The Lost Library of My Dreams

Saturday

Mar062010

Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 10:40AM

I was randomly Googling my Great-Grandfather William A. Read a couple of weeks ago. I don't know a huge amount about him, since Dad is a little nuts and doesn't like to talk about his family all that much.

Here is what I do know (mostly from a book about the investment bank he founded The Life and Times of Dillon Read, by Andrew Sobel):

He graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic at the age of nineteen, and went to work for a bond house called Vermilye & Company. He could apparently write with both hands at the same time, composing a letter with one while solving equations with the other. He formed his own bank, William A. Read & Company, which later became Dillon, Read. He was walleyed, and always wore violets in his lapel. He invented the bond issue which underwrote the construction of the first subway system in New York City. Four of his sons, including my grandfather, his namesake, were naval aviators in World War I. By that time, however, he was no longer around, having died in 1916 of the flu. He was fifty-two years old.

An older cousin once told me that her father (my grandfather's brother Bayard) had sold his shares in Dillon Read before the 1929 stock market crash. He got $29 million for them. My grandfather waited until after the crash and "only" got $6 million for his. I've often wondered what it must have been like to have six million bucks, cash, at the outset of the Depression. It's kind of astonishing to think about the lengths my grandfather must have gone to to squander all of that by the time he died in 1976. I figure he must have stayed up late at night, pondering ludicrous investments.

But when I Googled his father the other day, I found something else that was exceedingly bizarre--something I'd never heard about. On a rare book site, a copy of the hardbound 1936 auction catalog of "The Splendid Library and Collection of Historical and Literary Autographs of the Late Mr. and Mrs. William A. Read." It was offered for twenty-five dollars, and extremely oddly, this volume was for sale at a rare bookstore a block from my apartment in Exeter.

The stuff parted with at this auction included a letter from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Poe ("her reply to him for his dedication of The Raven and Other Poems to her"),

from John Keats to his love, Fanny Brawne,

the first four folio editions of Shakespeare (published in 1623),

stuff from George Washington, Thackeray, Twain, Dante, Milton, Oliver Goldsmith, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and apparently a large collection of primary documents used in the witchcraft trials in Massachusetts, first edition of Spenser's Faerie Queen, "the finest copy of Grimm's 'Popular German Stories,'"

"M.T. Cicero's CATO MAJOR, or his DISCOURSE of Old-Age" printed by Benjamin Franklin,

among lots of other groovy crap--the catalog is 287 pages long. And all of it sold "By Order of the Heirs."

Some days my family annoys me far more than others.

The foreword of this catalog describes these books as "not the modern sort of library limited to the collecting of one or two special classes of books. It is a more generous kind of collection, rich in many fields and showing a wide range of interests. It is the result of the collaboration of two elaborately balanced minds in search of a library equipped to fit all moods. Not every volume is a rarity, yet every volume was chosen carefully to satisfy a particular need and the whole is so compacted with treasures and delights that it must necessarily attract many collectors by its variety and excellence."

I bought this catalog for myself yesterday, an early birthday present since I'll be turning 47 on Monday.

And as I'm now leafing through it, I wonder what the library itself looked like, when all these books still lived together on its shelves. I wonder that these two people I never knew, my great-grandfather William Augustus and his wife, Caroline, would make of me.

Here is a crappy photograph I took last summer with my iPhone of a portrait of her with their daughter Carol (who died in a car crash in France in the Twenties):

I wish I knew what that book lying open across her lap is.

I wonder if my great-grandparents were the people I get my love of books from, as not a whole lot of people who came generationally between us seem to have quite this deep a lust for the printed word.

I love that the foreword of the catalog refers to them both as the minds responsible for putting together this library. I wish I could have known them.

Most of all, I'm glad that the catalog of their library ended up in the magnificently dusty basement store I visited yesterday, just across the String Bridge from my new digs. How odd is that?

But it makes me miss my own collection of books,38 cartons now in storage in California until I can afford to rent a U-Haul truck to drive them across the country. I feel so rootless without them...

'Ratis, what's a book you've lost that you wish you still had?

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62 Comments

Reader Comments (62)

Hi Cornelia, I haven't lost a book that I wish I could find again, but you have found a treasure trove. I was oohing and aahing as I read through the blog today. I am glad you found them. Your great grandfather really had his hand in a lot of things too. WOW is all I can say. I am so glad you found your little treasure.

