{"id":42704,"date":"2014-09-12T16:20:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T21:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=42704"},"modified":"2021-06-04T19:53:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T00:53:59","slug":"a-gentlemans-guide-to-collecting-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.artofmanliness.com\/leisure\/books\/a-gentlemans-guide-to-collecting-books\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gentleman\u2019s Guide to Collecting Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rudyard<\/p>\n

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Nate Pedersen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier this year we covered the joys and basic how-tos of starting a collection<\/a>. It’s truly an everyman’s hobby. If you’re a gentleman reader — and you should be<\/a> — then there is perhaps no better collection to amass than a hearty library of manly tomes. With this post I’d like to teach you how to expand your library with a purposeful book collection and help it achieve a new standard of awesomeness.<\/p>\n

But first, some background. The personal library has a long, rich history of manliness. It was a standard feature in homes from the 17th<\/sup> through the 20th<\/sup> centuries. For the upper class, the library was the perfect place for managing an estate and hanging out with other gentlemen (usually with a few drinks and cigars). And for the working man, a personal library of even just a few bookshelves was a great escape after a hard day\u2019s work, as well as a potential tool for moving on up the economic ranks.<\/p>\n

Wealthy gentlemen of former generations would typically collect complete sets of classic writers (\u201cThe Complete Works of Dickens\u201d for example), standout books in the advancement of civilization (the Great Books<\/a>), and books related to their personal areas of interest or occupation. The same standard titles could be expected in any gentleman\u2019s library, which meant, with some notable exceptions, that the average collection was kind of boring. You could find variations on the same library in any wealthy estate in America or Britain.<\/p>\n

The working man\u2019s library, however, was much more focused and interesting. Limited budgets meant that books were a luxury expense and could only be bought for specific aims or for a deep and abiding passion for a particular work. As a result, a working man\u2019s library was a fascinating look into their life, even if it was ostensibly much less impressive.<\/p>\n

\"Vintage

I\u2019m way more interested to know what books were sitting on the two shelves in the hut of this Australian bushman versus the gigantic libraries of wealthy businessmen. Think about the journey these books must have taken to arrive at this shack deep in the Australian bush and how important they must have been to this man. (You wouldn\u2019t think this picture could be any cooler, but note that the opposite wall holds his rifles.)<\/p><\/div>\n

All men should build a general library like that pictured above. We should have ready access to the important books of our lives. What books would you take with you to a shack in the Australian bush? Those are the books you should buy. You don\u2019t need any guidance here; just buy the books you love. Get them in the format you like best. Forget about re-selling them. Build the library to use it. Write in the books. Toss them in your rucksack or in the backseat of your car when you\u2019re on a road trip. Be reckless with their condition. And if you prefer ebooks, remember that buying physical copies of your favorite books increases your antifragility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Book collecting<\/em>, however, is another beast. You can go beyond the formation of a general library to assemble a purposeful, carefully built book collection united around a central theme. And here is where we separate the book collectors from the rest of the pack.<\/p>\n

Collectors are hunters who chase their query through the dusty shelves of antiquarian bookshops. (Or, less poetically, across the blinking screens of their computers.) They build focused collections with particular goals in mind. Aesthetics, interests, profit, charity, work, pleasure, scholarly pursuits, pure awesomeness, and greed are all reasons that men collect books. For example, I built one small collection for its aesthetics on the bookshelf, another small collection to have all the works of a hard-to-find author, another collection purely out of interest in the material, and another just to make a buck on later.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the motivation, however, any book collection worth its salt must be united by an easily identifiable central theme.<\/p>\n

A.W. Pollard wrote of book collecting in his famous essay in the 11th<\/sup> edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911):<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the modern private collection, the need for a central idea must be fully recognized. Neither the collector nor the curator can be content to keep a mere curiosity shop. It is the collector\u2019s business to illustrate his central idea by his choice of examples, by the care with which he describes them and the skill with which they are arranged.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those words were true in 1911; they remain true a century later. A central idea for your book collection helps you stay focused, save time and money, and avoid unnecessary accumulation.<\/p>\n

Types of Book Collections<\/h3>\n

But what should you collect? How can you stay focused? While there are many ways to build a collection, here are several of the tried-and-true routes:<\/p>\n

1. The Author Collection:<\/strong> In this collection, you build an entire collection of books by a particular author. Typically, this means buying all the first editions of an author\u2019s work, but a more comprehensive view includes reprints, foreign translations, special editions, and magazine appearances. Building an author collection is an expensive undertaking if you want to go after prominent authors. However, you can build an inexpensive collection by focusing on an up-and-coming author, or a favorite author who has been overlooked by history. A variation on the author collection is the illustrator collection \u2013 buying all the books illustrated by a particular artist.<\/p>\n

2. The List Collection:<\/strong> In this collection you start with a simple, well-established list (Pulitzer Prize winners<\/a>, for example, or Man Booker Prize winners<\/a>) and then go out and buy all the books featured on that list. Once again, this collection would typically focus on the first editions of these works, but could be more expansive in its scope, including reprints, classic editions, etc. Other non-prize-winning lists include the Rivers of America<\/a> books, the Baedeker guidebooks<\/a> to Europe, or the American Guide Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3. The Topical Collection:<\/strong> The topical collection is limited only by your creativity. I\u2019ve interviewed a young man, for example, who was busy collecting everything he could find about the 1972 Munich Olympics for the benefit of his dissertation. Now that\u2019s a cool and unexpected book collection to browse on the shelf. Similarly you could collect books about trout fishing in Montana, books about 20th<\/sup> century golfing in Scotland, books praising the virtues of Cuban tobacco, or adventure novels set in Africa. The potential list of topics is endless. Topical book collections are often well used by their collectors.<\/p>\n

4. The Aesthetic Collection:<\/strong> This collection views its chosen books as art objects. You might collect publisher\u2019s binding books<\/a> for example, or books with dust jackets illustrated by a favorite artist (such as Edward Gorey<\/a>), or 19th<\/sup> century sheet music with color lithograph covers, or books bound in vellum. Building an aesthetic collection is similar to building a small art collection. You purchase the books because they look awesome.<\/p>\n

And of course you don\u2019t have to limit yourself to just one type of collection; I have one of each of the above types. Regardless of the sort of collection you build, consider with each purchase how the specific selection echoes and enhances the central theme expressed in your library. This will help you stay focused and not lose yourself in the pursuit. (Book collecting, as with any collection, bears some similarities \u2013 both positive and negative – to hunting and gambling.)<\/p>\n

Condition Matters<\/h3>\n

A good rule of thumb is to purchase the nicest copy you can afford. What does this mean? Get the book in the best condition relative to your budget. When you are browsing books online or in a bookseller\u2019s catalogue, you will notice that booksellers classify their books according to a roughly-standard rubric of grades that begins at \u201cFine\u201d and descends to \u201cPoor”:<\/p>\n