To collect books, in the full and true sense, is to critically, exactingly love and cherish mankind. It is a marriage of a sort. It is a science and an art. There is humor, hard work, and a good deal of thought involved in it. It is, in the fullest sense, an aesthetic enterprise.

Book collecting is neither a popular, nor a haphazard venture. Some writers refer to it as a “sport” [ASW Rosenbach] or a “hobby”[Percy H. Muir]. True, there is, or ought to be, something lighthearted and playful about this most deliberative, avocational pursuit. However, it is a most serious matter to the book collector in search of the elusive rarity of a pristine copy of a beloved work of ornithology (i.e., the first edition of the first Peterson Field Guide), or a spotless dust jacketed first edition of a mystery novel ( i.e., Dashiell Hammett’s The Drain Curse).

Every collection, without exception, is an expression of a particular self (or group of selves) towards the world, as represented by that particular collection. A medical doctor may choose to collect the books reflecting the history of his/her chosen professional specialty, or may collect the works of an admired, possibly beloved poet or novelist.

Book Collecting is a multitudinous enterprise. It spans American voyages and discoveries; the history of science; medicine and invention; bibles, bindings and printing history; the French Revolution; book illustration; and books about books. The immense range of book collecting is as vast and particular as the world itself.

Of the close to 500 book collectors whose collecting habits and tastes I have examined, I have chosen 12—six American & six British collectors—to give an idea of what wonderful things can be enjoyed and what achievements inspired and accomplished by the dedicated bookman in his or her chosen pursuit.

The Americans

Thomas Jefferson the first U.S. president who said “I cannot live without books” and who reluctantly sold his lifetime’s magnificent private library to Congress for less than $25,000.

Robert Hoe III, Jr., scion of one of the largest printing manufacturing families in the western hemisphere, an original founder of NYC’s world famous Grolier Club whose books after his death went at auction for an unheard-of near two million dollars, adding several of the greatest treasures to the Morgan & Huntington libraries.

Philip Hofer, certainly one of the most phenomenal book collectors, whose acumen and range of interest endowed Harvard with masterpieces—especially of the illustrated book from the sixteenth century up to modern times—expressed the cherished hope “that collecting will never become wholly an avocation of the rich” but that “throughout the world may continue to offer occasions for quiet, reticent, yet enthusiastic travel and pleasure for young and old”.

JK Lilly, president, later trustee of the pharmaceutical business that bears his name, put together in the space of 30 years what Donald Dickinson describes as “one of the most remarkable, scholarly, private libraries ever assembled in the United States” later given by him to Indiana University, housed in its own Lilly Library building; and those doyennes of the contemporary book world.

Leona Rostenberg & Madeleine Stern, whose renowned joint career as devoted scholarly collectors and sleuths of the book world as aroused the wonder of book lovers everywhere, as few dealer/collectors have ever done. Such a marriage of intellect, imagination and feeling is attested to by their more than forty books and numerous contributions to periodic literature.

The British Contingent

John Carter, who, if he had done nothing else than write his consummate, indispensable ABC for Book-Collectors would have us all forever in his debt. Besides this work, however, Carter (himself a noteworthy collector), together with his partner Graham Pollard, exposed one of the greatest book-world fabricators of all time, Thomas J. Wise, through the application of modern sophisticated methods of detection: using chemical knowledge and skill, as well as the study of typefaces, inks & paper combined with fine reasoning and a persuasive, irrefutable logic made the case. His two dozen other books and great number of other publications set the pace and direction for modern book-collecting.

Sir Sydney Cockerell world famous book collector and also, collector of medieval manuscripts. He was a serious amateur biologist, a dedicated museum director, a friend of such literary luminaries as Bernard Shaw, Hardy, Ruskin and William Morris. As noted by Kenneth Womack in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, “…his drive for artistic and intellectual excellence underscores his…achievements. [His] contributions to the arts of calligraphy, typography and….descriptive bibliography continue to echo…”.

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond (Agent 007), guided by the great bookseller-himself also a noteworthy collector-Percy Muir, was a collector of over a thousand books illustrative of the history of science, technology and Western civilization. Fleming’s entire collection together with nearly all the typescript manuscripts of his James Bond novels, as well as Fleming’s own specially bound author’s copies of his own published books were purchased by the Lily Library.

Grahame Greene, the author of among many other works, Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The Third Man was, over a lifetime that spanned most of the 20th Century, a passionate book collector. He haunted auction rooms and secondhand bookshops. He himself said if he had not been a writer he would have liked to have been a secondhand bookseller. Approximately 1/6th of his collection consisted of presentation copies from other authors such as Evelyn Waugh and Vladimir Nabokov. In addition to these, and his own heavily annotated books, plus over 50,000 letters—all were purchased by the John J. Burns Library of Boston College.

Sir Geoffrey Keynes, in his long life of 95 years, in addition to publishing over 500 books and articles, had outstanding careers as a surgeon, bibliographer, historian of medicine, editor and book collector. His work on Blake, Donne, William Harvey, Sir Thomas Browne and Dr. Martin Lister—among others, in each instance was accompanied by the compulsion of the passionate book collector. In at least one, William Blake, he had assembled a world-class collection including, besides books, original art works and prints. He was a great inspiration to beginning collectors, often giving dinners and holding open house for them.

Percy Muir, a prime mover in the formation of Ian Fleming’s collection from which came Printing and the Mind of Man; his own work encouraging the collecting of children’s books, of music books and manuscripts (he became the owner of the original holograph of Mozart’s Haffner Symphony), was one of the most accomplished, outstanding book collecting instigators and authorities of the 20th Century. His belief, his philosophy was that what mattered most in book collecting was that the collector should truly care for books and cultivate an honest appreciation of the distinguishing points at issue in the book in hand.

Each of these men and women, some with very great financial means at their disposal, others not, have enriched us all through their book collecting interests and subsequent endowments to libraries and institutions of learning, some of which they themselves created.

Many collectors ask if books are good investments. Yes, if your heart and soul are invested, a lifetime of dreams and acute perceptions, of learning to see what exactly constitutes the interest in a particular author, a notable field of research, a keenly fashioned object of paper, of vellum, perhaps, is your greatest reward. The money concern is certainly to be taken into account—how much to pay for a rarity in ordinary, fine or exquisite condition. Important as this is, the ‘money investment’ aspect of book collecting is not, and ought not to be the first or major consideration.

Despite its accent on the economics of the matter, Allen & Patricia Ahearn’s Book Collecting 2000 is an extremely useful, comprehensive introduction to the subject. In addition to sections dealing with six of the major areas of collectibility and with the five fundamental areas of procurement, it offers intelligent advice on how to buy wisely, what one needs to know to do that, and where to go to find out more—appendices on book dealers, auction, houses, etc. So as a book collector, I highly recommend that this publication be the first that you add to your collection.

Book collecting obviously has rewards and value for which money can be neither the sole nor the principal motive. Stocks & bonds, gold and oil are truer ways to financial wealth. Book collecting at its finest embodies people’s endless curiosity and desire for knowledge. If this is at the heart of your interest in collecting books, then book collecting will be an extremely rewarding experience for you.