Not planning to yet! But I was thinking of what would happen in the event of my untimely death and if I should make any suggestions in my will, I don’t think any of my relatives or acquaintances would be interested in having it.
Its quite an extensive collection of books mostly on the Cold War era (which is my ‘thing’) with lesser material on military history, ordinary history, politics, science and science-fiction and other odds and ends.
But its mostly the books on the Cold War which I would hate to think would end up on the back of a skip somewhere.
I don’t keep books at home, usually. Any I have, I donate to my library, they will either add them to their collection, or sell then in their annual book fair, or donate them further down the line. I often buy penny copies from Amazon, pay the postage, read them and give them to the library. If I buy them, that is* prime facie* evidence that the libarary doesn’t have them in their card catalog…
I too worry about this greatly — I don’t want others to own my books, and I would prefer the collection never to be split up: I have seen far too many people discarding and destroying books — mostly because of uninterest and them being in the way — ranging from second-hand shops ( older ladies are the great killers of ‘rubbish’ ) to clearances to universities in the '90s throwing 18th century volumes into skips.
I don’t buy books so much now, although I would more had I a guaranteed 100 years ahead ( and partly because the selling of books has practically disappeared compared to 20 years ago, leaving the Internet as main seller. Which means single volumes singly offered and no rummaging through stacks of old books ). So a few months ago I was at a church booksale ( and oddly enough bought a large illustrated 1832 volume of the Bible for £2 ) and the lady taking the money said she was leaving her books to her ex-university, maybe Newcastle…
So I shall either find a university before I go ( although I am not fond of educational establishments ), or maybe a monastery, and force the books on them along with hard disks after my death — or find a deep dry cave where no modern person can penetrate for a thousand years.
Are there no charity places near you that can handle a large number of books? How many books are there? You might ask your heirs in the will to go through the books after your death and take what they want to read. You can then specify that the Cold War books go to an organization that’s interested in the Cold War. If you don’t know of such an organization, find one. Then have your estate donate all the remaining books to the charity place. Goodwill has donation centers in many places.
I’ve worked in charity shops. They discard perfectly good books into garbage containers to a region of around 50% claiming they have no space. ( And indeed furniture and other goods ) The alternative of not taking in donations that can’t be sold doesn’t seem to enter their little minds.
It would be helpful to know where you are. Indiana University/Bloomington has very strong programs in Russian & East European Studies and History and might be interested in your Cold War materials.
Evan Drake, you should realize that charity shops in the U.K. are quite different from the vaguely similar things in the U.S. Charity shops in the U.K. are small permanent stores selling a range of new and used things. Used books are just one of the things they do. There are a number of different sorts of charity places in the U.S. There are large book sales in many cities that take the books that they have been donated over the past year and display and sell those books for just one week or one weekend a year. There are other places like Goodwill that are open all year and accept books and many other things all year and sell books and other things all year.
Another type of place to check out are the very large used book stores. There aren’t a lot of them, but they will take many kinds of books. Many of them sell both in their stores and online. You should find out if any of them are near you.
I spent my youth in second hand book shops, large and small, now they are one with Nineveh and Tyre.
And, as I said, I want the collection preserved entire. If I had kids that would be no problem.
I’m in Northern Ireland, yes I think that would be my preferred outcome, somewhere where they are going to be used or kept correctly. Most of them aren’t that obscure but I’ve picked up a few unusual items over the years.
I tend to give away books I know I won’t read again to charity shops, and yes thats a good idea, thanks.
About ten years ago when I had just commenced my current job I attended a house with two large skips in the yard, totally stacked to the top with books. It turned out that the previous owner had died and left the property to his nephew, who had thrown out his uncles collection of books as he had absolutely no interest in them, he even joked that he thought there were books going back to the 19th century or earlier in the collection. They were sitting out in the rain in preperation for being taken to the local dump.
At that time I wasn’t experienced enough and didn’t think it would be appropriate to suggest a different means of disposal, I should have even asked if it was OK if I came back later when I was off duty and had a look through the skips to see what exactly was in there, I don’t think he would have objected.
Thanks for the answers everyone, I’ll look into it further.
Erk.
Sometimes the crudities of plain folk just drive one to the barrel of a gun…
Still, in one of my favourite books ( modern pb, but published 1910 ),** Vanishing England **by P. H. Ditchfield, relates how the artist of the book, Fred Roe visited an old mansion in the rain before it was pulled down with mouldering portraits by Lely etc., and earlier pictures and carvings from the 15th century.
