A Passion for Books

by Harold Rabinowitz

  4 Light

  The electric light has been in use in the Reading Room of the British Museum, and is a great boon to the readers. However,you must choose particular positions if you want to work happily. There is a great objection too in the humming fizz which accompanies it . . . and there is still greater objectionwhen small pieces of hot chalk fall on your head.

  —W.B.

  Though Blades foresaw the downside of electric lighting for the reader, he did not foresee its particular dangers to the books themselves. “Light,” Dorris Hamburg writes, “causes changes in the paper structure itself as well as leading to bleaching, fading, darkening, and/or embrittlement.” The ultraviolet rays in fluorescent lights can be damaging, explains Elaine Haas, president of TALAS, a professional resource center for libraries. If you have very valuable books, she suggests you slip special ultraviolet absorbent material over the fluorescent tubes.

  But in addition to artificial light sources, sunlight can be equally or more damaging. Even indirect sunlight can lead to fading. An unpopular but simple way to protect your collection is to draw the blinds in your library. Food book collector Richmond Ellis uses window shades on the bookshelves themselves.

  5 Dust and Neglect

  Dust upon Books to any extent points to Neglect, and Neglect means more or less slow Decay.

  —W.B.

  For those who hate to dust, there are storage options to avoid the problem. Jack Lenor Larsen adopted Japanese design practices and found that “if fabrics are hung up from the ceiling to cover the books, I don’t have to look at a lot of stuff all the time. It also reduces dust and therefore cleaning and breakage.” Window shades can also protect books from dust and other pollutants. Make sure any material you use is acid-free. Protective book boxes can preserve rare books from dust or pollution.

  There is no formula for how often a library must be dusted; it depends on the environment. Anthony Trollope dusted his library twice a year. Frequent vacuuming and/or sweeping will reduce dust buildup. A feather duster is the classic implement for removing dust, but a vacuum cleaner is better. A portable mini-vac, or Dustbuster, though less powerful, may be easier to use in the small spaces between books. Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett uses something in between—a Service Vacuum Cleaner she ordered through Contact East, Inc., North Andover, Massachusetts. Designed for cleaning delicate office equipment like computers, disk drives, and printers, this vacuum is portable and relatively light, weighing a total of nine pounds.

  Regardless of the method you choose, Jane Greenfield recommends you begin by cleaning the top edge of the book. Dust and vacuum away from the spine and hold the book tightly so the dust does not work its way down into the pages. You can use saddle soap on leather bindings to remove dust, dirt, and grime, but not on gold tooling or turn-ins (leather-bound books whose binding extends within the inside edges of the covers and spine). Any moisture can cause blackening and cracking of deteriorating leather, so clean them only if you have to. If you decide to clean your leather bindings, form a lather with the saddle soap and rub the lather into the leather. Wipe off the excess with a clean, damp sponge, drying the binding with a lint-free cloth. Let the book dry completely before putting it back. For cloth bindings, you can use Bookleen Gel, available from library resources. For rare paper bindings, expert help may be required, such as described in Anne F. Clapp’s book, Curatorial Care of Works of Art on Paper: Basic Procedures for Paper Preservation.

  6 Ignorance

  Ten years ago, when turning out an old closet in the Mazarine Library, of which I am librarian, I discovered at the bottom, under a lot of old rags, a large volume. It had no cover nor title-page, and had been used to light the fires of librarians.

  —W.B.

  Even the best-educated bibliophiles, like author and journalist Roger Rosenblatt, are torn between their respect for books and their desire to enjoy them to their fullest, for instance, by engaging with the text through scrawled commentary. “It’s shameful to admit: I deface books all the time,” he says, referring to his penciled scribbles. “And I enjoy seeing the scribbling of others. There is a communicative and emotional value in a record of another human being’s thoughts and feelings left for future readers to happen upon. Of course, though this harms a book, if the scribbler happens to have been Henry James or James Joyce, the book becomes much more valuable.”