Peace and love,
Paula R.

March 6, 2010 |

Paula R.

Hi Cornelia

Many Happy Returns for Monday, by the way, and what a lovely gift to yourself!

Your family sounds both fascinating and infuriating at the same time. There are some right rogues and lunatics in my family tree, too (no rude comments, please Rob).

I gave away a load of children's books years ago that I now wish I still had, but they were not lost in the strictest sense of the word. My father had an original green-bound copy of Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES, though, that seems to have disappeared, and that I would have loved. Ah well.

March 6, 2010 |

Zoë Sharp

Thank you, Paula. The coolest thing is that they've reproduced a lot of facsimile pages from the arious books in this thing. Lots of little doodles by Thackeray, and a hand-drawn map surveyed by George Washington when he was nineteen.

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

Not a book, but my folks used to have a mint condition original pressing of James Brown and His Famous Flames' album LIVE AT THE APOLLO-PURE DYNAMITE! A few months after I left for college I found they'd sold it at a yard sale for 25 cents. Damn thing was worth 500 bucks in 1980, according to the guy at the record store.

March 6, 2010 |

JD Rhoades

Thank you for the birthday wishes, dear Zoe!

And "rogues and lunatics" is the perfect description for my relatives, too. Maybe we're distant cousins?

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

Damn, Dusty, i'd kill for that album, too!

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

I think my great grandfather was a pimp.

Or a potato farmer.

Maybe a drunken Army deserter. Don't know which army.

All of which I aspire to, of course.

Oh, and Zoe, come on. Let me have a little fun.

March 6, 2010 |

Robert Gregory Browne

Finally! My insomnia drove me to the blog early this morning to read your post and it wasn't there!!

Soooooo glad you bought the catalog. Wonderful!

I am still looking for that damn YA Hitchcock book that my mom gave me for MY birthday (I'll be 59 on Tuesday) when I was 8 or 9. It was the book that sent me down my chosen path of desire..........the neverending chemin au noir, au mystère, au crime, et au chaos.

I still think you could track down some of those catalog contents. Some of it must be languishing in an antiquarian book store somewhere.

Gotta figure out a way to get your books to you!!! This isn't right.

March 6, 2010 |

Berenmind

Wow! What a find! And it makes a wonderful birthday gift to yourself.

He was walleyed and always wore violets? Why don't we have these ambidextrous walleyed characters around anymore?

March 6, 2010 |

Louise Ure

Berenmind, I'm guessing The Three Investigators?

March 6, 2010 |

Robert Gregory Browne

RGB, I had other ancestors who made bricks, grew apples and asparagus, and one guy whose wife chained him to a tree whenever his fits came on--though theystill managed to have fourteen children. And lots and lots of drunk people.

Berenmind, it was your encouragement that prompted me to buy this, broke as I currently am. And I'm sorry it took so long to post this morning--busted laptop cord, had to ask fellow ratis for the password... Ach, that kind of week. Mercury must be in retro-suckbag again.

Louise, thank you! If I ever post something on match.com, maybe I'll look for a fan of lapel violets. Not sure about the walleye...

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

Off topic, but I just had to drop by and say that I finished A Field of Darkness yesterday--and wow! I couldn't put it down.

No, really, I mean that literally--when I went to the gym, I actually chose to stationary bike rather than use the elliptical purely for the purpose of being able to sit down and continue reading whilst working out. (Which in terms of compliments sounds a bit silly now that I've written it down, but I swear it's true, and I've never done that before.)

Now I have to go get the next two books! Anyway, many thanks for your work Ms. Read--it was an absolute pleasure to read. :)

March 6, 2010 |

Have a wonderful birthday, Cornelia! I've really liked my 40s so far. I fell more confident and comfortable in my own skin, yet so much more silly! I can sympathize with you being forlorn about your books being out of reach. When I married nearly six years ago, both my husband and I being older had our own libraries and as much as I love being surrounded by books, we wouldn't have had much walking or breathing space in our apartment so we put it all in storage. For five years, I longed for my weathered Poe collection or my short story anthology from college and ached because they weren't at my fingertips. I feel more complete and like myself now that I have them back.

So many of the best moments in my life involve books. I just love them and I can't wait to add "Invisible Boy" to my collection later this month!

March 6, 2010 |

Barbara

Oh, SM, you gladden my tiny black almost-47-year-old heart. Thank you!!

