Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
learned society
The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP) formed in 1991 in the United States on the initiative of scholars Jonathan Rose, Simon Eliot, and others.
A major conference was held was at the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, July 14-16, 1994, where Center Director, John Y. Cole served as chair of the planning committee. Over two hundred book historians attended, and eighty-two papers were presented.
Its members study the history of books and the "composition, mediation, reception, survival, and transformation of written communication." The group maintains an electronic discussion list (SHARP-L), produces several academic journals, and holds annual meetings. Membership consists mostly of British and American scholars.
SHARP Book History Prize
The SHARP Book History Book Prize recognizes the best book published on any aspect of the creation, dissemination, or uses of script or print.
2025. Martin Paul Eve. Theses on the Metaphors of Digital-Textual History. (Stanford University Press, 2024).
The public source identifies “Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing” as learned society. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Society, History and Authorship.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q48834796. VIAF identifies the subject as 149232164. The Library of Congress control number is nr94026829. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1994, 2025 and 2024.
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This entry incorporates text from “Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.