Nicholas A. Basbanes - A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

Also by

Nicholas A. Basbanes

About the Author

A World of Letters

Editions & Impressions

Every Book Its Reader

A Splendor of Letters

Among the Gently Mad

Patience & Fortitude

A Gentle Madness

A Gentle

Madness

Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the

Eternal Passion for Books

With a New Preface

NICHOLAS A. BASBANES

Fine Books Press

Chapel Hill, NC

Fine Books Press

is a division of Journalistic, Inc.,

101 Europa Drive, Suite 150

Chapel Hill, NC

Copyright 1995 by Nicholas A. Basbanes

Preface copyright 2012 by Nicholas A. Basbanes

All rights reserved.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with

the Library of Congress

eISBN 978-0-9799491-6-6

Fine Books Press books are available for special promotions and

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First published in hardcover in 1995 by

Henry Holt and Company

First Fine Books Press Edition 2012

Printed in the United States of America

First Fine Books Press Edition

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

A digital edition of this book is available

online for popular e-book readers.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following institutions for permission to quote from previously unpublished material: American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts; William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Columbia University Oral History Research Office, New York City; The Huntington Library, San Marino, California; The Newberry Library, Chicago; and the Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia.

For

Constance V. Basbanes

Contents

Part One

Part Two

Roger E. Stoddard, curator of rare books at the Houghton Library, Harvard University, listened, offered wise counsel, and read substantial portions of the manuscript.

For courtesies too numerous to enumerate: Bart Auerbach, bookseller, New York City; Sidney E. Berger, director of special collections, the University of California, Riverside; George B. Griffin, journalist, Douglas, Massachusetts; Priscilla Juvelis, bookseller, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the late William A. Moffett, librarian of the Huntington Library, 1990 to 1995.

For showing me the treasures: Nicolas Barker and Mirjam M. Foot, the British Library; William R. Cagle and Joel Silver, the Lilly Library, Indiana University; John Dann, the Clements Library, University of Michigan; Raymond W. Daum, Kathleen G. Hjerter, and Dave Oliphant, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas; Florence de Lussy, the Bibliothque Nationale; Catherine Denning, the John Hay Library, Brown University; Kimball Higgs and Martin Antonetti, the Grolier Club; Norman Fiering and Susan L. Danforth, the John Carter Brown Library; H. George Fletcher and Elizabeth Poole-Wilson, the Pierpont Morgan Library; Paul Gehl, Newberry Library; William L. Joyce, Firestone Library, Princeton University; Alan Jutzi and John Rhodehamel, Henry E. Huntington Library; Barbara Kuck, Johnson & Wales University; Thomas Kren, J. Paul Getty Museum; John Lannon, Boston Athenum; Richard Luckett, Pepys Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge University; Marcus A. McCorison and Georgia B. Barnhill, American Antiquarian Society; Bernard McTigue, New York Public Library; Laura V. Monti, Boston Public Library; Leslie A. Morris, Elizabeth E. Fuller, and Ellen S. Dunlap, Rosenbach Museum and Library; Stephen Parks, Christa Sammons, Archibald Hanna, and Marie Devine, Yale University libraries; Stephen T. Riley, Massachusetts Historical Society; Julian Roberts, Bodleian Library, Oxford University; Rita Smith, the University of Florida; William P. Stoneman, Scheide Library, Princeton, New Jersey; Sem Sutter, Joseph Regenstein Library, University of Chicago; John Van Horn, Library Company of Philadelphia; Peter M. Van Wingen, Library of Congress; Elizabeth Walsh, Folger Shakespeare Library; and David Zeidberg, University of California, Los Angeles.

For help in securing public documents: Mary Allison Foster, Dutchess County Registry of Deeds, Poughkeepsie, New York; James R. Vosburgh, attorney, Washington, North Carolina; Mary Elizabeth Hugeback, clerks office, United States District Court, Des Moines, Iowa; and Glenn V. Longacre, National Archives, Chicago depository.

Robert and Christine Liska, owners of Colophon Books in Exeter, New Hampshire, and Robert Fleck, owner of Oak Knoll Books in New Castle, Delaware, found the old and out-of-print titles I had to have. Appreciation also to Phyllis Button Whitten for her translations; Andrea Braver for her assistance in California; Ray Cornell for his help in Iowa; George J. Basbanes for legal advice; and Everett M. Skehan for his friendship and unwavering encouragement.

My literary agents Glen Hartley and Lynn Chu were champions from the beginning, and made significant contributions to the book that emerged. The careful reading I received at Henry Holt from production editor Jenna Dolan and copy editor Katherine L. Scott was steady and professional. Allen H. Peacock, my editor at Holt, called me on Thanksgiving Day in 1993 and told me he would publish this book, and publish it well. His unshakable support of the project will forever be an inspiration.

I wish to record profound gratitude to my parents, John and Georgia Basbanes of Lowell, Massachusetts, and to my father-in-law, Louis G. Valentzas of Pompano Beach, Florida.

My thoughts go out to the memory of four fine and wonderful people who also believed in me and in my work: Stella Valentzas, Stella Koumoutseas, Raymond Morin, and E. Nelson Hayes.

My daughters, Barbara Georgia Basbanes and Nicole Stella Basbanes, have given me their love and their patience and inspired me to do my best.

For Constance V. Basbanes, my wife, reader of first resort, and most demanding critic, words, for once, fail me. She has my love, respect, and deepest admiration.

For the Fine Books Press edition of 2012, many thanks to William Cloud, Rebecca Rego Barry, Greg Sanders, Kathryn Haller, Jeremy Howell, and Sonya Chudgar, whose close reading and technical know-how have been of enormous value in perparation of a clean and authoritative text. Webb Howell, publisher of Fine Books Press, and a dear friend, is responsible for making this book accessible to the next generation of readers, and in exciting new formats.

O blessed Letters, that combine in one

All ages past, and make one live with all:

By you we doe conferre with who are gone,

And the dead-living unto councell call:

By you th unborne shall have communion

Of what we feele, and what doth us befall.