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

wow, Cornelia, that's so cool! what amazing luck to have come across this and been able to purchase it. I wish I knew more about my ancestors. I know my great-grandfather was a moonshiner in the rural Ozark mountains and a more distant relative (like my grandfather's uncle or something) was arrested and hung for trying to blow up his house while his wife was still inside. It's funny to think about my ancestors' criminal escapades considering my life's work has been prosecuting crime. Maybe I'm trying to correct the family karma. :)

Karen C.

March 6, 2010 |

KC in SF

Barbara, my forties have been turbulent but pretty great so far. I'm looking forward to seiing what 47 will be like. And thank you for wanting to add Invisible Boy to your collection, I'm honored. I get my copies at the end of the week, and can't wait to see it.

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

Happy Almost-Birthday Miss C! And, as usual, fab post.

I'm pretty lucky when it comes to books. I still have most of my family's books, and my own from when I was a youngster. Anyone out there remember the Beverley Gray series, or the Maida's Little Shop series? I read the hell out of my mother's copies when I was a sprout.

If I could get anything back, I'd love to have more of my mom's old 45s, and some of my grandmother's schoolteacher goodies. I'm pretty lucky, though. They all pretty much stayed in one place, so the triviana didn't really get scattered. Boring, but true ;-)

March 6, 2010 |

Rae

So very cool. What a stroke of luck to find that catalog! I love hearing about family history. My dad's side of the family (all gone now) were wonderful storytellers and I grew up hearing about their exploits. My mom's side, not so much. A few years ago mom came across several dozen letters her aunt had written while she was an Army Nurse during WWII. I think they're fascinating and have been occasionally posting them on my blog. A piece of history from a perspective we seldom hear.

My dad had an extensive library of books about writing that I spent all my growing up years mostly ignoring. His office was in the basement and most of the books were not salvageable after a flood a while back. I have no idea what was lost. I really need to go through what's left next time I'm home. I think my mom still has the "teaching edition" of A Scarlet Letter in which dad wrote the foreward/introduction. I'd love to have that someday.

And hey! You did it! It's March and you survived February!! I'm sure March is SUCH an improvement up there in your part of the country. It's sunny and 55 here today and my daffodils are about to bloom...

Happy Birthday a few days early!! [And to Berenmind as well!]

Having used up my supply of exclamation points for the month, I think I need to go google the rest of my family. No wait, I mean, I need to go write some more. Yeah. That.

March 6, 2010 |

BCB

Happy birthday, Cornelia. It sounds like you've found an ideal birthday present - I was drooling while reading your post today. Wow.

March 6, 2010 |

alli

Cornelia,
Happy birthday, my fellow Pisces!

Finding that catalog wasn't a coincidence at all. It was the Universe having a little cosmic giggle with you.

Books lost? Not many that I really care about. But I do have one on loan to a friend of my mother's that was a small-press edition of engravings, by an acquaintance of Mom's who was a fascinating man, that I hope to retrieve someday.

March 6, 2010 |

pari noskin taichert

A book I've lost I wish I still had?

well, it was a library book, and I can't remember the title. What can I tell you?

I can tell you it was written almost entirely in flashbacks, with tales from her childhood (age 5-Junior year of HS) and directly before this situation (Senior year) told interchangeably, creating a vivid picture of herself and her family while simultaneously setting up her skills, goals, dreams, and loves.

I can tell you that a boy she has a crush on calls her 'Princess Lissa' and begged her until she gave him a (signed) drawing.

I can tell you her father was a famous impressionist painter, and a Vietnam vet, and wouldn't let her grow her (black) hair long. That she had a pet bird, who she simply named 'Bird', and absolutely loves. And I can tell you that, except the last ten pages of the story, in real-time, she is actually hiding in the woods, in early spring, while someone with a gun is searching for her to kill her.

Unfortunately, I can't find the book. ANYWHERE. Even a key-word search doesn't turn it up. And I would love, absolutely love, to reread it. I am still impressed with the way the narrative worked. I think I always will be. *sigh*

March 6, 2010 |

Eika

Jeez, C,
I'm just grateful my ancestors finally made it out of the swamps of Louisiana and learned to read and write.

March 6, 2010 |

Debby J

Aw, Rae, I wish I were in California to raise a couple of glasses of birthday champagne with you, and I hope you got lots of groovy stuff on your trip! And I'm loving the word "triviana." So many uses, so little time...

