Book Madness: A Story of Book Collectors in America

The fascinating history of American bookishness as told through the sale of Charles Lamb's library in 1848

Charles Lamb's library-a heap of sixty scruffy old books singed with smoke, soaked with gin, sprinkled with crumbs, stripped of illustrations, and bescribbled by the essayist and his literary friends-caused a sensation when it was sold in New York in 1848. The transatlantic book world watched as the relics of a man revered as the patron saint of book collectors were dispersed. Followi...