bookmanship

English

Etymology

bookman +‎ -ship. Compare penmanship.

Noun

bookmanship (uncountable)

1. Skill in, or appreciation of, the editing and production design of books; being a connoisseur of books; love of books.
   • 1980 April, Lawrence J. McCrank "Education for Rare Book Librarianship: A Reexamination of Trends and Problems" p.9 (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Graduate School of Library Science; Occasional papers No.144)

     As library school graduates appear only semiliterate in terms of the book as a physical, aesthetic object, such critics wonder what has happened to the role of bookmanship in library education.

   • 2009 Matthew Joseph Bruccoli, Judith Baughman F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Marketplace: The Auction and Dealer Catalogues, 1935-2006 p.xv (Univ of South Carolina Press, 2009) →ISBN:

     Bookmanship is a way of life: you live to acquire books.

   • 2013, Kevin J. Hayes, Edgar Allan Poe in Context‎^[1], Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 184:

     With their fine bindings, steel engravings, and handsomely printed pages, the annuals were products of good bookmanship.

2. Skill in using books; profiting from one's reading; erudition.
   • 1946 [2001] Holbrook Jackson The reading of books p.10 (University of Illinois Press, 2001) →ISBN

     Bookmanship is the art of adjusting literature to life.

   • 1978, “Reference books”, in Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, volume 25, page 183:

     The senior author of this article ... originated the concept of reference bookmanship to denote the ability to use reference books skillfully and creatively for the purpose of deriving the full information potential inherent in them.

   • 1989 January, “Third Sunday in Lent: Unexpected Issues”, in The Expository Times, 100: pp.144-145:

     Even our modern services, I fear, are at times suspect in this respect, demanding degrees of literacy and bookmanship increasingly not found.