128 The first “great” book: On the Eliot Indian Bible, early owners, and copies in various collections, see John Wright, 1–27.
129 “Behold, ye Americans”: ibid., 16.
129 “slapping and pinching himself”: Gray, 76.
130 “Books are my disease”: Wolf, The Library, xvii.
130 “In many ways James Logan”: ibid., xviii.
130 “I confess a Book has from my Infancy”: ibid., xvii.
131 “I observe thy method”: ibid., xliii.
131 “I am under this great Disadvantage”: ibid., xxv.
131–32 “Thou may therefore”: ibid., xx.
133 “While from all sides”: Translation from Latin in Tolles, 96–97.
133 “to a bookseller who lived … thou bought it of”: Wolf, The Library, 402–3.
134 “base and lying lackeys”: Gray, 3.
134 “was done by a Gentleman”: Tolles, 212.
134 “Proposals Relating to the Education”: In J. A. Leo Lemay, ed. Franklin (New York: The Library of America, 1987), 326–27.
135 “But the most noble Monument”: Wolf, The Library, xlv.
135 “I here behold the portrait”: ibid., liii.
136 “After it was dark”: James Green, 7. See also Jack Greene.
137 “I send you the catalogue … exhausted”: Stern, 27–29.
138 Born to affluent parents: For Prince’s background, see The Prince Library, v–xvi (introduction by Justin Winsor). See also Cannon, 1–15.
138 “Inquire of the Rev. Mr. Prince”: Cannon, 4–13.
140 “mounted up to the balcony”: ibid., 11.
140 “a very ruinous situation”: ibid., 10.
140 For an annual census of the Bay Psalm Book, see Amory, 24–27.
141 “What is that worth, Madame?”: Randall, 21.
141 “The suggestion that we sell”: Author’s interview with the Reverend James W. Crawford.
142 “inquisitive disposition”: Louis L. Tucker, in Drumney, 15.
142 “The preservation of books … especially in the historical way”: Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies, 8–9.
143 “There is nothing like having”: Drumney, 16.
143 “In preference to a collegiate”: ibid., 17.
144 “with great satisfaction”: Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies, 4.
144 “The art of printing affords”: Drumney, 17. 144 “the preserver of all art”: Shipton, 81.
145 Baskerville of America: Benjamin Franklin Thomas, “Memoir of Isaiah Thomas,” Thomas, vol. 1, lxxvii. The reference is to John Baskerville (1706–1775), a noted English printer and publisher and the designer of several elegant typefaces that bear his name.
145 “He spread his products”: Shipton, 1.
146 “old papers, Boston Evening Post”: Cannon, 52–53.
146 “We cannot obtain” Collections and Programs of the American Antiquarian Society, 18.
147 “to show what articles” and “after advertising for another copy”: Cannon, 55, 54.
147 A proposal to raise funds: Diary entries quoted in Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies, 70–71; Shipton, 76–77.
147 “touched early by the gentlest of infirmities”: Thomas, lxxxii.
148 “desiccated mummy”: Whitehill, Independent Historical Societies, 69–70.
148 “better preservation”: ibid., 67.
148 “triumph of vandalism”: Mearns, 28.
148–50 After reading about the disaster: Jefferson’s letter proposing sale of his library to nation is quoted in Mearns, 28–30.
150 “It might be inferred”: Randolph G. Adams, 86.
150 Though cost was an issue: On the formula to assess Jefferson’s books, see ibid., 88–89.
151 “is such to render all valuation”: ibid., 88.
151 On the education of congressmen who voted on measure to buy Jefferson’s books, see Adams, 90–92.
152 “So it was the South”: ibid., 91.
152 On the breakdown of the congressional vote on the “Act to Authorize the Purchase of the Library of Thomas Jefferson,” see Mearns, 33–36.
152 On Webster’s failure to pay Audubon, see Fries, 249–51.
152–53 “It is the choicest collection”: Malone, 181.
153 “great hue and cry”: Stevens, 82.
154 “You will find eventually”: ibid., 86.
154 “The idea was to get popular … all others are judged”: Author’s interview with John Lannon.
155 “We have been and still are”: Walter Muir Whitehill in the introduction to Crandall, vol. 1, xvi. Introduction contains detailed history of the collection.
155 “This country is sadly in want”: Farnham, 5. For similar surveys of the period, see James Wynne and Horatio Rogers. Of related interest, see also John Francis McDermott, “Private Libraries in Frontier St. Louis,” in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, first quarter, 1957, 19–37.
156 “there were many things”: Farnham, 7–8.
157 Roger E. Stoddard reports: ibid., iii–vi, 81–98.
157 “has produced a few authors”: ibid., 7.
