277. Robert Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (Berlin: Ernst Rowohlt, 1930).
278. Flann O’Brien, “Buchhandlung,” in The Best of Myles (London: Picador, 1974).
279. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, edited by and with an introduction and appendices by David Womersley (London: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press, 1994); Vol. I, chapter 7.
280. Harald Weinrich, Lethe. Kunst und Kritik des Vergessens (Munich: C.H. Beck’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1997).
281. “Shah Muhammad, libraire,” in Le Monde (Paris, 28 November, 2001). Curiously, a year after this article appeared, the Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad published her account of an Afghani book- seller’s life under the title The Bookseller of Kabul. Seierstad’s hero is given the name Sultan Khan but many of the incidents and quotations are the same.
282. Andrew Murray, foreword to Presbyterians and the Negro: A History (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Historical Society, 1966).
283. Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (1901).
284. Janet Duitsman Cornelius, “When I Can Read My Title Clear”: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1991).
285. Eliza Atkins Gleason, The Southern Negro and the Public Library (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941).
286. James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1953).
287. Nina Berberova, La disparition de la bibliothèque de Turgeniev (Arles: Actes Sud, 1999).
288. Interview with Dr. Irene Kupferschmitt, Montreal, 3 May, 2004. Unpublished.
289. Robert Fisk, “Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze,” in The Independent (London, 15 April, 2003).
290. Irwin, Night & Horses & the Desert.
291. Jabbar Yassin Hussin, Le lecteur de Bagdad (Aude: Atelier du Gué, 2000).
292. Johannes Pedersen, Den Arabiske Bog (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1946).
293. Milbry Polk and Angela M.H. Schuster (ed.), The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad: The Lost Legacy of Ancient Mesopotamia (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2005).
294. Luciano Canfora, Il copista come autore (Palermo: Sellerio editore, 2002).
295. Jean Bottéro, Mésopotamie.
THE LIBRARY AS IMAGINATION
296. Henry Fielding, Amelia, I:10 (1752), Vol. VI and VII of The Complete Works of Henry Fielding, Esq. (London: William Heinemann, 1903).
297. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews; vol. I, p. 5.
298. “The sun itself is but the dark simulacrum, and light but the shadow of God.” Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, II.
299. Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” in Collected Poems 1934–1952 (London: Dent, 1952).
300. Shakespeare, Othello, V:2.
301. Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England: 1815–1865 (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1936).
302. Christmas Humphreys, Buddhism (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1951).
303. In conversation with the author.
304. Borges, “Autobiographical Notes,” in The New Yorker.
305. Idem., “Poema de los dones,” in El hacedor.
306. Idem., “Examen de la obra de Herbert Quain,” “El acercamiento a Almostásim,” “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” in El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (Buenos Aires: Sur, 1941); “El milagro secreto,” in Ficciones; “El libro de arena,” in El libro de arena (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1975).
307. François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel, trans. Sir Thomas Urquhart and Pierre Le Motteux (1693–94), introduction by Terence Cave (New York & Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994).
308. Henri Lefebvre, Rabelais (Paris: Editeurs français réunis, 1955).
309. Antonine Maillet, Rabelais et les traditions populaires en Acadie (Laval: Les Presses Université de Laval, 1971).
310. Lucien Febvre, Le problème de l’incroyance au seizième siècle: La religion de Rabelais (Paris: Albin Michel, 1942).
311. Jean Plattard, La vie et l’oeuvre de Rabelais (Paris: Boivin, 1930).
312. Mijail Bajtin, La cultura popular en la edad media y en el Renacimiento: El contexto de françois rabelais, trans. Julio Forcat and César Conroy (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1987).
313. Edwin H. Carpenter, Jr., Some Libraries We Have Not Visited: A Paper Read at the Rounce & Coffin Club, August 26, 1947 (Pasadena, CA: Ampersand Press, 1947).
