Henry E. Huntington's Library of Libraries

by Donald C. Dickinson

Henry E. Huntington was one of the most important book and manuscript collectors of the twentieth century. After making a fortune in the railroad industry, he set out to build a rare book and manuscript library. He succeeded in gathering his unequaled collections over a period of only fifteen years, a result not only of personal determination and almost unlimited means but of fortunate timing. In 1911, as he began to develop a serious interest in rare books, important private collections came on the market. In that year, Huntington acquired the most important rarities from the Elihu D. Church and Robert Hoe collections. When other libraries became available subsequently, he responded decisively with en bloc purchases, and the "library of libraries" was born. Between 1911 and 1917, Huntington dominated the book markets of New York and London.

This book recounts the story of those tumultuous years in the book trade. The reader is taken behind the scenes at the auction houses, and the strategies of the major book dealers of the early twentieth centuryespecially George D. Smith and A. S. W. Rosenbachare revealed in fascinating detail.

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book for bibliophiles. It provides an extensive history of the massive collecting by Henry Huntington to establish one of the premier research libraries in the world, the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, just outside Pasadena. While the art museum and gardens are of exceptional quality as well, this book focuses on Huntington's book and manuscript collecting.

A railroad baron, Huntington seemed to have limitless amounts of money in the early 20th century and was most active in collecting between 1911 and 1925. He died in 1927, having set up a trusteeship and setting the institution on firm financial footing.

Huntington was a shrewd businessman, unsentimental, despising unions and forbidding women from working in his library while he was alive. He's a classic capitalist from that time period who nevertheless left behind an impressive legacy. The library is open to the public, and reading privileges can now be had by anyone over the age of 18 with a research purpose. The largest requests in the reading room for the past year have been for the archives of science fiction writer Octavia Butler, whose archive just recently became available there. This is probably not the sort of thing that Huntington would have wanted, but the curators have moved forward into the 21st century.

While he was actively buying, he often bought entire collections 'en bloc', as it says in the book. This is why the book is titled 'Library of Libraries'. He frustrated other collectors such as J.P. Morgan (and his stellar librarian Belle de Costa Greene) who found themselves often outbid (although there were sometimes gentlemen's agreements among them not to bid against each other on certain things).

For someone who wants to wallow in the history of bibliographic collecting, this is golden. It describes the auction world in New York and London wonderfully, with dealers such as A.S.W. Rosenbach dominating the auction floor.

For someone with only a mild interest in book collecting, the constant details of purchases and prices are probably too much. There are also other books that are better at describing the Huntington institution for those wanting to read about it before a visit.

But for those of us modest collectors who like to pretend that we could collect at this level, it's a fantasy come true.

[James Korsmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This interesting book is really a mini-biography of Henry Huntington with special attention on his book collecting. Or maybe, better said, it is a biography of his library. Huntington was a railroad magnate who made his name and fortune pioneering the rail system that allowed LA to be come the sprawling metropolis that it developed into in the early twentieth century. Along with being a railroad man, he was an avid book collector, whose vision developed from being a private collector to being a collector with a purpose, securing a world-class collection that could be donated in trust to the public to spread knowledge, a vision that was realized with the construction of the Huntington Library, a beautiful complex containing a research library (along with a library for public display of some of the more notable volumes and items), a set of museums devoted to art, and an immense series of botanical gardens. This complex can be visited (and I highly recommend it) in San Marino, CA, and it is also still active as a research and conservation center. The focus of the book, though, is more narrowly on a brief background of Huntington the man, with extended coverage of his primary collecting years, detailing the relationships he had with various buyers and book dealers. Though not a full-orbed biography (we really don't learn too much about Huntington's life outside his library collection, though of course there are glimpses throughout), the story is interesting, as long as you have enough interest in books to read through many discussions of auction catalogs and particularly desirable finds (often from authors who are still noteworthy today, but many not). In all, I'd give this book four stars, because it is well written, but the subject matters is a bit esoteric and it will best suit those who find book collecting of interest. It made my trip to the Huntington Library especially enjoyable to understand better the history surrounding its inception and collection.