BCB, I'm so sorry about your basement flood. I lost half my books that way over one summer in college. I was told I had to keep them in the basement at my mother's then-boyfriend's house, and he had me put them underneath a leaky pipe. Worst thing was that all the stuff written by friends in my high-school yearbooks was destroyed. Still pisses me off. But it's gorgeous outside here today--sunny and warm and it feels like spring can't be far behind, though I think the daffodils come out here for the Fourth of July...

Alli, thank you!

Pari, happy birthday back to you, and I hope you get that book back. It sounds fantastic.

Eika, now I want ot read that book too. If you ever find out what the title is, could you let us know? It sounds fabulous.

Debby, I think my recent generations are hell-bent on finding a swamp they can swan around in. Unfortunately, the likelihood of their managing to find one is about nil. They keep bellyflopping in puddles.

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

What a wonderful post! I love family histories. I've never research mine but have always wondered about it.

March 6, 2010 |

Michelle Moran

Cornelia, I can only imagine looking at that...words written in Thackeray's hand...wow. And holding the book in my hand. I would be over the moon to hold a piece of history like that.

I neglected to wish you a Happy Birthday for Monday, so here it is, you know, just in case I miss it.

Peace and love,
Paula R.

March 6, 2010 |

Paula R.

Michelle, I'm starting to get really interested in family history stuff. And I love me some Google...

Paula, thank you so much for the birthday wishes. I don't know a lot of people here in the Arctic Circle yet, so you're making my day in advance.

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

"You Greedy-azz, ignorant SOBs!"
I actually yelled at that at the computer.....which made my hubby come running to see what was the matter, I had the earphones on and hadn't realized I said it out loud.
I pointed to the blog and said 'read that...just read it, it makes me want to cry. me, the one everyone calls a bohunk, inverted snob, but hell, even I KNOW you don't give up your birthright..what the hell could REPLACE that?? Geez-us H, some people know the price of everything, but the WORTH of nothing!'

I'm so sorry, Cornelia...hopefully, that collection is in the hands of someone that will treat it with the reverance and knowledge it deserves and have the ways to keep it preserved in a manner fitting to it.

I'm known amongst my family and friends as the bohunk, inverted snob, in part, because I don't have massive collections..pretty footloose and fancy free...except I do have one thing...and no-one in my massive extensive family knows that I do...they've all been looking for it for years, decades, even...my grandmother's bible.

I have ambivalant feelings on it...it's a THING. But it was handed down to me for safekeeping...safekeeping from what, I have no idea. But for better or worse...it stays with me.

March 6, 2010 |

kit

Rob. It was a hardback anthology of short stories. I think it preceded 'The Threes' (as I always called them). I loved that book. I can still smell it. Shiny jacket, big, thick and brand brand new and all mine!

Cornelia, if you hadn't bought that catalog I would have FOR you. It showed up down the street from you and it was waiting until you got off your ass and reclaimed it. Yeeeesh, Lady. This wasn't serendipity...this was old man Willy's manipulation from beyond.

Everyone thinks your family is weird and you haven't even mentioned your Uncle Bill who fought bayonets with coconuts.....and won!

March 6, 2010 |

Berenmind

One of my Norwegian ancestors helped invent the long jump so the story goes. Also, a cousin put together a biography of my grandmother - turns out her father had committed suicide by drinking acid. There are better ways, I'm sure.
I don't think I've had any treasures to lose; not that I've recognized anyway. Oh wait, I had first editions of Graftons early works that I took to a used book store a few year ago. Otherwise, all my books I have and my Kindle are my treasures. :)

March 6, 2010 |

PK the Bookeemonster

kit, you crack me up. And I'm with you--it's not *stuff* that matters. The rest of the crap I don't much care about (okay, cash would be nice, but that's replaceable. I've worked at a bunch of crappy jobs in my life and I'm happy working for my money). But passing off something that people loved like this, it kind of makes me cranky, you know? Would've been cool if they'd at least passed this on to a museum or something. I just hope that the people who bought these books got some joy from them.

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

Oh, and Happy Birthday...I'm glad you found those pieces of yourself and your history...maybe it was the knowledge and not the actual things that you were meant to have, but you have them now.

I have read CRAZY SCHOOL, look farward to reading more of your work...for some reason, it's even more fun when you KNOW (in the sense that any of us on here can) the author.

March 6, 2010 |

kit

I think that my love of books came from my Scottish great-grandfather on my maternal grandfather's side. James Taylor Finnie.

