The presumed oddness of collectors

Bibliophiles must endure all manner of insults. Critics have accused book accumulators of being irrational, peculiar, life's voyeurs, obsessed with inanimate lovers, the classic cold fish."

Stuart Kells. The Library

Collectors of almost anything are likely to be subject to abuse. Most people seem to admire public libraries and museums, but when individuals turn their own homes into private libraries or miniature Smithsonians, they are likely to be thought a bit weird. It's just not what normal people do, except that normal people do collect things, whether that be teapots, stamps, autographed baseballs, old hand tools, cars or Steinbeck first editions.

Perhaps it is just that people who collect one thing find it odd that other people might want to collect something else.

Margaret Fountaine

A few weeks ago in this space I reviewed David Long's English Eccentrics & Their Bizarre Behavior. Many of these "eccentrics" were just collectors, extreme collectors perhaps, but just collectors. One of these was Margaret Fountaine (1862-1940), who collected more than 22,000 specimens of butterflies from all over the world. These can now be found in the Norwich Castle Museum. So, OK, not everybody collects 22,000 butterflies, but Fountaine made a significant contribution to science, yet she is included in a book alongside a man who gave each of his thousands of workers a donkey and an umbrella on the condition that they never looked at him or spoke to him. This was a man who usually wore two overcoats at the same time and a two-foot top hat, and so might have been fun to look at..

Those who accumulate books are usually thought no less eccentric than those who accumulate butterflies. It's just not something normal people do. I've noticed that anyone who makes reference my extensive library always does so with a smile that suggests they find my particular passion amusing. That's why I rarely show my books to visitors. If they knew the true state of my collection they would really think I'm weird.