Never again possible....

More musings on *A Gentle Madness*:

I don't know how many times (so far) I've read in this book that some
magnificent collection was a product of its times, and never again would it
be possible to assemble such a thing. Frequently, this is because the
collector chose a field where the items were not highly valued when they
began collecting. Or the collector was able, through wealth or fortuitous
circumstance, to acquire books loosed on the market during times of
political or economic turmoil. I've gotten as far, in the book, as Ruth
Baldwin's collection of children's books, now housed at the University of
Florida, which she apparently acquired by clearing entire shelves of
bookstores with block purchases, without regard to condition or duplicates,
at a time when children's books were not highly valued.

My personal feeling is that 50 years from now, some future author of a
*Gentle Madness*-type book will be writing about the dawn of internet
collecting and the fantastic collections that were able to be formed because
of the unique confluence of interest (ok, obsession) and history that
allowed collectors to find obscure titles in their areas of interest at
reasonable prices in less than a lifetime.

I'm thinking that we ourselves are living in one of those times that will be
regarded as a golden age of collecting by future bibliophile historians. And
I expect that the phrase "It will never again be possible..." will flow
through the pages of their books when talking about us.

Does anyone care to speculate about the kinds of opportunities we now have
that will vanish in the next few decades? What will future generations of
collectors envy us for?

Alice

"my-wings" wrote in message
...

I'm thinking that we ourselves are living in one of those times that will
be
regarded as a golden age of collecting by future bibliophile historians.
And
I expect that the phrase "It will never again be possible..." will flow
through the pages of their books when talking about us.



This is a perceptive comment. I would agree that, as someone who bought
books on the Internet as early as 1996, I've benefitted in exactly the way
you describe.

But it is simply another illustration of John Carter's two factors in the
matrix of dynamic collecting: taste and technique--namely, what to collect
and how to collect. If you have good new ideas in those areas you will be a
successful collector.

And saying this is not to deny that "Never again" is true with regard to
certain things. I will never have a First Folio--let alone 70 of them, like
Henry Folger.


William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com