  Books can also be damaged by people’s well-meaning efforts to repair them, particularly by using nonrestoration-quality material such as transparent or duct tape to repair torn pages or bindings. Bookbinders have to use Unseal Adhesive Releasing Solvent to remove such tape from books. If you do not wish to take a damaged book to a professional restorer, binders Wilton Wiggins and Douglas Lee advise you to wrap the book in acid-free paper and tie it up with library tape, a flat cotton string that can be used to hold the book together if the spine or binding is loose. There are also special tapes available in a first-aid kit from TALAS in New York and other resources.

  7 The Bookworm (and Other Vermin)

  There is a sort of busy worm That will the fairest books deform, By gnawing holes throughout them. Alike, through every leaf they go, Yet of its merit nought they know, Nor care they aught about them. Their tasteless tooth will tear and taint The Poet, Patriot, Sage, or Saint, Nor sparing wit nor learning. Now, if you’d know the reason why, The best of reasons I’ll supply: ’Tis bread to the poor vermin.

  —J. DORASTON (QUOTED BY WILLIAM BLADES)

  Worms, beetles, and creepy-crawlies of all kinds can chomp through your precious volumes and turn them into fodder—and birthing places for larvae. “If,” Jane Greenfield says, “you have termites in your bookshelves, or if you are stacking books from suspect areas, like barns, cellars and attics, you should freeze the collection before placing it in your library.” She reports that a simple at-home method was developed by Yale University biology professor Charles Remington: Make sure the books are completely dry, thereby preventing the formation of ice crystals. Seal books or wrap them well in plastic bags, preferably made of polyethylene, and freeze them at 6 degrees Fahrenheit in a domestic freezer. (At Yale, books are frozen at −20 degrees Fahrenheit for seventy-two hours.) This will kill all beetles and insects at all stages of development.

  Fifteen Books We Would Memorize If We Were the “Living Books” Characters in Ray Bradbury’s Novel Fahrenheit 451

  BY THE EDITORS

  In 1953 Ray Bradbury’s futuristic novel, Fahrenheit 451, was published.It was about a world in which books have been outlawed and the government employs “firemen” to burn libraries and destroy all books (which catch fire at a temperature of 451 degrees Fahrenheit). The solutionof those few insurgents devoted to books was to memorize and actuallybecome the classics they wished to preserve, retelling them verbatim to others. The vision was profoundly disturbing to all book lovers (Bradburydelights in doing that), but it set the editors to thinking: Which books would they want to become? These books are not presented as the most important, or the most influential, or the greatest—or any such noble description. They are the books that we feel have become so much a part of us that if we ever found ourselves forced to, we could memorize them in order to preserve them.

  The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

  Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

  Night by Elie Wiesel

  1984 by George Orwell

  The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

  Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

  April Morning by Howard Fast

  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

  A Separate Peace by John Knowles

  Demian by Hermann Hesse

  Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

  To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

  Time and Again by Jack Finney

  Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digest
ed; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

  —FRANCIS BACON, “OF STUDIES,” ESSAYS (1625)

  “Nothing thanks. I don’t read books,

  I just like to be in their presence occasionally.”

  © 1988 by Joseph Farris, reprinted by permission of Sam Gross.

  The “100” Game

  The people who reacted negatively to the Modern Library list issued in 1998 seemed to be unaware that such lists have a long and distinguished history. Here are two lists of 100 greatest books selected seventy years apart—one from A. Edward Newton’s 1928 book, This Book-Collecting Game, and the other from the Modern Library.

  100 Greatest Novels in the English Language

  BY A. EDWARD NEWTON

  “You seem to get a lot of pleasure out of book-collecting. I am a man” (or woman) “of some little means and ordinary intelligence; I have always been fond of books and reading. Can you give me any suggestion as to what to collect?”

  Having received hundreds of letters of this general tenor, after due consideration I venture to suggest the collection of good novels. The novels I recommend must be written in English; they should have a certain bibliographical interest, and for the most part be fairly accessible in first editions; they must be readable today, and if they were once popular—so much the better.