314. Sir Thomas Browne, “Tract XIII,” in Certain Miscellany Tracts (London, 1684).
315. Carpenter, Some Libraries We Have Not Visited.
316. “Qu’est-ce que tu fais, Paul?” “Je travaille. Je travaille de mon métier. Je suis attaché au catalogue de la Nationale, je relève des titres.” “Oh…. Tu peux faire cela de mémoire?” “De mémoire? Où serait le mérite? Je fais mieux. J’ai constaté que la Nationale est pauvre en ouvrages latins et italiens du XVe siècle…. En attendant que la chance et l’érudition les comblent, j’inscris les titres d’oeuvres extrèmement intéressantes, qui auraient dû être écrits … qu’au moins les titres sauvent le prestige du catalogue….” “Mais … puisque les livres n’existent pas?” “Ah!” dit-il, avec un geste frivole, “je ne peux pas tout faire!” Colette, in Mes apprentissages (Paris: Ferenczi et fils, 1936).
317. Rudyard Kipling, “The Finest Story in the World,” in Many Inventions (London: Macmillan & Co., 1893).
318. The Necronomicon is first mentioned in a 1922 Lovecraft story, “The Hound;” the location of a copy is detailed in “The Festival” (1923). Both stories are collected in L.P. Lovecraft and Others, Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos (Sauk City: Arkham House, 1969).
319. H.P. Lovecraft, A History of the Necronomicon, (Oakman, AL: Rebel Press, 1938).
320. H.P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, “The Shadow Out of Space,” in The Shuttered Room (London: Victor Gollancz, 1968).
321. Verne, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers.
322. Shakespeare, As You Like It, II:1.
323. Carlo Collodi, Le avventure di Pinocchio, ed. Ornella Castellani Pollidori (Pescia: Fondazione nazionale Carlo Collodi, 1983).
324. Information provided by the director of the Provincial Archives of Oulu, Ms. Vuokko Joki.
325. Timothy W. Ryback, “Hitler’s Forgotten Library: The Man, His Books and His Search for God,” in The Atlantic Monthly (May 2003).
THE LIBRARY AS IDENTITY
326. The idea was proposed by K.W. Humphreys in his splendid Panizzi lectures. See K.W. Humphreys, A National Library in Theory and in Practice (London: The British Library, 1987), which I have closely followed for this chapter.
327. U. Dotti, Vita di Petrarca (Rome and Bari: Laterza, 1987).
328. Quoted by Humphreys in A National Library in Theory and in Practice.
329. Ibid.
330. Harris, The Reading Room.
331. Quoted by Humphreys in A National Library in Theory and in Practice.
332. Report from the Select Committee on the British Museum together with the Minutes of Evidence, appendix and index (London: House of Commons, 14 July, 1836), quoted by Humphreys in A National Library in Theory and in Practice.
333. Edward Miller, Prince of Librarians: The Life and Times of Antonio Panizzi (London: The British Library Publications, 1988).
334. Edmund Gosse, “A First Sight of Tennyson,” in Portraits and Sketches (London: William Heinemann, 1912).
335. Quoted by Ann Thwaite in Edmund Gosse: A Literary Landscape (London: Martin Secker and Warburg, 1984).
336. Quoted by Humphreys in A National Library in Theory and in Practice.
337. Quoted by Harris in The Reading Room.
338. Judith Flanders, “The British Library’s Action Plan,” in The Times Literary Supplement (London, 2 September, 2005).
339. Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin, L’apparition du livre (Paris: Albin Michel, 1958).
340. Maud Stéphan-Hachem, La Bibliothèque Nationale du Liban, entre les aléas de l’histoire et l
’acharnement de quelques-uns. (Paris: Bulletin des bibliothèques de France, ENSSIB, January 2005).
341. Blaine Harden, “For Immigrants, U.S. Still Starts at a Library,” in The International Herald Tribune (Paris, 29 April, 1998).
THE LIBRARY AS HOME
342. Bram Stoker, Dracula, introduction, notes and bibliography by Leonard Wolf (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1975), chapter 3.
343. Ibid., chapter 2.
344. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, introduction and notes by Leonard Wolf (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1977); Vol. II, chapter 4.
345. Ibid., volume III, chapter 7.
346. Ibid., volume II, chapter 4.
347. Ibid., chapter 6.
348. These words (“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/ To mould me man? Did I solicit thee/ From darkness to promote me?”) are from Paradise Lost, Book 3, and were set as an epigraph on the title page of the first volume of Shelley’s Frankenstein. Leonard Wolf, annotator of Mary Shelley’s novel, has this to say about the monster’s touching, perfect words: “As an epigraph (or an epitaph) for humanity, ‘Pardon this intrusion’ is unsurpassed.”
