Mendel's Many Books

    Readers of MM will know that I have often posted about libraries created by individuals. Here is a recent description of a book collection that was not appreciated by those who managed the building in which it was held.

   Mendel Uminer moved into a small studio apartment in Manhattan just over a year ago. He is a young Jewish scholar, so he brought with him around 10,000 books which came to occupy much of the 600 square feet. This description of his abode and lifestyle will appeal to any bibliophile:

  "Towering stacks of Judaica lined the walls, heaps of film criticism and opera history filled the prewar bathroom, piles of plays and poems blocked a window, and Uminer slept on a floor mattress engulfed in dog-eared novels. Waking up around noon, he spent his afternoons on his sunlit chaise, devouring the works of Yiddish writers like Chaim Grade and critics like Edmund Wilson, nourishing his mind while the city churned outside."

   Of course, such an existence could not last. He was evicted, not because of his Jewishness, but his bookishness. The notice reads, " “You are violating a substantial obligation of your tenancy,” it began. “You are maintaining the Premises in a severely overcluttered condition; permitting the over-accumulation of books in the Premises; creating a fire hazard by over-accumulating combustible books in the Premises.”
  His bookseller friend argued, “Of all the vices, I find books to be the least dangerous,” Mizrahi said. “I think it’s possible his landlord might have their priorities misplaced, or might not understand him. If you’re not steeped in his culture, maybe his library does look chaotic. But I’d argue it only looks like a mess. I’ll bet he can tell you where every single book is in his apartment.”
  The landlord was not moved by such an argument and Mendel recently moved out on a rainy day. One observer noted, “I heard he’s found a bigger apartment, so that means, more books."

Source: "Too Many Books?: Mendel Uminer Faced a Crisis When His Landlord Objected to the 10,000 Volumes in His New York Studio Apartment," Alex Vadukul, New York Times, July 9, 2026.

Henry Miller's Library

   

    A few months ago, Highway 1 along the California coast re-opened after landslides had made sections of it impassable. Right now, it is likely to be a road not taken by Canadians, given the political situation, but keep it in mind for a bucket list road trip. Admittedly, visiting a library along this route may be low on the list, but if there is fog, you may want to check out the Henry Miller Memorial Library which is mentioned in this article: “Tight Curves and Wide Horizons," Finn-Olaf Jones, New York Times,  April 28, 2026: 

 “Big Sur is a place of splendor, a savage beauty beyond words,” wrote Henry Miller, who lived here for nearly two decades. Farther up the highway, the Henry Miller Memorial Library echoes the lingering New Age energy that hums along this stretch of coast with poetry readings, tie-dyed patrons and pathways shaded by low, branch-woven canopies.

  At Henrymiller.org one finds this:

"The Henry Miller Memorial Library is dedicated to preserving and advancing the spirit of Henry Miller by fostering literature, art, music, and free expression.  Through public programs, education, and community engagement, the Library serves as a cultural gathering place that encourages open inquiry, creative exploration, and the preservation of Big Sur’s natural and cultural heritage." The website for the Henry Miller Memorial Library explains that it was established by Miller's friend: 
   "Created by Emil White, a longtime friend and confidant of Henry Miller. Miller dedicated “Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch” to White, describing him as “One of the few friends who has never failed me.” While he is known primarily for his association with Miller, White was one of Big Sur’s most colorful characters, a brilliant painter, and a remarkable person in his own right. After Miller died in 1980, White decided to maintain his property as a memorial to his friend and as a gallery where local artists could show their work. In 1981, with the assistance of the Big Sur Land Trust (BSLT), he converted his home into the Library. Emil spent the rest of his life as director of the new institution, which evolved into a local center for the arts. At his death in 1989, White bequeathed the “Henry Miller Memorial Library, Founded by Emil White,” to the Big Sur Land Trust. “With this bequest,” White wrote in his Last Will and Testament, “I am encouraging support and maintenance of said Library, and to promote and enhance the scholarly research and worldwide enjoyment of Henry Miller’s literary and artistic works.” I have mentioned in MM that there are often journals devoted to authors and there is one for Miller - Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal.

CANCON
  Of course, Miller's work was controversial in Canada as well, and not just because of the sex. The question, "Why Henry Miller's Work Was Banned?" was answered back in 2004 at York University, from which this is taken:
   "He had a forthrightness about life as he was experiencing it," said Susan Swan, a humanities professor in York University’s Faculty of Arts, as well as the author of The Wives of Bath, The Last of the Golden Girls and the upcoming What Casanova Told Me. "He didn't bow to any literary conventions of the time, that literature should be artful and describe sex elliptically. He wandered right in and said what he saw, and I think in that way he had a profound influence on other writers. It was a call to describe the world as it was rather than something that was more idealized." Even more subversive, said Swan, was Miller's dismissal of the puritan work ethic driving his fellow citizens back home – a notion that might shock contemporary society far more than Miller's shattering of sexual boundaries. "He was one of the first North American writers to tackle the subject of pleasure in our lives and critique the notion of life to be lived for the bottom line," she says. "He wanted to appreciate life as it was lived. He was kind of a hippie that way. That, too, is revolutionary and still rather suspect....If he was around today, he'd probably laugh at the way technology has made us work that much harder."

