The Elements of Book Collecting

THE book collector's service to the mind of mankind cannot be overestimated. Private collections are a joy to their possessor, and often enable scholarship to perform work more congenially than is possible in a public institution. By placing their valuable possessions at the disposal of scholars and learned societies, many collectors have enriched literature. By their public spirit they have glorified public collections. It is not difficult to realize the value to scholars, and thence to literature, of the accessibility of books in such collections as the Widener at Harvard, the Huntington in California, and the Morgan in New York City. Incidentally, the Huntington Library owns the most precious collection of books ever accumulated by one individual.

By far the best plan for the undergraduate is to lay the foundation of his library by first acquiring in well-printed editions the works of the early English authors he becomes acquainted with through his college work. These are preferable in contemporary editions, if such are obtainable.

To these he should add a title or two of each of the worthwhile living authors: Shaw, Galsworthy, Robinson, Barrie, Moore, Cabell, etc. In selecting these, it is more important to have the particular title he himself prefers rather than the most popular book of an author. First editions of these authors are still obtainable at fairly moderate prices. Hardy, Conrad, and Anatol France, although no longer alive, surely belong with the above-mentioned group, and their work should be represented.

Next comes the most interesting part of his library for the man who aspires to become a serious collector. There is always some one author or subject in which he becomes keenly interested individually; as the classics, poetry, or the theatre. Consider the man interested in the theatre. He can easily acquire first editions of nearly all the few great plays of the last twenty-five years. In collecting these, he is almost certain to find one author whose work will interest him more than the others. Now he is experiencing his first real thrill in the effort to procure everything published by this particular author. Here also begins the storing up of those little bibliographical details which lend zest to the hunt. The fancy of the proof-reader, the error of the typesetter, the imagination of the binder,--all these and many other factors tend to make identification of first issues so certain and so easy--after one knows the variations.

This brings us back to the original purpose for which this article was written. In their book-collecting, what kinds of books elicit keenest interest? What authors, what subjects? Undoubtedly, as is evidenced by the recent exhibition of the John Barnard Associates, held in the Treasure Room, there is a real and very satisfying interest in the well-printed book, in typography. There are two causes for this. One is the very fine work some of our modern presses are doing, but the prime cause can be traced directly to Professor Winship's influence, his love for the work, his energy, and his never-failing courtesy in answering questions and displaying the treasures the University has placed in his care.

Of the modern English presses, the most sought-for are the books of the Nonesuch Press, the Golden Cockerel and the Cresset Presses must also be mentioned. Cresset has just issued an excellent Pilgrim's Progress, although many will not like it. The book is beautiful, nevertheless,--possibly too traditionally conventional,--but in it the spirit of Bunyan comes back to us again, with his mourning garments and his somber musings embodied in the black binding, the blacker wood-cuts, and the heavy solid page.

Two books which will be issued at least in part this year,--the Nonesuch Shakespeare and the Golden Cockerel Chaucer--will possibly, in years to come, take their place among such gems of typography as the Kelmscott Chaucer, the Davies Bible, and the Ashendene Dante.

Prophesies as to the future relations between the workman, the job and the machine are contained in the latest work of Stuart Chase entitled "Machines, the Story and Machinery and its Human Effects" and published by the MacMillan company. It is written as a adventurous trip into an unknown and interesting field.