This Lilly Library exhibition marks the centenary of one of the most influential rare book exhibitions of the twentieth century. "One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature" opened in January 1903 at the Grolier Club of the City of New York, America's oldest and largest society for bibliophiles.

The "Grolier Hundred," as it came to be called, was to have an especially profound effect on a number of active and wealthy collectors, who used the exhibition catalogue as a shopping list in their attempt to find the first or the earliest obtainable editions of these canonized books.

Among these collectors was J.K. Lilly, Jr., who acquired the first editions of ninety of the hundred, and the earliest obtainable editions of four others. Today the Lilly Library holds ninety-nine of the "Grolier Hundred".

Exhibition open through May 17, 2003.