Joel Silver, newly appointed Director of the Lilly Library at Indiana University.
The Lilly Library, ranked as one of America’s top university libraries, has a new director.
Joel Silver, 62, was named to the post effective April 1, 2013. He is a 30 year veteran of the Lilly staff and a graduate of Indiana University’s own library school. He holds a MLS class of 1986. Silver began working at the Lilly as a student in 1983, he applied for a librarian position when he graduated and “has been there ever since.” The library is estimated to contain more than 400,000 rare books, 7.5 million manuscripts, and 150,000 pieces of sheet music.
Silver presently heads a full time staff of 17 augmented by many part timers; in that capacity he oversees one of America’s richest and most dazzling collections. The library, which opened in 1960, resulted from the generous gift of JK Lilly Jr., the well known Hoosier philanthropist and a member of the Lilly pharmaceutical family. The library is housed in its own building on the university campus in Bloomington. Annually the Lilly hosts over 50,000 visitors and an estimated 5,000 users of the reading room.
The new director sees the role of the library to “collect, preserve, make available…to continue to build on what is here.” He pointed out the Lilly’s facilities are part of the IU library system. They are free and open to the public. Users may view the rare materials on request without providing any specified scholarly interest and without making a prior appointment. “Curiosity,” he said, “is enough.” Most things can be seen immediately, but some are off site, it doesn’t hurt to inquire in advance.
The library’s public space hosts an ongoing exhibit schedule. The current display is the “Grolier One Hundred.” These are 100 books famous in English literature, first shown in 1903 by the club in New York. The Lilly show has drawn many enthusiastic collectors including a group of Grolier members on a tour of Midwestern libraries (who also visited the University of Michigan). The Caxton Club of Chicago will visit in July.
In addition to rotating exhibits the Lilly also has standing displays of some of the highlights of its holdings which include rarities such as Audubon’s Birds of America, a Shakespeare first folio dated 1623 and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the Caxton edition of 1477. The priceless Gutenberg printing of the New Testament is “out all the time,” Silver said, naming a few of the treasures in the library’s vast holdings.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
