Poet, dramatist, Harvard graduate and Nobel Prize winner T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) began to study Latin while a student at Smith Academy from 1898-1905, and continued to study languages, both modern and ancient, through college.  Eliot probably acquired J.W. Mackail’s Latin Literature while studying at Harvard.  While he made few annotations to the text itself, Eliot also made extensive notes in pencil on several blank pages throughout the book.  Eliot’s bookplate is also pasted inside the front cover (Eliot’s bookplate includes his family’s motto Tace et fac, “be silent and act.”)  Examples of Eliot’s early handwriting are uncommon, and as Eliot made extensive use of his linguistic skills within his poetry, it is always interesting to catch a glimpse into his study of them. (Click on the images to magnify them.)

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) was one of the most important figures in the Beat movement of the mid-twentieth century.  Two years after graduation from Columbia University, while working in New York as a market researcher, Ginsberg purchased this 1936 edition of Eliot’s Collected Poems 1909-1935, which he signed “Allen Ginsberg / October 1950″ on the front free endpaper.  Ginsberg’s extensive annotations to The Waste Land document his efforts to work through the poem.

Mackail, Latin Literature. New York: Scribners, 1895.  *2008-1002.

Eliot, Collected Poems, 1909-1935. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. [1936]  *AC95.G4351.Zz936e.

Houghton Library, Harvard University.  Images may not be reproduced without permission.

The records of the Reading Society indicate that writers such as Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Coleridge, and Maria Edgeworth were popular among these readers.  (Unsurprisingly, there is no Shelley, Keats, or Austen…at least, listed as such).  Aside from fiction, many works on travel were collected, along with works of history, biography, science, and even some nonconformist theology.  Many of the books were purchased from B. Crompton, as on the receipt pictured below (click on the images to enlarge them):

The book itself is a ledger-sized volume, with receipts and lists of books purchased affixed to the pages with straight pins. In this page from 1815, such varied works as Byron’s Hebrew Melodies, The Oxford Sausage, and the three-volume Lewis and Clark’s Travels share company.

The Dundas family library lists several thousand books, pamphlets, maps and atlases, from a library now dispersed (Melville Castle is now a hotel).  While the list includes items dating to the 16th century, the majority of the library included 18th-century works printed in London.  The family seems to have preferred collecting works on history, politics, finance, and travels over literature, science, or religion, which appear infrequently in the collection.  Many of the books pertain to America or India, as befitted the 3rd viscount, who spent his military career in both places.  Pictured below is an index to the work:

A selection of items from the Dundas family library, showing works on the East India Company, Edinburgh, and a book by Mrs. Edgeworth:

Books are listed alphabetically, by author and sometimes by subject, but also by their location within the castle. Pictured below is a page from the catalogue listing books found in the”Small Drawing Room,” which include Shakespeare, Addison, and “The Adventures of Ali Baba,” among others:

Catalogue of the Library at Melville Castle:  *2008M-2.  Purchased with the Harrison D. Horblit Book Fund and the Amy Lowell Fund.

Accounts of the Reading Society, Benevolent Society, and Sunday School of Bury:           f *2007M-86.  Purchased with the Amy Lowell Fund.

Images may not be reproduced without permission.