Books as a Way of Life; Essays by Gordon N. Ray
New York, N.Y. Jointly Published by The Grolier Club and The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1988. Presumed First Edition, First printing Thus. Hardcover. xxxiii, 432 pages. Footnotes. Introduction, The Publications of Nordon N. Ray, and an Index, as well as chapters on Autobiography; Surveys of the Rare Book World; Collecting and Scholarship; Books and Life; and an Appendix: Four Bookmen. Gordon N. Ray--Professor of English at the University of Illinois from 1946 to 1960 and president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation from 1963 to1985--was one of the major book and manuscript collectors of his time. His two great Morgan Library catalogues, on English and French book illustration, are monuments both to his collecting and to his scholarship, which were inseparable aspects of his life. He wrote a number of essays and addresses on book collecting, the book trade, libraries, and the role of books in life. This volume brings together twenty-one. This volume begins with four essays about Gordon Ray's own collection, which constitute kind of autobiography. They are followed by his two celebrated surveys, dating from 1965 and 1974, of the state of the rare-book world (with a further brief account from 1982). Four essays analyzing and demonstrating the role of book collecting in scholarship come next, and then three addresses about the development and significance of research libraries. A concluding group of three essays deals with the importance of books and reading to individual self-understanting, and thus with the place of the humanities in society. An appendix prints Ray's brief assessment of four prominent figures in the book world: Michael Sadleir, Tom Turner, John D. Gordan, and C. Waller Barrett. G. Thomas Tanselle was Ray's Literary Executor. G. Thomas Tanselle (born 1934) is an American textual critic, bibliographer, and book collector, especially known for his work on Herman Melville. He was Vice-President, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, 1978-2006.[1]
Tanselle received his undergraduate degree from Yale University. Tanselle attended graduate school at Northwestern University where he studied with Harrison Hayford among others. He received his Ph.D. in 1959 from the Department of English where his dissertation was titled Faun at the Barricades: the life and work of Floyd Dell. From 1960 through 1978 he taught at the University of Wisconsin. After moving to New York City in 1978, he served as vice president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation until 2006. He was an adjunct professor of English at Columbia University, and co-editor of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition of the writings of Herman Melville. He was president of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia 1993-2006. He is also a member of the board of directors and textual consultant of the Library of America. He was president of the Grolier Club, the preeminent American society of bibliophiles, 1986-1990. Tanselle held fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1969–70), American Council of Learned Societies (1973-74), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (1977–78). Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Bibliography, Book Collecting, English First Editions, Illustrators, Illustrated Books, Rare Books, Original Editions, English Fiction, Tennyson, Literary Scholar, University Research Collections, Libraries, Michael Sadlier, Tom Turner, John Gordan
ISBN: 0910672059
[Book #82028]
Price: $150.00