Mar 31st, 2015
This was someone else’s book
We are a family of book lovers. Unfortunately, we don’t have the space to maintain an extensive personal library at home, so from time to time we have to get rid of some books by selling some, giving others to friends, and donating most to our local library.
During these book sorts, I occasionally come across a book that catches my eye, such as this.
The content looks interesting enough (how about those illustrations!). I often see handwritten inscriptions or owners’ names, but this book actually has a printed nameplate:
A bit of googling led to me to his obituary on the Princeton Alumni Weekly website. He was born in 1929and died in 1998.
In between, “he was an important figure in the revival of scholarly and popular interest in the British Romantic period (1780-1830). He published critical studies of Keats and Shelley.” The obituary ends with this statement: “We have lost a major preserver of English literature.”
I can see how this book ended up in his personal collection. But how did it end up my hands, I wonder? I don’t think I can ever know.