Announcing the Winners of the 2025 Andrew T. Nadell Prize for Book Collecting

A selection from the collection of Phoebe Trask, who won first place in the Undergraduate category for “Bandes Dessinées from a French Childhood: A Colorful Window into French History, Politics, and Culture.”

We are pleased to announce the winners for the 2025 Andrew T. Nadell Prize for Book Collecting.

In the Undergraduate category, Phoebe Trask, an International Comparative Studies major, won first place for her collection “Bandes Dessinées from a French Childhood: A Colorful Window into French History, Politics, and Culture.” Second place went to Sophia Cox, a Biology major, for her collection “The Natural World: The Line Between Science and Magic and Between the Known and the Unknown.”

A selection from Sophia Cox’s collection, “The Natural World: The Line Between Science and Magic and Between the Known and the Unknown,” which took second place in the Undergraduate category.

In the Graduate/Professional Schools category, two first place prizes were awarded: Peter de Guzman, graduate student in Interdisciplinary Data Science, for his collection “What is his identity?: Building a Filipino American Library”; and Merlin Ganzevoort, a doctoral candidate in the Carolina-Duke German Studies Program, for his collection “From Parisian Gardens to Treasure Island: 19th Century and Early 20th Century Travel and Adventure Literature.” Second place went to Daniel Orr, a doctoral candidate in Classical Studies, for his collection “Greek and Latin Student Commentaries 1908-2021.”

Graduate student Peter de Guzman holding a selection from his book collection, “What is his identity?: Building a Filipino American Library,” which tied for first place in the Graduate/Professional School category.

In addition to cash prizes ($1,500 for first, $750 for second), all five winners will receive any in-print Grolier Club book of their choice, a three-year membership in the Bibliographical Society of America, and a year’s membership in the Book Club of California.

Ph.D. candidate Merlin Ganzevoort’s collection “From Parisian Gardens to Treasure Island: 19th Century and Early 20th Century Travel and Adventure Literature” tied for first place in the Graduate/Professional School category.

Since 1947, the Duke University Libraries have awarded the prize in alternate years to promote reading for enjoyment and the development of students’ personal libraries. In recent years, winners of the Andrew T. Nadell Prize for Book Collecting have gone on to place highly at the National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, hosted by the Library of Congress. The Andrew T. Nadell Prize for Book Collecting is named for Dr. Andrew T. Nadell M’74, who began collecting rare books when he was a student at Duke. He now collects early books and manuscripts on the learned professions and skilled trades, an expansion of his earlier interest in medicine as a profession. With his wife, Eleanore Edwards Ramsey, he also collects the nineteenth-century Gothic Revival. He credits his interest in rare books to two of his mentors at Duke, Professor of Medical Bibliography G.S.T. Cavanagh and Professor of the History of Medicine Gert H. Brieger. We greatly appreciate Dr. Nadell’s support of this prize.