Person

Amtmann, Bernard

1907-1979

Bernard Amtmann was born on July 11, 1907, in Vienna, Austria.

He was an antiquarian bookseller, bibliographer, and publisher. He immigrated to Canada in 1947 to join his brother William Amtmann in Ottawa, where he started a small antiquarian bookselling business, issuing his first catalogue by 1948. He transferred his business to Montreal in 1950 and began to specialize in Canadiana. In 1967, Amtmann founded Montreal Book Auctions Ltd. to further promote Canadiana. Amtmann was the moving force behind the foundation of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of Canada in 1966 and served as its first president. He inspired the preservation of Canada's cultural heritage. He made a significant contribution to the field of Canadian bibliography, publishing several bibliographies and bibliographic tools, most notably his four-volume Contributions to a Short-Title Catalogue of Canadiana (1971–1973), The Arctic Bibliography, and Contributions to a Dictionary of Canadian Pseudonyms (1973). First awarded in 1992 and offered in his memory through the Bibliographic Society of Canada, the Bernard Amtmann Fellowship award is handed out every three years to a scholar in one of four areas of interest: Canadiana, book collecting, bookselling, and bibliography. Following his death on January 9, 1979, Montreal Book Auctions was sold to Canada Book Auctions Ltd. and relocated to Toronto. Amtmann received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Saskatchewan.