349. Shelley, Frankenstein, volume II, chapter 7.
350. Seneca, “On the Shortness of Life,” in The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca.
351. Plutarch, Moralia, Vol. IV, ed. and trans. Frank Cole Babbitt (Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press and William Heinemann Ltd, 1972).
352. Dante, De vulgari eloquentia, introduction, translation and notes by Vittorio Coletti (Milan: Garzanti, 1991).
353. Erasmus von Rotterdam, “Adagen” (Festina lente), in Ausgewählte Schriften, ed. W. Welzig (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1967–1969); II:I:1.
354. Steven Wilson, Related Strangers: Jewish-Christian Relations, 70 to 170 CE (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1995).
355. “Alors que dans la modalité du temps, elle présentifiait l’Antiquité grecque et arabe comme modèles culturels exemplaires, dans celle de l’espace, elle s’acharnait à réunir ce qui était dispersé et à rapprocher ce qui était éloigné.” “Rendre visible l’invisible … ce souci de possession du monde.” Touati, L’armoire à sagesse.
356. “Défiez-vous de ces cosmopolites qui vont chercher loin dans leurs livres des devoirs qu’ils dédaignent de remplir autour d’eux. Tel philosophe aime les Tartares, pour être dispensé d’aimer ses voisins.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile ou de l’éducation, Book I.
357. Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations (London, 1908); I:29.
358. Hermann Broch, Der Tod des Vergil (1945).
359. Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, edited with an introduction by Geoffrey Keynes (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1940); I:6.
360. Richard Rorty, “The Inspirational Value of Great Works of Literature,” in Raritan, volume 16, no. 1 (New Brunswick, NJ: 1996).
361. Naudé, Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque.
CONCLUSION
362. El libro de los veinticuatro filósofos, ed. Paolo Lucentini, trans. Cristina Serna and Jaume Pòrtulas (Madrid: Siruela, 2000).
363. I thank Edgardo Cozarinsky for this information. Vladimir Nabokov/Elena Sikorskaja, Nostalgia, letter of 9 October, 1945 (Milano: Rosellina Archinto, 1989).
364. “La présence de la bibliothèque est le signe que l’univers est encore tenu pour pensable.” Jean Roudaut, Les dents de Bérénice: Essai sur la représentation et l’évocation des bibliothèques (Paris: Deyrolle Éditeur, 1996).
365. The First Epistle General of John, 2:16.
366. Penelope Fitzgerald, The Blue Flower (London: HarperCollins, 1995).
367. Northrop Frye, Notebooks.
Image Credits
Title page (Pp. this page-this page) Aby Warburg’s Library, Author’s collection; this page inscription, Author’s collection; this page, library at Le Presbytère, Author’s collection; bottom library of the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, Author’s collection; this page stained-glass window, Author’s collection; this page Long Hall library, Author’s collection; this page boat palace, photograph provided by www.downtheroad.org The Ongoing Global Bicycle Adventure; this page Montaigne’s tower, photograph, Michael Sympson; this page tower of Babel, Copyright © The British Library, Egerton, 1894; this page Library of Alexandria, Mohamed Nafea / Bibliotheca Alexandrina; this page Pepys’s bookcase, courtesy of http://www.furniturestyles.net/european/english/misc/oak-bookcase-pepys.jpg; this page literatura de cordel, Author’s collection; this page Yongle Dadian, © Wason Collection on East Asia, Cornell University; this page scroll shelf, Author’s collection; this page Melvil Dewey, © 2003, from Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science by Winifred B. Linderman. Reproduced by permission of Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, LLC; this page library steps, reprinted from Percy D. Macquoid, Dictionary of English Furniture, (Wappingers’ Falls, N.Y., 2000), p. 390; this page Patrice Moore’s apartment, courtesy of http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2004/01/06/
