A library represents the mind of its collector, his fancies and foibles, his strength and weakness, his prejudices and preferences. Particularly is this the case if to the character of a collector he adds—or tries to add—the qualities of a student who wishes to know the books and the lives of the men who wrote them.
Sir William Osler, Bibliotheca Osleriana
I enjoy researching and writing about the books in my library, their authors, and even their former owners. To help me do all that, I have assembled an extensive reference library of bibliographies, biographies, and other reference works.
Reading about bibliographical matters may become tedious to the non-initiated so instead, I shall present a picture display of my reference library, with many pictures and fewer words. And I will post a link to the catalogue of my bibliographies and other reference works on Library Thing at the end of this blog.
published 2000 published 1915
supplemented 1939
reprinted 1984
took Fleeman 30 years to compile his bibliography. Both
Fleeman and Courtney died before their books were published
Biographies of SJ in my library: My Many Lives of Samuel Johnson
My Bible on books about books
published 1939
Another copy,
my working copy,
signed by my granddaughter Carrissa;
now one of the treasures of my library
note to Noah and my other grandchildren:
don't even think about it!
Wrote about the former owner and the author in
The Collector and the Collected: Two Typophiles From New York
reminds me of the the energizer bunny: 9th edition published in 1960
Lessons in Bookselling
The Bibles on Miniature Books published 1985
published 2001 and 2000 Levitan, Founder of Miniature Book Society
formerly owned by Don Brady
Vol 2 only of 3 vol set; catalogue of English works "from Wither to Prior"
published 1834 published 1857-1864
Vol 3 only of 4 vol set revised and expanded by Bohn
2 sets*, 11 vols ea
"some books should be tasted . . ."
English Books 1475-1900 Sawyer & Darton 1927
STC English Books 1475-1640 Pollard & Redgrave 1946, reprinted 1969
STC 1641-1700 compiled by Wing 1951
Brunet Tome Quatrieme 1843 (1810); Dibdin Vol 2 1808; Moss Vol 2 1825
used all three books in researching Greek and Latin classics in the Auchinleck Library
Subtitle: A Practical Handbook of British and American Bibliography
Bartlett & Pollard 1916 Census of Shakespeare quartos 1594-1709
An account of the four folios and a census of known perfect copies of the First Folio
biographies and other books on Shakespeare catalogued on Library Thing
Hellinga Supp 2009 (bottom) Schwartz 1931
top: Smollett, Richardson, Sterne, Fielding, Dibdin, Godwin, Gibbon, Young, Burke
left: took Duff 28 years to compile his bibliography
bottom: 555 points on works by Eng authors; 555 points on works by Amer authors
right: Armstrong, Shenstone, Akenside, Collins, Goldsmith, Churchill, Sheridan
Covers works by Abercombie, Arlan, Baring, Barrie, Bates, Beerbohm, Belloc, Bennett, Birrell, Bone, Brooke, Burke, Campbell, Chesterton, Conrad, Coppard, Corvo, Crackanthorpe, Crockett, Davidson, Davies, De la Mare, De Morgan, Douglas, Dobson, Dodgson, Dowson, Doyle, Drinkwater, Dunsany, Feuchtwanger, Firbank, Flecker, Freeman, Galsworthy, Graham, Graves, Haggard, Hall, Hanley, Hardy, Harris, Herbert, Hewlett, Hoult, Houseman, Hudson, Huxley, Jacobs, Jerome, Kennedy, Kipling, Lawrence, Ledwidge, Leslie, Lewis, Locke, Machen, Mackenzie, Mansfield, Masefield, Maugham, Meredith, Meynell, Montague, Moore, Mottram, Munro, Newton, Noyes, O'Casey, O'Flaherty, Phillpotts, Powys, Priestley, Quiller-Couch, Remarque, Sadleir, Sassoon, Sedgwick, Shaw, Shiel, Sirwell, Somerville, Stevens, Stevenson, Symonds, Thomas, Tomlinson, Wallace, Walpole, Wells, Weyman, Woolf, Wilde, and Yeats
Dobson 1970 (1st 1925)
(more on Breslauer catalogues maybe next month)
Sabin 1-82 Eames 83-116 Vail 117-172
My Bible on Americana
Reese Catalogues 294 and 295 2012 (50th anniversary of 1962 edition)
bibliographies on pseudonyms
more on this book next month
(left) Fletcher 1969 (1st 1902;) Quaritch 1892; Quaritch 1968 (1st 1892);
Cannon 1941; Bowker 1948 9th ed (1st 1912-13)
for provenance research
bibliography of Eng & Am authors of detective stories (book length)
The 1896 ed was my first bibliography
used so much I have to resew and rebind vol 1
Morley 2nd ed c.1877; First Sketch of Eng Lit
Legouis & Cazamian 1940 (1st 1930) Hist of Eng Lit
Hallam 1855 5th ed (1st 1837-39); Intro to Lit of Eur 15th, 16th and 17th Cent.
Bagehot 1910; Essays on Coleridge, Shakespeare, Cowper, Gibbon, Shelley etc.Taine 1877 (1st 1872) Hist of Eng Lit transl by H. Van Laun
Northup: Winslow Webber's copy
Courtney: Multi-tasked, compiling this register and the Samuel Johnson bibliography
Sabin: (subtitle) A Handy Book About Books Which Relate to Books
My Bible on bibliographies
Briscoe 1982; Kaplan 1961
Kaplan's bibliography covers works published before 1945
Jones 1974; Gore 1968 (1966).
And that's that. I hope you enjoyed the picture tour of my reference library. You can view the catalogue of my bibliographies, biographies, and other reference works on my Library Thing pages.
Here's a few reference books I've added to my library in the last four years:
