A UNIQUE LIBRARY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 115, 13 May 1912, Page 3

A UNIQUE LIBRARY.

The owner of one of the most interesting libraries in the ..-world perished in the Titanic disaster. This was Mr James .Carlton Young, of Minneapolis, who for many years had collected works by the best living writers, every volume containing a special inscription, composed.. and written there by the author. So strict were the rules of admission to this unique library, that, when tho Australian writers, Lawson and Paterson, sent autographed volumes to Mr Young at his request, the books were returned because there was no special inscription in them. Mr Young was a millionaire who "had made his fortune in the' West," and for the last 20 years or irore ho had devoted his fortune to building up his great lib.rary. He never accepted a book without paying for it. and the price of it mattered not to him. He did not collect merely -because he thought it fashionable to do so. He was Master of Arts of Cornell University, and" he knew how to appreciate good literaiv.re, and for what he did for litera■tiire lie had received special honors from tho great, literary societies of the world. It was a labor of love, and he worked so hard at his hobby that his doctor had to order him away for a rest. .It was while returning from this holiday that he lost his life. In writing of his library, Mr Young-once said •! —■ 'In''addition to the inscribed books, many authors have generously presented their original manuscripts 'to-'lny:lib?'avy;-v.>..-v;-- , .....If pnb ; possessed any of the -original'manuscripts., of the Apostles, signed by ■any. Of ■them,.: or of . the plays., of Shakspere which were printed in "his lifetime, on whose pages the illustrious bard had written the details of, how he gathered the data, and ■■■happened:f6 write the play, and > signed it' William S-hakspere';*;'wlio coxild Say"'/fchat^ the inscription added ■ nothing to literature, or that the manucrints of the' plays were, not priceless?^ -. It is singularly unfortunate that "the world of literature should > have" lost ; the services of such a .-friend jtist at this }'.trictii.re, for Mr Young was, at the timer of hill, death, in t^e midst of writing a history of his library. In

accordances, with .his wish, it© library will be presented either to, some nop- v fible; educational institute or to the "American nation!1: