The Celebrated Collection of Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter, Public Auction, Volume 6. Apr., 1969. Sale #: 2841, Lot #s 3323-3958.

4to. [circa 400 pp.] Cloth Bound Hard Cover, Very Good, B&W Plates. Sunned.Provenance: Alfred Edward Newton (1864-1940), one of the most prominent book collectors in the Philadelphia region, was born in Philadelphia on August 26, 1864. His formal education was limited, but an interest in books inspired his first collecting efforts in the 1880s. His early working life was haphazard: he began working as a grocery stock boy when he was still in his early teens, spent a few years as a bookstore clerk, tried and disliked banking, and eventually joined the Cutter Electrical and Manufacturing Company in 1895. Five years later, he bought it and became president, and remained with the company until his retirement in 1932?.His interests, however, lay almost entirely in the realm of book collecting - he claimed nine-tenths of his energies were devoted to his library. He married Babette Edelheim, daughter of fellow collector Carl Edelheim, in 1890, and socially moved in a circle of fellow collectors, including Moncure Biddle, William Elkins, and Christopher Morley. His first book, The Amenities of Book-Collecting, was published by The Atlantic in 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 include A 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 in Spite of Himself (1930), End Papers (1933), Derby Day and Other Adventures (1934), and Bibliography and Pseudo-Bibliography (1936). He also wrote two plays, Doctor Johnson (1923) and Mr. Strahan's Dinner Party (1930), and many brochures privately printed for his friends.He primarily collected British literature, and was particularly drawn to Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Samuel Johnson. Although he had regular dealings with booksellers in the US and England, many of his books came from his fellow Philadelphian, 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." His remarkable collection of rare books was auctioned off by Parke-Bernet in 1941, with his personal papers and his published writings being donated to the Free Library by his son, E. Swift Newton, in 1954.From the collection of Frederick Ruffner.…