Ever wondered about book collecting? “Anonymous” recently donated copies of The Amateur Book Collector to Rare Books.

The first issue was published in September 1950 by W.B. Thorsen. “We are a magazine in embryo, staffed by young people and guided by men and women with years of experience in the world of books…Whittier said that contentment is ‘the harvest of song of inward joy’ and contentment is analogous with a man and his books.”

With these humble beginnings, the magazine published issues for the next 25 years.

While the Marriott Library already holds issues from 1959 to 1975, it is with great pleasure that we add these earlier issues (1951 through 1955) to our collection.

Vol. 1, no. 10, June, 1951 celebrates the 100th anniversary of the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book we featured in our 2010 exhibition, “Public Sentiment: A Nineteenth-Century War of Words,” where you can read about the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on 19th century attitudes regarding slavery and see an image from our first edition.

Thank you, Anonymous!