The Occult Powers of the Collector of Association
I’m reading with pleasure Tim Bowling’s elegantly produced memoir In the Suicide’s Library, a journey into bibliomania and the life of American poet Weldon Kees. We’re now at a point where Tim realizes that, as Wilmarth Lewis puts it in his Dwiggins-designed Collector’s Progress (the story of his formation of a great Horace Walpole collection):
"Coincidence is so frequent in this branch of collecting that the collector of association items is led to believe that he has occult powers and that the person he is collecting is seeing to it that books, manuscripts, prints, snuffboxes, and so on, formerly in his possession come to the attention of the collector."
August 23rd, 2011 at 11:16 AM
It seems sadder even than suicide usually is to think of such a reader killing himself. Seems like that should be more of a TV viewer thing….