  He was even censored on the more liberal left coast of Canada. The image above is from: "This Week in History: 1961, RCMP Raid the Vancouver Public Library Over a Notorious Novel: Tropic of Cancer Was One of the Most Controversial Books of the 20th century," John Mackie, Vancouver Sun, Oct. 12, 2018.

   "October 13th, 1961, fell on a Friday. And it was definitely unlucky for Vancouver fans of writer Henry Miller.

“Royal Canadian Mounted Police swooped down on bookstores and the Vancouver Public Library Friday in a hunt for copies of author Henry Miller’s sex-in-Paris novel, Tropic of Cancer.

“They were armed with a little-used blanket warrant called a ‘writ of assistance’ which enables them to enter public buildings, commercial establishments and even private homes to search for the controversial novel.

“Two plainclothes officers seized one volume at Duthie Books and learned three other volumes were in circulation from the public library."

 "Tropic of Cancer was one of the most controversial books of the 20th century. It was published in Paris in 1934, in a limited run of 1,000 copies. But the “sex-packed confession of Bohemian life in Paris” quickly became notorious and was banned most everywhere, including in Canada and the States."

The Bonus: 
   Miller had a relationship with Anaïs Nin. I wrote about her library which is in Los Angeles. See: "Anaïs Nin's Library".
This is from, "True Love: Anais Nin & Henry Miller":

  " Nin and Miller were both separately married when they met in 1931 but the attraction was so palpable they began an illicit affair, amongst a cavalcade of wife-swapping and threesomes of course.

  Nin and Miller’s literary friendship and stretching of sexual boundaries moved into an intense romance that lasted for decades, and she aborted his child 1934.  It is worth noting that Nin documented her life in her colossal collection of diaries, within which she offered inexhaustible exploration and insight into her relationships. They were both consistent, insistent lovers; he wrote sexually detailed passages, she was deemed one of the finest female erotica writers, undoubtedly both encouraged by their passionate addiction to one another. In France, the triangulated love affairs were as common as the flow of wine."

Marilyn Monroe

 HAD A LIBRARY
   Most will have seen the photo of Monroe standing over a subway grate, but it is likely that few will have pictured her sitting, reading a book. She had a core collection of 400 that moved with her and had collected many more.

    Monroe, who died 64 years ago, would have turned 100 this year. She is the subject of a new book which is about her books rather than her body. Information about, Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe, by Gail Crowther, is easily found on Amazon and the London Public Library has ordered an audio and a print copy. To help you determine if you should buy or borrow this book, here are some reviews.

1. “Books Are a Star’s Best Friend: The Little-known Reading Habits of a Hollywood Icon,” Noah Isenberg, The American Scholar, May 28, 2026.
   "Her sex appeal proved inescapable, but Monroe was far more than just a pin-up; she was fiercely intelligent, ambitious, and savvy in her professional life. Author Gail Crowther, whose previous subjects include Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton, shifts the focus to this formerly neglected terrain in her highly illuminating, jauntily-paced Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe....
   "On set, Monroe was known to carry her prized possessions with her—when making All About Eve (1950), she brought with her to the set a copy of Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. She was especially fond of verse and owned numerous volumes by various poets from Shakespeare, Milton, and García Lorca to Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marjorie Tilden, and Heinrich Heine. “I read poetry to save time,” she once remarked with the kind of playful, witty nonchalance she often exhibited on screen...."
  "Crowther makes abundantly clear that Monroe was far more than the “dumb blonde” or Hollywood sexpot she was all too often made out to be. Marilyn and Her Books offers a more nuanced, complex narrative and is a powerful corrective to received wisdom—arguing convincingly, on the eve of Monroe’s centennial, that she must be “recast and reimagined: not the late, not the ditzy, not the bombshell, not the difficult, but the intelligent Marilyn Monroe.”

2. "Some Like It Literary: How Marilyn Monroe Gave a Smart Gloss to Her Image," Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times, May 24, 2026.
 "In MARILYN AND HER BOOKS: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe (Gallery, 290 pp., $30), Gail Crowther attempts to debunk Monroe’s dumb-blonde reputation through the Murphy door of her private library...."
  "It is refreshing to contemplate Monroe as reader, for as muse she has been stretched thinner than the diaphanous scarves in a Bert Stern photo. Someone so holographic is far more humanized by what was on her shelves than by some rotten rouge or the moth-eaten, Kardashian-appropriated frocks from her closet....
  "She dined on oysters and champagne with Carson McCullers and Isak Dinesen, who likened her to a lion cub; and summited with Edith Sitwell, who remarked that “in repose her face was at moments strangely, prophetically tragic, like the face of a beautiful ghost. A little spring-ghost, an innocent fertility daemon, the vegetation spirit that was Ophelia...." 
“She showed an interest in intellectual subjects which was, to say the least, disconcerting,” remarked the acidulous George Sanders, who appeared with her in “All About Eve.” “She was somebody in a play not yet written.”

