Personal libraries tell the keen observer a great deal about someone.*  Esperanza’s library, of course, covering multiple generations and households is a bit harder to decipher than a single person’s collection.  One of the interesting things is the opportunity to examine the very early pieces of the library.  I was just down looking at Henry Norton’s set of Harper’s Personal Library, published 1834-1840.  This set of fairly cheaply bound, but not poorly bound…shall we say solid middle class?…volumes displays a daunting level of erudition.  Included are histories of Ireland, Italy, Palestine, India under the British Empire, Napoleon, Cromwell, Peter the Great, the Crusades, Great Women (2 vol.s) the Jews, Arabia and Islam (2 vols.) the Bible (3 vols.), general histories of Britain and/or the world and/or the classical world, etc.; scientific descriptions of Africa, the Polar regions, South America, global explorations, Isaac Newton, astronomy, general science, fine art and sculpture; Samuel Johnson’s writings (2 vols.); the list goes on.  All clearly read.

Harper’s probably published a great many of those series.  It is the sort of thing a person wanted to have on their shelves, even if the cynic suggests the books were not always read.  A generation, or two, ago, the same was true of the Encylopedia Britannica.  Is there anything comparable today? Or at least anything comparable that is aimed at the general populace?  Oxford’s series and Penguin’s come closest, but they are hardly something the GP tends to collect to display their learning and refinement.  Does our society want to display learning anymore?

*An interesting gap that e-publishing is creating.