The Exclusive Men's-Only Rare Books Club, And The Woman Who Has A Key

The Exclusive Men's-Only Rare Books Club, And The Woman Who Has A Key

Last summer I attended Rare Book School at Princeton, which is about the tweediest thing a person can do. One humid day, after a morning spent squinting at Gutenberg Bibles, I sipped a coffee with Amy Dawson, a lifelong librarian and cataloguer with decades of experience in rare books. Dawson has a careful, thoughtful demeanor, shoulder-length blonde curly hair, and a quick laugh. She also moonlights as a library consultant for the Rowfant Club,…