3. "Marilyn Monroe Read books. A Lot of Them," Mark Judge, Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, April 30, 2026.
   "That’s the revelation of Marilyn and Her Books: The Literary Life of Marilyn Monroe, a fascinating new volume by Gail Crowther. It isn’t a grasping-at-straws attempt to make Monroe a literary figure based on her love of a few good novels. Crowther has done her research, itemizing the books Monroe owned when she died, finding receipts for books she bought at the Ivy Bookstore in Los Angeles, and going through old letters in which Monroe discussed her favorite books. Monroe was a reader, which may explain why she was drawn to one of her husbands, the playwright Arthur Miller—a man who made his living with words...."
 "Most of Monroe’s books went to private collectors. One anonymous woman from Boston purchased five of her books and then donated them to the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. The books were each written by an American woman: My Ántonia and Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather; The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker; The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers; and The Little Disturbances of Man, a collection of short stories by Grace Paley. In January 2000, the library put the books on public display, and the then-acting director, Jane Knowles, said, “We are thrilled to receive these books from the library of Marilyn Monroe. This just goes to prove that there was more to Marilyn Monroe than the movie star and popular icon. She was also a reader. We are delighted to add her books to those of other illustrious women at the Schlesinger Library.” 
  Many of Monroe's items, including some books, can be seen on Julien's Auctions. Toynbee's, A Study of History, sold for almost $4000.
  
  For a related post about women book collectors see, "Women and Books". 

Jackie Gleason's Library!

    In MM you will find other posts about Private Libraries, that is, collections gathered by individuals as opposed to institutions. For an example see, Louise Penny' Library.  

Ralph Kramden - The Reader!
  I am old enough to remember "The Honeymooners", a '50s sitcom, in which Gleason played the part of Kramden, a crass bus driver. You may know of Gleason because you saw him on Turner Classic Movies as "Minnesota Fats" in The Hustler, or on a channel, not so classic, where he was sheriff Buford T. Justice in Smokey and the Bandit.

Living Large

  Apart from having a varied and successful career, he read and collected many books, most of which were related to the occult and things not normal. They were kept in his rotund house in New York state. There was also, of course, a pool table and much that was related to music, as well as four bars. He liked drinking and smoked six packs a day. He died in 1987 at the age of 71.

  I know this because there is a new book out which is mainly about his library, about which I did not know. It is: Jackie Gleason: Library of the Paranormal, edited by Christine Burgin and you can get it quickly from Amazon, where this description is found:
  "A high school dropout with a photographic memory and a major case of insomnia, he was an avid reader and spiritual searcher who looked for answers in the most unexpected places. Gleason was also a confirmed skeptic who believed that some grand cosmic scheme existed, but he could not say what it might ultimately be. Additionally, Gleason amassed a staggering collection of over 3,000 esoteric books, ranging from scholarly studies to supermarket paperbacks, now part of the holdings of the University of Miami Special Collections Library. Library of the Paranormal lifts the lid on this treasure trove of arcana. A generous selection of colorful and quizzical covers from Charles Fort, L. Ron Hubbard and dozens more are reproduced alongside press excerpts and interviews in which Gleason manages to shoehorn his thoughts on ESP, aliens, life after death and other decidedly off-topic interests, including his failed plans in the early '50s to produce a television show devoted to paranormal experiences."

The Jackie Gleason Collection at the University of Miami Libraries
   Gleason moved to Florida and the books were donated to the University of Miami by his widow in 1987. If you go to the Special Collections area of the U. of M. Libraries, you will find a thorough description of the collection, which is divided into these subject headings where additional details are found. If you click on UFOs, a popular subject these days, you will see the related holdings. 

Celebrities
Cryptids and Lost Worlds
Death
Dreams
Ghosts
Mediums and Telepathy
Oddities
Psychology
Spiritualism
The Supernatural
UFOS and Extraterrestrials

Sources: 
 See, The Jackie Gleason Collection  and for more, Special Collections. The communication folks among "The Hurricanes" also produced these: "Spookiness No Laughing Matter For This Comedian" and "Jackie Gleason's Passion For the Occult".

  In MM I have provided other examples of libraries being given to libraries. See, for example, The Fleur Cowles' London Study, Erle Stanley Gardner's Study and Philip Roth's collection at the Newark Public Library, all of which are found in this post: Actual Libraries. 
   As a minor bonus, you will also find another post about the University of Miami, from which both of my nieces graduated. See: "A Place at the Table for Atheists".

Giorgio Taroni's Library

  Having provided you with material about the private libraries of three women (Nin, Brooks and Penny), here is the third library in MM created by a gentleman whose last name begins with the letter "T", the other two being Amor Towles and Peter-Ayers Tarantino. Here are some of the books owned by Mr. Taroni. Apparently around 10,000 of them are found in his home on Lake Como.

