Book Collecting and the Search for Reality
This is the slimmest of slim volumes, coming in at only 19 pages. Book Collecting and the Search for Reality by Jack Matthews is the printed version of a speech he gave at Wichita State University, on the evening of March 5, 1971, which used book collecting as a jumping-off point for a wide-ranging talk about collecting and a few philosophical points.
Readers of this site may know Jack Matthews from one of his many books (he authored more than 30 works), like Collecting Rare Books for Pleasure and Profit (1971) and Booking in the Heartland (1986). Let me just tell you, those are much more fun to read if you want to read about books.
Book Collecting and the Search for Reality is an absolutely beautiful little book and has amazing typed-up marginalia from Matthews himself, but it’s lacking a bit in cohesion and book chatter.
The typesetting for this edition is fantastic. I have not been able to identify the font used in the margins yet. It can be tough to read, but is really fun.
Matthews compares book collecting to collecting bottles or playing snooker, and when weighing the morality of our choices: “...let me return to the simple axiom that a man expresses himself in what he does when he is not forced to do anything particular, and that this expression of himself is of consequence.”
I was thankful that this was a quick read. It felt like a blog post in an odd way. I’m also thankful that I was familiar with Jack Matthews’ other writings before this one, though it does look handsome sitting on the shelf.
This copy is bound in green cloth with an illustration on the front. It’s number 260 of the 500 printed in 1972 for The Library Associates of Wichita State University. Most copies I’ve found online run for $10-$15.
I did enjoy the book, but not because it was particularly insightful regarding book collecting. It just offered another angle to look at the famed writer and book collector Jack Matthews.
