The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia Library announce the publication of a landmark work of literary and bibliographical scholarship, an exhaustive bibliography and history of the Modern Library by Gordon B. Neavill. This digital database covers the most important American reprint series of significant works of literature and thought published in the twentieth century. For most readers of serious books, the Modern Library was the most tangible representation of the literary canon in the American cultural marketplace.

The database includes a detailed bibliographical description of every title that initially came into the Modern Library over 25 years and follows it over time through multiple printing and design variants.  The chronological arrangement, with indications of titles dropped as well as added each year, provides a barometer of trends in literary taste over time, and also reveals trends in printing and publishing practices. The publishing history notes, based on research in the Random House archives, constitute a pioneering contribution to our knowledge of twentieth-century reprint publishing.

Click here for a link to the Modern Library database.