   He also collects 19th century paintings. In addition, the villa houses many beetles and birds, but I could find no images or information about them, other than what is found in the title of this article: "An Italian Villa That Houses 30,000 Beetles and a Flock of Porcelain Birds: Giorgio Taroni’s Home Overlooking Lake Como has Become a Cabinet of Curiosities, Filled with Collections of Oil Paintings, Books, Ancient Coins and Vintage Postcards," Nancy Hass (photos by Henry Bourne), The New York Times Style Magazine, March 21, 2023. 

   I did not have any luck finding out about the beetles, but I did find this about the family company, Taroni. See also, the GIORGIO TARONI ARCHIVE. 
   While typing this, I remembered that I have written about a library belonging to another fellow whose last name begins with a "T". If, like me, you are looking for a reason to stay inside on a very cold day, have a look at "Mark Twain and Libraries.

Geraldine Brook's Library

    At the beginning of the month I wrote about the library of Louise Penny. I will end it by focusing on the books in Geraldine Brook's barn. Apart from showing another collection of books in a private library, you will learn about some books you may want to acquire for your own.

   I recognized the name "Geraldine Brooks", most likely because of her journalism. An Aussie, she was a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and contributed articles to other magazines. She has also written many books and one of them, March, resulted in a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
   Her husband was Tony Horwitz, who won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting and passed away in 2019. He also wrote books and both of them published works of fiction, as well as non-fiction. In short, if you look up either author you will have enough reading material to take you deep into 2026. 

   Ms. Brook's books are found in a 1740s farmhouse on Martha's Vineyard. Many of Mr. Horwitz's were also there, but some were donated to libraries after his death. 

   The books are generally segregated in the categories of fiction and non-fiction. 

   

The books found between these windows are ones written by authors who have visited and stayed at the house on Martha's Vineyard. 

Sources:
  The pictures and the information are from this article: "Geraldine Brooks Takes Us On A Tour of Her Home Library: The bestselling author's collection isn't focused on fancy editions - it's full of small treasures from a literary life,' Jacob Brogan, Washington Post, Dec.20, 2025.

  The Wikipedia entries for both of them are entertaining in and of themselves. One of her books, Foreign Correspondence, is based on her attempts to track down old penpals across the world. She was born in Australia because her father " was an American big-band singer who was stranded in Adelaide on a tour of Australia when his manager absconded with the band's pay." 
  Mr. Horwitz was born in Washington. His father was the neurosurgeon who operated on the D.C. policeman, wounded during the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Mr. Horwitz collapsed while on a walk in 2019. 
  The London Public Library has several Brook's books, including the recent, Memorial Days. You will also find there, Spying on the South, the book that Horwitz was working on when he died. They also have his, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War. 
The Bonus: 
  If you still need more to read, see the Wikipedia entry for their son, Nathaniel Horwitz, or the entry for the company "Hunterbrook." He founded it with his college friend, Sam Koppleman. All of what follows looks very interesting, but I will leave it up to you to investigate it.
   Hunterbrook is a "media company and a hedge fund that asks a question that spits in the face of old-school journalism rules: What if an investigative journalism outfit could profit directly off of the malfeasance that it uncovers?"      
   "Koppelman and Horwitz’s company is called Hunterbrook — a portmanteau between Koppelman’s middle name Hunter (after Hunter S. Thompson) and Horwitz’s Brooks (after his mother, the author Geraldine Brooks). The idea is simple, if surprising to industry insiders: They have two companies — the media company does financial investigative journalism. The financial company invests based on that work, taking short positions on a company that the newsroom is about to skewer publicly or taking long positions on its competitors.
   Based on this elevator pitch, Hunterbrook the hedge fund raised $100 million in seed cash all within the past year to invest based on the work of Hunterbrook the newsroom." For more see: "This Hedge Fund Wants to Save Investigative Journalism — By Using It to Game the Market," by By Calder McHugh, Politico Magazine,05/25/2024.

Louise Penny's Library

   Many of the libraries about which I have written are private ones. To date, they have all been collections of books gathered by men and none of the collectors are Canadian. I am pleased that I learned about Louse Penny who has both written and collected many books, and is Canadian.

  Her house and books are found in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. I was also pleased to learn that her collection is not organized, as a recent interviewer reported:

   "Louise Penny was eager to show me an important book — the one she said is at the core of her wildly successful Armand Gamache mystery series — but she couldn’t find it. The floor-to-ceiling shelves in her bright, fluffy living room are tidy and filled with fascinating works, but they aren’t organized by author, title or certainly color.  
    “And that’s part of the fun,” she explained during a tour this past summer of her spacious and welcoming home, where she lives with her beloved golden retrievers, Charlie and Muggins. “For me part of the joy of not having an order to the shelves is that it’s like going into a used-book shop. You end up finding things you weren’t looking for, that you didn’t even know you wanted.”