disposophobia.php; this page Library of Congress, Jim Higgins, Library of Congress; this page Domesday Book, The National Archives, ref. E31/1, E31/2; this page, title page, Author’s collection; right a stupa, © The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; this page “Writing,” The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library/ University of Toronto; this page library at Wolfenbüttel, Ŏlgemälde der Rotunde, Innenansicht; this page Ashurbanipal, © The Trustees of the British Museum; this page Carnegie cartoon, provided courtesy HarpWeek; this page bookplate, photograph, G. Blaikie; this page a book burning in Warsawa, Indiana, Times-Union (Warsaw, IN); this page book burning cartoon, Author’s collection; this page warning sign, Author’s collection; this page Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga, courtesy of http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/juan-zumarraga.htm; this page Toronto Reference Library, Toronto Public Library (TRL); this page, the King’s Library, copyright © The British Library, 60.g.12; bottom Biblioteca de Catalunya, photograph, Søren Lauridsen, 2006; Pp. this page–this page Freie Universität, © Foster and Partners; this page Bibliothèque Nationale de France, © Dominique Perrault/SODRAC (2006); this page, ground plan of the library at Wolfenbüttel, Lambert Rosenbusch, Wolfenbüttel, Former Rotunda of the Library, Figure of Proportion after Serlio, Primo Libro de Geombetria p 13v, Nicolini Vinetia (1551) Industrial Design 04, Thomas Helms Verlag Schwerin 2000, p7; bottom layout for library in a Carolingian monastery, Author’s collection; Pp. this page–this page Boullée’s ideal design for a library, Author’s collection; this page Salle Labrouste, photography by Diane Asseo Griliches © Library: The Drama Within (University of New Mexico Press, 1996); this page Reading Room, Author’s collection; this page Panizzi’s sketch, Author’s collection; this page stalls, Author’s collection; this page Michelangelo’s sketch, Author’s collection; Pp. this page–this page staircase, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, n. 226/2006, Vesibolo (Scala di Michelangelo) /Microfoto; this page ground plan of Pergamon Library, Author’s collection; this page Habott Library, David Sauveur /Agence VU; this page Dunhuang Caves, courtesy of www.worldtravelgate.net; this page Diamond Sutra, copyright © The British Library, Or 8210/P. 2; this page Kipling portrait, Library of Congress, The Carpenter Kipling Collection, (LC-USZ62–59457); this page Last Jugement fresco, photograph, Thomas Hallon Hallbert; this page Aby Warburg, photograph: Warburg Institute; this page Mnemosyne panel, Aby Warburg, Mnemosyne Atlas, panel 32: ‘Moreska,’ photograph: Warburg Institute; this page Robinson Crusoe, Author’s Collection; this page Biblioburro, © Oscar Monsalve, 2005; this page German prayer book, Author’s collection; this page Birkenau, Russian State Archives of Film and Video Documents; this page Jacob Edelstein, The image of Jacob Edelstein, neg. 5144 © The Jewish Museum in Prague; this page library in Theresienstadt Ghetto, Author’s collection; this page Shah Muhammad Rais, photograph, Ole Berthelsen, TV 2 Nettavisen, Norway; this page Booker T. Washington, Cheynes Studio, Hampton, Virginia, 1903; this page Cossitt Library, Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries; this page library in Baghdad, Joel Preston Smith, www.joel
prestonsmith.com; this page Code of Hammurabi, courtesy of http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/ARTH200/
politics/hammurabi.jpg; this page Borges, © Eduardo Comesana; this page Gargantua, C Lebrecht Music & Arts; this page Rabelais’s house, Author’s collection; this page Sir Thomas Browne, Gwen Raverat, Sir Thomas Browne, 1910, © DACS/SODART 2006; this page Dickens, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, (LC-USZ62–117829); this page Paul Masson, Author’s collection; this page Captain Nemo’s library, Author’s collection; this page Hitler’s bookplate, Third Reich collection, Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress; this page Sir Anthony Panizzi, Picture History, Elliott & Fry, 1870; this page books of the Lebanon National Library, Author’s collection; this page Dracula, Author’s collection; this page Frankenstein, Author’s collection.
ALBERTO MANGUEL is an internationally acclaimed anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and editor and the bestselling author of several award-winning books, including A Dictionary of Imaginary Places and A History of Reading. He was born in Buenos Aires, moved to Canada in 1982 and now lives in France, where he was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.
VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2007
Copyright © 2006 Alberto Manguel
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2007. Originally published in hardcover in Canada by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2006. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
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