Bibliomania (Bookshelf)

On Buying Old Books

Bibliomania or Book-Madness from the Greek biblion=book + mania=madness. Behavioral disorder caused by bacterial infection, bacilli librorum (attributed to Eugene Field). Common symptoms include the uncontrollable urge to acquire and hoard books, indiscriminate bookstore hopping, and delusions of authorship, which alone or in combination may result in prolonged disruption of daily life. The more severe forms of bibliomania may involve recurring incidents of bibliokleptomania (book theft) and/or lying about supposed ownership of titles. No cure is known to exist, but treatment to alleviate symptoms requires frequent and regular use of Project Gutenberg to read online or to download free e-books.

Persons afflicted with the disorder are known as bibliomaniacs, which is the subject of this bookshelf.

Fiction

• The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac  by Eugene Field (1850-1895)
  In this fictional autobiography, the Chicago poet, newspaperman, and book collector narrates tales, jokes, and flights of fancy regarding that “sweetest of madnesses” known as “bibliomania (and kindred maladies), and for which there is no cure known to humanity."

The Haunted Bookshop

• The Haunted Bookshop  novel by Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
  Espionage and romance clash in “Parnassus at Home,” Roger Mifflin’s Brooklyn second-hand bookshop. Morley, the son of English immigrants, was an editor and columnist for Saturday Review, he also wrote for the New York Evening Post and authored more than fifty books of fiction and nonfiction.

• Parnassus on Wheels  novel by Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
  The loves and adventures of Miss Helen McGill, New England book-seller and proprietor of the “Parnassus” traveling bookshop and horse-drawn wagon.

• Plum Pudding Of Divers Ingredients, Discreetly Blended & Seasoned  short stories by Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
  In “Books of the Sea” Morley suggests books for a hypothetical sea-farer’s library with brief commentary on each title. “The Perfect Reader” is an inspirational piece on the joys of reading, written in the form of a letter to the “perfect reader.”

Non-Fiction

• Bibliomania; OR Book-Madness  by Thomas Frognall Dibdin
  

"In laying before the public the following brief and superficial account of a disease, which, till it arrested the attention of Dr. Ferriar, had entirely escaped the sagacity of all ancient and modern physicians, it has been my object to touch chiefly on its leading characteristics; and to present the reader (in the language of my old friend Francis Quarles) with an "honest pennyworth" of information, which may, in the end, either suppress or soften the ravages of so destructive a malady."

• The Guide to Reading  by Various
  This daily reading guide to passages in specific books aims to “introduce the reader to a goodly company of authors.” For the harried bibliomaniac, the editors have thoughtfully selected passages that may be read in fewer than 30 minutes.

• There’s Pippins and Cheese to Come  by Charles S. Brooks (1878-1934)
  “On Buying Old Books” – “To An Unknown Reader” – Humorous essays on booklore by the American playwright and author of ‘’Journey to Bagdad.’’

• The Book-Hunter  by John Hill Burton (1809-1881)
  A classification and description of the various types of bibliomane, with accounts of some notable ones.

• The Love of Books
  The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury  by Richard de, Bury (1287-1345), translated by Ernest Chester Thomas (1850-1892)
  From what has been said we draw this corollary welcome to us, but (as we believe) acceptable to few: namely, that no dearness of price ought to hinder a man from the buying of books, if he has the money that is demanded for them, unless it be to withstand the malice of the seller or to await a more favourable opportunity of buying.

• Libraries in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods  by J.W. (John Willis) Clark (1833-1910)
  Registrary of the University and former Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, J.W. Clark delivered this brief lecture on the architecture of monastic libraries, discussing some early forms of anti-theft devices for books and notable examples of Medieval and Renaissance library furnishings, shelving, and fittings.

• On Books and the Housing of Them  by William Ewert Gladstone (1809-1898)
  A British Prime Minister offers suggestions for the determined book-collector on how to provide shelf space for a large collection.

• The Library  by Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
  Anecdotes, literary criticism, and practical advice on book-collecting by the Scottish author, folklorist, and journalist who viewed the library as shrine.