   Although I worked in libraries and write about them, the books in my own are randomly arranged, but I can't say that was planned.  Again, I am pleased that she also cannot quickly locate the book she is looking for. 
   Her name was recognized by me, but I confess to having none of her books since I don't read many mystery novels. The public libraries close by have many titles by Penny and most of them are on loan.
   The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which is on the Canadian/American border not too far from Knowlton, Quebec where Penny lives also has many of her books. Given the recent regime changes to the south, access to the Haskell became problematic and Penny donated a considerable number of Canadian dollars to build a new entrance. She also cancelled her U.S. book tour. 
   

That Penny is successful and has written many books is proven when one takes the underground tunnel from the house to her writing studio and sees the framed covers lining the wall.  
Sources:
   The pictures and the quotation are from: "Louise Penny Gives Us a Tour of Her Book Collection," Nora Krug, Washington Post, Nov. 15, 2025.
    If you are unfamiliar with her books, but interested in them see: "I’ve Read Every One of Louise Penny’s Gamache Novels. Here’s What to Read, and What to Skip," Sarah Zlotnick, Country Life, Oct. 29, 2024. 
    About the border hassles at the Haskell see: "U.S. Limits Canadian Access to Iconic Stanstead, Que., Border-straddling Library," Benjamin Shingler, CBC News, Mar. 21, 2025.
   About Penny's involvement see: "Dismay as Cross-border Library Caught in US-Canada Feud: ‘We Just Want to Stay Open’," Leyland Cecco, The Guardian, April 13, 2025.

   "The tour for Penny’s forthcoming book Black Wolf, which coincidentally imagines plans to force Canada into becoming the 51st state was due to start at the Kennedy Center in Washington. But a recent decision by Trump to fire the previous board of the Kennedy Center for its support of “woke” programming, and to install himself as board chair, has prompted widespread artistic backlash.

   That move and a broader call for Canadians to boycott travel to the United States amid annexation threats and tariffs from the president, led Penny to scrap all of her American tour dates. She plans to conclude her book tour at the Haskell.

   Penny made headlines in recent weeks after donating C$50,000 (US$36,000) to help fund a new entrance to the library, an “elegant” solution to the diplomatic snafu created in wake of new restrictions."

   If, like Penny, you do not plan to travel to the U.S., Knowlton and the Townships are an option. These are some suggestions for book lovers: Brome Lake Books and the Café Three Pines.
The Bonus - For Women Book Collectors:
  The bookstore Honey & Wax, sponsors a contest for women collectors: Women and Books. 

Another Private Library

Again, this is a post about a personal collection of books, and again the collection is found in New York City. The last one mentioned, which is also located there, belongs to, "The Talented Mr. Towles,", but a more recent one is found in New Mexico - see, "Cormac McCarthy's Library". There are more.

Proving the Point

   This article is from The New York Times Magazine and you should have a look at it since I am focussing only on the books. Many other beautiful objects are described, but there over 4,500 books in the 1,100 square-foot apartment belonging to Peter-Ayers Tarantino.
“A Home That Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Books,” Alexa Brazilian.(NYTM, Nov. 16, 2025.)
  The pictures tell the story about the books, but I will quote a few words about some of the many objects found among them.

  “Tarantino has been in his current apartment, which has become a kind of treasure map of his intense and far-flung enthusiasms, since 2018. In the small foyer, painted rain-cloud gray with cream-colored trim, his lizard skin Belgian loafers sit at the foot of a 1920s Japanese tansu chest; on top are twin Moorish wall busts bought in Catania, Italy; above looms a nickel-silver Spanish Colonial mirror. Behind the front door hangs an Ethiopian coming-of-age cape, a cowrie shell-embellished lion’s pelt…”

   “Then there are the books, which not even the wood-paneled living room’s floor-to-ceiling shelves can contain. Tall, neat piles are stacked everywhere: volumes on South American art, on the history of interior design, on British eccentrics, on American Jazz Age writers, on the Ballets Russes.”

   "Despite the apartment’s relatively small size, Tarantino has found a way to accommodate large collections. Above a series of framed Sumatran ceremonial sarongs in the narrow hallway to his bedroom hang more than 50 pieces of headgear — an English boater, a Portuguese fisherman’s hat, the cap of a Tyrolean soldier. Spotlights are positioned to illuminate each." 

   The pictures illustrate the books, but as I indicated, the words in the article describe much more: 

   "But arguably his most striking collection can be found in the small kitchen. Above taupe cabinets and across from an assemblage of framed maps of South America, each with its own picture light (he had 10 outlets wired inside the wall), Tarantino displays his 62 cream-colored ceramic English pudding molds from the 19th and 20th centuries."

The Bonus:
   There are many comments about this article, most indicating how beautiful this apartment is. There were comments, however, about such practical concerns as dusting and disposing of the items when that time comes. But, one true bibliophile from Copenhagen had this to say:
"I don't know about the 'Peruvian ceramic bowls', but Keith Lowe's 'Naples 1944' is an excellent book about some sadly neglected and tragic events of WW2. Second photo, left side, second shelf from the top, eighth book from the top."