He and my great-grandmother had come to the states on a boat. They were dirt poor, uneducated, hard working farmers. They were not able to bring much with them but a little food and a small bag of clothing. They didn't really have much, anyway. My grandfather, however, found room in his coat to hide his most prized possessions. Two things that he could not bear to leave behind. The Bible and a book of poetry by Robert Burns. They have been passed down to me and I keep them on my shelf to remind me of how precious they were to that poor desperate farmer, that in place of even food, he found room to carry books to his new country.

March 6, 2010 |

Berenmind

PK, that is way cool about the long jump, but I'm sorry about the acid drinking. I just wrote a short story where a woman kills her brother by replacing his gin with bleach, but that's fiction. Wow.

kit, thanks for the birthday wishes, and for reading Crazy School. My daughter's academic advisor is reading that right now, and making me a little nervous.

Berenm, you just made me choke up a little with the story of those two books. I *love* that you still have them. Almost enough to make me try haggis someday.

March 6, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

DON'T DO IT!!!! Well........not without a chaser of bleach, anyway.

March 6, 2010 |

Berenmind

I'm still laughing at your daughter's academic advisor reading Crazy School. You need to have her really understand what Grace's home environment is like. What life lessons she's learning from her mother. You should have started her off with "Hungry Enough".............

ROFLWD (with dogs)

March 6, 2010 |

Berenmind

and in case some of you have not read Cornelia's short story.........here's the link

http://crimewav.com/?q=content/episode-13-cornelia-read-hungry-enough

You'll LOVE IT!!!!!! It's sooooooo Cornelia!!

March 6, 2010 |

Berenmind

What a great post! Good God, Cornelia, but you do have some history in you!
How serendipitous is that to have come upon your own heirloom through a Google search? I love the happenstance.
After many years, I finally built myself a huge, floor-to-ceiling library, a built-in to the home we built four years ago. Then I went and bought a thousand books to fill it. And now, with the short sell of my home imminent, I'll be putting it all into boxes. Very sad. But they'll come out again in time.
I remember a book I got for my bar mitzvah, called "World of Our Fathers." When I was eighteen and broke and living in Santa Cruz I had to sell it at a used bookstore so I could get a bite to eat (yeah, poor kid). It was like a $30 book, in perfect condition, and they gave me $2.50 for it. When I told the story to a girlfriend of mine in college, a couple years later, she bought the book for me as a birthday present.
I've managed to find most all the books that really mean something to me to include in my library. Sometimes I stay up late into the evening, staring at the spines, lost in their magic. It's a spiritual experience.

March 7, 2010 |

Stephen Jay Schwartz

Cornelia. I think I need to print a retraction. I have an inappropriate sense of humor and what I said about your daughter's advisor and her reading your story Hungry Enough was meant to be funny.

You are an excellent mother. Far better than I have ever been. You are a wonderful role model. Another thing that I have never been. You are an excellent writer. I will NEVER be that.

I love your award winning short story. I am still cracking myself up about what I said, however.

So there.

Kiss kiss hug hug. No disrespect.

March 7, 2010 |

Berenmind

Stephen. A library is a wondrous and dangerous place to roam.........you can get lost in there

Go write. Love your family. The books will wait for you in their boxes. They will be even more exciting when you revisit them.

BTW. Boulevard was amazing to me. Very dark. Sensual. Waiting for the next one with excitement.

I'm a selfish person. Get over your library and add to MINE! Gey gezunt already.

March 7, 2010 |

anonymous

Stephen, I aspire to floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and to getting my books out of boxes again. And in the same state in which I reside. This too shall pass. To paraphrase Tennyson, we must arise, go forth, and conquer.

B, you do NOT have an inappropriate sense of humor, and you ARE a writer. One who has kept me sane this winter, BTW. I think my daughter's advisor is really pretty nervous, at this point. But at least he should now understand why teaching high school was not exactly my forte.

March 7, 2010 |

Cornelia Read

Shit. I want all the lost stuff, the sleigh bells that hung by the fireplace, the Gerard's Herbal, the Kipling from ny childhood bedroom in Stockbridge, and the blunderbus and the sword from WW1 inscribed in German fur fuhrer und fur reich......

Love you lots and the funny Ms Grace too.
Am 52 next week -- and planning some more adventures shortly.
Books are so damn cool, ya know!

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