: Rosamond Loring’s Recipe Book, Cambridge, MA: Houghton Library, Harvard University, 2007 ('') * ''Chiyogami Papers. North Hills, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 2011 '' * ''Rare Books and Special Collections. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, American Library Association, 2014; winner of the 2015 ABC Clio / American Library Association award for Best Book in Library Literature, 2015 ('') * ''The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016 ('') * ''The Book of Death. Waban, MA: Doe Press, 2017 ('') * '' s editor� Josef Halfer and the Revival of the Art of Marbling Paper, by Richard J. Wolfe. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2018. ('') Since 2003, Berger has published about 100 scholarly articles, and he has been the “Decorated Paper” columnist for ''Hand Papermaking Newsletter'' for which publication he has written over 60 articles. With his wife Michèle V. Cloonan he is the proprietor of the Doe Press, which has published fine-press books including:

Thom Gunn Thomson William "Thom" Gunn (29 August 1929 – 25 April 2004) was an English poet who was praised for his early verses in England, where he was associated with Movement (literature), The Movement, and his later poetry in America, where he adop ...

. ''Lament''. 1985; Ernest Kroll. ''Six Letters to An Apprentice''. 1994;

Donald Justice Donald Rodney Justice (August 12, 1925 – August 6, 2004) was an American poet and teacher of creative writing who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1980. Early life and education Justice was born on August 12, 1925, in Miami. He attended the ...

. ''Banjo Dog''. 1995, and Michele V. Cloonan, ''The Invisible Presence of Gertrude Stiles,'' 2010. Also with Michèle V. Cloonan, he amassed a collection of over 22,000 pieces of paper, now the Berger-Cloonan Collection of Decorated Paper at the Cushing Library,

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Sidney Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Year of birth missing (living people) American male non-fiction writers Historians of libraries