The Washington herald., 1913-12-28
RARE VOLUMES
ARE OBTAINED
Library Of Congress Gets
DobeH Collection Of
1900 Books.
ALL PRIVATELY PRINTED
Assembling of Works by Well-known
London Bibiophile Represents
Labor of Forty Years.
ALL PRIVATELY PRINTED

i
OF books in existence soon will be added
to the Library of Congress. The col
Iactfon, now on its way from London,
cornprises about 500 volumes, and Is In
a sense the private" library OF Bertram
DobeIl. the well-known collector, OF Lon
don. The volumes were privately printed
by the authors or their friends ana the
assembling of them by Mr.. DoDeu repre-
sents the labor of the last forty years.
While most of the books are rare, and
a few are valuable, the real point OF view
tbey illustrate is the difference that ex-
lists betyeen the standards of those who
write for love and those who write for
Gain. A large proportion OF the books
were issued by people of ample MEANS
who could AFFORD to indulge the hobby
either for their own personal satisfaction
or with the idea of creating community
of thought within their own circle OF
friends, not intending that the DOCKS
ever should be placed on the market
The only other collection Of books with
which this set can be compared is the
rne gathered by Mr.. Voynich, of Lon
5on. the Russian ex-convict and revo-
Iutionist and husband of the famous nov
slist. Mr.. Voynich's set comprises about
200 books that are not In any library
catalogue.
But Mr. DobelTs collection is the more
human and intimate, and surpasses the
collection of privately printed books, a
catalogue of which was issued in 1854 by
he late ]. Martin. Mr.. Dobell has exam
med every one of his finds minutely,
and in the catalogue he printed in lSOo
ne interspersed the entries with neat
analysis of each book.
One Of the books that will appeal TO
most readers, however. is IAN English
Landscape Garden in Portugal printed
,faf1f fn0G T0d
ate Sir ]. c. Robinson gives an account
If the beautiful house and estate at Gin
.ra. successively occupied by William
q Beckford. the millionaire, who wrote
''Vathek;" Lord Byron and Sir Francis
Cook.
Another gem is Letters from the
Liberati,'' issued in Calcutta without a
date, in which the compiler, David Lester
Richardson, put together number OF
letters received from friends. These in
clude letters from Wordsworth, Campbell,
Macaulay, Beckford, Hallam, the gor-
geous'' Lady Blessington. Tom Moore,
Leigh Hunt, Carlyle, and Browning.
The collection has changed hands for
little more than A,ooO.
Name of DobeII Famous.
The name of Bertram Dobell, book
seller. poet antiQuary, and scholar, Is
as famous among bibliophiles as that OF
Bernard ouaritch. Mr.. Dobell was fifty
years Of age before he took up the liter
ary pursuits which have made him
famous Today his shop in Charing
Cross road is the mecca for bookloVers
and collectors. The heavy routine of the
establishment has been taken over by
mis- son, Percy Dobell.
Mr.. Dobell's deciphering of sixteenth
and seventeenth century manuscripts has
led to the unearthing of two first-class
poets who would never otherwise have
seen the light. The first of these was
James Thomson, who called himself
"B V" to distinguish himself from the
-oet of the Seasons Thomscn's best
Snown work is perhaps 1.-The City of
Dreadful Might which popularized the
,ult Of pessimism, and voices the pro-
,ound detection which pervaded his whole
being.
The Othe. poet that Dobell brought back
from the dead is Thomas Traherne, the
seventeenth century parsoT-poet. who is
4 mixture of Donne without the meta
physics, Herrick with the gallantry, and
George Herbert without his play on
words.
The story of the recovery of Traherne's
writings $ Cne of the greatest romances
IF photography. The manuscripts, after
passing TO his brother Philip, came into
The hanCs o. family who, although
hey did noS possess the soul for poetry,
had a tolerance for old papers. For two
centuries .hese papers remained unsorted
and unread until the property of this
family was scattered Under the hammer
After disappearing for nina or ten years,
II 1897 a couple OF the original manuscript
volumes turGed up on the bookstalls and
changed hands ceveral times until pur-
chased by pobell, who was the first to
perceive what a fund of profound schol-
arship they contained.
Genius in Prose.
That the old parson was no less geni-
Is I'm prose than in poetry was shown
when DObell, four years later, published
the second Volun- in his possession. His
Centuries of Meditation" proved him to
De OF the sume mintage as Jeremy Tay-
or and quaint old Fuller.
The third volume, for which Ira
herne's admirers had long searched,
also came into the hands of Dobell,
lfter being in the possession of DR..
irosart, the antiquary, who failed to
'ecognize the book.
In like manner, Dobell discovered
he manuscripts of Strobe, who ac-
,Ording to evidence found, enjoyed
much reputation in his day and then
vas swallowed up in comparative OBJ
ivion. He figures in many of the COM
nonplace books of the seventeenth
century. and there is every reason to
believe that, as Dobell contends, Strobe
vas the author of the poetic play, THE |
Floating Island" hitherto attributed to |
3eecher. |
DobelPs fame does not rest only on |
.hese three poets. He has recovered
md given to the world a volume of |
Sheiley's Letters to Elizabeth Ritch- |
.ner," the beer sellers daughter, who |
Idded her share of the mischief and
InNiety that visited the poet in the |
.ater years of his life. Dobel also re-
covered a manuscript of Thomas Man
hing, the parson friend of Lamb, and |
aas put together a volume of fresh |
Eliana which he calls "Sidelights on |
Charles Lamb" One Of the articles in |
his volume shows that Lamb spoke |
rom experience when he wrote his /
ionic Reflections in the Pillory," for
-amb once got his attenuated shanks |
nto the parish stocks.
Dobell has written two or three vol
INES of original verse and has proved
hat he is a poet of no mean ability.
MAVnnsc Wal NIlT MI