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| Vincent Starrett |
My first trip to
Chicago recently and lo and behold I find myself in a bookstore—Powell’s on
Lincoln Ave to be exact. It is chilly
outside and overcast. Wife Nicole is
reclining comfortably with a book on the window ledge cushion at the front of
the store--best window model I’ve ever seen but even this distraction doesn’t
last long. The books about books section
is pleasingly expansive and irresistible.
I browse slowly savoring real books on real shelves instead of the usual
internet searching. I pull a jacketed
copy of Vincent Starrett’s Bookman’s
Holiday: the Private Satisfactions of an Incurable Collector (1942). This
collection of engagingly readable essays is one of a number of such
bibliophilic works written by Starrett.
The flyleaf is inscribed, “For Abel Berland in the fellowship of books,
Vincent Starrett.” The volume has
Berland’s bookplate and notes. Berland
(1915-2010) a Chicago real estate magnate with deep pockets and an equally deep
love of books and literature would assemble a high spot collection of literary
rarities including the Four Folios of Shakespeare. When he sold his collection at Christie’s in
2001 it brought $14,391,678.
