The accompanying essay by Charles Nodier, 1780–1844, Librarian of the Arsenal in Paris, bibliographer, bibliophile, and a literary leader of the Romantic Movement, originally appeared in French under the title “L’Amateur des Livres,” in Les Français Peints par Eux-mêmes, Paris, 1841, Vol. III, pp 201–9. It seemed to me excellent, and so agreeably of its period, that I asked my friend Barbara Sessions to translate it, which she has now done, as far as I know, for the first time. Together we have edited the few parts which seemed slightly pedantic, and have added some notes which will explain the more abstruse literary, or bibliophilic, allusions.
Book collectors, M. Nodier to the contrary notwithstanding, are still very much alive, and can again be found even in the harried ranks of capitalists. But the learned French librarian was nearer right about his own pamphlets: They have indeed faded from memory. Now I hope this one of them may survive for a few more years, despite the ephemeral form in which you receive it.
August 1951 Philip Hofer