I know, I know, one can never do exactly the right thing, because one is too shy to have the nerve to commandeer stuff, as would one’s firmer ancestors, or one doesn’t have the means.
You think of all those things offered cheaply on a sidewalk in say, 1920, like a 300-yr-old Persian rug, and ancient pottery, and say, not having transport promising to come back later, and then finding it thrown out on return…
The passage referred to is in Chapter VII and starts: "One of the most weird and, I may add, chilling experiences in connection with the decline of county families which it was my lot to experience, occurred a year or two ago in a remote corner of the eastern counties. I had received, through a friend, an invitation to visit an old mansion before the inmates (descendants of the owners in Elizabethan times) left and the contents were dispersed. On a comfortless January morning, while rain and sleet descended in torrents to the accompaniment of a biting wind, I detrained at a small out-of-the-way station in ——folk. A weather-beaten old man in a patched great-coat, with the oldest and shaggiest of ponies and the smallest of governess-traps, awaited my arrival. I, having wedged myself with the Jehu into this miniature vehicle, was driven through some miles of muddy ruts, until turning through a belt of wooded land the broken outlines of an extensive dilapidated building broke into view. This was —— Hall.
Sadly, it does come down to the fact that most people’s private libraries are more accumulations than collections, and tend to be 99.9+% of minimal value. Identifying what in your library might actually be of value to someone or some institution is the real challenge.
I’m a university librarian, and while most libraries do accept donations it is important to understand that donating a book to a library does not mean the library will keep it. If the particular book is not considered desirable by the library (e.g. they already own a copy, it’s outdated or in poor condition, or just not of interest to them) then they’re going to get rid of it. Depending on the book and the library, it might be sold, donated to another organization, or recycled/trashed.
I realize it’s upsetting to some people to think that a book they donated to the library might wind up being discarded, but we do not have infinite shelf space and it costs us time/money to process and catalog donated items. We can’t afford to be sentimental about this kind of thing. If a book would actually be a valuable addition to the collection then the library will be happy to take it, but libraries do get plenty of things dumped on us that we literally cannot even give away. I’d encourage potential donors to try to think objectively about the quality of their books and where they might do the most good.
I think the key factor which other people have alluded to is to discuss your plans with the intended recipient in advance. Tell them the size of the collection, what types of books are in it, and what their condition is. They can then tell you is they have the desire and/or the ability to accept your collection.
There was somebody on this board who posted about a relative who had inherited a house and its contents. And they had thrown out all of the contents in order to make the house salable.
The poster said that the deceased had collected a lot of magazines over a period of decades, all of which were thrown out. One particular item which was mentioned was a complete set of Playboys from the first issue. Several of us pointed out that this collection alone would have been worth more than the house.
You’re dead. Your wishes no longer matter for squat. Get used to that unhappy fact first. Then you can do some estate planning. But it is unlikely that your collection will mean much to anybody else, no matter how much you value it or think it is worth. That is just the way of the world.
Until then I can make what dispositions I please — and the alternate wishes of others who also will be dead soon enough concern me less than my own will. The oddity of atheism is that it postulates meaning where what one does is finite, and what one does to others is finite, because they are finite, and no action can be important 1000 years after everyone one has known is perished.
To quote from one of my favourite poems — and all my preferences will die with me: We all within our graves shall sleep
A hundred years to come;
No living soul for us will weep,
A hundred years to come,
But other men our lands shall till,
And others then these streets will fill,
And other birds will sing as gay,
And bright the sun shine as to-day,
A hundred years to come.
On the other hand, I can justly feel cheated by life in that I have no such library as this, of the Jesuits: The Klementinum.
As for mere accumulation — and NTTAWWT — I have a battered 1648 book within 7 feet. If no library wants it, and finders just throw it away, then there will be little monetary loss to anyone, but the world will be down a 17th century book, and we have less of the past every year.
I’m starting to downsize my collection, er, accumulation of military history, naval and maritime, Mediterraneana, science/nature, urban studies, biographies, politics, travel/transportation. Several boxfuls donated to my county library friends’ society so far.
One U.K. used book store is about 400 miles from your area, on the Channel. They might give you some advice. I shopped their former store and knew the owners before they expat’d from the USA to Alfriston 12 years ago:
How true. I’ve discovered how difficult it is to donate anything to our local library, even offering new books to fill holes in their collection. If they didn’t order it, they don’t want it.
But our local “Friends of the Library” group will accept most anything and put it on sale at the annual book fair. The proceeds then go to the library so they can buy more books that they really want. That’s where most of my personal library will end up when I die.
