A GENEROUS GIVER
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 Books," 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 ga.v« • 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 J first edition copy of the first volume of ' The Decline and Fall,' annotated by I the author. Buying it for the staggering price of 7s, he promptly sent it lo a man he had never met, the late Professor J. B. Bury, the great Cambridga scholar, who devoted a lifetime to edit. ■ ing Gibbon, and did not possess this I coveted volume. The professor was ' speechless on receiving such a gift f,roia. a perfect stranger.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 22709, 24 July 1937, Page 2
Word Count
179A GENEROUS GIVER Evening Star, Issue 22709, 24 July 1937, Page 2
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