Dunlay ’11 wins Elmer Adler Prize for literature collection

The Friends of the Princeton University Library annually awards several undergraduates the Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize, which is open to undergraduates who collect any item generally found in a library. Candidates for the prize submit an essay describing their collection, along with a bibliography listing of all its pieces.

Emily Dunlay ’11 won this year’s first-place prize of $2,000. In her essay submitted for the competition, “The Real Belles-Lettres: On Collecting Beautiful Books,” she posed a question: “Can our great works of fiction lead a dual life as both literary and visual art?”

“I certainly believe so — I have spent the past five years in pursuit of beautifully and meaningfully designed editions of the classics of English literature,” she answered, according to a statement from the library.

Lauren VanZandt-Escobar ’12 and Maria Shpolberg ’10 both received the second-place prize of $1,500.

VanZandt-Escobar, who collects letters, diaries and books written by female artists, wrote an essay titled, “The Lives, Letters, and Diaries of Great Female Artists” as part of her submission.

In an interview, she explained that an interest in the lives of artists prompted her to build a collection of their works. “I just happened to buy them because I was really interested in the lives behind their works,” she said. “It’s more honest than reading from art history books ... I find that reading about their lives and their experiences is really inspiring to me as an artist.”

In Shpolberg’s essay, titled “In Favor of Interpretation: The Marriage of Theory and Fiction, or From Formalism to Form,” she responded to Susan Sontag’s 1966 work “Against Interpretation.”

Sontag’s piece inspired Shpolberg to begin collecting other authors’ work about “influences and consequences, responses and rejections,” according to the statement.

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Ruthie Nachmany ’12, who collects visual works depicting Israel, received an honorable mention for her essay, “Next Year in Jerusalem: Imaginations and Images of Israel.”

In awarding the Adler Prize, judges look for creativity and persistence in collecting, rather than rarity or value of a collection. Submissions are not limited to collections of books.

“It used to be just for books, but today it’s open to student collections of music, prints, books or DVDs,” graphic arts librarian Julie Mellby said. “Anything that our library collects, we accept.”

Winners received a certificate from the Dean of the College and a book from Princeton University Press to complement their collections. Dunlay’s essay will represent the University in the National Collegiate Book Collecting Competition, which “aims to encourage young collectors to become accomplished bibliophiles,” according to its website.

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Undergraduates were first recognized for their book collections in 1922. The University began awarding prizes in 1939, and the Friends of the Princeton University Library began sponsoring the prize in 1954.