  I have been told and I have reluctantly come to believe that the greatest novels have been written in the Russian language. I admit their greatness, but I do not much care for them: they are immense canvases—like Tintoretto’s—and they are almost certainly gloomy, when they are not tragic. But, however great, foreign novels have no place either in my life or in my list.

  I shall not attempt to make any distinction between a novel and a romance. Someone has said that a story filled with tea fights is a novel, while if it is filled with sea fights it is a romance; this distinction will serve as well as any other. We all know what we mean when we use the word “novel”: it is the literary form that today makes the widest appeal the world over. People can and do read novels who read little else; they are suited to every taste and age, and, speaking generally, they are read and forgotten.

  Anticipating the further question, “What novels shall I collect?” I have with the advice of several eminent writers of fiction, and with the suggestions of many friends and the aid of a bookseller or two, prepared my list of

  ONE HUNDRED GOOD NOVELS

  1. Adam Bede Eliot

  2. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Doyle

  3. Alice in Wonderland Carroll

  4. Babbitt Lewis

  5. Barchester Towers Trollope

  6. Ben-Hur Wallace

  7. Caleb Williams Godwin

  8. Captains Courageous Kipling

  9. Cashel Byron’s Profession Shaw

  10. Casuals of the Sea McFee

  11. Children of the Mist Phillpotts

  12. Cloister and the Hearth, The Reade

  13. Colonel Carter of Cartersville Smith

  14. Conqueror, The Atherton

  15. Conrad in Quest of His Youth Merrick

  16. Cranford Gaskell

  17. Crisis, The Churchill

  18. Crock of Gold, A Stephens

  19. Cruise of the “Catchalot,” The Bullen

  20. Damnation of Theron Ware, The Frederic

  21. David Copperfield Dickens

  22. Democracy Adams

  23. East Lynne Wood

  24. Emma Austen

  25. Esther Waters Moore

  26. Ethan Frome Wharton

  27. Evelina Burney

  28. Sir Richard Calmady Mallet

  (Mary St. L. Harrison)