158 “it is probable”: Knepper, 117.
158 “I was encouraged to undertake”: Washington Irving, A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (New York: G. & C. Carvill, 1828), vol. 1, vii.
159 “I fear the Congress”: Knepper, 121.
159 “He has uniformly executed”: ibid., 113.
160 armed with a “general commission to forage”: On Stevens’s shipping five hundred titles to Providence, see Danforth and Hintenlang, 37.
160 “Those were happy days”: Stevens, 13.
160–61 “paid his taxes”: ibid., 5–7.
161 “He gave me his money” and “He had a mind of his own”: ibid., 9, 103.
161 “I am still of the opinion … withdrawal of a good Customer”: Thomas R. Adams, “A Collection’s Progress,” in Gazette of the Grolier Club, vol. 8, October 1968, 2–13.
162 “find the five-pound notes”: Stevens, 23. For more on Stevens, see Parker and Randolph G. Adams, chapter 3; on Brinley, 35–67. 162 “Don’t buy too many”: Letter from John Nicholas Brown to George Parker Winship, Jan. 28, 1897, quoted in Danforth, 51.
163 “Brinley strove to rescue”: Randolph G. Adams, 39–40.
164 “By pursuing this method … in any subsequent sale.”: George Watson Cole, “Book Collectors as Benefactors of Public Libraries,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 1st qtr., 1915.
164 In an unpublished memoir: Carbon typescript of unpublished Charles Brinley memoir in Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, Conn. Original copy in William Clement’s Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
164 “upon condition that”: Randolph G. Adams, 43.
164 “What, do you mean to say”: Stevens, 118–19.
165 “That goose is now a swan”: ibid., 119.
165 “greatest bibliographical rarity”: ibid., 125.
165 “I am glad to see”: Randolph G. Adams, 51.
165 “the greatest library”: Brigham, in his introduction to McKay, 17.
166 “the service rendered”: J. Hammond Trumbull, in the preface to Catalogue of the American Library of the Late Mr. George Brinley of Hartford, Conn., vol. 5, 3. See also Joseph Rosenblum, “George Brinley and His Sales,” American Book Collector 6, no. 5, new ser., September/October 1985, 13–23.
167–68 Only three collections: For an account of John A. Rice, Edward G. Asay, and Ebenezer Lane, see Rosenthal. One of Chicago’s great collectors and benefactors, John M. Wing (1844–1917), assembled at the turn of the century a folio-sized scrapbook containing several hundred newspaper clippings. He called it “Old Corner Library Scrapbook About Books, Bibliography, Book-Plates, Libraries, and Other Things, Picked Up Here and There, by a Philosopher. Chicago: Pasted at the Old Corner. 1899.” Wing called the library in his house at 743 Congress Street the Old Corner Library, and he had a bookplate t
o that effect. His scrapbook is an excellent source of information and is in the Wing Collection at the Newberry Library.
168 “by the acre and sold it”: Lawrence W. Towner, in Achilles, 17.
168 “Certain it is”: Chicago Inter-Ocean, clipping from files of Newberry Library.
169 “I desire the books”: Goodspeed, 55.
169 “In the unfoldings”: Bancroft, 6.
169 “Bibliomaniac I was not”: ibid., 89.
170 “certain books I knew … separate them”: ibid., 90–91.
171 “From London I went”: ibid., 94.
171 “new light broke in”: ibid., 97.
172 “the largest collection”: ibid., 120.
172 “I trembled for its safety”: ibid., 109.
172 “In fact, there is probably”: Burton, 180–81.
172 “prodigious accomplishment … agency involved”: Boyd, 8.
5: “BRANDY FOR HEROES”
173 “If the great collections”: Beverly Chew, in his foreword to the Hoe Sale catalogue, Part 1 (A-K), v.
173–74 “Donating the incunables”: Sotheby’s, Incunables from the Schøyen collection, unpaginated.
174 “Without counting each”: Bierstadt, 5. Commenting on James Wynne’s book of 1860, Private Libraries of New York, Bierstadt wrote: “It is hardly a generation ago that this book was published, but it reads already like ancient history, so important have been the acquisitions made since then” (page 2). For more on Hoe as entrepreneur, see Comparato.
175 “I specifically authorize”: Towner, 262.
175 “covered with dust”: Chew’s introduction to Bierstadt, v.
175 Though Robert Hoe: For more on E. Dwight Church, see Cannon, 142–43; Grolier 75, 12–14; Dickinson, 65–66; New York Times, April 8, 1911.
