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A series of essays and sketches offering affectionate, often witty reflections on book collecting, libraries, bindings, and book‑lover culture. The writer mixes anecdote and criticism to defend antiquarian tastes while gently satirizing collector pretensions, describing habits of clubs and private readers and the aesthetics of printing and binding. Two expanded literary sketches profile William Harrison Ainsworth and George P. R. James, combining biographical notes with critical judgment. The tone alternates between playful and earnest, aimed at readers who enjoy memoir, bibliographical observation, and informal literary criticism.
Three of the papers in this volume have been privately printed. I have added, however, some new matter to the sketches of Ainsworth and James; and it has been suggested to me that those sketches should be published, although I have some misgivings about them. The other paper I am reprinting merely to please myself. Two men have confided to me that they have read it, and possibly two more may be persuaded to do the same thing.
November, 1909.