The Folio Library's Sacred Sequence

THE FOLIO SOCIETY (FS) website, amongst many other interesting articles, particularly on book production—letterpress printing, bookbinding, hand-marbled paper, etc—had an interesting (if brief) piece on how the FS catalogue their publications; and their ‘secret’ book archive, otherwise known as THE FOLIO LIBRARY. Or perhaps it would be better to refer to it as a library and an archive, as there are two separate collections.

The original FS article can be found here.

The current librarian, Alice Ford-Smith, took over from Paul W. Nash in 2007; in that time she has personally been responsible for over 1,000 additions to the library, including more than fifty last year (2022). The ‘working’ library is located at the FS's London offices; a second facility is located offsite, but nearby. The latter sounds like an archive proper, with temperature and light controlled conditions. The perennial problem of shelve space is also mentioned. 

Two FS copies of The Silmarillion

Each publication is described using a set of ‘in-house rules’—some with additional notes—and assigned a unique ‘Folio number’, in order of publication. Ford-Smith explains that the odd book (or reprint) is occasionally missed; when this occurs, a decimal point number is allocated, to squeeze the book ‘into the sequence’. No further detail is given as to how this information was recorded historically. One assumes the FS has been recording this from their inception; presumably in physical accession books, or similar, in the early years. Ford-Smith, like Nash before her, currently inputs descriptive data directly into a Word document.[1]

Two copies of each FS publication—one for the working library, one for the offsite archive—are retained; except for their limited edition publications. For these, they only archive one copy (offsite); the library is allocated one of the lettered hors de commerce copies.[2] This offsite archive was previously known, somewhat numinously, as ‘the sacred sequence’.

FS plan to release an ‘updated bibliography annually’ going forward. The older hardback releases are fairly easy to come by, inexpensive, and still eminently worth acquiring; even if only for the introductory essays. Nash's Introduction to Folio 60, in particular, gives a detailed explanation of the structure of entries; sadly this is omitted from the latest published bibliography (Folio 75).

Some FS Bibliographies

NOTE: The last physical bibliography published was Folio 60 (2007); the latest, Folio 75 (2022), was only published digitally. It is available free of charge (as a PDF) from FS here.

 

REFERENCES: 

1. FORD-SMITH, Alice. FOLIO SOCIETY Librarian. PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE with author, November 2023. 

2. FORD-SMITH, Alice. PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.