"The Adventures of a Collector" by Terry Seymour

When it comes to the authoritative voice on anything concerning collecting of Joseph Dent's 1000 original Everyman's Library editions, it's without a shadow of a doubt a gentleman by the name of Terry Seymour - who also authored the wonderful "A Guide to Collecting Everyman's Library" - a must have for any collector of the original 1000 Everyman's.

In 2008, the University of North Carolina had an exhibit on the art of collecting the original 1000 Everyman's.  And of course, who better to give a speech on "The Adventures of a Collector?" - Yup, you guessed it...Mr. Terry Seymour.

So, without further ado, Here is a taste of his opening remarks to wet your appetite - with the link to the full text of his talk  following for further reading:

ADVENTURES OF A COLLECTOR

When a non-collector is viewing my collection or even  discussing it in a social situation there are two questions that  inevitably arise. Both of these questions are very annoying to the  collector. So perhaps if you learn nothing else this evening you can  avoid causing some future social damage. These questions are: "Have you  read all these books?" and  "What's going to happen to all these books  when you die?"

By far the most common question is: "Have you read all these books?"  There are a number of snappy responses to that question, but the bald  truth is that in most cases, a serious collector hasn't the spare time  to read a fraction of the books he owns. That is certainly not to say  that a collector is unfamiliar with his books. Any collector worth his  salt has a detailed knowledge of the background, content, and  publication history of his books. Most collectors will have read a  respectable amount in their chosen field, depending, of course, upon how  broad that field is. The reason this knowledge is crucial to a good  collector is that it helps him gauge significance."

To continue reading, for the full speech, click here or the button provided to the right:

http://everymanslibrarycollecting.com/lecture.html

NOTE: All article credit, etc. to Terry Seymour, his website, etc.  What a great contributions his efforts have been to the endless collectors of Everyman's Library for decades - the understatement of the day for sure!  Thank you Terry!