Get 1925 lit classics for free: Fitzgerald, Dreiser, Hemingway, Woolf, Kafka, Huxley among authors

Bill Gates snapped up at least four rare copies of The Great Gatsby, the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, and a Gatsby quote even adorns the ceiling of the library in his $127-million house. Gates sees Gatsby as a major inspiration and shared his passion as a Secret Santa, part of the Reditt site’s gift exchange. A fellow Gatsby lover in Michigan received a scanned version of the manuscript.

Props to Gates. But should such generosity be so random in regard to books—when libraries face new ...