The Talented Mr. Towles

Amor's Workshop 
   Although I do not read much fiction, my wife convinced me to read A Gentleman in Moscow and I am glad I did. She has just finished, Table for Two and I will soon start The Lincoln Highway. All of these books were written by Amor Towles and he produced them from the comfortable quarters pictured in this post. 

   The gentleman in Moscow is confined to a hotel for years. If one was placed under house arrest for a long period, Mr. Towle's place in Manhattan would be a comfortable place to be and there would be plenty to read. 

   Mr. Towles does a lot of background reading to get the facts needed for the fiction he writes, so one will find in his collection guides to Moscow and a set of encyclopedias from the 1930s which was used when writing Rules of Civility. He also has some first editions and some signed works, including a copy of Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize lecture. 

   Apart from recommending some books to read, this post is also another one about "private libraries." The last one was about Wilde's, see "Oscar's Library." 

Source: 
   The pictures are from: "Book Tour: The Author of A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway Guides Us Through His Personal Library," John Williams, Washington Post, May 18, 2024. An earlier profile is found in: "Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Gramercy Park," Joanne Kaufman, New York Times, Sept. 23, 2016.

The Bonus:

   Gentleman in Moscow, is recommended, but if you are unsure, there is a Wikipedia entry for it.
   If you would rather watch than read, it is available now as a streaming mini series on Paramount+. 

  The gentleman is played by Ewan McGregor. You may remember that McGregor is one of the men who rode a motorcycle from the very tip of South America to Los Angeles - see, "Long Way Up." 
  If, like Towles, you are interested in Bob Dylan, head to the University of Tulsa. See, "Bob Dylan." 

  

Oscar's Library

   This is another in the series relating to "private libraries." Among the others you will find information about the libraries of Mark Twain, Edward Gorey, Stalin and the late Professor Macksey who's collection was covered twice. There is even one about the furniture found in such libraries and the catalogues that were produced to list the books they contained. 

   There is a book about Wilde's library which has the title, Oscar’s Books: A Journey Around the Library of Oscar Wilde, in Great Britain and, Built of Books: How Reading Defined the Life of Oscar Wilde over here. Thomas Wright is the author of both books, but the titles may be the products of others in the marketing department. The point of books such as this one and the others in this series is that one may learn something from examining the books read, rather then the lives led.
   Unfortunately the the type of life Wilde was living led to the auctioning off of his library while he was in Holloway prison. A collection carefully collected was quickly ransacked and sold off to pay his legal fees. Using the auction catalogue pictured above, the author of Built of Books was able to determine the contents of Oscar's library and undertake the project of finding copies of all of the books and then reading them, which he has been unable to do, even though Oscar's collection was rather small. It consisted of around 2,000 volumes. Professor Macksey's contained over 50,000.

Oscar the Speed Reader
   Apparently, "Wilde was one of the speediest of speed readers. He claimed to be able to read both pages at once. 'He turned the pages [of a novel] fast to begin with,' a friend remembered, 'then faster and faster, and a little slower towards the end of the book. But he could not have been more than three minutes.' It is hard to believe that Wilde literally took three minutes to peruse an entire volume, but others confirm this report, and embellish it with the astonishing detail that he often chattered away on other subjects while he read."

Oscar's Memory
   He would demonstrate his quick reading skills and then submit to a test and "Wilde's memory became as legendary as his speed-reading." It is described as a "photographic" one and examples are provided of Wilde being able to recite long passages of both prose and poetry. "He regurgitated passages of Carlyle's The French Revolution, and declaimed line after line from the novels of Meredith. One friend described him reeling off sentences from Flaubert which seemed to 'unfold just like jewel-studded brocades'". 
   Those of you with good memories will recall that I have written about people with very good memories including, Professors Porson, Bloom and Chomsky, as well as William Empson and Chimen Abramsky, who also had a good library. Speed reading (and even Evelyn Wood) were also touched upon in "Reading Time (A Painful 5 Min.)

Single Author Journals
   Entire periodicals  devoted to particular authors have also been discussed in MM (see, e.g. "Periodical Ramblings (8)) and, of course, Wilde has one all to himself. Produced by "The Oscar Wilde Society", The Wildean: A Journal of Oscar Wilde Studies," is published twice a year. There is also an illustrated newsletter called Intentions which is published four times a year. Subscribe if you appreciate Wildean witticisms such as this: "Given sufficient notice, one can always be spontaneous."

The Bonus: 
   The author of Built of Books is clearly a fan of Oscar Wilde and books. The five thousand pound prize he was awarded for the proposal for his book about Wilde was spent at a Sotheby's auction for the purchase of Wilde's copy of Swinburne's Essays and Studies.

The Old Card Catalogue

    

   I have mentioned before that Western Libraries (and many other university libraries) are getting rid of books. One of the reasons for this is that the students value more the space, so the stacks are being removed to allow areas for the students to participate in various collaborative  endeavours. Now that I have put it that way, I do remember that in the old days students could be quite creative in the ways in which they engaged even between the stacks.

