The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections
1772
There is a madness peculiar to book collectors, and A. Edward Newton makes no apology for succumbing to it. Written with the warmth of a man who has spent a lifetime in the company of folios and first editions, this collection of essays is less a guide to acquiring books than a meditation on why we cannot stop ourselves from acquiring them. Newton recounts a pivotal moment: a conversation with a friend that sends him wandering into the antiquarian bookshops of London, where he finds himself in conversation with centuries of readers and collectors who came before. He writes about the particular delights of first editions, the significance of provenance, the satisfaction of finding a treasure overlooked by others, and the way a book can connect you to literary history in the most intimate way. Yet what elevates these essays beyond mere hobbyist enthusiasm is Newton's underlying conviction that book collecting is not hoarding but love. It is a way of keeping company with the dead, of preserving beauty in tangible form, of surrounding oneself with objects that have souls. For anyone who has felt the pull of the shelf, the itch of the hunt, the quiet pleasure of a well-made book, these pages feel like coming home.
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“Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity... We cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access reassurance.””
— A. Edward Newton
“My depth of purse is not so greatNor yet my bibliophilic greed,That merely buying doth elate:The books I buy I like to read:Still e'en when dawdling in a mead,Beneath a cloudless summer sky,By bank of Thames, or Tyne, or Tweed,The books I read”
— A. Edward Newton
“My advice to any one who may be temped by some volume with an inscription of the author on its fly-leaf or title-page is, 'Yield with coy submission'”
— A. Edward Newton
“Buying from Quaritch is rather too much like the German idea of hunting: namely, sitting in an easy chair near a breach in the wall through which game, big or little, is shooed within easy reach of your gun.””
— A. Edward Newton
“Some one once wrote a poem about 'old books and fresh flowers.' It lilted along very nicely; but I remark that books stay old, indeed get older, and flowers do not stay fresh: a little too much rain, a little too much sun, and it is all over.””
— A. Edward Newton
“Shortly afterward, a check for a substantial sum fluttered down upon my desk, and it was impossible that I should not remember how much Milton had received for his 'Paradise Lost'”
— A. Edward Newton
“By this time it will have been discovered that I am not much of a traveler; but I have always loved London”
— A. Edward Newton
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Newton, A. Edward. The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-amenities-of-book-collecting-and-kindred-affections-dffe4cd1-daeb-445d-8519-f074ff24db7a.Newton, A. E. (1772). The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-amenities-of-book-collecting-and-kindred-affections-dffe4cd1-daeb-445d-8519-f074ff24db7aNewton, A. Edward. The Amenities of Book-Collecting and Kindred Affections. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-amenities-of-book-collecting-and-kindred-affections-dffe4cd1-daeb-445d-8519-f074ff24db7a.
