In the 1943 Goodspeed (Boston) reprint of the first volume of Charles Evans's American Bibliography Lawrence C. Wroth writes that "One notable difference between our day in the book world and the old days of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is that now we have gigantic bibliographical projects while in the old days we had bibliographical giants." Joseph Sabin was such an oversized figure, a colossus of nineteenth-century American bibliographers and bibliophiles.

As an antiquarian bookseller he supplied many of the leading bibliophiles of the day and encouraged them to collect Americana when the field was still relatively new. As an auctioneer he presided over the major book sales of his day, and for many of these sales he prepared the catalogues. His publishing program made rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Americana more accessible, and his bibliographic works remain useful guides for scholars and collectors.

Born in Braunstron, Northamptonshire...