Wandering books

One of the unexpected pleasures of cataloging my library was discovering the occasional bit of history attached to a book--its past life as an author's presentation copy, or its previous residence in some once well-known figure's library.  For example:

Author's autographed/presentation copies:

• The Rev. William Ayerst (19th-c. Anglican clergyman)
• Reginald Hill (novelist)
• Robert Hirsch (historian of photography)
• Peter John Jagger (Anglican clergyman and theologian)
• Caryl Phillips (novelist and playwright)
• Rabbi Chaim Potok (novelist)
• Rabbi Alan Silverstein (historian and Conservative rabbi)
• Rabbi Lance J. Sussman (historian and Reform rabbi)
• The Rev. George Trevor (19th-c. Anglican clergyman)

Association copies:

• Mary Antin (Jewish writer and activist)
• Phillips Brooks (famed Episcopalian preacher)
• Blackford Condit (Bible collector and local historian)
• William Crowninshield Endicott (Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of War, among various other things)
• Isaac John Greenwood (American genealogist)
• John Kenyon (the historian)
• The Rev. James Mitchell (Irish Presbyterian clergyman)
• The Rev. Henry W. Rankin (correspondent of William James)
• F. A. Sondley (local historian)
• Sir Samuel Wilson (MP, businessman, and philanthropist)

I have no interest in such things as collector's items (and most of these associations or autographs add nothing to the book's value, in any event).    But it's fascinating to ponder how these books have moved from hand to hand--and, for that matter, across the Atlantic--sometimes over a period of 150 years.  There's something slightly awe-inspiring, yet also comical, in discovering that a book once owned by a relatively well-known (or moderately known, or maybe slightly known) author or politician has somehow managed to make its way to my bookshelves.  And what, I wonder, would some of these people have said to each other, had they really  wound up in the same room? 

Comments

[Sredni Vashtar]

The most interesting associtional book I have in my library are two volumes of reports (in French)from the secret police of the French First Empire from the library of OSS founder "Wild Bill" Donovan.