Bibliomania: How We Catch It, How to Enjoy It – and Who Benefits in the End

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LOGOS Bibliomania: How we catch it, how to enjoy it – and who benefits in the end

Jack Walsdorf Book collecting is a multi-layered, complex human activity that has millions of people all over the world in its grip. The earlier in life a person begins to collect books, the more likely it is that the pursuit will have at least a tinge of obsessiveness. There are a multitude of reasons to collect books After graduating from the University of and there is an almost infinite range of intensity. Wisconsin, where he received a BS in Some collect because they like reading, some from English Literature and a Master’s degree in acquisitiveness, some from a desire to make a Library Science, Jack Walsdorf joined the Milwaukee Public Library system. After two profit. Some collect everything they come across, years, he was sponsored by the American some focus on a tiny area of publishing or on books Library Association for a year in Oxford, that share a single rare characteristic. There are after which he joined B H Blackwell. many absent-minded professorial types whose Among his publications are: William Morris: homes and offices are full of books on shelves, on A Descriptive Bibliography of Books by and tables, in piles on the floor. There are people about William Morris (1983); Printers on whose pride and joy is a single shelf of carefully Morris (1981); Men in Printing: Anglo- arranged books on, say, 17th century Romanian American Profiles (1976); A Collector’s architecture or lovingly preserved first editions of Choice, William Morris in Private Press in the works of an obscure Victorian poet. There are Great Britain (1969); and The Antiquarian children who amass copies of their favorite books Book Trade in Great Britain (1969). and old people who collect books with gilded Email: [email protected] endpapers. There are people who make money Michael Gorman buying and selling books and people who spend a lot of money on books with which they would never part. Book collectors come in all shapes and sizes, all ages, all colors and all economic circum- stances, united only by their bibliomania – that unquenchable desire to have and hold the books Dean of Library Services at the Henry that light up their lives. Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, since 1988, Michael Gorman * * * * * worked for the preceding eleven years at the University of Illinois, Urbana, Library. If you, gentle reader, seek to understand what it is From 1966 to 1977, he was, successively, that makes book collectors tick, or if you aspire to Head of Cataloguing at the British National Bibliography, a member of the British become a book collector, you need to be able to Library Planning Secretariat and Head of the answer the following questions: Office of Bibliographic Standards in the British Library. Gorman is the immediate Why collect at all? There are those who Past-President of the Library and believe that book collectors collect because Information Technology Association. they cannot help themselves – as if it were a Email: [email protected]

Jack Walsdorf and Michael Gorman

genetic twist or incurable obsession. To be • a Kelmscott Press Gothic Architecture in a more mundane, people collect books for Charleston book store for $18.00 (Wals- three fundamental reasons – education, dorf); enjoyment and/or profit. It used to be that • a first edition of Graham Greene’s The book collections were made to ensure access Name of Action in good condition for one to reading materials. Country gentlepersons pound sterling (then about $2.50) in an in their estates amassed libraries in order to English charity sale. (Greene disliked this become more cultivated through reading but early novel, published in a short run, and so did working people in a time when educa- refused to have it reprinted, so it is quite tion and libraries were only for the rich. Even rare.) (Gorman); today, when both are available to all and • a signed copy of a book by President Jimmy there are many other ways in which to Carter in a Goodwill store (Walsdorf). become educated through reading, there are those who collect and keep books in order to We have also spent too much on books that proved learn. There are those of less high purpose not to be as valuable as suspected. who simply enjoy reading and rereading their own books and revel in the possession of What should one collect? The short answer their beloved friends for aesthetic or nostalgic is “those books that interest and engage you”. reasons, or simply to add to the comfort of The long answer is slightly more complicated. their lives. Then there are those who buy Assuming the collector not to be blessed with books in order to sell them at a profit. One fabulous wealth and a lot of spare time, there school wonders what collectors buy with is great danger in choosing an area of collec- their profits that is better than the books tion that is too broad. For example, many they sell; another sees the buying and selling people are interested in the American Civil of books as an enjoyable and satisfying avoca- War but very few can afford to purchase and tion. house anything like a comprehensive collec- Where does one find collectible books? Let tion on the topic. The ever-rushing river of us count the ways. There are huge numbers Civil War publishing is always in spate – and many varieties of used bookshops, almost torrents of biographies, memoirs, military all of whom issue catalogs and many of whom histories, political histories, books on the have Web presences. Valuable and rare books most obscure aspects of the most obscure have been bought for a song at rummage sales battles, regiments and people of those four and even from the kind of restaurant that uses grim years. Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei books as a “theme”. They are also bought, at could probably succeed in amassing a Civil prices surprising to non-collectors, from War mega-collection; the rest of us do not specialist bookshops. Library book sales, thrift have a prayer. Contrariwise, a topic can be shops, antique malls, used furniture shops and too narrow. For example, a person interested garage sales are all potential sources for great in ballooning in the American Civil War finds. Then there is the Internet – home of would have a lot of waiting around to do in the Amazons, Alibris, Abebooks and a host of trying to build a collection on the topic. The other specialized and general booksellers. In Library of Congress catalog lists three books short, books for sale are everywhere, and no on Civil War ballooning. There may be others source is too humble to be ignored with safety. and there may be some associated materials The true book collector is always on the qui (print, etc) but it is unlikely that a lifetime of vive, like a predator always hunting. Here are collecting would yield even a shelf of books. some of our best finds: The ideal lies between these two examples – a topic or genre in which a reasonably complete • a rare book by August Derleth in a public collection can be built without a great expen- library book sale (Walsdorf); diture of treasure.