175–76 “hopeful … to private collections”: Undated and unidentified newspaper clipping, “Big Sum for Old Books,” Huntington Institutional Archives (hereafter referred to as HIA), 31.1.1.42.
176–78 “Mr. Pierpont Morgan’s Library,” The Times (London), Dec. 4, 1908, 12.
178 “The book that is arousing”: New York Times, April 13, 1911.
179 “How Americans Get Private Libraries Worth Fortunes,” New York Times, April 14, 1911.
180 “richly illuminated in gold”: Hoe Sale catalogue, Part 1 (A-K), 23 (Lot 142).
180 “remarkably fine copy”: ibid., 43 (Lot 252).
180–81 Biblia Sacra Latina: ibid., 47 (Lot 269).
180–81 Press reports of Hoe sale and clippings in Grolier Club Album.
181 “to the vanishing point”: ibid., New York Herald, April 26, 1911.
181 “bent upon getting the treasure”: ibid., New York Times.
181–182 “George D. Smith made”: ibid., New York Tribune, April 18, 1911.
182 “absurdly high … taller than your buildings”: ibid., New York Times, April 28, 1911.
182–184 “The Man Who Paid $50,000 for the Gutenberg Bible” and “J. P. Morgan’s Librarian Says High Book Prices Are Harmful”: ibid., New York Times, April 30, 1911, v, 13.
184 “You may now have your reply”: Cannon, 279.
184 “Her victory evoked”: New York Times, May 2, 1911, 1.
184 “Shall I buy”: Grolier 75, 20.
185 “I do not wish … everything will be gone”: Newton, Amenities, 352.
186 “I think I’ll take”: ibid., 354.
186 A few hours before: For more on Harry Widener’s final purchases and final words, see Arthur Freeman, “Harry Widener’s Last Books” in Book Collector, Summer 1977, 173–85.
186–87 “I think if Harry Elkins Widener”: Rosenbach, Books and Bidders, 45.
187 “All joy of living”: Letter from Eleanor Elkins Widener to Rosenbach, July 3, 1914, Rosenbach Company Archives (hereafter referred to as RCA), I:181:31.
187 “hurricane of buying”: Wolf and Fleming, 79.
187 “the utter inadequacy”: Bentinck-Smith, 10.
188 “in a state of suspended”: ibid., 53.
188 “WANTED—A MILLIONAIRE”: Undated Boston American newspaper clipping from Harvard University Archives; reproduced in Carpenter, 135.
188 “Do you know anyone”: Bentinck-Smith, 54.
188 “out of tragedy”: ibid., 54.
188 “we should have”: ibid., 55.
189 “I should not be surprised”: ibid., 56.
189 “When the Library”: Letter from Eleanor Elkins Widener to Dr. Rosenbach, July 3, 1914, RCA, I:181:31.
189 “unremarkable but grateful”: Parks, 3 (Alan Bell’s introduction).
190 “shy and reticent … in his own right”: Gilbert McCoy Troxell, “The Elizabethan Club: Its Origins and Its Books,” Yale University Library Gazette, No. 27 (1952), 19–22.
191 “Little did I guess”: Quoted in Bell’s introduction to Parks, 11.
191 “welcome flood of gifts”: Carpenter, 170.
192 “For, let it be said … carried away with enthusiasm”: Boies Penrose, “George Parker Winship,” in Grolier 75, 185–87. In a description for The Book Collector of his specialized collection of early books on geography (Autumn 1961, 301–10), Penrose noted that it was Winship who “encouraged my interests” by suggesting that he “cut [his] teeth by translating Breydenbach’s Pilgrimage to the Holy Land—a project that came to naught, although it did result in my buying a copy of the Mainz 1486 Breydenbach from Lathrop Harper in March 1926, an event which may be taken as the start of my collecting career.”
192 “This course is intended”: Stoddard, “Teaching the History.”
193 “Mr. Kilgour realized”: William A. Jackson, preface to The Kilgour Collection of Russian Literature 1750–1920, unpaginated.
193 “grand acquisitor … club pin”: Stoddard, “Teaching the History.”
193 “perpetually in the lead”: Hobson, 226.
194 “Men may come”: Rosenbach, Books and Bidders, 252.
194 “When the rulers of kingdoms”: Charles F. Heartman, “George D. Smith, 1870–1920: A Memorial Tribute to the Greatest Bookseller the World Has Ever Known” (privately printed, 1945), reprinted in American Book Collector, May-June 1973, 3–26. See also Donald C. Dickinson, “Mr. Huntington and Mr. Smith,” Book Collector, Autumn 1988, 376–93.
194–95 “It cannot be stated too often”: George Sherburn, Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 1 (May 1931), 33.