• Books and Bookmen  by Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
  More essays on books, collecting, and bibliomania.

• Books and Bookmen  by Ian Maclaren
  In which we find a definition of the bibliomaniac's heaven: "...a bookman's paradise, where early black-lettered tomes, rare and stately, first folios of Shakespeare, tall copies of the right editions of the Elzevirs, and vellumed volumes galore, uncropped, uncut, and unfoxed in all their verdant pureness, fresh as when they left the presses of the Aldi, are to be had for the asking."

• Bibliomania in the Middle Ages  by Frederick Somner Merryweather
  The London bookseller and author argues that the art and practice of creating and preserving illustrated manuscripts in British monasteries ensured that many of these priceless religious books survived beyond the Dark Ages.

• Old English Libraries  by Ernest Albert Savage (1877-1966)
  In this authoritative study by the British librarian, E.A. Savage traces the history of book-making, book collecting, and the book trade in Medieval Britain between 400 and 1400 A.D.

• The Enemies of Books  by William Blades (1824-1890)
  Covering the many agents of the destruction of books, it includes a chapter on the obsessive collector: "it is a serious matter when Nature produces such a wicked old biblioclast as John Bagford, one of the founders of the Society of Antiquaries, who, in the beginning of the last century, went about the country, from library to library, tearing away title pages from rare books of all sizes."

• The Bibliotaph and Other People  by Leon H.Vincent
  A portrait, "not wholly imaginary", of a collector of books, with some essays on authors.

• Curiosities of Literature by Isaac D'Israeli (1766-1848), vol. 1  vol. 2  vol. 3 
  Anecdotes of famous persons, amusing misprints and errors in translations, and the vagaries of collecting. "The Bibliomania, or the collecting an enormous heap of books without intelligent curiosity, has, since libraries have existed, infected weak minds, who imagine that they themselves acquire knowledge when they keep it on their shelves. Their motley libraries have been called the madhouses of the Human mind; and again, the tomb of books, when the possessor will not communicate them, and coffins them up in the cases of his library. It was facetiously observed, these collections are not without a Lock on the Human Understanding"

• Books and Authors Curious Facts and Characteristic Sketches  by Anonymous

• The Book-Hunter at Home  Allan, P. B. M.

• Book-Lovers, Bibliomaniacs and Book Clubs  by Henry H. Harper

• The Booklover and His Books  by Harry Lyman Koopman

• The Book-Hunter in London
  Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting  by William Roberts

• A Book for All Readers
  An Aid to the Collection, Use, and Preservation of Books and the Formation of Public and Private Libraries  by Ainsworth Rand Spofford

• Confessions of a Book-Lover  by Maurice Francis Egan

An avid reader's autobiography

• The Care of Books  by John Willis Clark

A history of Libraries

• The Reformed Librarie-Keeper  by John Dury (1650)

A Puritan's view of librarians as "Agents for the advancement of universal Learning"

• The Annual Catalogue  by W. Warner and J. Worrall (1737)

Or, A New and Compleat List of All The New Books, New Editions of Books, Pamphlets, &c.

Poetry

• The Complete Works of Robert Burns  by Robert Burns (1759-1796)
  “The Book-Worms”

• Poems by Emily Dickinson, Three Series, Complete  by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
  “A Book; Poem 1263” – “Unto My Books So Good To Turn; Poem 512; Poem 604”

• Rhymes a la Mode  by Andrew Lang (1844-1912)
  “Ballade of the Book-Man’s Paradise”

• The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
  “My Books” – “To an Old Danish Song-Book”
• Bibliomania in the Middle Ages  by Frederick Somner Merryweather
  "Shyp of Folys" or Ship of Fools

• The Raven  by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
  “The Raven”

• The New Poems  by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
  “Go, Little Book – The Ancient Phrase” - “Sonnet: So Shall this Book Wax Like Unto a Well”

Verse

• The Dog’s Book of Verse  collected by J. Earl Clauson
  For the dog lover among bibliomaniacs. A selection of canine reflections from a cross-section of writers like Robert Burns, Jonathan Swift, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, among many others, both famed and obscure.