The Book-Hunter

About the book

John Hill Burton describes book-hunting as a distinctive appetite, capable of producing learning, eccentricity, and unexpected adventures. Anecdotes of collectors and collections lead towards questions about the preservation and organization of knowledge. The tone moves between affection and amused scrutiny: possession is not identical with reading, yet the pursuit of a volume may have consequences beyond private satisfaction. This edition adds a memoir by Burton's widow and an index, giving the author himself a place within the culture he describes. It is not a modern guide to prices or collecting practice. Readers can instead enjoy its portraits and consider how the physical survival of books depends on individual obsessions, institutional arrangements, and the changing meanings attached to rarity.

• Collecting
• Books and memory
• Scholarship and eccentricity

Why read it

For an affectionate, observant account of the people and institutions that give books lives beyond their texts.

English essays · 1882 edition with a memoir of the author