SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1937, Page 10

SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BOOKS

Mr. Leonard Mackall, the president of the American Bibliographical Society, who died in Virginia in May, was at once one of the most learned and the most quixotic of bibliophiles, writes "Peterborough" in the London "Daily Telegraph." He was often described as "The Sherlock Holmes of Bodks," because of the uncanny manner in which he discovered rare volumes for which other experts had searched in vain. He was vehemently opposed to commercialism, and gave away at least 200 volumes a year to people who he thought would appreciate them. When in a musty Lausanne book shop he found Gibbon's own first edition copy of the first volume of 'The Decline and Fall" annotated by the author. Buying it for the staggering price of 7s he promptly sent it to a man he had never met, the late Professor J. B. Bury, the groat Cambridge scholar who devoted a lifetime to editing Gibbon, and did not possess this coveted volume. The professor was speechless on receiving such a gift from a perfect stranger.