A Letter From
America
#10
The Library of Congress Rare Book Forum
From
the Antiquarian Book Review
The
Library of Congress has just published a small work entitled Collectors &
Special Collections Three Talks, putting into print the three main
addresses given at the Library’s first Rare Book Forum, held there under the
sponsorship of the Center for the Book and the Rare Book and Special Collections
department of the Library in April, 2001. The theme of the forum was the
relationship of private collectors of rare books and public institutions over
the years. Although not so stated in the title, this might well have been
qualified
as "in the United States" as far as the content of the
lectures. The three papers were "Elective Affinities: Private Collectors
and Special Collections in Libraries," by Alice D. Schreyer of the
University of Chicago, "Will the Book Collector of Today be the Donor of
Tomorrow," by the well-known Cleveland collector Robert H. Jackson, and
"What Have You Done for Me Lately? Collectors and Institutions in Modern
Times," by (my devoted readers may have already guessed) myself. This
handsome octavo in stiff wrappers is available from [ Leslie we need to e-mail
John Cole and get details of where it can be ordered]. Alice Schreyer’s talk
was also issued separately by the University of Chicago in a striking pamphlet
format (just to add a proper air of bibliographical confusion, this separate
version preceded the official LC format, but the wheels of government turn
slowly, as anyone who sells a book to the Library of Congress will discover).
I
will not characterize my fellow speaker’ talks beyond saying that they were
excellent, because I don’t want to misrepresent their thoughts in précis. I
do think they were both somewhat more optimistic about the potential for a warm
and donation-filled future between collectors and libraries than I am. Schreyer,
who concentrated on the history of private library donors, was certainly right
in seeing a golden age in the early and middle parts of the twentieth century.
Here is a quick summary of part of what I had to say what I had to say (but you
really need to buy the pamphlet!).
American
collectors and libraries had a lot of reasons to get along in the immediate
post-World War II era. The two big ones were plenty of supply and high tax
rates. In retrospect, there were more books that we would consider
"rare" afloat in the market in this period than any point since the
Napoleonic Wars. The destruction and impoverishment of
Today,
most of the rare and valuable books of the world are in institutions. Those of
us who would like to acquire them, collectors, dealers, and institutions alike,
live in a market of extreme scarcity. This alone is discouraging to the
collecting of books – it is no fun to set your sights on something you’ll
never get. Many collectors, as they contemplate this, resolve that their books
will stay in play, so to speak, honoring the dictum of Robert Hoe that his books
should be sold to give others the pleasure they gave him. Tax considerations
still persuade some collectors to donate, but the incremental rates and
corresponding benefit are much lower. At the same time, much higher prices have
made more collectors, by necessity, consider their holdings capital assets,
whether they collected with an eye toward "investment’ or not. All of
these factors work against donation.
Far
more important, I do not think that collectors and librarians always share the
common vision they did several generations ago, when books and learning were
seen as synonymous. Progressive waves of technology have vastly reduced the book
as the sole source of text. As a result, many in libraries have questioned the
role of printed material as an artifact worth preserving. This has led to some
ugly incidents of poor stewardship, as chronicled by Mr. Nicholson Baker in Doublefold.
Of course these attitudes are far from universal, and many institutions have
done an exemplary job of preserving their printed collections. Nor should we
always blame librarians; more often than not the pressure to
"rationalize" collections (one of those ominous Big Brother terms),
comes from administrators on high who could care less about us silly
book-lovers. Whoever is responsible, the bottom line is that many collectors
today do not trust institutions to care for their books. Collectors may or may
not know much about the content of their books (and, contrary to the usual
canard, in my experience they usually know a lot), but they are universally
concerned with the artifacts themselves. If they have doubts about library
policy, they will stay away.
Some
of the forward looking rare book libraries have realized that the future is
about bringing more people into special collections. At the same time, it may be
better for all if institutions who doubt the value of printed works get out of
the special collections business if they cannot make the books usable and useful
or care for them properly. In the current market they are bound to find a happy
home. Collectors will still be donors and supporters – but they will
increasingly want to see genuine commitment from the entire institution before
they donate.
– William S. Reese