WHO WE ARE

 From left: Peter Whetman, unknown , David Butcher, David Chambers, David Fry... Does anyone recognise 'unknown', please?

A brief history of the PLA


The Beginning: 1956
Philip Ward, then an eighteen year old student librarian, founded The Private Libraries Association in May 1956, after writing a letter to The Observer suggesting the formation of a society for ‘private librarians’. The response was considerable, and the opening meeting was held soon afterwards, on 8th June 1956, at the St Ermin’s Hotel, Westminster. An book-exchange scheme was started that same year and the twelve-page PLA Quarterly was published in 1957 (its name changed to The Private Library in 1958).
 
Today: 2025
Today the Private Libraries Association has hundreds of individual and institutional members. Most, not surprisingly, are in the UK, but there are also members in the USA, Canada, Australia and across Europe.

Members’ collecting interests are most diverse, and include private presses, illustration, binding and restoration, book history, bibliography and much more. Members’ specific interests are analysed in ten double-column pages in the Members’ Handbook – ranging from A. E. (G. W. Russell) to Zapf, Herman and covering every other possible subject that one can possibly imagine. If there's a book on it, our members collect it!

Our governance today

Sebastian Carter

President

Vacant

Hon. Chairman

Jim Maslen

Hon. Treasurer

Jim Maslen

Hon. Secretary 

David Butcher

Hon. Editor

The Private Library

Paul Nash

Publications Secretary 

Richard Martin

Website & Marketing

Digital

Simon C. Hewett

Hon. Membership Secretary for USA

Ed Jewell

Hon. Membership Secretary for Australasia

Members of Council


• David Butcher

• David Fry

• Jim Maslen

• Richard Martin

• Paul Nash

• Peter Whetman

The Association welcomes applications from members who would like to join the council. 
Meetings are generally held on Zoom, so distance from the UK is no barrier.

Meet our President,

Sebastian Carter

Sebastian was elected to the Presidency of The Private Libraries Association at the agm in September 2025, and he writes:


   "I’m honoured to have been elected as President of the PLA. At the moment I see my role as a modest one, as I’m still learning on the job, and I’m happy to rely on the advice and help of the members of Council who are expanding the reach and range of the Association. I look forward keenly to my next three years in the post."


   Sebastian Carter was born in 1941. He read English Literature and Architecture & Fine Arts at King’s College, Cambridge. After university he worked as a designer at John Murray and Ruari McLean’s office in London, and the Trianon Press in Paris, before joining his father Will Carter at the Rampant Lions Press in Cambridge, which he later ran from Swan House in Over outside the town. He closed the workshop at the end of 2008.

   At the Rampant Lions Press he produced a long series of fine editions. Highlights included Milton’s Areopagitica, Samuel Beckett’s As the Story was Told, and T S Eliot’s Four Quartets, as well as a number of typographical display pieces such as A Printer’s Dozen and In Praise of Letterpress.

   Sebastian writes extensively on printing and typography. His Twentieth Century Type Designers (1987; new edition 1995; in paperback 2002) has become a standard work. In 2013 his The Rampant Lions Press: A narrative catalogue was published by Oak Knoll Press in the USA. He wrote the type design section of The History of the Monotype Corporation, published by the Printing Historical Society and Vanbrugh Press in 2014.

   He reviewed regularly for The Times Literary Supplement, and contributed a number of entries to The Oxford Companion to the Book (2011) and the chapter on book design for The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain (2019).

   He was European editor of Parenthesis, the journal of the Fine Press Book Association, from 2008 to 2021. In 2013 Sebastian received the individual Laureate Award from the American Printing History Association.


"We welcome Sebastian Carter, President."


Past Presidents of the PLA


• Dr Reinhold Regensburger 1956-60 • D. J. Foskett 1961-63 • Dr Desmond Flower 1963-64 • Percy H. Muir 1964-65 • J. Rives Childs 1965-68 • Sir Arthur Elton Bt 1968-71 • Raymond Lister 1 971-74  • Ruari McLean 1974-77 • Douglas Cleverdon 1977-80 • Dr Glyn Tegai Hughes 1980-83 • Dr William B. Todd 1983-86 • John Russell Taylor 1986-89 • Peter Eaton 1989-92 • Dr Iain Bain 1992-95 • Robin de Beaumont 1995-98 • B. C. Bloomfield 1998-2001 • Colin Franklin 2001-04 • Dame Lynne Brindley 2004-07 • Keith Fletcher 2007-13  • Giles Mandelbrote   2013-2019 • Matthew Haley 2019-24


 The Private Library Association meeting at The Getty Library
at Wormsley
Wednesday 5th June 2013
Illustrious members of the Private Libraries Association... 
Are the names right? And can you fill the gaps?

A:  David Chambers
B:  Jim Maslen
C:  
D:  
E:  
F:  
G:  
H:  Robert Hirst
I:
J:
K: 
L:  Bill Jehan
M:  Giles Mandlebrot 

Become a Member today!
Anyone who loves books is warmly invited to join the Private Libraries Association. You will be able to join in the 'Book Conversation', and will receive our quarterly journal, discounts on all our publications and a complimentary members' book every two years. The annual subscription is just £40 (UK rate). 
Students and anyone under the age of 26 will receive membership at only £20
JOIN TODAY