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Descriptive Sketches of Six Private Libraries of Bangor, Maine.
Bangor, Maine: Printed for the author, 1900. Hardcover. 8vo, original gray paper, paper title label at spine. [13], 12-161 pp. Bookplate of esteemed antiquarian bookseller and collector Francis O’Brien of Portland, Maine on front paste-down. First edition, one of fifty copies printed. A rare account of the libraries of six Bangor gentlemen, including those of Col. J. W. Porter (genealogy and local history), Fred H. Parkhurst (history, science, literature, constitutional law, etc), C. E. Bliss (Websteriana), Prof. D. S. Talcott (early printed books), Frederick H. Appleton (history, political economy, philosophy, etc.), and Rev. M. C. O’Brien (Native American languages). Boardman was the founder of the De Burians of Bangor, a small private book-collecting club. A good account of the Society appears in the introduction to Boardman’s Peter Edes : Pioneer Printer of Maine: "The De Burians is a club of book-lovers organized at Bangor, Maine, in 1900... the name adopted from that old monastic book-lover, Richard de Bury, Bishop of Durham, who collected the first private library in all England and wrote the first treatise on the Love of Books—a treatise now existing in many noble editions and dear to the heart of all book-lovers. The objects of the De Burians of Bangor are: The holding of social meetings to talk about books, the reading of papers by its members with discussions of the same, and the printing of occasional books in limited editions."
The De Burians published a total of three volumes between 1901 and 1906. Boardman also published on his own account Richard De Bury Bishop of Durham and the present work, which appeared in formats very similar to the De Burian publications, although lacking the imprint of the De Burians. A pencil note on the paste-down in the hand of Francis O’Brien reads “1 of 50 copies One of Maine’s rarest books.” CONDITION: Good, hinges cracked but covers holding firm, spine evidently re-applied, rubbed, moderately soiled.
Item #5780
Price: $650.00