A Collector's Cornucopia Part I

 

I thought I would remind myself of why the rest of the family feel that they are living in a Library. The above photos are of some of my bookshelves - not all! This also made me think I should address what constituted the bulk of my Collection and why the books were collected in the first place. The vast bulk are History - including Local History - or Literature, with smaller sections devoted to Natural History and Travel.  

My History and Literature interests are, not surprisingly, often linked.

I find 19th century British History fascinating and have 9 biographies of Gladstone and 7 of Disraeli. Books on other titans of that era include the Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel, Lord Randolph Churchill, Lord Rosebery, Lord Salisbury and (tipping into the first half of the 20th century) three biographies of Lloyd George and two of Asquith. I also have 16 books on the British Empire in both the above centuries. Moreover, I have collected biographies of Napoleon III and his wife Eugenie (17 books), which led me on to purchase 9 (so far!) novels set during the Second Empire; Cavour, Garibaldi and Popes Pius IX, XI and XII (which tend to confirm my anti-papal views!) all figure on my shelves. 

Reading a few of Sir Walter Scott's novels as a young teenager (yes, we did in those far off days) started me on collecting his first editions when you could purchase them for a mere £10-£15 - for triple deckers! Fishhook like, it led me on about a decade ago to search for and buy other Scottish novelists of the early 19th century.

I have just updated the above booklet, which list 81 books, all, bar five, in first editions - many of them in three volumes. It includes 22 by Walter Scott; 13 by John Galt; 4 by J.G. Lockhart; 3 each by Mary Brunton, Susan Ferrier, John Wilson, Grace Kennedy and Allan Cunningham; 2 each by Jane Porter, Amelia Gillespie Smyth, Michael Scott, Eliza Logan, 'Mrs Blackford' and Catherine Sinclair; and single works by another thirteen authors. I have read - and Blogged on - 70 of the 81. I look forward to reading the last eleven later this year.  

Ever since I read Kidnapped at school, I have been a fan of R.L. Stevenson. I now have over 40 of his works, all in first edition, including Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Black Arrow and Kidnapped. Due to my interest in Scottish literature, I have also collected 25 novels from what is known as the Kailyard School, much scoffed at by the elite literati. This has been rounded off by The House of the Green Shutters which laid into them! All are first edition copies. 

I read G.P.R. James novels from an early age, and now have collected 11 three volume and 2 single volume first editions, as well as several more later editions. More recently, I have begun to read and collect R.D. Blackmore's works - just four so far, two of them in three volume first edition. Although I read and collect Anthony Trollope's Barchester series and Thomas Hardy's novels (my favourite? - The Woodlanders), they are all in reprints, as first editions are too expensive.

History and Literature have also been matched with the following four topics.

I got interested in 'The Anarchy' at University, studying the wicked Geoffrey de Mandeville! The result? Shelves packed with 28 novels and 56 non-fiction books and journals on the period 1135 to 1154.

Lollardy has always fascinated me - as a Non-conformist, the Lollards' story appeals to my anti-establishment frame of mind! I have 16 non-fiction and (as listed in the booklet above) 25 novels on John Wycliffe and his followers.

Closely linked to the early development of Lollardy was Henry V, a monarch determined to stamp out the movement. However, ever since I read Monmouth Harry by A.M. Maughan in my early teens, I have regarded the king as one of my medieval heroes. I now have 25 novels, mainly 19th century, relating to his reign  and over 50 non-fiction works. In addition, I have a further 25 non-fiction books on the Hundred Years' War as a whole. I also have a partiality, and some dozen books, on William Langland and his Piers Plowman.

My major, late Medieval, collecting focus has been on Richard III and the Wars of the Roses. Ever since I read Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time, I have been hooked on the man and his times. Having been a member of the Richard III Society since 1973, I have amassed six large shelves of non-fiction, some 220 books, and a large collection of novels, as detailed in the above booklet, 32 from the 19th century and at least as many from the 20th.

A Collector's Cornucopia Part II will look at my other Fiction writers.