195 “I have not slept a wink”: Thorpe, Henry Edwards Huntington, 279.
195 “I had the satisfaction”: Bruccoli, “George D. Smith,” 2524.
196 “I am very glad to see”: Letter from Henry Huntington to George Smith, Sept. 25, 1918, HIA, 31.1.1.42.1.
196 “neglected to tell”: Richard S. Wormser, “George D. Smith,” in Grolier 75, 184.
196 “purchased for stock”: Telegram, Aug. 1, 1919, RCA, I:93:01.
197 “all for the special price”: Handwritten memo, Aug. 19, 1919, initialed “HEH,” RCA, I:93:01.
197 “One day I was talking”: Brigham, 48. A framed photograph of Marsden J. Perry hangs in the treasure room of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., near the shelves where many of the books he collected are now stored, a modest but meaningful tribute to a respected bibliophile.
198 “At this time”: Letter from Dr. Rosenbach to Henry C. Folger, July 23, 1919, RCA, I:62:17.
198 “I do not hesitate”: Rosenbach, Books and Bidders, 88.
198 “Henry, I see from the papers”: Wolf and Fleming, Rosenbach, 122.
199 “Very Confidential”: Letter from Rosenbach to Folger, June 27, 1922, RCA, I:62:23.
199 “It makes quite a reduction”: Letter from Huntington to George Watson Cole, Aug. 21, 1919, HIA, 31.1.1.42.1.
200 “the greatest collection”: Letter from Brigham to Huntington, April 17, 1920, HIA, 31.1.1.1.6.2.
200 “kind offer to get”: Letter from Huntington to Brigham, May 18, 1920, HIA, 31.1.1.6.2.
200 “Absolutely no one has suspected”: Letter from Brigham to Hunt
ington, July 27, 1920, HIA, 31.1.1.6.2.
201 “A dealer would charge $20,000”: Letter from Brigham to Huntington, Aug. 17, 1920, HIA, 31.1.1.6.2.
201 “spending most of my evenings”: Letter from Brigham to Huntington, Sept. 21, 1920, from the Henry E. Huntington file in the American Antiquarian Society Institutional Archives (hereafter referred to as AAS).
201 “I am delighted to know”: Letter from Cole to Brigham, Nov. 27, 1920, AAS.
201 “and as I plan”: Letter from Huntington to Brigham, Dec. 13, 1920, AAS.
201 “you have at the present time”: Letter from Brigham to Huntington, Jan. 19, 1921, AAS.
201 “Mr. Huntington after reading”: Letter from Cole to Brigham, April 6, 1921, AAS.
201 “We can readily see”: Letter from Cole to Brigham, June 10, 1921, AAS.
202 “Because of the approaching … purchasing for myself”: Letter from Brigham to Huntington, May 13, 1921, AAS.
202 “The books go forward … buying for you”: Letter from Brigham to Huntington, Dec. 19, 1921, AAS.
203 “I note with interest”: Letter from Huntington to Brigham, Dec. 21, 1924, HIA, 31.1.1.6.2.
203 “I have made three foreign trips”: Letter from Brigham to Huntington, Jan. 7, 1924, HIA, 31.1.1.6.2.
203 “the years 1921–1925”: Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 1 (May 1931), 85.
203–4 “Mr. Huntington never”: Letter from Brigham to Max Farrand, July 10, 1931, AAS.
205 “I think that I have spent”: Clarence Brigham, in Percy Lawler, ed., 53. See also Donald C. Dickinson, “Mr. Huntington and Mr. Brigham,” Book Collector, Winter 1993, 507–22.
205 “Mr. Huntington was an opportunist”: Schad, 13.
205 “we most emphatically do not”: Letter from Leslie E. Bliss to Rosenbach, Jan. 25, 1923, RCA, I:93:03.
206 “You buy the collection”: Letter from Bliss to Rosenbach, Jan. 25, 1923, RCA, I:93:03.
206 “keep the matter confidential”: Letter from Rosenbach to Huntington, Feb. 6, 1923, RCA, I:93:03.
206 “rather clumsily altered”: Letter from Huntington to Rosenbach, Feb. 6, 1923, RCA, I:93:03.
206 “I note that you purchased”: Letter from Huntington to Rosenbach, May 14, 1923, RCA, I:93:04.
206 “concerning this item”: Letter from Rosenbach to Huntington, May 22, 1923, RCA, I:93:04.
207 “It may interest you to know”: Letter from Rosenbach to Huntington, July 13, 1923, RCA, I:93:04. For more on Rosenbach’s “private treaty” purchases in Europe, see Morris, Rosenbach Abroad and Rosenbach Redux.
A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books Page 68