   Long before the books were discarded or placed in a remote storage area, the old card catalogue which one used to find them, was sent to the dumpster. There were some muted cries about that and concerns that one wouldn't be able to find the books, back when that mattered. There was also likely some fear among the aging professors that one might have to use some sort of computing gadget. At one university, one far older than Western, the decision was made to keep the old card catalogue as a valuable historical artifact (for an interesting article about why see: "The Old Card Catalog: Collaborative Effort Will Preserve Its History," Anne E. Bromley, University of Virginia News, Dec. 9, 2019.)

   The card catalogues were removed and are now not missed. Although I have been sorry to see the books disappear, the electronic catalogue works well and the dwindling number of books and journals can be easily found from the comfort of your home on a snowy evening, while the library is closed. Now, when using the Western catalogue, one can even determine if a book is in one of the other Ontario universities (or in a storage facility) and it can be retrieved. 

   There are still catalogues in Western Libraries, just not wooden card catalogues. They exist in the form of books which list the contents of various libraries. Many are the catalogues of  personal libraries, while others reveal the contents of libraries at other institutions. One can find at Western the Catalogue of the Library at Kildalton Castle and even the Catalogue of the Library of the University of Virginia, mentioned above. It is the catalogue of books found in that library in 1828.  There are many, many others and a Baker's Dozen are listed below. I thought it might be useful to record some of them since they are likely to go the way of the old card catalogue.

Catalogue of the library of George Perkins Marsh.
Catalogue of the library of the late Hon. Rufus Choate. 
A catalogue of the library of the late John Duke of Roxburghe
Catalogue of the library of John Gray, Haddington
Catalogue of the Library of the William Henry Barrett Estate
Catalogue of the music library of Vincent Novello,
Catalogue of the music library of Charles Burney 
Catalogue of the library of the late Lord Byron 
Catalogue of the Early English Books of John L. Clawson
A Descriptive Catalog of the Private Library of Thomas B. Lockwood
Catalogue of the library of Robert L. Stuart.
A catalogue of the library of George Santayana
A catalogue of the Library of Thomas Baker

   So what? Well, some of these are of interest to scholars. That does not mean they are of interest to people like us, but below, in a bit, I will try to come up with a few samples for those of us with lower brows. As for the scholars, many are interested in understanding how particular intellectuals came up with their ideas. What those thinkers read, may provide a clue. If, for example, you are wondering about  Adam Smith and his "invisible hand" you can re-trace his reading and look for it. Western has several catalogues of his library and even A Full and Detailed Catalogue of Books Which Belonged to Adam Smith: Now in the Possession of the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo!  One of the reviewers of Mizuta's Adam Smith's Library: A Catalogue, concludes that, Mizuta’s work is highly recommended for all libraries collecting the great products of UK civilization (perhaps not such a great plug in our post-colonial times.) So, professors used such books and libraries acquired them. 

   Among the samples of catalogues above, you may have noticed that two are related to music library collections and often personal libraries were highly specialized.  In many cases, the catalogues came into existence when the contents of private libraries were being sold. When John L. Clawson's collection was sold in 1926, $642,687 was collected. He was from Buffalo as was Thomas B. Lockwood and you can learn more about Lockwood's books at the Rare & Special Books Collection at the University at Buffalo. 

 The books listed in the Catalogue of the Library of the William Henry Barrett Estate, would have been found closer by, in Port Dover.  Mr. Barrett learned in 1926 that he had inherited a huge amount of money and the books of Quinton Dick who had died years before in Ireland. With the money he built a replica of the Irish Clonmel Castle and, you can stay at the one in Port Dover. Here is the link. Apparently, many of the books ended up at the ROM. As I mentioned, there are things of interest to be found in these books, even if one is not a scholar. 

Sources:

  More can be learned about William Henry Barrett at the Clonmel Castle site. This article described the events at the time of the inheritance: "Port Dover Farmer Wins Court Round for Large Estate: Total May Be Millions," Globe and Mail, July 2, 1926. This useful bit is found at Memorybc.ca: 

William Henry "Harry" Barrett was born in Port Dover, Ontario in 1864. He left Port Dover in 1886, travelling west to Spallumcheen to help his Uncle Harry run the 320-acre Mountain Meadow Ranch north of Otter Lake. He married Julia Rebecca "Nonah" Pelly in 1894, and they had three sons. Shortly after the birth of his third child in 1898, Nonah died. Harry left for Port Dover, taking his two sons with him and leaving the new baby with his wife's parents. Harry returned to school in Port Dover, becoming a veterinarian and a sheep rancher. In 1925, he inherited $2.5 million from his grandfather, the founder of the Bank of Ireland. In 1929, he built Clonmel, modelled after an Irish country house. He and his second wife lived there until their deaths in 1942 and 1970 respectively.

The depression was not such a bad thing for Mr. Barrett.

   As for the importance of these catalogues see: On the Private Collecting of Book Catalogues," Wm. P. Barlow Jr. The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America Vol. 102, No. 4 (December, 2008), pp. 547-555

 See also this seminar: "Private Library Catalogues as Sources for Library History: An Appreciation," Meghan Constantinou (held at the Grolier Club, New York.)

