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8vo. Hard cover. 715 pp. Very Good.Alfred Edward Newton (1864-1940), one of the most prominent book collectors in the Philadelphia region, was born inPhiladelphia on August 26, 1864. His formal education was limited, but an interest in books inspired his first collecting effortsin the 1880s. His early working life was haphazard: he began working as a grocery stock boy when he was still in his earlyteens, spent a few years as a bookstore clerk, tried and disliked banking, and eventually joined the Cutter Electrical andManufacturing Company in 1895. Five years later, he bought it and became president, and remained with the company until hisretirement in 1932??.His interests, however, lay almost entirely in the realm of book collecting - he claimed nine-tenths of his energies were devotedto his library. He married Babette Edelheim, daughter of fellow collector Carl Edelheim, in 1890, and socially moved in a circle offellow collectors, including Moncure Biddle, William Elkins, and Christopher Morley. His first book, TheAmenities of Book-Collecting, was published byThe Atlanticin 1918. It was an enormous success in the circle of bibliophiles throughout England and America, and led Newton to a successful writing and speaking career. Additional books by Newton includeA Magnificent Farce and Other Diversions of a Book-Collector(1921),The Greatest Book in the World and Other Papers(1925),This Book-Collecting Game(1928),A Tourist inSpite of Himself(1930),End Papers(1933),Derby Day andOther Adventures(1934), andBibliography and Pseudo-Bibliography(1936). He also wrote two plays,Doctor Johnson(1923) andMr. Strahan's Dinner Party(1930), andmany brochures privately printed for his friends?.He primarily collected British literature, and was particularly drawn to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and SamuelJohnson. Although he had regular dealings with booksellers in the US and England, many of his books came from his fellowPhiladelphian, the antiquarian bookseller A. S. W.Rosenbach??Newton and his family lived at their estate, Oak Knoll, in Daylesford, Pennsylvania. After a lingering illness, Newton died in 1940, described by the Library of Congress as "the most famous and influential of American book collectors." Hisremarkable collection of rare books was auctioned off by Parke-Bernet in 1941, with his personal papers and his publishedwritings being donated to the Free Library by his son, E. Swift Newton, in 1954.From the collection of Frederick Ruffner.
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