  29. Frankenstein Shelley, Mrs.

  30. Green Mansions Hudson

  31. Handy Andy Lover

  32. Heart of Midlothian, The Scott

  33. Henrietta Temple Disraeli

  34. History of Sandford and Merton, The Day

  35. Honorable Peter Sterling, The Ford

  36. Honour of the Clintons, The Marshall

  37. Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

  38. Humphrey Clinker Smollett

  39. Jane Eyre Brontë (C.)

  40. Joanna Godden Kate-Smith

  41. John Halifax, Gentleman Mulock

  42. Joseph Vance De Morgan

  43. Lady Audley’s Secret Braddon

  44. Last Days of Pompeii Bulwer-Lytton

  45. Last of the Mohicans, The Cooper

  46. Lavenger Borrow

  47. Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, The Paltock

  48. Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy, Gent, The Sterne

  49. Little Minister, The Barrie

  50. Little Women Alcott

  51. Lorna Doone Blackmore

  52. Luck of Roaring Camp, The Harte

  53. Man of Property Galsworthy

  54. McTeague Norris

  55. Moby-Dick Melville

  56. Monsieur Beaucaire Tarkington

  57. Moonstone, The Collins

  58. Mr. Midshipman Easy Marryat

  59. Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds Surtees

  60. New Grub Street Gissing

  61. Mr. Britling Sees It Through Wells

  62. Nigger of the Narcissus, The Conrad

  63. Nightmare Abbey Peacock

  64. Of Human Bondage Maugham

  65. Old Wives’ Tale, The Bennett

  66. Ordeal of Richard Feverel, The Meredith

  67. Pamela Richardson

  68. Parnassus on Wheels Morley

  69. Peter Ibbetson Du Maurier

  70. Picture of Dorian Gray, The Wilde

  71. Portrait of a Lady James

  72. Prisoner of Zenda, The Hawkins

  73. Rasselas Johnson

  74. Red Badge of Courage, The Crane

  75. Rise of Silas Lapham, The Howells

  76. Robert Elsmere Ward

  77. Robbery Under Arms Bolderwood

  78. Romantic Comedians, The Glasgow

  79. Scarlett Letter, The Hawthorne

  80. Story of a Bad Boy Aldrich

  81. Story of Kennett, The Taylor

  82. Ten Thousand a Year Warren

  83. Tess of the d’Urbervilles Hardy

  84. Thaddeus of Warsaw Porter

  85. Three Black Pennys, The Hergesheimer

  86. Tom Brown’s School-Days Hughes

  87. Tom Burke of Ours Lever

  88. Tom Cringle’s Log Scott

  89. Tom Jones Fielding

  90. Treasure Island Stevenson

  91. Two Years Before the Mast Dana

  92. Uncle Remus Harris

  93. Uncle Tom’s Cabin Stowe

  94. Vanity Fair Thackeray

  95. Vicar of Wakefield, The Goldsmith

  96. Virginian, The Wister

  97. Way of All Flesh, The Butler

  98. Westward Ho! Kingsley

  99. Wuthering Heights Brontë (E.)

  100. Zuleika Dobson Beerbohm

  I could say why I admit a certain author or a certain book and exclude another, but I do not wish to be asked to give my reasons. I suggest that every collector make his own list.

  Let it be understood that by collecting novels, I mean collecting the books in first editions, as they were originally published, whether in calf, boards, parts, or cloth, and in good condition. Good is a relative term: it will be practically impossible to find an old and popular novel in fine condition. Books which have passed into and out of “lending libraries,” or books which have been read by a whole generation of readers, invariably show grievous signs of wear. Every collector will decide for himself whether he will take on a poor copy of a book, hoping to get a better one later, or wait until a good copy turns up. I recommend both courses.

  It was an easy matter to select sixty volumes for my list: there could be little or no disagreement as to the best sixty novels. The next twenty occasioned difficulty and much discussion, but it was carrie
d on without undue acrimony: “It’s your list, not mine,” a man would say. The last twenty brought about a pitched battle: “No sane man would omit Marie Corelli and Ouida and include Tarkington and Owen Wister, and why in heaven’s name do you omit Pickwick?” My first thought was to place an asterisk (*), à la Baedecker, after the title of the sixty novels about which there was no question; a question mark (?) after the title of the next twenty— the doubtful titles; and an exclamation point (!) after the last twenty—“which no sane man would think of.” But why deprive my reader of the pleasant feeling of superiority which he might have in himself appraising the comparative value of all the books in my list? It seemed that a pleasant hour might be passed in placing here a star, there a question mark, and elsewhere an exclamation point. Then it occurred to me that my reader might not be provided with sixty stars, twenty question marks, and twenty exclamation points. Whereupon, taking a leaf out of the eccentric Lord Timothy Dexter’s famous book—in which he massed the punctuation marks on one page, that his readers might pepper and salt his work as they pleased—I secured from my publisher the space necessary to provide the given number of “points,” and here they are, very much at my reader’s service.

  The novels I have selected have at one time or another enjoyed great popularity or had some special significance. I include Uncle Tom’s Cabin and omit Old Town Folks, which is a better novel. The thoughtful reader will soon discover why I have included Conan Doyle and Joel Chandler Harris, and omitted Poe and O. Henry.

  It is hardly worthwhile recommending a book which in first edition is practically nonexistent, like Pamela, but it can be had, at a price, and as it is the cornerstone or capstone of any collection of modern English novels, I have included it in my list. Some very rare books can be had cheaply—with luck. An excellent copy of Lady Audley’s Secret was sold for almost nothing not long ago; and a correspondent writes me that he recently bought a first edition of Moby-Dickfor ten cents and sold it to a bookseller for sixty dollars; he asked me what I thought of the transaction. I told him that I should have respected him more if he had doubled both his buying and his selling price.