The Bonus:

   The collection of books in the private library of William Henry Barrett, should not be confused with the one of John Davis Barnett, upon which the collections of the Western Library were built. About that see: "The Forgotten Story of J.D. Barnett: Western Libraries' 'Founding Father'," by Carmen Mallia. Western Gazette, Sept. 26, 2018.

   That Western has such a solid collection of book catalogues can be explained by the fact that many of them were held in another Western Library that has disappeared. The records for many of these books indicate they were donations from the "William J. Cameron Reading Room" which was in the old Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS). While many of the books in that collection were discarded, these were kept. Some others were purchased by Dr. John Clouston, with whom I had the pleasure to work. They were donated to King's University College Library and are described here:

SAMUEL & MADELINE CLOUSTON COLLECTION

This impressive collection of 15th — 18th-century imprints was acquired largely from the former rare book collection of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, The University of Western Ontario. The items were purchased by the former Chief Librarian, Dr. John S. Clouston (1993 -2005), and gifted to King’s University College in 1998. Named in honour of his late parents, it consists of works of history, literature, biography, philosophy, theology and travel, chiefly from the United Kingdom, France, Italy and the Low Countries.

   The Western Libraries did snag a collection from the library of Gregory Clark and you can find them all described here: Angling Books: The Gregory Clark Piscatorial Collection. 

   I did a post earlier about Mark Twain's Library.

   Surprisingly enough, such private libraries continue to exist. See: "Private Libraries That Inspire: Difficult to Build and Maintain, These Elaborate Spaces Contain the Passions and Obsessions of Their Owners." By Katy McLaughlin, Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2019.

Forget the Dewey Decimal System: Entrepreneur and inventor Jay Walker’s 25,000 books, manuscripts, artifacts and objects are organized in his personal 3,600-square-foot library “randomly, by color and height,” he said. When he walks into his library, part of his Ridgefield, Conn., home, the room automatically “wakes up,” glowing with theatrical lighting, music and LED-lit glass panels lining various walkways. He finds items to peruse by a system of memory, chance, and inspiration, he said....

Edward Gorey's Library

There is a new biography of Gorey and a review of it in the Dec.10th issue of the New Yorker, the cover of which consists of Gorey's cats. I was not particularly interested in Gorey, but am more so now. I recall seeing many of his illustrations over the years on book covers and in children's books, most of which are now probably deemed inappropriate (The Gashlycrumb Tinies... for example: "I is for Ida who drowned in a lake" - "J is for James who took lye by mistake"). The title of the new biography is illustrated above.
Early in the review Gorey is quoted as having said, "I can't go out without buying a book," and later the reviewer notes that he ended up with 21,000 of them. As you probably don't know, I have posted before about "boys with books" (Mailer and Roth) and a "bloke with books" (Colin Wilson) and another guy who also had around 20,000 (Chimen Abramsky). So, I wondered what happened to all those Gorey books.
If you go to the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA you won't find them, but you will find a book store, a good biography and some interesting exhibits. It looks like a good place to visit if you are on your way to the Cape. If you are in the general area you should also visit the Wadsworth Atheneum (in Hartford, CN) since Gorey gave them many of the other things he collected and they often stage exhibits and lectures related to him.
His books are now located on the other coast, however, which is a good thing given the weather. Visit San Diego State University and you will find 26,000 volumes in the "Edward Gorey Personal Library" held in the archives. If you click on that link you can find out why they ended up there, listen to a lecture and read the blog Goreyana.
If you prefer not to leave the country you can check out the Gorey collection at McGill: “The collection of the American designer, illustrator and author Edward Gorey (1925-2000) consists of books by and/or illustrated by him. The books, of which there are eighty-eight volumes, are mostly first editions and date from the period ca 1950 to 1980. As well, there is a small body of ephemera including book jackets by and articles about Gorey.”
If you are still not satisfied you can go to the Columbia University Library which has material donated by the architect and attorney, Andrew Alpern, who spent over 50 years collecting Gorey books and memorabilia. The collection "is chock-full of everything from books, postcards, photographs, and newspaper clippings to T-shirts, pot holders, mugs, and plastic party cups—all decorated with Gorey’s illustrations." For an interesting article about Alpern see: "A Treasure Trove of Edward Gorey," Eve Bowen, New York Review of Books, Aug. 4, 2012.



Post Script
Curious about what the university close by (Western) might have by and about Gorey, I looked and was surprised to find as many books as I did. Part of the explanation relates to the fact that many are held in the LGBTQ "Pride Library". As an aside, although the author of the new biography apparently focuses a lot on "gayness" the reviewer does not think it important. Nor did Gorey.

I noted by the way that the name of the donor of some of the Gorey books is given as: Empress II Madison Hart, Royal Imperial Sovereign Court of London and of Southwestern Ontario.
Surely the Empress is worth a post.....when I get time.