A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes

The sale of this library, The Garden Ltd., was brought about by a lawsuit filed by Michael Davis against Haven O'More. A fantastic biographical statement, written in the third person, ends the catalogue. Preface by the book collector (as he liked to be addressed), Haven O' More. Foreword by Nicolas Barker followed by a 10pp. Sotheby's, This magnificent sale has a 4pp.

Robertson Davies's 'Book Collecting,' on the difference between those who collect rare books because they're valuable and those who collect them because they love books, ultimately making it clear which is 'the collector who really matters.'. A selection from Anna Quindlen's How Reading Changed My Life, in which she shares her optimistic view on the role of reading and the future of books in the computer age. Robert Benchley's 'Why Does Nobody Collect Me?'-in which he wonders why first editions of books by his friend Ernest Hemingway are valuable while his are not, deadpanning, 'I am older than Hemingway and have written more books than he has.' George Hamlin Fitch's extraordinarily touching 'Comfort Found in Good Old Books,' on the solace he found in books after the death of his son. A selection from Nicholas Basbanes's A Gentle Madness, on the innovative arrangements Samuel Pepys made to guarantee that his library would survive intact after his demise. A sampling of the literary treasures in this book - Urnberto Eco's 'How to Justify a Private Library,' dealing with the question everyone with a sizable library is inevitably asked: 'Have you read all these books?'- Anatole Broyard's 'Lending Books,' in which he notes, 'I feel about lending a book the way most fathers feel about their daughters living with a man out of wedlock.' Gustave Flaubert's Bibliomania, the classic tale of a book collector so obsessed with owning a book that he is willing to kill to possess it.

A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes