Joseph Felcone began collecting at age two, when he assembled a collection of New Jersey seashells. From seashells he moved to sea glass, and then bottle caps. By age ten he was a seasoned collector. Baseball cards were next, then stamps, then coins. Prep school introduced him to John Steinbeck, and he set out to buy, and read, as many Steinbeck paperbacks as he could. College turned out to be a collecting hiatus, but in law school he discovered secondhand book shops and Steinbeck first editions. Returning to New Jersey after law school, he sold his Steinbeck collection and began collecting New Jersey books--first local history, then major books statewide, then early and rare New Jersey books.

 

After a few years practicing law in the family law firm, he left to run a private foundation established by a well-known rare book collector. At the same time he began buying and selling rare books. As the business grew, he withdrew from the foundation to devote full time to bookselling. Today, 33 years later, Joseph J. Felcone Inc., is a leading antiquarian bookselling firm with clients throughout the world. And Joseph Felcone continues to devote a significant part of his time to collecting, studying, and writing about early New Jersey books. His personal New Jersey library is the finest collection of rare New Jersey books ever assembled by a private individual, and his collection has formed the basis of several standard reference works on early New Jersey books. He is currently compiling a descriptive bibliography of all known New Jersey printing before 1801.